Hi there,

 

It’s Community Management’s turn to answer your burning questions in the latest live Q&A session and, as ever, you’ve given us a lot of questions to answer in the run-up to the session. We’ve answered a fair few of them which you can read below, but some of them we’re going to save for the live Q&A.

 

If we’ve not answered your question it’s either going to be because it relates to something already in the works (in which case we’re sworn to secrecy), we’ve already answered one of your fellow players the very same question or it’s not something that Community Management are best placed to answer, such as a game update question, an account issue or a Player Support query. We will pass those questions on to the right team for you, though.

 

So what sort of questions can Community Management answer? More or less anything you like, but if it relates to fansites; clans; creative gameplay; social media like Facebook or Youtube; competitions; the Big Ticket; events; Community Management strategy; Moderators; the forums in general or anything like that, we’re all over it.

Does that sound fair enough? :)

 

OK; well tonight’s session begins at 8pm GMT/official forum time. We’ll have pizza and coffee at the ready, so we look forward to seeing you then. :)

 

Paul M

RuneScape Community Manager

 

 

 

Captain Dcc asks:

Im not sure if it’s a good question for this one but I’m gonna try. Are there any other competitions planned with videos in RuneScape?

 

A – There sure are; the next one is planned for later in the year. There are plenty of different ways to run a video competition, though, so it’ll very different to the ad competition we’ve just had. Before we launch another video comp, though, we do want to hold competitions to recognise some of the other creative skills that the community has to offer. Still, that should just give budding video makers time to hone their skills. ; ) - Paul M

 

Darkmagic76 asks:

 

1. In 2009, I found the part of Jagex that changed the most (and for the good) was the Community Management team. I’d first like to thank you for all the wonderful events you hold and keeping the community updated with things going on at Jagex. By looking at the development diaries, we were given insight on Jagex holding a player day in which they invited players to come to Jagex. Will you be holding more of these? If so, what kind of players would you invite?

 

2. So far, the Community Management team has produced two videos on YouTube. Firstly, I think these videos are really funny and I enjoyed watching both. Do you think these will become more regular over 2010?

 

A – First off, thanks very much for your support Darkmagic, you’re too kind. :) Yes, we will be bringing more players to Jagex as a reward to competition winners, prize draw winners and a small selection of our most prolific members of the community. In answer to your second question, yes indeed! Weintend to make videos regularly as long as we’ve something to say and as long as there are people happy to watch them. – Paul M

 

Daan1974 asks:

 

I would like to see some more P-Mods in-game. Can you get some more Mods in game?

 

A – We currently have several thousand moderators and in recent weeks we’ve been increasing that number hugely. We’re still recruiting for moderators, though, so in answer to your question, yes! :) – Paul M>

 

Zebest605 asks:

 

In 2009, you made a thread 'Are you community focused?' From that, we got more Player Mods into the game and on the forums.

 

Q.1 Will you send more invites for Player Mods in the early stages of this year? ;)

 

Q.2 Will players like me ( playing for 2 - 5 years ) be eligible for Player Mod status?

 

Q.3 Will there be more community-focused events like this very soon?

 

A – We had a burst of recruitment over the last few months. Although we’re taking it a little slower again for now, we’re still sending moderator invites every month. I can’t confirm anything, but if you’re busy in the community and support the game and people within it then I don’t see why not. =)

 

Finally, yes; there are lots more community-focused events to come this year. Some of the plans still need a fair amount of work to make them happen, so until that work’s done I don’t want to go into detail. If you happen to bump into Mod Dansk, Crow or Howes, though, you may just be able to twist their arms. ;) – Paul M

 

Cor-vus asks:

 

When will there be another cryptic clue-fest or similar event?

 

A – Sorry, but I can’t tell you when it’s going happen; only that it is going to happen in the not too distant future. ; ) – Paul M

 

Sibberke asks:

 

Some community things like roleplaying are only available in English, and maybe also in German, French and Portuguese. I like it, but can't fully do it and so don't make much fun with it because I don't know many good words to use there. Could there things as this be added in the smaller language forums like Dutch, Swedish and such?

 

A – If there’s a role-playing community to support such a forum then we’d be happy to add it. The thing with the more exclusive language communities is that it’s that much harder to create a large RP community. Having said that, I know you’d be most welcome in the .com RP community. If language is an issue, perhaps you could create an ‘international language’ section in the existing RP forum and build your very own RP community for people who don’t have English as their first language. What do you say? If that’s something you’d like to chat to us about, feel free to grab Mod Crow or Mod Hulmes in the RP forum. ; ) – Paul M

 

Sike25 asks:

 

1) Will there be a new poll? The same one has been up for a while.

 

2) How many Player Moderators do you bring on board per month?

 

A – Yep, we now plan on launching a new poll every single week. We’ve just closed the machinima poll, but there’ll be another along very shortly. =)

 

We’ve no set number for Mods invited each month, so I don’t have an answer for you there. – Paul M

 

Donutguy640 asks:

 

FORUM AVATARS - can we have any hope of having more options for our face, on our forum pics? it's always the same exact smile, I liked the idea until I noticed that O_o I would like a dazed look :D lol

 

A – Lol, good question! Unfortunately, Community Management aren’t the best people to answer this. We’ll forward it to the content guys, though. ; ) – Paul M

 

Sequoia Harp asks:

 

Will we have more, small holiday events managed by the CM team like the cryptic clues fest with unique rewards?

 

A – Yes indeed! – Paul M

 

Apsitively asks:

 

If I make a report, but accidentally click the wrong button (i.e. I'm reporting for an offensive name, but I misclick on offensive language):

 

A: Does this inaccurate report hurt my chances of being picked for mod-ship?

 

B:Should I re-report with the correct information?

 

A – Nope, it doesn’t really make a lot of difference. When it comes to reporting, it’s the attitude you display and choice of what you report that makes a difference, not whether you misclicked a few times. ; )

Should you re-report? No, don’t worry. It just means that the J-Mod reviewing the report will take action based on the content of the report, not the subject reported under. – Paul M

 

Sir Joeyy asks:

 

Moderators are a big factor in the game, they defuse problems and are always friendly. How hard is it to recruit a Moderator? Steps must be followed, procedures, and so on.

 

A – It’s actually pretty time-intensive as we invite only a small percentage of the accounts we review. Reviews include checking the basics like security and the like, but it’s mostly down to judging accounts on a case by case basis. Sometimes it’s pretty straightforward, other times it requires a lot of checking.

 

Healer Chv asks:

 

I once read that if a player failed either community safety check or hijacking check, his/her account will be unlikely to be ever reviewed again for moderator status. However, one's attitude/realization will change/come in possible future so killing the chance(possibly forever) on their first fail would really be quite unfair to player who might have changed(to the better) in the future.Therefore,I leave 2 question for whoever related (:D):

 

1.Will you EVER reconsider reviewing these accounts (who once failed in either section which I mentioned above) given that they have very good/community-like attitude and can certainly contribute to the current RuneScape community?

 

2. Will you EVER reconsider re-reviewing an account (after being reviewed) at a later date (e.g. 3/6/9 month, 1 year, etc, etc)?

 

A – The short answer to this is “yes”. Quite often we come across an account that has real potential but there’s not enough detail there for the recruitment guys to make a decision. In those cases, we make a note, add the detail and the date to a really dull looking spreadsheet and then, a few months later, we’ll review the account again. - Paul M

 

Lucid emo asks:

 

I know you say you listen to us, but I feel that the community as a whole is largely ignored. I know it’s impossible to listen to all of us, but maybe show us that you are listening. Maybe personally mark threads for ideas you like or are considering implementing or a thread of ideas you have taken directly from the community. Anything, but as a common player and a non clan affiliate I feel as far from you as possible. So to get down to it my question is do you plan on showing us that you do infact listen?

 

A – Well, many of the changes we make do get implemented but I totally get your point that it isn’t always that clear when we have read a suggestion or passed it on. Of course, with around 350,000 posts on our forums each week it is really hard to post on every suggestion thread, but I have asked for a system which will automatically show when a J-Mod has read a thread. It’s still early days, but I’m confident we can get something sorted out. It could even make it into the next big forum update! – Stevew

 

Chef Norway asks:

 

Some few countries got their own forum in their language on the bottom of the RuneScape Forum. Is there possible that every country will get its own forums, like those who already got it?

 

A – We are very keen to make sure that people all over the world can enjoy our forums, which is exactly why you have seen such an increase in supported languages recently. Although we may expand into other languages at some point in the future, for now we are concentrating on providing the best possible support for the languages we already have. – Stevew

 

Anonymous asks:

 

When a player gets invited to be a Moderator, and he doesn't get to be one due to the reason that he couldn't go through all the phases, does he lose the chance forever? Or does he have a high chance of being invited again? Or does his chance go back to as of a normal player?

 

A – If we have already invited someone to become a Moderator and they didn’t complete the process and fully see things through, they will be put back in the regular group of existing players. This means they have exactly the same chance as anyone else of being picked for a future invite! – Stevew

 

Spirit 0f RS asks:

 

1: The past year has seen a lot of community focus and projects, involving many J-Mods and volunteer Moderators. Has Jagex seen an improvement in community involvement and better quality of players from this effort?

 

2: With the release of what Jagex wishes to see in a volunteer Moderator, I have seen a rise in WBMing (wannabe moderating) in the game itself and on the forums (raises a guilty hand). Does Jagex have plans for any community projects designed to bring this under control or to at least educate players that wish to help the community to learn a better way of helping?

 

3: I have been looking through the forums for some time now and there are so many community involved threads. How can I personally know which is genuine and a good place to start being more involved? Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

A – I think we have seen a genuine uplift in community involvement recently and, as you point out, not all of it is genuine and for the right reasons; but that isn’t a reason to stop recognising those players who are active in the community! As for people who ‘WBM;’ well, we are pretty good at spotting who is genuine and who isn’t, so although people might think it’s a fast-track to becoming a Mod, it really isn’t!

 

Finally, to spot genuine community events look at the forum threads – are they busy? are the events regular? Do plenty of people turn up at them? Has the thread been running for some time? Just a few pointers to start you off on your journey to find ‘true’ community involvement! – Stevew

 

Evil Yanks asks:

 

What kind of community participation competition do you have planned for 2010, like the machinima or the poison arrow? Also, will the rewards be more diverse than just membership? I have always reckoned that a good reward for a comp would be for something in the game to be named after their RuneScape character.

 

A – We have plenty of cool things lined up. For a start, we have 24 Big Tickets to give away, and that’s without all the other initiatives with other prizes like the current caption competition and the upcoming story competition! So .... competitions are pretty big for us this year , and you can expect some great things to be announced soon! – Stevew

 

Jonny Ere 7 asks:

 

1) When will you be updating the forums?

2) Will 2010 be the best year for updates?

3) When will you run out of updates?

 

A –

1) We have plans to make some changes fairly soon, followed by some quite major changes a bit further down the line.

2) Only you can judge that – I’ll look out for your comments on our forums on 31st December!

3) We run out of coffee all the time – but we have a huge supply of update ideas and development projects. So, while we may have to struggle through the day on tea alone (yuk!) we will never run out of updates! – Stevew

 

Beriligum asks:

 

When you see a thread that is a good idea but hard to read to you ever go back and check it to see if they redo it neatly and well laid out?

 

A – We might go back to the thread, for example to clarify an issue, but it isn’t really the layout that’s important – it’s the idea. Obviously, it helps if things are laid out nicely, but it certainly isn’t the most important aspect. We still pass on suggestions if we think they are great, regardless of how nicely constructed the original suggestion thread is! – Stevew

 

Jimmy Kebe asks:

 

Will there be many more events aimed at clans in the future?

 

A – Absolutely! Mod Timbo heads up all our clan activities, and he has a pretty full diary! Clans are very important to us, and we really appreciate and understand the value they add to their respective communities. Of course, we will continue to support other communities as well, but rest assured that clans stay high on the agenda! -Stevew

 

Fyre-Fenixx asks:

 

Say you posted on a thread and have no desire to ever return to it, will there be an update to your forum profile to remove unwanted threads in the list? Sometimes it gets difficult to find a thread you want to return to amid all of them.

 

A – Sounds like a reasonable idea! We have a number of ideas for future forum updates to make them much more like other internet message boards, and this idea seems to fit well with our plans to make the forums more ‘user friendly.’ I’ll pass the suggestion on! –Stevew

 

 

Interesting comments about all the moderator questions

 

and a new cryptic clue fest in the 'not so distant future' ;)

I actually found it a very interesting read. Glad to see that there were actually some decent questions asked...

 

I'm glad that the WMB's aren't on the fast track to becoming a mod like they think they are... :thumbsup:

 

Also I am excited for the "Cryptic Clue Fest"!

Tecmaster532 asks:

 

Hi There Community Management Team!

 

As a major member of the technical support community I've noticed that we don't really get all that much noticed outside of people with technical issues. Are there any plans to better recognizance the members of the technial community that volunteer their time assisting with technical issues on the forums and in game, and if so what are they?

 

Would it be possible to create a system that would allow certain players that frequently assist in the tech support areas to directly contact Jagex with urgent technical issues faster than using the bug report system or technical tickets?

 

Thanks,

 

Answer:

 

Sorry we missed your question!

 

We're all about recognising and supporting communities, even those smaller communities out there. I'm sure our technical support guys really appreciate the work you do already, but I'll certainly pass your message on to them!

 

Not really the response I expected...

 

Also, last post in the thread:

 

"Also, I'd just like to point out that at the last Machinama contest (the very first one), one of the finalists portrayed the player support team as Oompa Loompas. Then, the "Big Ticket" event came out. This is even more like Willie Wonka than the last contest. Sounds like Jagex is trying to tell us something"

 

*Sings*Come with me and we'll be, in a world of pure runification...

One of the Twitter questions/answers (to me):

 

LOL... the watch Andrew pick his nose cam wow that brings back memories....

LOL... the watch Andrew pick his nose cam wow that brings back memories....

 

indeed it does! Anyone have any pics saved? (also, with modern technology, the cam could record actual video, and not take pics like every 20 seconds!)