URPG ANONYMOUS FEEDBACK FORM

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WHAT IS THIS?

• In the past, there have been issues that individual members may not have felt comfortable addressing in public. While we always encourage you to reach out to us individually, we understand that this may not be the case for everyone, and as such we are implementing an anonymous feedback system.
• This is not a replacement for talking to us directly. If you have concerns that you would like addressed immediately, please, please message one of us directly. We're always here to help.
• You can access the anonymous feedback page here. You do not need a gmail account to fill out this form, we cannot gather your gmail data through this form, and there's really no way to trace who submitted what. That's the point.

HOW SHOULD I FILL THIS OUT?

• Feedback, both positive and negative, goes here. Be as specific as you can in describing the problem so that we fully understand what you're trying to say.
• This should not replace the Trainer's Court--if you are comfortable having a debate attached to your name, Trainer's Court offers a much more public and comprehensive set of discussions on this matter.
• This should also not replace contacting Staff officially, if possible. If there is an emergency situation, please be aware that our schedule for this feedback system likely will not be fast enough for you, and we encourage you to reach out to us individually.
• We appreciate all feedback, but be aware that spam comments will be deleted. Please be judicious with your and our time.

WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THIS INFORMATION?

• We will compile this feedback and bring it up for discussion in Staff at the beginning of each month and you will receive a public response from us by the end of the next full month. For example, if you submit something on April 10, it will be posted in Staff in the beginning of May, deliberated on during May, and a public response will be released at the end of May.
• All non-spam feedback will be addressed. If you believe that your feedback has been skipped, feel free to resubmit it for the next cycle.
• We will respond to the best of our ability. In some cases, this may result in a public Trainer's Court thread/an opening for more debate, in others, we may make rule changes, and we reserve the right to make no change at all. Regardless, we want to make sure that your comments are being discussed and addressed in a transparent manner.
• Complaints about individual users will not be addressed in public. While we will still discuss these complaints in a serious manner, we will not publicly post or shame any member of the community.

CONTENTS
April 2017
May 2017
July 2017

 

April Feedback Staff Response

We wanted to thank everyone for submitting their feedback for the April cycle. Conversation and dialogue, especially pertaining to difficult topics, creates a space for collaboration in the URPG that makes the gaming experience better for everyone! We came together, read all the responses, deliberated and have shaped this reply.

Please reach out to staff members directly with any further questions on these particular topics. The feedback form is now open for May.

Feedback: Staff Bias -

Response: This is a deeply disconcerting point, and we’re glad this has been brought to staff attention. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to understand exactly what to amend in our actions without specific examples. We would encourage the person who authored this feedback to come directly forward to either the person of conflict or to another staff member in order to work out perceivable issues. The quicker you talk to us about it, using direct, quoted examples, the sooner we can amend this problem. No matter what, we will all make a concentrated effort to be more respectful to all members and be aware of any biases we may hold.


Feedback: HKim activity -

Response: Harry vowed to increase his forum and Discord presence since the posting of this feedback. He actively reads and replies to staff threads and delegates day-to-day operations of the URPG to staff and moderators. He is open to anyone to talk to him and also loves to participate in FFA’s, so feel free to catch him during these times! He is thankful for this feedback.

Feedback: PXR Inactivity -

Response: PxR can only benefit activity for the URPG and not hinder it. We should think of ways collectively to encourage new activity on PxR and we encourage all members, especially the person who posted this, to brainstorm and implement ways to garner new activity from PxR. This is a pertinent concern and summer is a great opportunity to capitalize upon new activity from our host forums.

Feedback: Obsession with potential abuse -

Response: The URPG operates on a trust-based honor code system for matters pertaining to user interaction. People are responsible for adding the correct amount of money to their statistics page, for recording what Pokemon they’ve claimed from an event and for properly documenting what they’ve traded away, bought, etc. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that every year we catch a variety of cheating that happens intentionally. Money appears when there was no source of gain. Items appear without a purchase to their name. Catching cheats in URPG is certainly not fun for us and even less fun for the people who choose to betray the honor code system.

That being said, we hope people can understand why we’d be more attuned to potential instances of abuse. We all work hard collectively to make sure this game is challenging, fair, and fun for everyone involved. Instances of potential abuse greatly throw off that wonder of balance this game has crafted for its players and also increases the potential for cheating. We would invite the person who authored this post to elaborate more upon what may specifically have been exploitable about the garage sale. There was no way to truly profit off this event because you had to earn the Pokemon at some point - and free Pokemon through underground rolls or gifts tend be valuable; trashing those Pokemon for profit would have actually resulted in more of a net loss.

Feedback: Uniformity of rules -

Response: Again, as per the bias feedback, we are grateful for this note and hope that these specific trends for bias would be recorded and sent directly to the person who may have committed them.

We’d also like to note here that sometimes members ping staff members specifically for approvals. We have the Discord channel for this and encourage members to post their approval requests there, but this specific pinging may have also caused the bias this person may have perceived.

Feedback: FFA Cliques

Response: We’ve deliberated over this as a staff because we do see this as an issue. However, from the ref’s side, there’s little that can be done currently - it’s difficult to prove exact instances of teaming while the referee’s already working hard to run the FFA. We encourage everyone to generate solutions that will stop teaming or to just stop forming the teams, if you’re part of the problem. We could attempt a teaming clause, but this could potentially make the matter more complicated than it needs to be.

Feedback: Staff Elections

Yes! See the general meeting notes for more information and see this link for staff applications! They close in two days, so make sure to get your applications in if not! The next application season will open up months from now.

EDIT BY SWIFTY:
As an aside, if you wish to discuss any of this feel free to do so in Trainer's Court (either on forums or Discord), but please do not respond directly in this thread. Thanks!

 

AIGHT. SO. Sorry this is so late; I got caught up in staff apps, gifting station updates, and summer vibes PS y'all should all sign up for AH and SWC, thx. As a note: there are currently no feedback submissions for the month of June. This is probably a great thing, but if you have any concerns at all, please feel free to talk to a Staff member directly or use this as your venue. We honestly want to help, but we don't always know what to address. You can even talk about how we address these feedback things etc etc it'll be super fun.

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As a note: some of these posts contained references to specific members, and those bits weren't reposted because public shaming is bad. However, we do take these issues seriously.

RESPONSE: First off, in case you haven't heard, we've replaced the duplicate Berry Store Paras/Pokemart Paras by making Budew available in the Berry Store. Exchange some ribbons for a sentient rosebush!

Picking what Pokemon go where is a weirdly-complex, arduous process that ends up pulling in people from all sections -- we consult Stories/Art/Park vs Battles to get a feel for how hard a Pokemon should be to obtain considering how viable/rare/lore-ish it is, whch is how ranks get done. We try to keep an exciting mix of types in all 3 stores (Pokemart, Berry Store, and Soda Shoppe) so that everyone can find something, but we also want to encourage people to branch out into other sections, so we try to keep an even split across all 3 stores and the rest of the creative sections. As such, there's no one voice in the room that's allowed to dominate, we refrain from insider trading-esque tactics that happened in the past, and we honestly don't shuffle the store stock around unless it's absolutely necessary to maintain competitive balance, for the reasons outlined in both this question and this response.

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RESPONSE:

YUP WE AGREE ENTIRELY. While Staff sometimes makes jokes that we mean to be harmless, the internet has no sense of tone and these things can definitely become hurtful, and we really don't want that. URPG loves all sections equally and we, as a staff team, want to make the entire community feel welcome as we all play this game. Please, please continue to hold us to that standard.

and hey, here's monbrey's response:

 

It's us again. It's been a while. Sorry for the delay in getting this live; I got a little swamped (literally) with all the hurricanes and stuff. We are currently reviewing stuff from August as well, so as always, please feel free to keep using this form.

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Monbrey himself has expressed that the intent behind the post was not to offend or objectify anyone and he apologizes if it came across that way. What he posted was still considered PG-13 and therefore appropriate for the server (as long as the content isn't spammed). However, we acknowledge that some people are uncomfortable with posts that are still within the rules, and we will be more conscientious of this as members of a Staff unit.

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We're sorry for going back and forth on this so often. At the end of the day, section heads want to make the best decisions for the section, and because so many parties are involved, it tends to take a while. The final, official ruling was posted well after this feedback was received, but just in case: