A Job or Volunteer Proposal

[Aimee 1,150]

So I think I have seen it mentioned here and there that forum content has its highs and lows. Usually it goes up with new members or when big things happen like season endings, theme weeks, or holiday events. But I wonder if part of it is due to people not having confidence in their skills. For example, until I actually gave it a try, I thought that I would never be capable of producing any graphic works for the forum. And yet, I have gone on to create about half a dozen. Have I improved? Meh, a little bit from my first one for sure. But do I have the time and energy to figure out how to get better? Not really though I wish I did. 

 

I also think the same goes for writing. It could be because we have a fair amount of high school and college age members, or a high population of people whose first language isn’t English. This could cause them to struggle with an English-centered forum. But I think there are members who wish that they could produce content though worry about their writing skills or perhaps just don’t think they have anything to write about; especially to get to 500 words every week for a media spot.

 

So I have a proposal with two options:

 

I propose that the VHL creates either 1) a job or 2) a supervised volunteer position of members who are skilled at graphics and writing to help other members come up with ideas, beta read articles, and help edit them. I know that we have a review system based on the content and writing so I have a point to address that as well.

 

1. The VHL has a content problem most of the season in relation to how many members it has. I’m not assuming that every welfare + player is even interested in producing, but perhaps a few more might be interested in trying or go back to writing and graphics if they had someone who they could go to for advice or help.

2. The job or volunteer position could be a buddy system where the members get grouped up for an extended period of time, or it could be a dropbox situation where whoever is available at the time could work on it and leave feedback.

3. For graphics specifically, whoever holds the position would not only give feedback or advice, but could actively try and teach other members how to use specific features in whichever program is being used or even just give little art lessons to help someone understand composition and basic layouts. Obviously I’m not a big graphics person so I’m sure someone else could come up with a better system than I could.
For writing, I don’t expect someone to fully edit a media spot or any other content. The editing and advice would be more suggestions and fixes of basic grammar. I also think that coming up with ideas is one of the hardest parts of writing long form content and I believe that that is where experienced VHL writers could really assist those who struggle. 

4. In order to avoid any issues with the review system, no editing would be a full overhaul as stated above. For example; if I picked a ,com article to edit and I noticed a significant lack of punctuation, instead of going in and putting in every comma or period, I would suggest that the writer go back and put some in in order to make it a bit easier to read. I know that this is sometimes a point in reviews but I think it’s better to help someone improve than to give someone easy review fodder like lack of punctuation.

 

Obviously this is my first proposal or anything of this nature so it’s possible that I just made myself look like an idiot and I’m sure that the idea of it being a job is going to get me laughed out of the building. But I do think that it’s something worth seeing if people would be interested in. I know I would happily lend a hand to anyone struggling to create content.

 

698 words for week ending 1/15/2023
 

[Pifferfish 596]

I mean, the VSN sort of could facilitate that. I think it could be cool to have a VSN lite. That is specifically geared for First Gens and helps them grow and gain confidence then at that seasons end, rotates in new first gens.

[Pifferfish 596]

Just now, Pifferfish said:

I mean, the VSN sort of could facilitate that. I think it could be cool to have a VSN lite. That is specifically geared for First Gens and helps them grow and gain confidence then at that seasons end, rotates in new first gens.

To clarify @aimkinmy suggestion here is like 2 Graphics people and 2 writers make a new VSN or something under that same umbrella, that hires 4-6 first gens to help them produce content. Then after the season those "interns" move onto the regular VSN potentially or just hopefully continue working on content on their own.

[Aimee 1,150]

2 minutes ago, Pifferfish said:

To clarify @aimkinmy suggestion here is like 2 Graphics people and 2 writers make a new VSN or something under that same umbrella, that hires 4-6 first gens to help them produce content. Then after the season those "interns" move onto the regular VSN potentially or just hopefully continue working on content on their own.

I think that would be really cool. Definitely would encourage new people to write. 

[Guest]

I actually really like this idea, cause I know it can be hard to come up with things to write and I also know how hard it is to make graphics 

[Lemorse7 1,021]

I just don’t like to write 

[Lemorse7 1,021]

I’m also not good at graphic 

[STZ 5,389]

3 minutes ago, Lemorse7 said:

I just don’t like to write 

 

3 minutes ago, Lemorse7 said:

I’m also not good at graphic 

A Jack of no trades

[Triller 1,687]

It is a good suggestion for sure, one that may be hard to find users to facilitate it.  It takes awhile to create graphics and to come up with good writing ideas so to have the extra time to also "mentor" someone else would be hard.  If we pay the "mentor" enough TPE so they don't have to worry about their own work then we may have an issue where experienced writers and artists aren't posting to the forums as much or not at all.

 

I do like the idea of showing people the ropes.  It might be a good video to make?  An experienced writer or artist can record a tutorial talking about their writing process or an artist can record themselves working on a graphic and submit it for TPE but to also have it marked as a tutorial.  Could help new people figure out what programs they can use and how to use them.

 

I have done this before for start up companies learning the Unreal Engine for cinematics but the only thing is that they take longer than you'd think to plan out and record.

[Aimee 1,150]

3 minutes ago, Triller said:

It is a good suggestion for sure, one that may be hard to find users to facilitate it.  It takes awhile to create graphics and to come up with good writing ideas so to have the extra time to also "mentor" someone else would be hard.  If we pay the "mentor" enough TPE so they don't have to worry about their own work then we may have an issue where experienced writers and artists aren't posting to the forums as much or not at all.

 

I do like the idea of showing people the ropes.  It might be a good video to make?  An experienced writer or artist can record a tutorial talking about their writing process or an artist can record themselves working on a graphic and submit it for TPE but to also have it marked as a tutorial.  Could help new people figure out what programs they can use and how to use them.

 

I have done this before for start up companies learning the Unreal Engine for cinematics but the only thing is that they take longer than you'd think to plan out and record.

Knowing how the VHL works I doubt it would actually result in a paid job but I think if we could get enough people to help, it might not mean too much work for any one "mentor". I also don't foresee there being a flood of help requests so it might be easily manageable by a fair sized team.