[Cspace]

Now and then everyone hears that SeeD is "member-led" and free, but we really aren't realizing it as we should. Through 2002 and 2003 that was the big thing... "SeeD is a member-led guild." Those two years are often considered our best.

In 2004 that concept broke down because of rivalries... How can members lead the guild if they're at odds with each other? After that, we (myself included) stopped talking about the concept due to other worries. Then with the UFF fiasco even "freedom" got a bad name due to their definition of the word.

Today I keep hearing from members that we need leaders, that Soandso's Faction is inactive, and many others are just going off and doing their own things while wondering why SeeD doesn't do a lot of stuff as a guild. Many want the same thing... Our vision is more clear-cut now than it's ever been, even in 2002.

The stagnation is because our system, which our members have proven to work without a lot of time spent by individual members, has not been realized for three years. We've forgotten it!

******************************************

So what was SeeD's philosophy? What did we mean by "free" and "member-led"?


FREEDOM:
Freedom of expression within logical bounds, freedom for anyone to join, and freedom to have your own vision for SeeD. Our definition of "freedom" is broad and all-encompassing, not in any way linked to UFF's goals. I want to break the link in definitions because "free" should not have a negative connotation... It's what helped to make us SeeD for the majority of our existence. We shouldn't be afraid to use the word, because according to Webster, "free" is what we are.


MEMBER-LED:
This is the big thing... We're member-led. We started out as member-led, and nothing changed in our organization to inhibit this. In fact, with factions and some of the other things we implemented since 2004, it's a lot easier for members to make an impact of their own. While the site (CurvedSpace) itself has limitations for obvious reasons, SeeD (our guild) has none as long as what we do is positive and doesn't break the rules of the games we play. The reason is to give members the ability to guide SeeD and to construct a guild to call their own. There's a lot more satisfaction on the part of the members, and if we work together it's not anymore difficult than a standard guild setup for any single member.



The thing is, members are confused and frustrated today. I'm not sure we realize that instructions won't be given to everyone, we continue to intend for members to lead. There's no reason to wait, we have more than enough in many factions to get SeeD going again. We just need leaders... You.

Let's build something together and not merely comment on our guild. I think it's time we realize what we're about, and make 2007 our best year so far.

I'm going to try to push our old ideals again, and will appreciate it if others help by doing the same.

[Jake]

The Idea Of A Free & "Member-Led" Guild

BLASPHEMY!


Seriously though, when I get my xbox360 I'll start recruiting people over here for an xbox faction... not a specific "Halo 2 faction" or anything else like that (that's probably the reason the idea has failed so many times before), but a general Xbox faction.
Who knows? It might work

[ticktockclok]

Skimming over that in 10 seconds, what I picked up was that we're communists.

[Nuu™™]

Freedom got a bad name long before UFF. *cough*

Aside from politics, here is some of my personal suggestions for what we can do to improve:

• More active, gaming members. Could it be that since SeeD turned from a Runescape clan into a multi-game guild the gamers in factions were drawn out a bit thin? Before, the idea was, everyone played Runescape. There was no confusion, it was all very straightforward. Now things seem to be a lot more complicated, with people being involved in multiple, seperate things and a lot of them not knowing who else plays it, or more correctly, if anyone else plays it.
  
• Which brings me to the next problem. Communication. Before, it was simple. You had everyone added on your Runescape friend list, and immediately you were in contact with every SeeD who could be contacted. Now, things are segregated, with myriad different communication systems being used. The most promising possibility for improving this, for Blockland at least, is IRC. Blockland has a program that brings up the Blockland IRC channel with the press of the I button. With a bit of modding (there is a tutorial in the forum), you can make it so it connects to matrix chat, and with a bit more modding, to any channel you wish to use. Although this is useful for chatting with people using the applet on the website, me and the few active Blockland players are still using MSN to contact one another in-game.
  
• Responsibility. Using Blockland as an example again, like SeeD as a whole, the Blockland faction is member led. Although this is true officially, me and a couple of other members seem to have turned out to be the de facto leaders of the faction. Why? Because it is so much easier to dump responisibility for the faction on me than actually take some yourself.
  
• Real life, timezones and events. Lately, from what I know, people never seem to come to events. Why? Well many state that they 'can't come' for some real life reason, or as what has happened to me a lot, I can't come because I'm asleep or at school or something. Maybe, instead of dividing things up by games or the pointless, ineffectual divisions of Gardens, we could divide people up for events with timezones. For example, a 'Pacific' event and a corresponding 'Atlantic' event. Americans living on the East Coast and Europeans could go to the Atlantic event and West Coast Americans, Australians, Kiwis and East Asians could come to the 'Pacific' one.

[Cspace]

More active, gaming members. Could it be that since SeeD turned from a Runescape clan into a multi-game guild the gamers in factions were drawn out a bit thin? Before, the idea was, everyone played Runescape. There was no confusion, it was all very straightforward. Now things seem to be a lot more complicated, with people being involved in multiple, seperate things and a lot of them not knowing who else plays it, or more correctly, if anyone else plays it.

As for the factions drawing our members thin, they didn't pull our members from Runescape. Those who played Runescape kept playing Runescape, while those who stopped who would otherwise leave SeeD now have a reason to stay. The missing aspect from the original plan is that the factions aren't recruiting. No matter how active our members are in our own games, if our factions don't recruit, the factions themselves won't be active. We can't tell members what to play, and therefore we need to grow roots into the games instead of relying on the foundation we already have.

Which brings me to the next problem. Communication. Before, it was simple. You had everyone added on your Runescape friend list, and immediately you were in contact with every SeeD who could be contacted. Now, things are segregated, with myriad different communication systems being used. The most promising possibility for improving this, for Blockland at least, is IRC. Blockland has a program that brings up the Blockland IRC channel with the press of the I button. With a bit of modding (there is a tutorial in the forum), you can make it so it connects to matrix chat, and with a bit more modding, to any channel you wish to use. Although this is useful for chatting with people using the applet on the website, me and the few active Blockland players are still using MSN to contact one another in-game.

IRC could be a good place to keep in contact, but not everyone uses it all the time. The draw of the messengers like MSN and AIM is that anyone on them can be contacted, both from SeeD and elsewhere, which is why they tend to be the most popular. However, we never really had a solid in-game network even when we were just in Runescape. Our member list far exceeded the friend list limit, and even today when it's more feasible to add SeeDs, a recent poll is showing that our RS Faction members aren't really adding anyone they don't know. I think those who can add other SeeDs in the games they play should add other SeeDs, just as Nuu is pushing.

However, everyone should try to be active on the forums. That's the easiest place to organize factions and get to know members from all games, but not if we don't post or invite new members to the community.

Responsibility. Using Blockland as an example again, like SeeD as a whole, the Blockland faction is member led. Although this is true officially, me and a couple of other members seem to have turned out to be the de facto leaders of the faction. Why? Because it is so much easier to dump responisibility for the faction on me than actually take some yourself.

Very true. This is what naturally happens in a group situation, but an ideal situation would be one where members want to take on the role of leader, even if in just one aspect that the person likes. At our peak the member-led idea didn't really get everyone trying to climb the same ladder, but everyone branched out into their own areas. Some wanted to run shops. Others wanted to lead us in the wilderness. Some just wanted to try new ideas. Some had more ambition and tried multiple things. It can be really simple, but if we realize what we can do and actually work together at it, we'll be in really good shape.

Real life, timezones and events. Lately, from what I know, people never seem to come to events. Why? Well many state that they 'can't come' for some real life reason, or as what has happened to me a lot, I can't come because I'm asleep or at school or something. Maybe, instead of dividing things up by games or the pointless, ineffectual divisions of Gardens, we could divide people up for events with timezones. For example, a 'Pacific' event and a corresponding 'Atlantic' event. Americans living on the East Coast and Europeans could go to the Atlantic event and West Coast Americans, Australians, Kiwis and East Asians could come to the 'Pacific' one.

That's an interesting idea, but I'm afraid that it could make things a little more difficult than they have to be. There are times intervals that work for multiple time zones. An event could easily be hosted for North America and Europe, or for North America and Australia (not sure about Europe and Australia). There's also the potential on certain days for all three continents to find a decent time, I remember events where members from those three continents attended at the same time. Someone just has to stay up a little late.

[ticktockclok]

I mentioned this before, but I'll say it again; people are growing up.

There was an article I read in the Wall Street Journal about how the gaming industry is preparing for a big boom as lots of kids from the heyday of gaming or going to college or getting busy with sports, girls, etc. Its happening, and thats why seed is falling. Basically, you're going to have to catch a younger demographic.

[Jake]

letz al tipe liek dis den lolol
it getz da yungr demagraphik n stoof 2.


The biggest problem is that cspace's ideas need more people in order to work. And we (members) aren't recruiting well enough to get the ball rolling on these ideas. Yes, people are moving on, but the majority of us are still gamers. And our problem is that most of us have moved away from runescape.