Dead Men Walking

We usually have an admin meeting at the LAN so please post here any points you would like to be raised at the meeting.  As usual the meeting will have 2 parts, one for Council, the other to include Game Leaders.

Somewhat unusually this time, we might need to do the meeting on Teamspeak rather than at the LAN as a couple of Council members have business trips at the same time.  Further details to be provided nearer the time.

There's a separate thread in the Council section for Council specific items for the agenda.

Provisional Date: - Thursday 21st October
Time: - to be confirmed

Agenda Requests:
GL Report (Council)
Promotion Activities - GL Responsibilities (NF)
Future of the LAN - Will the Lack of games Kill it off? Can we find a hotel with a better connection?  (NF)
New Games - What's on the Horizon?  (NF)
Website / Forum - Choice of Skins available? - Chat Box? - Gif Banner to scroll through the games we play? (NF)
Under Promo Banner and site standards (Tob)
Migration of Forum to BA4 (Council)
inter section communication (Tob)
AOB

Promotion Activities - GL Responsibilities
Future of the LAN - Will the Lack of games Kill it off? Can we find a hotel with a better connection?
New Games - What's on the Horizon?
Website / Forum - Choice of Skins available? - Chat Box? - Gif Banner to scroll through the games we play?

Under Promo Banner and site standards

Migration of Forum to BA4

That's already on the council agenda Pen so I'll not add it here!

Sorry I thought it was somewhere but am on the road.

I would also like to add inter section communication. :)

Ok Tob, but I think we need to be more specific on what you want to discuss.  Anything in particular that is getting your attention?

Just big changes, just more of a heads up, for example I when I wasn't a GL and our WoW section merged with another guild.  I had no idea, no problems with it or anything.  Just felt as it was a interesting point and there was no official post as far as I could see.

So was thinking like a heads up to the GL just so we know about it and then one for the community.

I think now as a GL you should see the posts tho most of the head scratching happens on ts

Cant think of anything for the meeting as yet ...

Quote from: TeaLeaf;315605We usually have an admin meeting at the LAN so please post here any points you would like to be raised at the meeting.  As usual the meeting will have 2 parts, one for Council, the other to include Game Leaders.

Somewhat unusually this time, we might need to do the meeting on Teamspeak rather than at the LAN as a couple of Council members have business trips at the same time.  Further details to be provided nearer the time.

There's a separate thread in the Council section for Council specific items for the agenda.

As aluded to in the OP, there will be no GL or Admin meeting at the LAN.  We'll organise a time and date to get this done in the week after the LAN using our TS server.  We hope the meeting will not last longer than an hour.

Can all GLs post here if they can make time for a TS meeting on:

Wednesday 20th October - 8pm UK time
Thursday 21st October - 8pm UK time
Friday 22nd October - 8pm UK time
Saturday 23rd October - 7pm UK time

Once we get an idea of availability we'll book one of these into the diary and confirm the final agenda nearer the time.

All ok for me

Quote from: JonnyAppleSeed;316507All ok for me

me too

Thurs or Friday are OK for me (preferably Thursday)

Thanks

Thursday 21st October - 8pm UK time for me please.

Preference would be the 23rd. Other than that Thursday 21st.

Council have nabbed the Wednesday for their meeting, so it is looking like Thursday night for the GL meeting.  I'll confirm once we have had all repsonses, but please pencil in the Thursday meeting for the time being.

Err...Thursday is the dMr big race so not good for me, any other night is fine.

hey all, is this going ahead where we at with this :)

Yes the meeting is still on, so tomorrow at 8pm on TS.  

As my mind is a bit screwed atm Toby can you give me a call tomorrow night if I'm not on TS promptly please?

Thanks.

Will do can you pm me your number thanks

Mintues attached.  

Thanks for turning up folks and helping us stick to the time schedule pretty well.  Action points are listed within the minutes.

Sorry I missed the meeting. When I got your call Pen I was at the furthest point on our mountian bike ride and then the battery in the phone went dead so I couldn't reply.
 
From the L4D side there is not much to report. It has been very quiet, with most of the main players moving off onto ARMA and other games. The latest DLC has regenerated some interest and numbers have been picking up.
Also real life has got busy so I am not around most nights.

Nps Terry.

Thanks for taking the notes TL and to all of you GL's for your continuing hard work :)

We're now 20 days down the line from the GL meeting, so I thought it would be helpful to refresh the remaining action we agreed at the meeting.

ALL - any more reports of email registration problems?

Ninja - animated banner for website

ALL - seen any forum vB4 forum skins that are nice?  Let us know so we can investigate

Toby - generic banner for all games to use

Toby - investigating performance issues front page of website

TL/Penfold - completing finance changes to allow Penfold full online access to the account, LloydsTSB are being a total PITA on this but we hope to have it (re)done any time soon.

ALL - blog/content action.  I'm trying to keep the front page relatively fresh, but on my own it's hard work so I'd like to see some more effort from GLs to create quality content.  I've tried to add some images to help the page look fresh, but it would be nice to have more content available to schedule new releases over time (we can set a publish date & time in the future so that the page refreshes automatically).  If we could create a queue of work and try and keep a few days ahead then we can ensure we have a reguarly updated front page.  The content might be in the form of a really good forum post (like Dewey's FM11 post which I read and then PM'd him to suggest he use the 'promote to blog' button to add it to his blog list) or an article or blog created from scratch which we can promote to a blog/article respectively.  Whatever we do, let's keep the content quality - think about whether or not you would want to read the content yourself!  I'm not a journalist, so if the stuff I am adding fails these tests for you then let me know please, nobody is immune from publishing a dog!

NEW
ALL - update server messages to make sure include reference to COD: BO



...and that's it folks.  Let's keep focused on what we need to get done please, it takes effort from everyone to keep this community moving forward and the work you all put in is really appreciated! :thumbsup:

Using the existing thread and with apologies for the delay:

Minutes from the GL Meeting at LAN XXI
Note:  this was a combined Council & GL meeting due to lower attendance than normal, so some of the issues remain with Council although included in the minutes.

Badge Permissions
Due to difficulty in maintaining contact with Zootoxin (badge creator) we will ask Frenzy to take over this role (as suggested by Oldbloke).  Smilo/Penfold to discuss and follow up with the new line of badges.

LAN Frequency
TL challenged why 2 per year.  The meeting successfully defended why 2 per year.  

Linux v Windows
With Whitey absent it was difficult to discuss this in too much detail, but in principle we'll investigate if we can move the forums back to Linux (the move was initially to rule out Linux as a performance problem - it turned out to be a member-written plugin on our front page) to free up BA4 to run whatever we need to on the game server front.
The caveats for this were that it should not have any impact on our marketing or content requirements.
Council need to discuss further with Whitey and Gandalf.

SOA/SEO/Marketing/Surveys
Without content we die anyway.
Survey being released at LAN (Benny)
Following review of Linux v Windows for forums then we can review this and see what can be moved forward.

Poker

• Agreed this was a great success.  
• Suggested that we consider increasing LAN fee to include a 'free' stake in the poker game (no cash changes hands for the poker) and dMw then provide the prizes to coincidentally match the number of players.  This should make it easier to add to the LAN schedule for the Thursday night without licence worries.  
• Shuffle machines made the games go much quicker, LAN Committee to follow up on what is needed to run the night with larger numbers at LAN XXII.

Ten Pin Bowling (or equivalent DMR Guild Meet type event)
With the intention of running a DMR Guild Meet alongside the LAN again in October outside activities are to be considered again.  LAN Committee to decide of this can be part of the scheduled LAN events or to remain separate.

Advertising/Marketing

• Agreed this has to be driven bt Game Leaders.
• Must add content to our front page somehow, in-game videos of races, events, articles, generla interest, whatever people can come up with please.
• Game Leaders should do what they can to actively promote the community on other game-related sites, like the BF3 thread Ninja at Multiplay when we hosted our server there.  If there's a website for your game, try to get dMw a mention please whenever you can.
• Student Union gaming promotion - Toby will be following up sending our business cards out to various university gaming sections
• Investigate selling a dMw article into a publicationj (Penfold to follow up)
• Does VB have an auto-Twitter feed (TL/Smilo to follow up)

LAN Hardware
Had an issue with the projector.  Toby will investigate an alternative projector (Penfold might also be able to help).

Game Updates:

Arma2
Very slow atm.
Arma3 due in Q4
Probably dropping to 1 night per MONTH
Population currently low but will be a base for A3.

SWTOR
Toby not yet L50, he needs ot be so that he can get involved with the Op runs and and be visible to the other members
Additional Dark Council members to be appointed to spread load and drive forward membership and Op runs.
Recruitment drive is underway, but climate is difficult at the moment as the initial 3 month subscription period has expired

LFS
(in absentia)
As per last update, the racing sim awaits something new to grab the interest of racers.  
Possible new sim on the horizon (C.a.r.s is in beta at the moment), but nothing on the LFS front atm.

BF3
BF3 is a bit hit & miss atm, some nights good & others very poor
Close Quarter Combat DLC due out soon, hoping it adds new interest

RO2
RO2 is 'pretty pants' atm.  Seeding is almost impossible.
Majority of player base seems to be overseas
DLC due later this year, hoping it will invigorate the game

Game Development
Struggling with game but now some new ones are coming along
A few dMw on CS Beta
Sniper Elite v2 looking interesting and due soon
The section needs more content and GM will try to create some from the magazine subscription & web content

AOB
DMR Guild meet planned for Oct 2012 to coincide with LAN XXII
Revised & updated business cards handed out for distribution in areas where we might see responders
Web update & content, to follow forum discussion with Whitey & Gandalf


...and if I missed anything then I can't blame the single beer I had at the meeting!

As nobody has challenged any of these points, then let's get on with the work side of things and report back plz.

Just a quicky do you want us to report back here, or wait till the next meet?

I think a report back in this section in a new thread perhaps or to the a Council member so that we know what has been done and where we are on it please Toby.

Here are the minutes:

• Fees

   It was decided to increase the LAN fees and to increase the gap between members and non-members.
The following charging structure:
Lan attendees â€" Member: £10.00 Non-member  Â£25.00
Socils â€" Member £0.00 Non-member £12.00

 

• We need to have a more defined message to the Community regarding prices and how much it costs to run the servers.
• Stop dog tags but maybe just create some for LAN Virgins and Game winners.
• Can we stop the sig sizes being increases (action: Smilo)
• Belinda looking into a more inclusive package for the LANs. Including B+B, DBB and FB.
• Web  pages. We need volunteers who can FTP up to the site without messing  everything up. (Smilo) to be the hub for receiving themes and to look  into different themes
• Move forum to linux â€" h/o ‘til next meeting

GL Admin Meeting
 

• Swotr = Dead â€" forum to be archived and become unsupported
• LFR = h/o
• Arma = Dead â€" keep one server running and wait for III
• BF3  = Comps are popular but worth paying for the server still? BF3 Premium  has screwed it. Decided to carry on paying for one further quarter. NF  to run more ladders
• COD4= Non charges for server so continue to leave one up. Blunt to check pimped messages are working
• CS:GO  = Need admins. Blunt to officially come GL. RCON password needs to be  changed. Run a public server pimping the message saying  â€˜we have a  private server, come visit us…. Etc’ . OB and Blunt to set up boundaries  as based on common sense rather than fixed rules.

Blunt also to check out potential ladders for CS:GO

• Black Ops = Dead but leave running as no cost implications. Blunt to check pimped message
• LFS = Ticking over. Project Cars may be good. H/O for time being
• RO = Dead H/O for time being
• LFD = Dead. Kill one server and leave other public to pimp messages.
• WOW = Doing well. More socialising and PVP’ing underway

Other
 

• OB to revisit all servers and check MOTD
• Game  development: Continuing well. GM to publish list of codes received in  GL’s Forum for discussion. Games not deemed suitable for testing can be  published in the SM’s Forum
• Xmas Tourney â€" can we organise for each game.
• Frenzy to take over badge creation. OB agreed to check with Nik and come back to us.

We're working on dates for the next LAN

Merged Pen's thread into this one which holds previous minutes.

When there are sufficient at the LAN on Friday afternoon we'll try to get an Admin meeting going as per usual.


Anything specific for the Agenda, other than our usual round table from GLs, update on Finance?   I know BF4 & webdev is on my list at the moment, anything you folks want added? Please ask your GAs if they want anything fed back into the meeting so we can discuss if needed.


GL Reports
Finance
BF4
Webdev
BA4 - moving to nextgen OS
Social Calendar (NF)

Looking to do a big clean up of the forums including keeping informational posts up to date etc. Not a huge subject but it would be good to put it past game leaders to see how to make the process nice and simple without butchering important stuff on their forums. Also some agreement on retiring old game forums ie SWTOR Bad Company?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

You already mentioned BA4 but not sure if it covers moving away from Windows 2003 as it is End of Life at the end of next year so we should start making plans to get off it.

Forum badges
Creation of a dMw social calendar
BF4
Resource update. How's our server? How's our funds?

We have nextgen licences available for as and when, but we can add it to the list.

Forum badges - under webdev
Calendar - added
BF4 - already on the agenda as mentioned above
Resources etc - under Finance