Content Suggestion Positive/General Feedback Mechanism

[Zen]

What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
Some way to give positive or more general feedback to staff/CT/etc. We have a complaint system, but I want a way to give positive feedback regarding both specific staff members, and server content and the like, for both the following effects:

• Staff have a better idea of what players like, and so are encouraged to continue with that (actions or content)
• SL and team leads can see who has had a lot of positive feedback and can make decisions such as promotions/rewards based on that
  • Maybe something like Staff of the Week, where getting the most positive feedback gives staff members rewards like that? Or maybe just the positive feedback is taken into account when deciding things like SotW and <Team> Member of the Week

I'd also suggest adding some form of encouragement to give feedback more often through this, e.g. an automatic message in chat like the ones reminding you to join Discord and stay IC.

It would also be nice to have some way of giving more general feedback. Complaints seem too specific and negative, and DMs can sometimes be a bit intimidating, especially if you don't know the e.g. ET lead you're reaching out to, or even who you should be speaking to about different stuff. Sometimes you just want to give feedback like "I really like what X are doing with Y, but I have Z problems with ABC".

Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
Not that I'm aware of.

Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):

• Staff see more positive feedback, rather than just the negative stuff they see in complaints, appeals and people just generally complaining about stuff in e.g. Discord
• Players feel more listened to
• SL/CT/etc. have more info to use when making decisions

Possible Negatives of the suggestion:

• More SL work
• Time to implement

Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
I think generally, staff don't see too much positive feedback and often only see negative stuff, even if they're doing well. This due to a combination of there being no formal system for giving them positive feedback, only negative, and just because I think a lot of people are more likely to raise negative feedback more broadly - you might not think to say that you think something like "this staff member has been really great every time I've spoken to them" or "I really like how SCP-079 works, it's really fun" too often except for in the moment, whereas if you find something you really don't like, you will want to bring it up more often because you don't like it and it's still there. Humans are just generally prone to remembering negative stuff more than positive stuff, even if their overall experiences tilt more towards the latter. I think encouraging more positive feedback to be given would just be good across the board in terms of staff morale, players' view of feedback, and just generally making the server a bit less toxic (not that I'd say it generally is, just that there's always toxicity in any online community, and it's good to try and keep that at bay).

 

[Emilia Foddg]

I agree. A lot of what I've been seeing about the issues of Staff is that it's a lot easier to be negative and funnel that negativity in a way that is disheartening, than it is to give positive feedback.

It may not look it, but I do actually have a lot of good things to say, but not only did I never really had the time, but I always find myself so... Not so much hesitant, but more along the lines of paralysed, in terms of getting it done, plus my own additional circumstances. I had originally intended to start a regular review thread in SCP Discussion saying as much, but I never found myself confident enough to put the effort in It's unfortunately a lot easier to be negatively critical, than it is to be positive.

If there's a reasonable avenue that we can easily channel any good things we have to say through, then I'm all for it. That being said, I'm also reminded of the dev showcase channel - Initially, I saw it as a way to see whatever devs were working on and give them praise for their effort and hard work, but from what I can see, people seemed to have been mostly using it to be somewhat disparaging-ish and just ask when Site 9 is. Things can always be misused for unintended purposes
+Support

 

[Zen]

I agree. A lot of what I've been seeing about the issues of Staff is that it's a lot easier to be negative and funnel that negativity in a way that is disheartening, than it is to give positive feedback.

It may not look it, but I do actually have a lot of good things to say, but not only did I never really had the time, but I always find myself so... Not so much hesitant, but more along the lines of paralysed, in terms of getting it done, plus my own additional circumstances. I had originally intended to start a regular review thread in SCP Discussion saying as much, but I never found myself confident enough to put the effort in It's unfortunately a lot easier to be negatively critical, than it is to be positive.

If there's a reasonable avenue that we can easily channel any good things we have to say through, then I'm all for it. That being said, I'm also reminded of the dev showcase channel - Initially, I saw it as a way to see whatever devs were working on and give them praise for their effort and hard work, but from what I can see, people seemed to have been mostly using it to be somewhat disparaging-ish and just ask when Site 9 is. Things can always be misused for unintended purposes
+Support

Yeah. I've definitely fallen prey to doing that myself, which is why I've been thinking about it recently. I think in the past I've somewhat given the impression that I hate all the server content and the staff and CT and whatever else, when really my intentions were just to criticise. Part of that impression came from me being a bit rude about it in the past, but I think it also came from just how often I gave negative feedback and criticism, whereas I pretty much never gave any positive feedback. I think it also somewhat affected my own views, because I was giving negative feedback so often that it just began to feel frustrating and that there were so many issues and whatever that continued to exist. Those issues were/are there, it's just that I wasn't really appreciating the things I do like about the server and it just made things feel gradually more frustrating.