Posted by Sidney Parker in A thought on ‘fleet identity’

Posted by Vice Admiral Thomas (TECH) in A thought on ‘fleet identity’

Posted by Commodore Steven Sigle (FComm, Meridian Fleet) in A thought on ‘fleet identity’
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
As a newish (sorta) member I have begun reading some of the various splinters and branches of the discussion regarding fleet commanders and their roles.

So, using the form suggested, there is a small suggestion I would like to make.

Problem: There are often references made to the various fleets having their own identity, character and history and so on which to myself is simply not visible and mainly appears to live in the memory of longer term members than myself.

I personally like the idea of each fleet having a visible and tangible character but I believe part of problem in making this more apparent lies in the way the site is navigated.

I may well be the only member that does this but I suspect this is not the case. I access the site almost exclusively via smartphone. To navigate between content (my ships) I press the ‘fleets’ tab which gives me a drop down list of the fleets. From this I select the fleet my ship is in, presenting a further drop down list of ship names, from which I select my ship of choice.

Thus, until very recently I was unaware that each fleet even has it’s own page, as navigating via my smartphone bypasses this automatically. Thus to me, visually, a fleet is basically a sub menu header used to group ships and nothing more.

Suggestion: If reviving ‘fleet culture’ and individual character, history, etc is considered important, I would suggest the club modify how the site is navigated via smartphone to a model where selecting a fleet takes you directly to the home page for that fleet rather than simply a drop down menu of ships. Individual access to each ship can then be presented on that page alongside interesting information such as fleet history, vacancies, articles on personalities, ships, etc.

Cons: would slow navigation of the site.

Pros: would increase visibility of the fleet as an entity in it’s own right.

Just my two pennies worth, from the point of view of a newish/inexperienced member with only basic techie knowledge :)

• Ffi

I like the thinking process and perspective that went into this analysis and idea. Sometimes for us old members we forget that were not operating in a desktop world anymore. Worth discussing.

Sidney

The navigation process is the same if you’re on desktops as well, so it’s not just a smartphone thing.

This is a really, really easy change to make if people want it. Do people want it?

Joe

I dont know about anyone else but i think this is a brilliant idea, thank you for sharing it.

Cale

I kinda like the idea of being able to quickly just go to my ship. However, I’m one of the older members here, so fleet identity is something I’ve “grown up” learning.

I really like the idea of fleet identities! So with that being said, I’m definitely willing to trade my ‘ease of access’ for something to remind us of our fleets. It definitely makes sense, and personally, would like it to happen.

:)

-The neighborhood Tiger

Great idea Ffion, thanks for sharing, it’s great to hear from newer members too :) I think way back (and my memory may be failing me in my rapidly advancing years!) I think this is how we used to operate many years ago that you had to go via the fleet page and I think it would definitely help to build on the fleet identity more. I think it’s a great idea :)

Another thought that occurs is for GMs to use the fleet bases more. When I am starting a sim, I tend to just think up a random starbase/admiral etc to kick off but as each fleet has a starbase or outpost as their HQ, we could possibly look at developing these a bit more, perhaps having a set command crew etc? That way everyone within the fleet gets to know the fleet locations & staff etc more? Thoughts?

Ems

I dont know about most GMS but for me in foremosts I have been regularly using Starbase 243 as our home base for sims starting on the ark angel though i’d be open for a set NPC Crew to use in sims.

Robert Archer

Thanks Ffion for contributing the idea!

If we’re going to do it, I’d want to know there’s some buy-in from the FComms that there will be something that occassionally gets updated on the Fleet MOTD’s. To me it appears they don’t really change. No one other than myself has made a post on any of the fleet boards in the last year. If these are pages and boards that I’m not going to miss anything if I click on them once or twice a year, then I’d rather have the faster navigation and click on the fleet pages when I want to.

Adam

It would be kool to have like an established NPC crew on the star-bases to use in sims. I’m not a GM and I’d find that interesting, like slightly more immersive. Could we maybe out a copy of the fleet report in them? The newsletter maybe? Or like if there’s discussion going on in command like there is now, a summary of it so people who don’t want to necessarily comment in command could do so there and the fcomm could then bring anything to the attention of exec or repost it here or something?

Cale

I mean honestly that is up to the FCOMM and in reality the crew could do it too. I haven’t really used mine in awhile but I used to try and do a winter fleet sim. Nothing major but we had sort of an alt sim on the fleet anyone could join on. They could dock and have winter side sims when the main ships get a little dormant. It was a way of bringing the crews together when you may loose half your posting power due to the holidays.

~Steven

Never thought of doing a winter sim! That would make sense and if you keep it a bit loose, people can come and go. keeps idea for later reference

-Tony

Only done it a handful of time, and I am thinking of trying to recreate it. Past two seasons been busy for me but it’s a simple concept, we even made some weird alt dimension portal for the Chernov to show up. It’s all just silly winter themed stuff no real GM needed, people can just do whatever they want and if the FCOMM/AFCOMM want they can have a semi sim to it but it was mainly just meant to get members who may not have people to post with a place to post and hang out while others are gone. I always enjoyed doing this when I was able to get it in Fleet 5.

~Steven

I have no feelings on this, but I do want to pipe in to say that this method of navigation was specifically discussed several times both in public and in private when Exodus was being worked up, and I don’t recall anyone having especially strong feelings about it back then, either. I think there was some concern that jumping directly to ships would undermine fleet identity, but the consensus was that a lot of people bookmark their ships anyway, which has the same effect.

Personally, I feel that forcing people to go to the Fleet pages is perfectly acceptable. I think its a good way for FComms to communite news and openings, especially if people seeing it. I’d be interested to know if we have analytic data on the Fleet landing pages and what their traffic is like.

Thanks,
-Thomas

Obviously I support this.

Sidney

I would definitely support the ideas of going through the Fleet page first. I will admit being one of the ones to ignore my Fleet page other then to keep it updated as I pretty much assumed no one is reading it:P Love the idea of having it a self sim environment when wanted, only question I have thinking of bylaws and whatnot, is if the SB in question would fall under any sim environment in them? I am assuming not as I seem to remember a few times that a Fleet’s base has been used for Fleet sims before.

Krys