Questions for the Candidates - Accessibility of Club Resources & Information

Posted July 18, 2020, 3:17 p.m. by Fleet Captain Jerome Davis (Presidential Candidate) (Jerome Davis)

Posted by Jamie Moore in Questions for the Candidates - Accessibility of Club Resources & Information
A question to all… (I apologise if this has been touched on elsewhere, I confess to not having read every post in the ES)

In my short time here I have found on multiple occasions that information regarding club rules, procedures etc. have been difficult to locate on the site, sometimes even residing in edict posts on the command ship from months or years ago. While each time I personally have had an issue with this the information I have been looking for has been explained or linked to by some wonderful member in the Discord ( :) ) this isn’t ideal, especially for members who don’t use that platform so may not receive such immediate responses.

Do any of the candidates have ideas or proposals to improve the way in which club information is catalogued, especially in a fashion more easily navigated by new members trying to find their feet?

I believe a related issue extends to the club’s courses. While they are great to have and well written, they are on the whole very much… written. STF may not be quite a ‘turn off brain’ hobby but it nonetheless is something I at least turn to for fun. To varying degrees, however, the course ‘textbooks’ tend to consist of walls of text. While interesting, I’ve found that this has the effect of discouraging getting stuck in to the courses or at least leading to a resigned: “sigh, I’ll come back to this some other time”. I know I’m not the only one to feel this way. I appreciate that the courses need to be thorough and are very much on top of the main RP side of the club. Of course it is important that the quality of the courses themselves isn’t diminished but it is also surely a positive to encourage as many new members as possible to engage with these resources which others have taken and continue to take their time to create and run.

A similar question on the courses then: do candidates have any intention of encouraging a review of these pages to make them less intimidating and more engaging?

-Jamie Moore

Hi Jamie,
While not one of our primary platform points, James & I recognize the struggle of new members finding information because we too suffer from the same struggles!

In short, I would like to see a KnowledgeBase link that would be at the top of every page that would take members to a more… functional… database of club knowledge. Question about becoming a Security Officer and what the job entails, one might click on the “So you want to be a Security Officer?” tab which would open a three to four sentence overview of the topic. Then, below that, in a Starship Troopers-Style “Would you like to know more?” Section… a member would be presented links that would take them further down the rabbit hole of the topic.

Would this take time to implement, absolutely. In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t already. KnowledgeBase platforms are used by organizations great and small, so having one here just makes sense.

I would be happy to discuss this more with you if this sounds like a solution you feel might be helpful.

Thanks for a great question,
Jerome

Davis/Sinclair 2020

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