Introduction

It's been a while since our last Herald Report, but it's been more a case of waiting on certain Wars to run their course. I've been looking at some policy and priority changes moving forward which I will detail below, as well as looking to fill some vacancies on the Herald Staff. And, of course, the grading is still ongoing!

Table of Contents

• Staff Openings
• Graphics rubric v3
• Quarterly Release Schedule

Staff Openings

Ever since Cyris stepped away from the staff earlier this year and Moro defected to the DGM's office, we've been running a bit short handed here in the Herald's office. As such, I'll be opening applications for no fewer than two Magistrate positions. I'm looking for both experienced and novice members who feel that they can help make contributions to the staff and the Brotherhood as a whole. Remember, DC office work is a great way to build your Brotherhood resume and make a DB-wide impact!

These applications will run from now until the end of site day on Saturday September 14th, 2019. Applicants should send their application via email with the subject "Magistrate Application", and send them to both myself and Xen.

Applicants should be able to meet the following qualifications::

• Basic skills in graphics manipulation software (Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, Illustrator, Corel, etc., though keep in mind that all Herald office templates are photoshop based.)
• 24-hour mail turn around
• A Telegram connection and Trello access are mandatory
• Readiness to take on some of the most challenging graphics projects in the Brotherhood (#nopressure)

These positions will be all around positions, working on everything from warbanners, robes, weapons, and report graphic requests. The specifics of each one, however, will likely be tailored to the skills and experience of the applicant.

Graphics rubric v3

One of the biggest takeaways from running the Shroud War II and grading graphics for the Great Jedi War back to back is that I don't think the upper end of the current Graphics Rubric has kept pace with the skill levels that the membership displays these days. With the five point scale as it is, there just isn't very much gradation possible between things that score even a 4 or 5 on the scale. In many cases, there are differences that simply cannot be reflected on the current scale simply because so many works can and do meet all the criteria of a 5, and yet we somehow need to pick between them. The entire point of the rubric was to try to remove the "Well, I just liked that one" aspect of graphics grading and create some level of objectivity to an inherently subjective process. The limitations of the scale, however, have often left people having to revert back to purely subjective preferences to determine final placements.

With that in mind, I'm going to be putting together a small team to examine revising the Graphics Rubric to a 10 point scale. Additionally, we will likely look to revise categories, descriptions, and scaling within the points themselves. Members of the Herald Staff past and present, former Heralds, and other members of the art community will be asked for their input, so if you are interested please feel free to contact me to let me know you're open to participating. I will likely try to get as much input as possible, but in order to prevent the process from dragging on too long it is likely that I will be keeping the team working on it directly somewhat small.

Quarterly Release Schedule

This has been something I've been examining since well before the Great Jedi War, but wanted to hold off on any announcements until the War was over. Since taking over as Herald I've overseen four separate quarterly releases that have added 28 items and 628 unique images to our robe, weapon, and accessory selectors. All of those releases have been exceedingly well received by the Brotherhood at large, and I know the staff and I both are grateful for all the positive feedback from members we have received in return.

However, of those 628 unique images, only a generous 31 of them are in use. As you might imagine, the staff does a very large amount of work on those items, and it often has felt like we're either gearing up for, working on, or decompressing from a release most of the time. I also know that it has slowed down our turnaround time on custom member items as well. From where I'm sitting, the amount of staff hours that have been devoted to the quarterly release schedule is not supported by the utility that the club as a whole is getting out of that time. It's always nice for us to be able to see all the great compliments from the members whenever those releases happen, but making us feel good as artists can't be enough. As such, moving forward we're going to be moving away from scheduled, quarterly releases and working on faster completions on custom items as well as more work for DJB projects (such as the NPC avatars from the recent GJW).

Does this mean that item releases won't be happening anymore? The answer to that is no! Moving forward, we'll still be looking to release items (likely in smaller numbers) to correspond with the release of new Star Wars materials. So, things like the release of The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker will see new items from those properties added to the selector.

This was a decision that was come to in the face of a good deal of data and with a great deal of hand wringing, but I think it is for the best. It's entirely possible that we've reached, and perhaps surpassed, "peak selector", the point where we have so many items uploaded for use that we're not seeing much return adding more. It's also entirely possible that, outside of custom skins, possession purchases have taken some of the thunder away from "dossier bling" as it were.

There’s a Form for that

• Complaints
• Herald FAQ

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