XP Grants tracking system

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Jana Haren
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Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 11:18 am

XP Grants tracking system

Post by Jana Haren »

The RPMod section of our website already allows us to track XP grants in a different way than the traditional "check all XP grant posts in a person's journal".

Specifically, I'm referring to RPMod section > Characters > Click on the blue "info" button that corresponds to the character we want to check > scroll down to the "Activity" section.
I think login is required in order to view XP grants, but basically what the page shows is this:
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In this page, the list of XP grants is sadly alternated with other messages, mainly force template changes, but as you can see each XP grant is detailed with a comment and the date&time in which the XP was given.

So my idea is simple: if a clean list of XP grants could be generated in a similar fashion to the one shown up here, it may prove an easier and more reliable way to track XP grants than the old "journal XP grant posts".

Let me list the downsides of tracking XP grants via Journal posts:
  • Huge amount of OOC posts in personal journals (often the majority of posts in journals are just XP grants)
  • Time consuming for mentors, especially after classes, when one has to copy paste the message on each student who attended the class
  • Increases the size of journals, making it hard to track older personal entries
  • Makes it difficult to verify correct XP grants
  • Opens to the possibility of mistakes correlated to manual posting

I'd like to underline that generating an easily accessible automatically compiled list of XP grants, similar to the one we already have, but with the edits I suggested and with a more accessible location, wouldn't prevent any master from posting a comment or an observation in a student's personal journal. On the other hand, such entries would gain more value, since they wouldn't be as common as "yet another Xp granting post".


However, there is an issue: "XP grants pending approval".

In order to completely avoid OOC XP granting posts, we'd pending XP messages to be shown in the automatic generated XP granting list, either by editing the /rpgivexp command, adding another field that adds the condition "Pending approval", or allowing masters to add it as a note on the same list from wherever the list is shown.

In either case, this XP grants list would require a more accessible location than the one it currently holds, in my opinion, and should ultimately replace the journal XP grant posts.
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Sirius Invictus
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Re: XP Grants tracking system

Post by Sirius Invictus »

Realizing full well that this would help keep things clean and tidy, and realizing that since I am but a student, I know not the pain of having to write each and every single person a different message or track down a person's XP attaining history, I disagree with the idea.

However, let me explain what I mean. It had been mentioned time and again, that this is an ideal solution since the majority of the posts regarding lessons are of a semi OOC nature. Mainly a plain almost default text to fill the blank space above the words ((1 XP : Recommended)). To this I answer, again knowing full well that in the future the case might be quite different, that they don't need to be OOC. Time was spent IC for several things to be done. A mentor had the chance to see the person, that he assigns XP to, perform, think, interact or apply the teachings. There are a lot of things to comment on someone's approach rather than an automated message.

Also, even if the messages do indeed stay 'automated' and of OOC nature (to justify a simple XP grant, they provide huge immersion when one looks into their journal. For better or worse, our journal is a place that we ourselves maintain and others visit sporadically. It should provide easy navigation mainly for us, not for others. And having said that, I think everyone knows what goes on in their journal. In which pages to search, before or after which entries and so on and so forth. It also paints a full pictures of the students themselves. When one is going ahead to write a new entry and the last 10 entries are simply messages from mentors regarding classes, it paints the mental picture that that person has either focused on a specific goal or is probably fed up with the Journal itself or anything really. Depends on the entry that will follow after all that.

To continue however on the OOC nature of the messages, I stress again that they do not need to be just there to provide a text for the XP grant. A proper Journal entry made from a mentor should be able to paint a picture on the student's approach to a certain lesson, class, simulation or mission. Either via words directly from the mentor to the student:

e.g.

"Good job on the class today. I noticed you were quite nervous and competitive, but as you saw there was no point in feeling like that. There are always going to be people worse than us and people better than us. However here, we learn from one another. He help each other up instead of trying to surpass our peers. You ended up performing admirably. But what's even more admirable, was the fact that you assisted your fellow classmates. That's what's more important at the end of the day"

(Ultra crude example, but to make a point)

Of course it's tiring when one does a different a personalized entry for each and every single person that attended; I don't argue that. Supposedly it's tiring even if the entry is 99/100 the same, with only the names changing. But I think it's a 'duty' of the mentor, to aim towards a personalized entry. Even if the 'text' changing is the bottom paragraph of an otherwise mass copied and pasted text. And again, even if they were not personalized, they serve as a reminder of what was done and when it was done. Otherwise we would have to go and compare dates of XP grants and descriptions of said lessons, to dates that we uploaded entries ourselves.

However, if a clear and concise list does aid the Mentor body in some way, then I suggest the RPmod section of the website keeps a list 'with' and 'without' the Force Template changes themselves. Cause some people even turn off jump or lower a specific power for RP reasons, and those changes are saved too, and that indeed makes the list seem chaotic. So a version of that list that doesn't display any and all template changes except XP grants, I think would be an ideal solution.

However, once more, I am no Mentor. I simply think that, (and if I understood correctly) getting rid of the Mentor oriented journal entries in the students' Journals, we throw away a chance at very beautiful RP and interactions. Then again, as it is, with the copied and pasted texts, in my eyes, that chance is wasted. Things that could be otherwise noted and commented upon, are simply forgotten under the layers of the text that simply justifies the XP grant.

For what it's worth, I never had any trouble navigating though my journal. If anything, lesson entries helped in realizing before or after which events things happened. Had I had known before certain events and what I took up learning after certain events. It helps paint a complete mental picture of what my character is. And again, I doubt anyone has a problem navigating through their own posts. And the Journal is emphasized, time and again, to be mainly for our own sake, for the development of our character and for noting down things that will be useful in the future.

So, ultimately, it's in our hands to make this messages not spam but to actually provide content through them. Give them thought and indeed devote time even after a lesson is done to comment on one's approach or thoughts in a way that provides interesting interaction generates even a small amount of content.

And the reason I am stressing all this, even though it was mentioned in the above post that this suggestion isn't aiming to abolish the 'posts' as a whole; is that I can easily see if another way is found for this process, the mentor posts being forgotten. It's very likely that people would rely in that new way only and the only entries from mentors, would be the entries towards their own apprentices.
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|| Name: Sirius Invictus || Species: Human || Homeworld: Vlemoth Port || Birth: 360.09 ABY || Initiation: 372.10 ABY || || Apprenticed: 373.09 ABY || Knighted: 384.30 ABY || Mastered: 410.13 ABY || Mentor: Delmi N'jork || Apprentices: Kiara O'ren, Rukia, Vale Sutherblaze ||
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