So... about that kiss...

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

... Right, wrong comm. On to business:

130 muns and over 4800 posts later, we would like to thank you for making this the most successful, least bloody HMD ever.

Now that everyone has had a chance to see this alternate version of HMD in play, we'd like your opinions on it. Did it work for you? Was it too nice? Were you able to get your crit across through questions? Do you want it changed back, other changes, whatever?

[Poll #1195389]

Please give us your thoughts in comments if you find that the suggestion box isn't enough for you. If you don't give us your suggestions, your response will default to a straight yes or straight no when we consolidate the results.

Comments

[haleysings.livejournal.com]

I do worry that some of the comments were too nice, but I think most of what I got was genuine. I did have someone ask an anon question on one of my crit posts, but they were very very polite and asked a valid question (which pointed out an obvious goof on my part, and something I was REALLY glad someone asked about) so...I'm glad the option to point people to the crit posts was there.

I think the new way will work, as long as people who are too nervous about saying anything un-anon will remember that crit posts are there.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we can include a template in the next one, name, characters played, journals, link to crit post, anons allowed there y/n. That sort of thing. Sort of the way we set up templates on the Taken Post, etc.

[haleysings.livejournal.com]

^^ I think that's a great idea!

[tehpuck.livejournal.com]

...this is me seconding the great idea, if you guys keep hmd as it currently is.

[knightbalanced.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the rule/suggestion to ask people questions, even if I got very few. I tried to ask some when I left crit, and I felt it was very helpful to myself and hopefully everyone else.

I feel like this was an excellent "training wheels" exercise. People were well behaved, if maybe a little overly nice (I saw very little crit, to be honest). I'd love to see next HMD with this kind of behavior expected - polite, questions vs straight crit - but with anon enabled again. I think a big reason why there was as little crit as there was, is because plenty of people don't want awkwardness within crews or friends. Anon alleviates that. If everyone stays as civil as they've proven themselves to be able to be, I don't think it should be a problem.

Overall I did enjoy this HMD and think you guys did a great job.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

Having read almost all of the 4800+ posts, I would have to say that I saw crit, I saw questions that took the functional place of crit, and I know that other people received crit outside of the HMD in their personal crit posts. That said, I'm all in favor of implementing whatever the majority of the comm prefers.

[knightbalanced.livejournal.com]

I read a lot, too! But I can see how opinions would differ, I don't think I read everything (that's a lot D:), and I didn't go to many peoples anon crit posts, if any at all. I'm interested to see what everyone prefers, because I'll keep participating regardless.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

My inbox is still begging for mercy thanks to stalking the post as a whole. XD

I'm interested as well. I'm always frankly fascinated by each poll and how things are going to shake down.

[gaulish.livejournal.com]

The pros were? I haven't seen one nasty comment yet on HMD. I think that encouraged friendliness, amongst other muns, which is good. Not only that, positive renforcement, for those who might be possibly more meek muns? Wonderful. Not only that, anon was optional, people could link to personal constructive criticism posts, which was a great idea. That to me, was a form of compromise. In case you forgot (lol me D:) or were just too nervous for anon crit, it was a great way to not only introduce HMD, but a great training exercise, as Luke-mun put it. If you put a template for person concrit or the like, I think that would be wonderful.

I think the only con I can think of is either people were too nervous to give actual constructive criticism, or that they just bit their tongue entirely. While it's good to see that wonderfully friendly and open, there also needs to be a friendly reminder you can give constructive criticism WITH being friendly.

All and all? I liked this HMD. I actually GOT good constructive criticism.

Encourage that when you're giving constructive criticism? It's supposed to help you grow. People seem to forget the constructive part of this. If you introduce the same rules as before, I think it'll run smoothly. I also really, REALLY did like when people actually asked questions, to clarify things, if they were going to give concrit.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's hard to define and/or give constructive criticism sometimes, when it's a matter of perception both from the giver and the receiver. It's good to emphasize both for the giver and the receiver that the intent is constructive.

[breakerofchains.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And I think this is a good idea, keep both options open to whomever does it again. And let it be a known example that there is a guidline of constructive criticism. It's all about encouragement of growth.

[luna-alchemy.livejournal.com]

I really wanted some more critics to the thread. I did love it, but mostly everyone said they didn't know my canons so couldn't say anything but how cute they thought Noki and Cheza are. Not sure how to fix that one, though.

[hitachiin]

I actually got a bit of crit this time around, AND I LIKED IT! I also absolutely loved the whole essay type of responses/reasoning/etc. I had FUN typing up long explanations and whatnot for other people.

I guess that's pretty much it~

[eternalnic.livejournal.com]

I'd like to suggest the possibility of more than 1 HMD thread next time? This one started breaking people's browsers, which is problematic.

[crone-mod.livejournal.com]

LOL, I suggested that in our "let's review this post before I post it" post among the mods earlier today. I think if the game continues to grow, you can expect something along those lines.

[eternalnic.livejournal.com]

I do think that, for the most part, people were overly nice. There was some criticism, true, but the majority of the posts were...overly sweet.

I think it was a great turn out, both in critics and in people putting up pups, but it felt as though people were really only coming out to say, "you're doing a great job" except in a select few cases.

[bellsandleather.livejournal.com]

Seconding this, too. Opera, IE and Firefox all dragged their heels at displaying it when it hit the 3000 comment mark.

[breakerofchains.livejournal.com]

I WASN'T ALONE!

[the-bastard-ds.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with Lady-mun. It was nice to compliment people and stuff.. but it was a little TOO sweet. And not many people seem to like using the personal crit threads. Atleast not that I can tell. XD;

[breakerofchains.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this might ease people out of fears of not doing personal concrit threads, as well.

[quackingly.livejournal.com]

That's kinda what I'm hoping. If people can't be anonymous on the HMD, I think they might be more likely to use the crit threads--which, since it won't be boiling for a few months until it's time for HMD, might turn out to work in everyone being more civil with each other. I'm hoping so, anyway.

[breakerofchains.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping so too. And maybe it shows a lesson that no one is going, to put it rather bluntly, put up with bullshit.

[bellsandleather.livejournal.com]

I think it went pretty well, all things considered! Constructive criticism is hard to make, I know... Which brings me to my suggestion;

I'd like to go on record as thinking bringing Anon back is a good idea. I didn't get any commentary on my own characters as even vaguely hey-why-don't-you-fix-____, and although I think of myself as fairly approachable, I noticed that was the case for a lot of people, and not having it made me feel more hesitant to raise some points, as well.

[gorogoro.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to add for when things get counted up that I voted for "No, change it back to the old way." only because I would like to have anon back as well.

[repairedbywebs.livejournal.com]

Frankly - I didn't mind the new way. I got some nice, well-structured feedback in my threads and I didn't find any of it offensive. I also read a lot of good feedback on other threads, despite what some people's opinions are.

I thought it was a good exercise, and I second the request for more than one HMD thread next time, since it was...well, so massive this time.

[talia-of-eragon.livejournal.com]

I think I'm one of the few people whose browser DIDN'T break for HMD XD

However, reiterating what a few other people have said above, more than one thread probably would make sense. I'm not sure if this would work or not, but if the mods still try to keep that master list of players/pups current (and I'm sure you do because you guys just rock), perhaps splitting the player's nick names up alphabetically? (i.e. players A-M, thread 1, players N-Z thread 2).

Of course I'm sure that could go totally FUBAR, but hey, a suggestion is a suggestion, ne?

[sketdanchou.livejournal.com]

I agree with the others who want the return of anon commenting but also understand that there are others more hesitant on this point. I have a (very!) tentative suggestion. Since people are suggesting that we make more than one post for HMD anyway perhaps we could have one post with anon commenting enabled and another with it turned off? There are probably plenty of cons with this suggestion that I haven't thought of but I just wanted to throw it out here for discussion?