Many changes needed

I preferred it when AGMs had a much more defined role. I can't tell what departments Myke looks after for example, or who takes care of news etc. There seems to be a radical shift of the role of staff AGM. I remember the staff AGM was the right hand man, defending and defining HX policies with the GM. It would be great to have a more vocal presence from people like that. To me it seems like atm some people are sticking around simply to stick around, and not because they genuinely have loads of ideas, want HX to improve or enjoy their jobs.

One thing people shouldn't do is that.

groggy 5am post: (will reply properly when I have woken up a bit)

V7 will be nice when it comes, but I don't think we should pin everything on it being a huge success or helping to improve Habbox just yet. I think there are far more current issues that could be resolved and improved and work needs to go into those. The same thing happened with V6 and I can't say it improved that much overall really in the end, sure it was a nice refreshing change, but it's not going to bring in stacks of new members.

Some of Habbox's problems can be blamed on Habbo's decline and Habbo introducing things conflicting with Habbox which has made us suffer. Fansites don't have the same presence on the client that they used to at all. I agree completely with Mike- people used to know the Habbox name for its rare values and stuff, always used to see it being advertised around the hotel, and now we can barely mention it without getting a ban haha.


In regards of AGM's, I think some of the roles have changed dramatically over the last year. The AGM Staff role seems to have been more laid back, sure enough adding permissions and occasionally telling a staff member off is okay, but I just feel like more could be done in terms of engaging with staff, getting to know staff, organising staff events to improve morale and promote team work and working closer with the GM and helping them with duties too and making their presence more known. Community wise I think it would be nice if Mike did a normal event occasionally, or went on the radio occasionally and stuff like that to just chip in and get involved with staff and stuff. I know there are other important things to do too but sometimes getting the basics right too can work wonders. Its all about creating a known AGM team on Habbo with people recognising the 'big 3' and them showing a united front working as a team. Barely see the three of them together these days. :P

One thing Matt told me which did concern me, but Im not too sure on was that AGMs dont give reports to managers/departments anymore or have much involvement in that. Sure giving managers lots of freedom is a good idea, but it is also important that a 2nd opinion from an AGM is gained sometimes and that things are constantly checked. Writing reports for community managers was my way of clarifying between us what was going on, what needed improving and to set some targets to ensure things moved up. It usually provided a nice discussion and stuff. Same with having regular chats with managers, making sure they are on top of things and discussing any ideas they may have and working with these. This enabled for cross-department communication too. Whilst managers meetings were a pain (with some being silly and misbehaving occasionally), I personally found them quite good for bonding with other managers, finding out quite interesting things and generally it was good team work, with people chipping in little ideas that perhaps nobody had thought about.

Really there has just been a big change to the dynamics of how people work, the defination of some of the roles, and there are quite a few staff who just lack the passion that some previous staff have had in making Habbox do well and putting time and effort into doing so. Of course people will have work and will need to prioritise, but I believe if you are going to pledge to give up time to make something a success then its not fair on everyone else if that isnt being done to a set standard, it just lets other people down and ends up screwing things up. Quite often it boils down to managers/AGMs not setting the required standards in the first place or monitoring effectively, but also quite often its just that some staff take the biscuit and just think its okay to not do much and get a free ride.

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Originally Posted by Richie

lethal gfx skills coming through +*+*+

http://i.imgur.com/k3qwi.png


obviously i was just messing around but you could do something like this maybe instead of having a massive dead page (not sure if the snippets are the same) just an idea

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I like your skills.

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Originally Posted by Grig

I preferred it when AGMs had a much more defined role. I can't tell what departments Myke looks after for example, or who takes care of news etc. There seems to be a radical shift of the role of staff AGM. I remember the staff AGM was the right hand man, defending and defining HX policies with the GM. It would be great to have a more vocal presence from people like that. To me it seems like atm some people are sticking around simply to stick around, and not because they genuinely have loads of ideas, want HX to improve or enjoy their jobs.

One thing people shouldn't do is that.

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I liked it better when it was that as well but at the time of when Danube was around and Department Managers not being a fan of him they wanted it all changing so we didn't actually cover/focus on specific departments. It's something that would be good to bring back in a way but still let the managers have the freedom to do what they want to do with the departments. I have been sent a PM which mentions the idea of bring that back and making it clear to everyone who does what in terms of covering what departments and so on. I'll share it with the others later on today to get their thoughts on the idea.

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Originally Posted by Bolt660

One thing Matt told me which did concern me, but Im not too sure on was that AGMs dont give reports to managers/departments anymore or have much involvement in that. Sure giving managers lots of freedom is a good idea, but it is also important that a 2nd opinion from an AGM is gained sometimes and that things are constantly checked. Writing reports for community managers was my way of clarifying between us what was going on, what needed improving and to set some targets to ensure things moved up. It usually provided a nice discussion and stuff. Same with having regular chats with managers, making sure they are on top of things and discussing any ideas they may have and working with these. This enabled for cross-department communication too. Whilst managers meetings were a pain (with some being silly and misbehaving occasionally), I personally found them quite good for bonding with other managers, finding out quite interesting things and generally it was good team work, with people chipping in little ideas that perhaps nobody had thought about.

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I've taken most of your post out, hope you don't mind. Not that I didn't read it just I wanted to reply to the part you mention my name and reports. While that is true I did mention earlier on this month that if there was improvements needed for that specific department then you should expect some kind of a report from a member of General Management that would list or go into depth about these changes and what needs to be done.

Martin, you just want to see my Doctor Who show become a permanent feature of Habbox ;)

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Originally Posted by Richie

Which is understandable but what I don't understand is, the release date was in like august or something? so surely if it was that long ago it was close enough to finish, so I'm a tad bit confused :P Can we at least take down the habboxlive website and have a basic request / radio player with no content until the main website is completed, everything has been out of date for so long now which makes the website look completely dead and when you're listening / browsing the website it makes the radio seem worse than it actually is, i don't think that even makes sense but I can't explain it properly. A small basic page with a player / request form with frank confused saying 'something new is coming soon...' is much better than a website that looks years old, at least those who don't use the forum will know things will be changing and might decide to stick around. That was designed when myke was the graphics manager, thats a long long time ago now lol.
@xxMATTGxx;

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Have you not been looking at HabboxLive.com recently? It's been updated a substantial amount. Yes it still needs work but I updated it a small amount so that it least it looks like we care about the website instead of it being tossed aside. My main focus is and always will be the DJs and their listeners but I did note that the website was VERY outdated and its a work in progress. Nevertheless if v7 isn't here by Christmas. Expect a Christmas layout on HabboxLive

That "release date" given for V7 back in August was an internal deadline that we as site coders were trying to work to. However, things such as Zuth releasing the original layout meant a new one had to be designed and completely reintegrated and then on the actual release date I was called in to cover some flights and beings as I have the main access to the development site it meant it would be hard to get a release out.

On top of this, we faced major issues with staff access as V6 was missing a lot of features that staff required and also a lot of the original features don't work properly. I recently opted for the decision to completely recode all the staff panels hence the delayed release time. I have now got @Chippiewill; lending a hand with the coding so this should speed up the process slightly.

In terms of release date, who knows... I would say the site its self is probably about 95% complete. All that is left to do now is finish recoding the staff panel system.

As it was you tryna get out of them by getting dept managers to write their own that put a halt to reports it is quite funny seeing you advocate them now Martin. I suppose it's easier to be in favour of them when you don't have to write them. :P
Matt's recently brought in a new policy regarding AGM reports. I think the downside to them is that they often get repetitive. I don't think the roles have changed much. The focus has just shifted to a new medium. There was a time when an AGM checking up on you was a quick PM to see how you're doing but most communication has always been done in things like MSN conversations. I am always suggesting things for managers for their department. This idea that AGMs now just give total freedom to managers is a myth, we still hold them to account if things are going off course.

Meetings were pointless.

Mike looks after Events, HxL, Comps, RV and Help Desk.
MattG looks after News, Graphics, Content and Forum.
Myke doesn't look after any specifically but can do if he sees fit.
That's what I was told, maybe bring back AGM Content?

It's amusing Habbox thinks it's a real business in need of meetings and AGM reports. Such a formal approach to being a fan site seems really damaging and sort of diverts attention away from what is actually important - current users, the quality of the site and new users. It explains why old staff didn't find Habbox a pleasing experience, as it's made what is essentially a project into a wannabe conglomerate.

It might explain why Habbox.com is a total mess as far as content goes and why no-one seems to care about the Habbox Wiki other than the content designers - the Wiki does seem like a wasteful project that seems more pleasing to create than to actually view. Judging by the lackluster comments about the Wiki, there isn't and wasn't a demand for a Habbo Wiki, although the poor choice of name might be the reason (it does seem like a Wiki about Habbox as far as the name goes)...

Wasn't the Wiki even created when Habbo was pulling out of fan sites? It seems a poor decision to ever create it based on that alone. It would of been good in 2004, but certainly not now.

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Originally Posted by Samanfa

Mike looks after Events, HxL, Comps, RV and Help Desk.
MattG looks after News, Graphics, Content and Forum.
Myke doesn't look after any specifically but can do if he sees fit.
That's what I was told, maybe bring back AGM Content?

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Or just get rid of AGMs and replace them with the titles "Content Manager", "Community Manager", "General Manager" etc. They're not AGMs, another thing which never made sense with Habbox as it over-complicates a simple hierarchy structure by adding worthless titles. Those who currently hold the x,y,z Manager titles could be reduced to "Assistant xyx Manager" or simply "Head Content Designer", for example, as that's all they boil down to.

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Originally Posted by GommeInc

It's amusing Habbox thinks it's a real business in need of meetings and AGM reports. Such a formal approach to being a fan site seems really damaging and sort of diverts attention away from what is actually important - current users, the quality of the site and new users. It explains why old staff didn't find Habbox a pleasing experience, as it's made what is essentially a project into a wannabe conglomerate.

It might explain why Habbox.com is a total mess as far as content goes and why no-one seems to care about the Habbox Wiki other than the content designers - the Wiki does seem like a wasteful project that seems more pleasing to create than to actually view. Judging by the lackluster comments about the Wiki, there isn't and wasn't a demand for a Habbo Wiki, although the poor choice of name might be the reason (it does seem like a Wiki about Habbox as far as the name goes)...

Wasn't the Wiki even created when Habbo was pulling out of fan sites? It seems a poor decision to ever create it based on that alone. It would of been good in 2004, but certainly not now.


Or just get rid of AGMs and replace them with the titles "Content Manager", "Community Manager", "General Manager" etc. They're not AGMs, another thing which never made sense with Habbox as it over-complicates a simple hierarchy structure by adding worthless titles. Those who currently hold the x,y,z Manager titles could be reduced to "Assistant xyx Manager" or simply "Head Content Designer", for example, as that's all they boil down to.

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Habbox don't do meetings and haven't for a long long time, departments do reports to let their staff know how their performance is doing which they have always wanted and liked. In terms of AGM reports - That's only us suggesting improvements and what the department can do if a department is having a bad time. Otherwise it's mainly mentioned to them straight away via PM or a MSN chat like Mike has said.

The Wiki was created because Jin saw a need for one when he was looking at other wiki's and seen the quality of them. He then suggested the idea of HabboxWiki/HabboWiki and then it all started from there. You may not use it but it isn't a waste and offers a lot of information to people who need it.

Also ChippieWill's post:

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Originally Posted by Chippiewill

I'd like to add to this point because it's so freaking crucial, I don't think that Habbox Wiki was every going to grab our own userbase and get them active in it. What will happen, I hope, is the same as Wikipedia. Our search engine rankings are slowly increasing and our self-linking is also improving, as this happens when people start to search for Habbo related stuff like say the Ochre Ice Cream maker Habboxwiki will be a nice high, or even top, listing with the Habbox name displayed proudly. Hopefully bringing in some new players interested in getting an edge.

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Or just get rid of AGMs and replace them with the titles "Content Manager", "Community Manager", "General Manager" etc. They're not AGMs, another thing which never made sense with Habbox as it over-complicates a simple hierarchy structure by adding worthless titles. Those who currently hold the x,y,z Manager titles could be reduced to "Assistant xyx Manager" or simply "Head Content Designer", for example, as that's all they boil down to.

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Titles are just titles at the end of the day. Doesn't mean they are worthless or anything like that. I suppose when you suggest changes like "Community Manager" that would be managing all community departments? So then for example the Events Manager will then become the Assistant Events Manager?

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Originally Posted by xxMATTGxx

I like your skills.

Martin, you just want to see my Doctor Who show become a permanent feature of Habbox ;)

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I think it is really nice when you do shows and stuff because a lot of members, especially new ones and stuff who have heard your name mentioned in the helpdesk etc, love to see GM getting stuck in and its a good way of doing so and setting an example etc.

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Originally Posted by Inseriousity.

As it was you tryna get out of them by getting dept managers to write their own that put a halt to reports it is quite funny seeing you advocate them now Martin. I suppose it's easier to be in favour of them when you don't have to write them. :P
Matt's recently brought in a new policy regarding AGM reports. I think the downside to them is that they often get repetitive. I don't think the roles have changed much. The focus has just shifted to a new medium. There was a time when an AGM checking up on you was a quick PM to see how you're doing but most communication has always been done in things like MSN conversations. I am always suggesting things for managers for their department. This idea that AGMs now just give total freedom to managers is a myth, we still hold them to account if things are going off course.

Meetings were pointless.

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it was never a case of trying to get out of them, I guess I saw the same point as you that there isnt always that much to say in certain departments, I always struggled with departments like competitions who were always doing so well with not really that much that could be changed or improved. I don't think you understood my reasoning for them at the time, it was just made as a change to listen to them more rather than me banging on about the same old stuff, it worked well in some departments, however im pretty sure things reverted back to normal not long after. Personally I got a lot out of them, we set up targets and strategies to improve and in some cases just had a good natter which was nice. I know you think I just wanted to get out of them and/or was lazy but I really did try my hardest to work with people and muck in rather than just sit above them and observe and I guess that can either be a good thing or a bad thing

I'm not totally sure, but I'd say I probably wrote the most reports during that period than anyone and probably had the most to do. I didn't miss that many though and did try my hardest to get them done on time as per the policy set by the GM at the time. The fact is something has changed communication wise. Yes its always done on msn etc, but is it being done enough, is there a close enough bond with general management like there used to be. I find it worrying when certain department managers find it hard to talk to their own agm and instead go looking to others for help on basic department things and queries they have that could easily have been directed elsewhere.

I think there was a mixed opinion on meetings at the time, they were never really that formal, more like a big group chat and I guess I just enjoyed them because I found it interesting to hear what other departments are doing and stuff. I guess we could say that the weekly briefing which managers are forced to do each week has kind of taken over that and is the new way of finding out what people are doing minus the chat/getting to know each other more/fun bit. Can totally see Gomme's idea that its become far too serious in some cases and like a workplace rather than a fansite, but the overall morale of staff seemed much better back then, managers had a firm grip on departments and staff werent going above them moaning etc because things havent been done.

Maybe Myke can get staff working together more and push the emphysis that team work really does work. I would love there to be staff challenges again providing they are run properly, an incentive for staff to mix with others, get to know other departments and how things work more, reignite a passion for making Habbox stand out from the rest and how wonderful it can be. Far too much moaning these days from a lot of people when really it should be more fun, if we enjoy it I think the members will more too and get more involved.

The idea you have had for engaging a new userbase to Habbox sounds really good and you are totally right in that something unique and exciting needs to be introduced that other fansites can't offer. If 'ThisHabbo' can get 60+ listeners each day easily and be massively ahead of us in that way, then I don't see why we shouldnt be able to match that, we were top at one point and had a far bigger userbase. Working together is the key and ensuring staff members don't take the piss by being away all the time or barely online enough to contribute enough.