Rare Values needs reform

[Dean]

Even when V7 comes around, how do we know the department will improve?

[Pigperson]

One question I've always had with the Rare Values here is, do norms really need to be in the values list? I feel like having a value on every single furni item is the reason that there can be up to 6 month waits for updates. That's a huge task and, especially with only a few who can edit them directly, clogs up the whole system. I know that HxRV isn't just about Rares, but providing accurate values for all furni in Habbo, but for cheaper, smaller norms, why can't people just use the marketplace? For the big ticket rares like the Dino Egg, Nellies, Thrones, etc I can understand. But shouldn't those be the main focus of the value reporting? It is, after all, called Rare Values.

Just my two cents.

To be honest, I've never truly been sure why norms were introduced but I guess it was to provide a broader database. We have told staff that they should not be reporting on norms if the value is staying fairly levelled. So I do not really feel the norms hold us back.

I agree with Dan here the number of staff is very low considering the amount of new items of furniture being added. I think it was silly to have department staff limits, not sure if they are still around but i know they were still in play when i was in management. If they are, scrap them.

@Dean

This is my suggestion really. They need to get a much larger team of staff, maybe 30? and each person will be given 2-3 categories on Habbox to look after and each and every item in their categories must get atleast 1 edit each month, even if it just means pressing the save button on a rare but keeping the values and everything the same, atleast this item of furni has been looked over and people can see it's up to date. This should mean that no item on Habbox will be displaying information which is over a month old, i think that is an acceptable target. Head RVRs should have a group of maybe 10 reporters to look after to ensure all updates are being made. And by updates i don't just mean Values, they need to insure all images are working (and maybe upload all the rotation image and double clicks for each item), make sure descriptions are up to date, make sure names are correct, make sure all items are added to that section if Habbo release anymore.

Giving reporters ownership over a set number of categories will help greatly in making sure everything is up to date.

Can I firstly say, (also @-:Undertaker:-) in the past we have opened apps very often due to a lot of people resigning and a lack of applicants. So yes in an ideal world, we would love to have 30 staff but in reality we can only reach a peak of about 12.

I do like the idea of splitting up the jobs for each staff and having heads to overlook though, and this may be implemented in the role reform.

For the future we could maybe make the furni database on the site more informative with information such as: Tradable? Stackable? etc. but I'm not sure if people would find that useful.

So yeh we would love to have a lot of staff to cover everything and we may need to think about removing norms to cope with the important rares which are the ones which most people look at.

Tbh when it comes to blame, I don't really think it is down to us because we have worked with what we have and problems arise left right and centre. I really want to get more staff and atm it looks like the new Furni Editor role is a popular one although we only need a few which is a shame.

Will

[Dean]

To be honest, I've never truly been sure why norms were introduced but I guess it was to provide a broader database. We have told staff that they should not be reporting on norms if the value is staying fairly levelled. So I do not really feel the norms hold us back.



Can I firstly say, (also @-:Undertaker:-) in the past we have opened apps very often due to a lot of people resigning and a lack of applicants. So yes in an ideal world, we would love to have 30 staff but in reality we can only reach a peak of about 12.

I do like the idea of splitting up the jobs for each staff and having heads to overlook though, and this may be implemented in the role reform.

For the future we could maybe make the furni database on the site more informative with information such as: Tradable? Stackable? etc. but I'm not sure if people would find that useful.

So yeh we would love to have a lot of staff to cover everything and we may need to think about removing norms to cope with the important rares which are the ones which most people look at.

Tbh when it comes to blame, I don't really think it is down to us because we have worked with what we have and problems arise left right and centre. I really want to get more staff and atm it looks like the new Furni Editor role is a popular one although we only need a few which is a shame.

Will

I just wanted to bring one more thing up. I've been reviewing the rare values over the past few weeks and I've seen that the "Latest Rare Updates" box on the Habbox homepage hasn't changed since I first checked on June 29th. Is this broken or haven't any rare values been updated since?



Also, the middle sprite is missing.

[Samantha]

I just wanted to bring one more thing up. I've been reviewing the rare values over the past few weeks and I've seen that the "Latest Rare Updates" box on the Habbox homepage hasn't changed since I first checked on June 29th. Is this broken or haven't any rare values been updated since?



Also, the middle sprite is missing.

not been updated some down to the mute and away time etc.

[Pigperson]

I just wanted to bring one more thing up. I've been reviewing the rare values over the past few weeks and I've seen that the "Latest Rare Updates" box on the Habbox homepage hasn't changed since I first checked on June 29th. Is this broken or haven't any rare values been updated since?



Also, the middle sprite is missing.

Simply due to mute, it should be updated this week. Also the broken images has been brought up as the url of habbox assets is different so this is currently being sorted.

EDIT: I just fixed this, the other broken ones should be fixed soon

Will

[Dean]

Glad to see the values have been updated, as I said earlier, I still don't think the mute is a valid excuse to stop updating them as trading will always continue.

[Pigperson]

Glad to see the values have been updated, as I said earlier, I still don't think the mute is a valid excuse to stop updating them as trading will always continue.

When the mute went on, no one was talking so no one was trading in trade rooms :S Also I've just spent a while on Habbo to update some out of date values and I have worked on sorting out the images (chairs, tables and sofas so far).

Will

[HotelUser]

I believe that if more people could approve/deny then we would get a lot more done.

Currently, the Expert Rare Values role is pointless, I said this months ago but Matt said only David could change it therefore it never got done.

If we changed the structure so that all head rvrs, and the (assistant) manager would update and approve then we would get a lot more done. This would mean the expert role would be the same as the old heads role and the heads the same as the management (apart from the management forums, reports etc.)

Huh? Matt has more authority than anybody else save for the owners when it comes to overseeing changes in roles (infact, if this had been put forth to myself (and it wasn't) then I would of just relayed it to Matt because I wouldn't of been able to put through a role change just by myself).

Because that's not how V6 was built - It wasn't made easy to be able to change it so X and X can do this. Think of a load of teenager rooms that haven't been cleaned for a while. It's why we are scrapping this version asap.

It was coded to spec so I hope you're not shooting the coder from what I recall senior members of the department can approve changes, not just folks with department management permissions. If that's not the case then the quick fix would just be to give the staff you want to be permitted to update values manager access and password protect the files you don't want them to have access to. This is extraordinarily messy but if the outdated system is to be corrected in v7 then there's no sense reinventing the wheel before then!

I was a manager in the RV department over 2 eras, once in 2008 and once in 2010 (i think). There was a massive difference between 2008 and 2010. In 2008 the popularity of the values looked after itself, all was required to do was to keep the values updated and add a few new rares, EVERYONE used Habbox Rare Values.

Then i came back in 2010 and the department was DEAD. The marketplace had been released and i seriously think Habbox did itself a massive misjustice in this period, when the marketplace was released there needed to be massive promotion of Habbox Rare Values, something to challenge the marketplace at this time. But this didn't happen and rather quickly the Habbo marketplace took over and it basically destoryed Habbox Rare Values, they are not used no where near as often as they used to be.

Some people may just say 'Close the department, it's pointless' but i totally disagree. When i came back as manager in 2010 i was very shocked to see the state of the rare values, i love that department and i put alot of work into it and to see it loose popularity and basically start dying was horrid. So with the release of V6 i made some changes, removing an old feature called Rare Watch and basically combining it with the Rare Values. So rather than it all just being Values driven, it would be more of a resource. I went so far but i think it needs to go further, the site got updated with all these new furni images, furni descriptions and other things but the department just stayed the same. I think i made a big mistake not trying to restructure the whole deparment.

The Rare Values will never be what they were so they need to be develop and form a use. It should become like a Furniture Museum on Habbox. All items of furniture should be uploaded on the site with a dedicated team of people making sure every item is there with all their images and that their names and descriptions are up to date, they should also be added nice little facts about a certain item of furni like 'This item of furniture was given out by Ione on her birthday, click here to learn more about this (maybe links to Habbox Wiki)' and then obviously the value of the item should be there.

The department could be restructured in 2 ways.

One way could be to have to distinct type of staff, one group of Rare value Reporters and another group of furni editors, with more of a content type of role. But this way could lead to a saturation of the department, far too many staff for the amount of stuff to actually do week by week.

A better way could be to remove the 'Expert Rare Values Reporter' rank but keep the normal RVR and Head RVR roles. Each RVR in the department should be given a range of categories of furni for them to look after and they need to make sure all the images, descriptions, titles and values are ok for all items of furniture plus adding any extra little bits of interesting information, plus they should aim to update every item of furni in their categories once a month, to stop things not getting an update for 6 months. Then the HRVRs would act as 'team leaders' they would be given a group of reporters and they would have to oversee these reporters, giving them targets for the week, telling them if something needs doing in their categories etc. Each category on Habbox should have a corrisponding thread in the RV Staff Forums for the assigned reporter of that category to post things in and for their team leader HRVR to post tasks for the week etc. As more and more furniture is released and more furni categories are made, more staff are to be hired so the department will slowly grow by 1 or 2 members of staff each month or 2.

Habbox has really started to focus upon it's Wiki side of things and i think this is a great direction for Habbox Rare Values to go. It needs to be an Off-Client Furni Museum, a resource of all things Habbo Furniture, not just values. And a dedicated team of people is needed for this.

No current manager is to blame for the decline in popularity of Habbox Rare Values, it's not their fault, it's the Habbo Marketplace. I think we need to admit we have lost this battle of popularity, but we have not lost the war. As long as Habbox is still running there should always be space for something to do with Rare Furniture, after all Habbox owes it's further existance to Rare Values.

So yeah my opinion:

1) Make Rare Values into an Off-Client Furniture Museum
2) Restruture the department to fit in with the above, giving reporters a set amout of categories to update and keep fresh.

This complete stranger to me makes the most sense out of anybody. Personally I think the department is in a rough spot because of both a lack of strong management (and don't take that as an insult to yourself Sam-- you were sort of just thrown into the position without much help from the rest of us), and a lack of software updates (to which you may blame me if you'd like, but as just one person I had a lot of other things to see to first, which is why I'm thoroughly happy Habbox has a developing team at the moment who can accomplish a lot more then just one person could ).

Speaking of the coding group, I still think it would be cool for them to pursue a rare market for the fansite, if there's enough time to push one out, of course

[Samantha]

@HotelUser; I don't take it as an insult but I came off holiday and found nothing had been done because I got told someone else would do it, you then told me that it all should have been done anyway (in a negative attitude) and also I wanted one small change for Rare Values and you showed your authority and said 'I would have to inform the other General Managers of such a change.' I didn't think changing the day when RV was reset was a big change in all honesty. Although you did help during the end of your reign admittedly. If I had known more I wouldn't have got more done but at least I would have been wiser . Thank you.

[Pigperson]

Huh? Matt has more authority than anybody else save for the owners when it comes to overseeing changes in roles (infact, if this had been put forth to myself (and it wasn't) then I would of just relayed it to Matt because I wouldn't of been able to put through a role change just by myself).



It was coded to spec so I hope you're not shooting the coder from what I recall senior members of the department can approve changes, not just folks with department management permissions. If that's not the case then the quick fix would just be to give the staff you want to be permitted to update values manager access and password protect the files you don't want them to have access to. This is extraordinarily messy but if the outdated system is to be corrected in v7 then there's no sense reinventing the wheel before then!



This complete stranger to me makes the most sense out of anybody. Personally I think the department is in a rough spot because of both a lack of strong management (and don't take that as an insult to yourself Sam-- you were sort of just thrown into the position without much help from the rest of us), and a lack of software updates (to which you may blame me if you'd like, but as just one person I had a lot of other things to see to first, which is why I'm thoroughly happy Habbox has a developing team at the moment who can accomplish a lot more then just one person could ).

Speaking of the coding group, I still think it would be cool for them to pursue a rare market for the fansite, if there's enough time to push one out, of course

Btw hi David Haven't seen you for ages lol. I don't think the blame lies with the coding, because Habbox V6 was an amazing improvement, however it just posed a few problems down the line when trying to change things.

I really think the Habbox Market would be great and it has been requested.

Will