Forum...

[Nixt]

Because you are basically doing the same thing :S
it works for every other forum thats habbo related so i dont see why it shouldnt work for habbox

and i see you still havent sorted those tacky images out

and it would could down on staff
habbox is way over staffed
jobs seem to be handed out willy-nilly

General Management have recently imposed limits on the number of staff each department is entitled to and we are working to further streamline departments to ensure we are focusing on quality and not quantity (of staff).

[immense]

General Management have recently imposed limits on the number of staff each department is entitled to and we are working to further streamline departments to ensure we are focusing on quality and not quantity (of staff).

Although that's a change, it's a poor one. It means decent candidates could be turned away although they could have the potential to be the best staff member in that department. One recent thing that proved really good was the election, a lot of the community got involved, was well ran and managed and looked really promising.

[Mathew]

In my eyes, people are taking their jobs here way too seriously.
I could understand the serious-ness if Habbox was a big business making thousands of pounds per year, but it isn't. It's a site aimed to support a chat room for teenagers. Lately there has been a lot of egos floating about and departments trying to make themselves look bigger and better (as Mike has said above). Some just need bringing back down to Earth and realising that this isn't real life and power here does not equal power in the wide world.

Departments need to work closely as a team and do something big - together. The HabboxForum Election was brilliant. It was controversial, everyone got involved and everyone enjoyed it. Funnily enough there wasn't any sore losers either! Everyone took it in good heart. Habbox is a gold tier fansite (but for how much longer?), so make use of that. It's taken a lot to get to that standard.

I am however looking forward to the rest of this year. I've started posting a lot more on HabboxForum lately. Everyone seems a lot friendlier than they once were and I actually enjoy posting here now (despite being a lurker for years)

[Nixt]

Although that's a change, it's a poor one. It means decent candidates could be turned away although they could have the potential to be the best staff member in that department. One recent thing that proved really good was the election, a lot of the community got involved, was well ran and managed and looked really promising.

We're not talking capping staff at low levels. The number of staff we're looking at in departments is basically for what we have now which I believe for most departments is more than adequate. The purpose of creating the limit is to ensure only the best staff are hired and retained and those that aren't performing are removed - rather than repeatedly hiring staff in addition to them to ensure things are being done. We're not being stingy because we recognise it's not like a business and we don't have costs with staff, but we are trying to ensure staff are doing their job and this is one way of doing it. Limits will be under constant evaluation.

We are also looking at changing the amount of away time staff are allowed (we can't have people taking the piss and disappearing for ridiculous amounts of time) etc. These are all things that are happening behind the scenes but we hope they will impact positively on Habbox as a whole.

As AGM for Staff I am first ensuring that communication between Managers and General Management is in tip top condition and will then go on to ensure communication between departments improves also. Regarding your point about Oli being able to make decisions he is, and has been, free to make decisions and all we ask is that he informs us of those decisions so we can have our own input. The current General Management team is very active and we are quick to approve things - and we only need to approve larger decisions that have significant impact, otherwise our managers need only keep us informed. They do not have to repeatedly ask for permission.

[immense]

We're not talking capping staff at low levels. The number of staff we're looking at in departments is basically for what we have now which I believe for most departments is more than adequate. The purpose of creating the limit is to ensure only the best staff are hired and retained and those that aren't performing are removed - rather than repeatedly hiring staff in addition to them to ensure things are being done. We're not being stingy because we recognise it's not like a business and we don't have costs with staff, but we are trying to ensure staff are doing their job and this is one way of doing it. Limits will be under constant evaluation.

We are also looking at changing the amount of away time staff are allowed (we can't have people taking the piss and disappearing for ridiculous amounts of time) etc. These are all things that are happening behind the scenes but we hope they will impact positively on Habbox as a whole.

As AGM for Staff I am first ensuring that communication between Managers and General Management is in tip top condition and will then go on to ensure communication between departments improves also. Regarding your point about Oli being able to make decisions he is, and has been, free to make decisions and all we ask is that he informs us of those decisions so we can have our own input. The current General Management team is very active and we are quick to approve things - and we only need to approve larger decisions that have significant impact, otherwise our managers need only keep us informed. They do not have to repeatedly ask for permission.

Yeah, that does sound better once fully explained However, that means you have to let management fire their staff with much more freedom, for not being up to scratch. You used to have to wait weeks to prove that before the staff editor would remove permissions. Communication is key, MAD was the best for that in my opinion as he was for the inter-department working which is a problem at the moment which I'm glad to see you're working on. Although not entirely sure that'll improve the forum.

[hah]

another thing is you dont let people know whats going on lol.
i didnt enter that competition with super super secret prize because i didnt know what it was and i just found out that matt introduced something that is coming soon but no users have been told yet....might get people excited and talking yakno

[Hecktix]

I've visited regularly since winter and my ban in the second week in February and I'd say as would the management I've spoken to that it's got really bad. I don't see why you're trying to hide from this, or maybe it's just it looks less active but it's fine really.

Habbox is very out of date, as is Habbox itself. However, this has always been the case it has never been as appealing on the eye as other fansites. Yet this has never dragged it down in the past. The skins are an eye sore, they always have been when you compare them to the sleek look of ClubHabbo where a lot of the users have migrated too. There is no reason why it should be any more of a problem than it has before. I think there are other underlying issues which aren't being acted upon. Whatever these are I'm not so sure as for numerous reasons I'm not as active as I once was.

It always goes through a transitional period with one group replacing another. This time though there aren't enough active people replacing the flocks of people that have left. Think of all the active users that have quit in the last 6 months and not being replaced by people who are posting as much. Mentor, amy, leah to name three off the top of my head. These people are still about on the 'online world' just not here any longer.

I think that's because there is no option here. If you fall out with management like mentor did for example you won't get change because management won't speak out against one another and appear almost too timid to makes changes without consultation processes that take far too long. This is just one case such as mentor but it's true for other users. My mate taylooor for example, banned for account sharing and his ban rejected. I know another user who was banned for giving his account to someone IP banned (account sharing) and has been unbanned. It's one rule for one, one rule for another.

This isn't a dig at you, just scraping my brain as to what can be improved. I think you'll actually be a good Forum Manager although again you won't do anything controversial and will discuss things with General Management too long which is unfortunate for Habbox. However, I know that's out of your hands and you have to do what you have to do.

I think you misinterpreted what I meant by the fact we have improved, because we have improved since the dire times of the winter although it's still not good enough by Habbox's standards.

In terms of this:

I know another user who was banned for giving his account to someone IP banned (account sharing) and has been unbanned. It's one rule for one, one rule for another.

Can you please PM me the names so I can look into it? As if that is the true case, a mistake has been made somewhere in this system which is unacceptable.

As I said in my previous post we are looking at bringing Habbox to date, we have something in the system which we are hoping will really do that, and that's not stuck in the management approval system, it's in the process of being created to suit Habbox Forum's needs, as Management we had all approved of it within two days of Matt becoming GM, if it had been possible to get this approval then implement it immediately this would have been the big "Hi i'm MattGarner, General Manager" moment but unfortunately some things do take time and it's out of mine, Matt and Garion's hands.

This is partly why I've been ensuring that all of our World Cup campaign will be ready to launch immediately the day before the World Cup starts, I've gained all the relevant permission (within 5 minutes of discussing the ideas, which is certainly an improvement on the past ) and we've nearly completed most of the planning.

When Matt took over as General Manager, Habbox was in a bit of a state, it still is in a bit of a state, he isn't gonna change that immediately but I can guaruntee that the whole General Management team are progressing towards fixing Habbox at a pace faster than I have seen from a General Management team since nvrspk4.

Miracles don't happen overnight and Matt has jumped straight in and started dealing with the more important things, which take a little bit more time to sort

@ Jake's comment about firing staff, that's very different with Garion as AGM (Staff) and was with MattGarner, we can hire/fire who we like within reason ofc - so that's something positive.

@ Graham, we can't reveal that prize for legal reasons.

[xxMATTGxx]

Ok it seems I should have done some big change on the night/early morning of me becoming GM and I apologise if that is what you were all waiting for. Sadly we don't live in a world of magic (I would love to be Harry potter) and some changes cannot be done within a matter of seconds, some changes (one that is in the works) does need some time to get fully developed and prepared for. All the other changes can be agreed on within minutes of being discussed; like Oli has mentioned some updates have been discussed and agreed pretty quickly which could of took longer in previous management.

I also like to confirm that any department manager is allowed to fire any of their staff with a fair reason. It does not take weeks or months, it takes a matter of minutes and maybe a couple of hours for the permissions to be removed until Garion comes online. They have control over their department and can hire/fire who they want. (Within reason)

another thing is you don’t let people know whats going on lol.
i didnt enter that competition with super super secret prize because i didnt know what it was and i just found out that matt introduced something that is coming soon but no users have been told yet....might get people excited and talking yakno

I understand that you did not enter as you didn't know what the prize was. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to discuss the prize with any of the Habbox members at this current time; this is something which is out of my hands. Although it does seem to be getting a good interest so far.

You also mention that I will be introducing something that is coming soon. I would love to announce it to you but at the moment it is still in the works. No this isn't down to because it takes months for approval it's because the change that is coming is something that needs work to it, plus it's not always a good thing to announce before it is actually released.

I'm happy to take on any ideas or suggestions you may have for any of the Habbox websites. You can either create a thread or PM me and then we can see if the ball can start rolling on them ideas.

[Nixt]

Yeah, that does sound better once fully explained However, that means you have to let management fire their staff with much more freedom, for not being up to scratch. You used to have to wait weeks to prove that before the staff editor would remove permissions. Communication is key, MAD was the best for that in my opinion as he was for the inter-department working which is a problem at the moment which I'm glad to see you're working on. Although not entirely sure that'll improve the forum.

As has been mentioned staff can fire who they want. MAD may have ensured communication between departments but I can't help but feel this was largely to do with the iron grip he had on everything which did not allow the freedom that you would like to see.

I think it's unfair to blame Matt for anything seeing as he has only been GM two minutes. He is working closely with all of us and we are working towards a great many changes that we hope will make things better. When Matt became GM his interest was not to quickly post something to say "hello I'm here", he aimed to begin to set things in motion that may take a little longer but will on the whole be a lot more beneficial to the forum than a quick change implemented mainly to try and create an impact to the beginning of his leadership.

[FlyingJesus]

We are obviously doing things in an attempt to increase activity, last week we ran the Habbox Forum General Election which for the first part increased forum activity tremendously, although I'll be the first person to criticise the event for being too long, as I did when summarising the event with General Management.

I don't think it was too long - indeed, with more planning it could have gone on right until the end of the real elections - it's more the fact that there was nothing to do after the first couple of days. "Parties" weren't allowed for some reason to divulge what their policies entailed and so all that could happen was pointless spamming of VOTE FOR US!!!! and other such threads. If (as I believe it should be, for the good of the community) it is done again at some point in some form, it would need further planning to include a larger number of events and, dare I say it, campaigns to further each cause - this rather than a simple slander match in spam.

+ yeah i think comps and events should be merged
they are basically the same thing disagree all you want

I've mentioned this plenty of times in the past and still believe in it, although not because I think they're the same thing. Comps as far as I can see has improved rather a lot since my old rants about how they'd simply post up a thread once a month and that was it for the entire department (which was certainly true back then) but it's still something that does not require a separate set of staff. I mean no disrespect to any of the comps staff, but it's really not a challenging job and could even be shared out among the entirety of the forum through the "competition ideas" area if the rest of the departments aren't willing to pick up the extra work.

Habboxforum is very out of date, as is Habbox itself. However, this has always been the case it has never been as appealing on the eye as other fansites. Yet this has never dragged it down in the past. The skins are an eye sore, they always have been when you compare them to the sleek look of ClubHabbo where a lot of the users have migrated too. There is no reason why it should be any more of a problem than it has before. I think there are other underlying issues which aren't being acted upon. Whatever these are I'm not so sure as for numerous reasons I'm not as active as I once was.

It always goes through a transitional period with one group replacing another. This time though there aren't enough active people replacing the flocks of people that have left. Think of all the active users that have quit in the last 6 months and not being replaced by people who are posting as much. Mentor, amy, leah to name three off the top of my head. These people are still about on the 'online world' just not here any longer.

Unfortunately I have to agree with this extract. I am of course one of the outdated folk here who would be glad to carry things on as they've always been - but pragmatically that is impossible because like it or not change does happen. I'm not sure if the update to VB4 was meant as a way of bring Habbox into the present (let's not kid ourselves about being "the future") but that made very little difference to things other than messing up the arcade again and losing us our favourite skin. As was mentioned somewhere else - the first post I do believe - it's been stated plenty of times before that bringing new members into the community is not an issue, but rather keeping those who do stumble across our vasty and somewhat open plains.

I think that's because there is no option here. If you fall out with management like mentor did for example you won't get change because management won't speak out against one another and appear almost too timid to makes changes without consultation processes that take far too long.

Although this has always been the case it is still a good point. Having been close with Sam I got a fairly good say in many things while he was GM, whereas now I don't imagine I'll have anywhere near the same amount of influence that others closer to Matt might enjoy. It happens, it always will do with any people near to those in positions of power, but whilst those in favour may come and go, it does appear that any blacklisted members get their opinions pushed aside and that negative status remains. I can't think of any members of current management who would really battle for an idea that I would advocate unless other (higher) management figures backed it up first, regardless of what it might be, and the same can be said for plenty of other people around here who've caused upsets in the past.

It needs something to get people talking, get them on but when they are on it needs to continue talking. Things just seem regressive around here, like the refilter of the lmao with an f as an example. One step forward, two steps back.

Finally I get something to disagree with you about! This one on a twofold point - firstly, that the changes regarding the filter did get people talking and actually increased activity as far as I could see, especially around the feedback area which has recently become something of a wasteland. Secondly, that the unfiltering in question should never have been done in the first place as it defied logic and would have set the way for a complete removal of the wordfilter, something that some people like the idea of but personally I advise against, and as far as I'm aware plenty of management at the time thought similarly, although that could have been down to the sycophantic nature of mid-level staff. On a more general point though I still have to concede that we do need something to get people riled up and active - be it good or bad.

Ok it seems I should have done some big change on the night/early morning of me becoming GM and I apologise if that is what you were all waiting for.

Nope, change for the sake of change is never a good thing. It might be my conservative roots coming through, but often it's best not to meddle when nothing needs doing - I believe you're right in not having made big actions straight away, especially if you have something good in the pipeline as has been hinted at.

Sorry if I missed anything important, I'm sure everyone wants me to comment on their views so they know if they're right or wrong.