Last night I was reading Jester's latest post about the silence from the CSM over the past month since the Spring CSM Summit. My first reaction was, "what do you mean, they won't shut up!" Then it hit me; he was looking at the inactivity on their blogs and the failure to publish the minutes from the summit. In other words, the most prolific blogger in the Eve blogosphere is holding the CSM to his standards of writing output. After all, the CSM is made up of 11 members so why shouldn't they publish more words?
I think that CSM 7 is attempting to address the two major weaknesses of CSM 6: the lack of communications and the lack of details in the minutes. Let me address the second point first. As Jester reports, the minutes apparently will resemble a telephone book. At least no one can say that people will not know what their representatives say and think, right? I do agree with Jester that the effort will prove counter-productive and that the minutes needed to come out earlier to try to keep interest in the CSM high.
As for the lack of posting on individual blogs, I just have to point out that the written word is not the only way to get the CSM's message out to the public. When I wrote earlier that CSM members won't shut up, I meant it. The CSM has frequently made appearances on Eve Radio and the numerous Eve podcasts. Given that I try to listen to the Eve Radio talk shows and as many podcasts as I can, I have heard a lot of opinions from our CSM representatives over the past month or so. I know that I have heard Seleene and Hans Jagerblitzen on Bigcountry's Thursday morning talk show and Hans did some faction warfare stuff on DJ Funky Bacon's show on a Saturday morning.
As a service I'll list all of the podcast appearances of the CSM that I know of. Besides getting to hear the opinions of the CSM, anyone tuning in will get to hear some of the fine talent that makes up the current Eve podcasting community.
12 June: Seleene did a one hour interview on Voices From The Void about the summit.
14 June: Alekseyev Karrde appeared on the Crossing Zebras podcast talking about the war dec situation amongst other things. To only listen to the interview, go to 57:20 of the podcast.
20 June: Elise Randolph did an interview on Ten EVEning News.
1 July: Alekseyev Karrde is one of the hosts of the Noir. Mercenary Group's podcast, Declarations of War, and one of the segments focuses on CSM issues. I am not sure where to find episode 27 but the link will lead to episode 28.
10 July: Hans Jagerblitzen appeared on a 2 1/2 hour roundtable on faction warfare on Ten EVEning News.
Given all the appearances, I think the CSM is trying to get its message out to the player base. I don't know if more people listen to podcasts than read blogs, but the effort is there. If I missed anything since the summit, please let me know and I will update the list.
I love posts that simultaneously defend a group and offend an instigator. Especially when it comes in list then link format. Great job
ReplyDeleteThe difficulty is: not everyone has time to listen to hour-long podcasts (at the end of this week, for example I'll be two or three weeks behind on podcasts); a blog-post can transmit the same information in a more concise fashion.
ReplyDeletesame goes vice versa ;-)
Deleteif I'm at home i can tune in on a podcast and listen to it while doing household stuff or paperwork. Don't need to read all my self but get it told. In some cases that is preferable.
In general, the minutes could be published in better way than one big 120+ Pages PDF but thats another subject. Whether CSM 7 does a better job at communication than CSM 6 ... we will see a few days/weeks after the minutes are out and CSM is calling for a townhall meeting.
Good post but I find the evidence kind of lacking, especially when comparing with Jester. You're showing... 5 podcasts in the span of 30 days where as just Jester can throw up 5 decent sized posts in less than a week. Granted podcasts are usually long (hour+) and have more info than a single post (usually) but this is comparing the entire CSM to 1 guy. He writes more in a week than most people do in a month but that's not much of an excuse. Maybe the CSM should start transcribing (and elaborating on) their podcasts?
ReplyDeleteToo bad Jester's posts of late have been complete tosh. He is more tin foil hat than decent reading.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that this CSM made it clear from the get-go that they were going to improve the (very poor) record that CSM6 put up in this regard.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for CSM activity in three key areas: EVE-O forum posts (particularly in Jita Park), other forum posts (particularly on the section of Failheap Challenge that's been set aside for them), and their own blogs (which they can update as often as they like. I'll grant you that I'm not monitoring pod-casts as closely as I probably should.
By all three of those standards, CSM communication with the players is down.
Even within that format, I'm also looking at accountability. There's no question that Alek, Two step, and Hans have done a better job than most here, with Elise and Trebor also jumping in a bit. But I myself would like to hear from the CSM Chair more than once a month, and there's a half-dozen CSM members that we haven't heard from at all. I'd challenge you to name all 14 members of CSM7 -- or hell, even just the top 7 -- without consulting a list. I certainly couldn't... and I'm a CSM watcher.
That's what my post was about.
I kept in mind that the CSM said they were looking to improve upon CSM 6's poor performance. But I think we are going to have to disagree on one point. Your arguments appear based on the belief that the written word is the only effective manner of communicating with the player base. I'll admit that you may be correct as I don't follow CSM matters as closely as you do.
DeleteHowever, I think that the CSM should receive credit for at least trying to reach out to players like me who don't visit the CSM section of the Eve-O forums or go to Failheap. Eve Online has a growing podcast community and I think reaching out to that audience outside of the election campaign is a good thing.
I actually think that goes toward the promise of improving communications with the player base by trying to reach more players. You disagree and give them no credit for the effort.
Not all eve player listen to pod casts, or read blogs, or spend time on Failheap.
DeleteA CSM member doing a blog with a link to the pod cast they were on or to a "good" discussion on Failheap or even the EveO forums would not be hard.
This would go a long way to letting people know where they can get information, while leaving it in the individuals hands to go there and get it.
That's a very good point. A lot of people hate going to the forums wading through all the garbage to try to find something good. And when on podcasts the CSM members should try to advertise a website or blog to visit to get more information. Podcasters usually post show notes where that type of information could be shared.
DeleteWell, Jester was just saying what everyone's thinking. And an answer he got and posted too. Good ol Hans. I voted for him too =)
DeleteIf you had not said that they were doing pod casts I'd never have known. I do not care to listen to them and enjoy the written word just as some prefer pod casts to reading blogs.
ReplyDelete