Master at Arms Report 2
News from the Medal Bot
Pretty short report this week, just a few Wiki based policy updates, there’s nothing new here, it’s just some clarifications of language, and a few bits and pieces to sure things are consistent
The promotions guidelines page has been updated to include updates to the Shadow Academy’s organizational structure (i.e. the Novitiate Hall doesn’t exist anymore, so the language needed to be changed) as well as a couple of leftover updates to make sure that the Wiki page (i.e. the policy) matces the Promotheus output on the database. I think I caught everything? If anyone notices anything – please let me know!
The Master at Arms Policies page has been updated with some changes:
A minor language clarification, but there’s nothing new here. It’s actually from an older version that I thought needed more emphasis. “All recommendations for awards and promotions are required to contain specific, concrete details for activities described. We are not interested in the fact that someone is great; we are interested in how they are great.”
Competition placement by organizers and co-organizers has been disallowed on the database for sometime, this change is now reflected in the MAA Policies document.
There was a line about time in rank requirements for promotions, this has been clarified that time in grade requirements are not absolute, and there many be extreme circumstances where it may be waived in the case of Equites, but this is highly unlikely.
Instead of only talking about fiction and poetry competitions, the competitions section now points towards the Voice Competition Approval Guidelines and Herald Competition Approval Guidelines.
The Brotherhood/Master at Arms policy (or really, lack thereof) on families remains the same as it was under Aabsdu. They’re unofficial groupings that anyone can do. We will not be policing them in any way. They are fictional groupings for close friends within the Brotherhood, they can have wiki pages and social customs, but they have no official status within the club or in its database. The MAA will not be enforcing name change rules on anything (other than those that exist already) with respect to families.
Please take a moment to review these pages, and let me know if you think there’s anything that needs to be added, deleted, or changed!
Young Kelly Mendes has taken on the role of Professor of the Leadership, Law, and Communication department, and we in the MAA office will be updating/fixing/possibly deleting (some of) those courses to get them in line with reality – and generally make them better. Watch for that soon!
I am running another puzzle competition. Click the puzzle!. It runs for about a week!
Another puzzle will be coming out next week! Click the puzzle!. It runs for about a week too!
I will be on vacation for a week, starting the morning of Tuesday, March 7. I’ll be back on Wednesday, March 15. I will have access to email/telegram/the internet, and I’ll be doing things – but expect my response time to be quite a bit slower, because, well, vacations are fun?
Competition placements – Notes on ties
This has come up a number of times in the past couple of weeks, so I thought I would mention it. Ties happen in competitions, sometimes people get the same number of clusters in a race, sometimes they get the same score in a flash game, sometimes two people end up with the same aggregate score in a container competition, and competitions – two subjective entries get the same score.
The last one is one I want to talk about. Subjectively graded competitions (fiction, poetry, graphics, and the like) have a certain amount of beauty is in the eye of the beholder when grading them. Yes, there are grading rubrics, and yes, people are expected to be honest and fair in their evaluations, but there is still a certain sense of subjectivity in placings. To that end, most people in most situations should be able to appropriately place only a single first, second, and third place in the competitions they organize. Are there going to be exceptions? Of course there are, but those should be few and far between. If there is a situation where there honest to goodness reasons for a subjectively graded tie? Let us know and we will see what we can do.
Second bit about ties, when they do occur (and they will), you cannot award two first places and then a second and then a third. Two first places would eliminate the second placing, just like two second places would eliminate the third placing. That’s just common sense.
Awards of Note
Kenath Zoron earned himself a Grand Cross for his work in/for Clan Taldryan
Derek Cinn earned an Anteian Cross for work in House Excidium of Scholae Palatinae
Wuntila Zratis Entar Arconae was promoted to Warlord for his service to Arcona
Kromtal Stormfyld was promoted to Warrior after many moons
Lucifer Romanov was promoted to Mystic for his work in Clan Tarentum
Important Links
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Many bamboo stalks for the clarification, Panda!
Short and sweet!
Thanks for the about out, Howie! It was a long road to get my EQ1 rank back, many moons is definitely the understatement of the year, lol.
Bah, shout out...not about out. WTB edit button!
It's ok Howie, I know you threw me under the bus because you really care but don't want to admit it.
I do remember that in the Olympics, 4 people won medals in an event, despite only 3 medals. Two gold, one silver, one bronze.
Just saying