A number of people who were elected into CSM4 have announced they are running for CSM5. To this end I have published the attendance record from CSM4.
Apologies are distinct from Absent because they are announced ahead of time.
Disclaimer: Whilst I am also running for CSM5 these figures are a matter of public record.
Meeting took place Sun 11th April at 17:17
Eve Wiki Link Summary and raw logs
Downloads Raw Log | PDF Summary
TL:DR
Present: ElvenLord, Alekseyev Karrde, Zastrow, TeaDaze, Mrs Trzzbk, Korvin, Z0D, Song Li, Sokratesz, T’Amber (alt)
Absent: Helen Highwater (alt), Farscape Hw (alt), Meissa Anunthiel (alt), Serenity Steele (alt)
Results
1. Experimental Gallente storyline missions
Passed 9 for
2. End ghost (unpaid account) datacore production
Passed 9 for
3. Sources of Mineral Investigation
Passed 9 for
4. Contract Login Update Notification
Passed 9 for
5. View ship fittings in hanger without boarding ship
Passed 9 for
Other Business
The next meeting was set for Sunday May 2nd at 17:00 Eve time.
Meeting closed at 18:16
My application for CSM5 has been submitted and is waiting for evaluation (CCP vet the apps to ensure all the information has been provided). The campaign will be starting soon!
In other news, I have done some more work on my AT7 retrospective, but it has been delayed a bit due to RL getting busier. I hope to get it finished next week, after the next CSM minutes of course. Speaking of which, I have proposals from the Assembly Hall to put on the wiki, more later 😉
These minutes were published last week through the usual channels, but I ran out of time before posting them here as well.
So better late than never 😉
Meeting took place Sun 28th March at 18:08
Eve Wiki Link Summary and raw logs
External Downloads Raw Log | PDF Summary
TL:DR
Present: ElvenLord, Zastrow, TeaDaze, Mrs Trzzbk, Korvin, Z0D, Sokratesz, Helen Highwater (alt), T’Amber (alt)
Apologies: Song Li
Absent: Alekseyev Karrde, Farscape Hw (alt), Meissa Anunthiel (alt), Serenity Steele (alt)
Results
1. Improve POS missile batteries
Vote passed 9 for
2. AFK Button
Proposal rejected as a duplicate
3. Allow reactivation of accidentally deactivated modules
Vote passed 7 for, 2 against (Korvin, T’Amber)
4. Distinguish between afterburners and microwarpdrives with different icons
Vote passed 9 for
5. Eve font changes – Progress requested
No vote required
6. Sound issues
Vote passed 8 for (Mrs Trzzbk offline)
7. Issue when Copying and pasting links in Chat
Vote passed 8 for, 1 against (T’Amber)
8. Development Assessment List
This is for CCP development estimation and is not a final priority list!
1 Docking games fix
2 Overhaul of roles and grantable roles system
3 Shared Corporation Bookmarks
4 Station services HP reduction to improve small gang warefare
5 Reintroduction of low-sec DD
6 Directscan improvement
7 FW Complex NPCs and Standings
8 Black Ops Improvements
9 Destroyer Improvements
10 Boost warfare links and revisit information warfare
11 Bring Logistics Warp Speed In-Line with T2 Ships
12 Alliance action confirmation windows
13 T3 refitting subsystems at pos / carrier
14 Scan-able wrecks&containers for the salvager profession(1.2)
15 Scan probes of all types – an addable option to overview profiles
16 Battle recorder
17 Tracking for fighters lost in combat
18 Mining crystals change color of mining laser beam
19 Ingame Events Menu (eve gate iteration)
Vote passed 9 for
Other Business
Next meeting was set for 11th April at 17:00 eve-time
Meeting closed at 19:03
It is meeting time again and for an experiment I thought I would open the floor to my loyal readers (apparently not everyone braves the eve-online forums ;))
So far I have the following issues on my radar (links in that post, which might change once I get them on the wiki).
I haven’t forgotten about the removal of Local chat in 0.0! However I’ve decided to pitch it as “Suggested replacements for local chat Intel” to allow me to include all the good ideas people have suggested and leave it to CCP to decide on which are the best fit. I’ll hopefully have it ready for meeting 9 (and in doing so will probably nuke any chances of me getting in for CSM5, we’ll see ;))
So now it is your turn. What issues currently in the assembly hall should I be bookmarking to watch? Keep in mind that I probably have enough issues for this meeting, but if anything important is lurking there then I can change my list before Sat.
Otherwise I will continue to wade through the Assembly Hall a few times a week and attempt to select the most interesting proposals to include next time.
Tea
According to this dev blog, CSM5 “nominations” will open very soon. CSM5 will run for 10 months as a precursor to the full year term for CSM6. The dev blog contains a few other changes but the dates to note are as follows.
March 26th – Opening for candidacy runs for the fifth CSM.
April 9th – Closing for the candidacy applications.
May 5th – Voting for the fifth CSM opens.
May 19th – Voting for the fifth CSM closes.
May 28th – Results of the fifth CSM elections announced.
June 3rd – The fifth CSM take office.
June 22nd to June 25th – First CSM5-CCP summit in Iceland.
Dec 7th to Dec 10th – Second CSM5-CCP summit in Iceland.
April 6th 2011 – The sixth CSM take office.
The astute amongst you will notice that CSM5 will have only 3 weeks from taking up office till the summit, which makes it impossible to submit the issues list to CCP a month before hand. I do have a few issues with this short timescale but CCP have decided on it (without consulting us I might add) thus that is what will have to be worked around.
Of course I also note that CSM5 will take office just before the opening weekend of AT8 (The 8th Alliance Tournament) and the first summit meeting in Iceland is a couple of days after AT8. I wonder if ex-commentators will be allowed to head over a few days early to help out behind the scenes *hint hint CCP* 😉
Does this mean TeaDaze is planning to run for CSM5?
Yes. I feel some continuity would be good especially with the short timescale from end of CSM4 to first CSM5 summit. I believe I have lived up to my original platform and have put in more work than many of the other delegates.
I guess this then marks the start of campaigning!
TL:DR
Vote TeaDaze for CSM5!
CrazyKinux is doing a crazy job of collecting Eve blog links. In the latest update he has discovered this site (though it should be TeaDaze not TeaDAze ;))
For those of you looking for the full list, it is around 525 blogs long (at time of writing) and can be found here.
Great stuff and hopefully something for everyone.
As to updates here, I actually have a new post half written about my AT7 experience which I’ll share in the next few days (once completed naturally).
Tea
Meeting took place Sun 14th March at 18:18
Eve Wiki Link Summary and raw logs
Downloads Raw Log | PDF Summary
TL:DR
Present: ElvenLord, Alekseyev Karrde, Zastrow, TeaDaze, Korvin, Z0D, Song Li, Meissa Anunthiel (alt)
Apologies: Sokratesz
Absent: Mrs Trzzbk, Helen Highwater (alt), T’Amber (alt), Farscape Hw (alt), Serenity Steele (alt)
Results
1. Save and Reuse Probe Bubble Patterns
Vote passed 7 for, 1 against (Korvin)
Vote passed 7 for, 1 against (Alekseyev Karrde)
Vote passed 8 for
4. Ship Active Tank Bonus Buff
Vote passed 6 for, 2 against (Korvin, Meissa Anunthiel)
5. Allow naming any ship in your hanger
Vote passed 8 for
Vote passed 8 for
7. Character Transfer Transparency and Data Cleanup
Proposal rejected 7 against, 1 for (Z0D)
Vote passed 7 for, 1 against (Meissa Anunthiel)
Other Business
Next meeting was set for 28th march at 18:00 eve-time
Meeting closed at 19:24
The minutes are out so this blog post will talk about the process itself rather than specific details.
I have only been to Iceland once before, which was for the 7th Alliance Tournament (when I also stayed for fanfest a week later). I wasn’t sure what to expect this time, other than lower temperature and possibly snow. In the end there was no snow, but it did get down to -8 at one point so was at least a bit nippy out.
After a rather long trip involving car, plane, bus, plane, bus sprinkled with hours of waiting around I arrived at the hotel just after 2:30am (having started at 1pm). We stayed at the Plaza Hotel which is very comfortable though the internet connection was terribly slow (priorities showing I guess ;)). I found a note from Song Li suggesting meeting for breakfast at 7:30am which I nearly managed to make on time. Thankfully he had a missions collide mug which he was waving at my sleep deprived staring around the breakfast room.
Sokratesz had also arrived and the three of us decided to hire a car and take the “circle tour” to get out of Reykjavik and see some of the countryside. I had previously done this with Veto in the pimped purple star bus (a story in itself) but the colder weather made for a stunning landscape. Iceland can look pretty bleak out of the towns and I can see why this landscape contributes to a game like eve 😉
Later that day all but two people had arrived and so we went out for a meal with a couple of CCP people and pondered what would happen over the next few days of meetings.
This is where the story gets a bit tricky, because whilst I would like to talk about how the meetings went I have to be careful with the level of detail. Suffice to say CCP provided many key developers for us to talk to and we were briefed on some of the stuff they have been working on. They were interested in our feedback on a number of topics and I attempted to represent my supporters.
There were a few disappointing moments as it seems certain features cut from previous expansions are still lurking in the backlog but we did manage to get agreement on a number of player raised proposals (which will also end up in the backlog).
A little non-technical background. The EVE backlog is a mythical beast where many interesting features end up. Some have had no more than time estimates, some have had development done to them before being shelved and returned to the backlog. From time to time CCP re-prioritise things and when items reach the top of the backlog a team (or more) will work on them. Many previous CSM requested features which were accepted by CCP are hiding in this backlog.
A slight simplification but you can hopefully see the process involves a) a list of changes/features in a strict priority, b) development time estimates and c) they are worked on in order.
During the discussions the CSM suggested we should have a development budget (developer time being the currency) each release cycle to work on CSM raised issues. CCP were not too keen on this stating that not many departments in CCP have a guaranteed development budget for a release and there are big planning meetings that decide where the effort should be spent. During these meetings the EVE “stakeholder” departments pitch their ideas and requirements and some will succeed.
Then they dropped a huge idea on the table. What about the CSM becoming a “stakeholder” at the same level as internal CCP departments and having a say in the prioritisation of the backlog? We didn’t take much persuading that this was a fairly big commitment to the CSM and whilst there is the possibility of CSM changes still not making it into game it was at least a step in the right direction.
The hope is that with the CSM as a “stakeholder” it might spark more interest in the CSM process which would increase the amount of support from the players. The more player support the more likely the CSM will have a chance to get player requested changes into game.
Of course there is criticism that the CSM are simply attempting a power grab and that we don’t really represent the players properly due to the really low voter turnout. That coupled with the change to a 1 year CSM term and removal of term limits (both suggested by CCP) seems to have rubbed people up the wrong way.
I cannot be seen as an unbiased observer but I think the CSM is working and the changes CCP made to the meeting structure this time are good. For instance after I requested permission to record the meetings to assist with producing the minutes, CCP instead offered to have a member of staff dedicated to this task. This resulted in the minutes coming out in under 7 days which is an astonishing improvement over the previous summit. Also rather than debate each change again, we submitted a minor issues list (which need no further debate) and spent just one day pitching the major issues list. A few topics were big enough that they had dedicated sessions (such as account security) but the rest of the time was spent with the lead designers and other key devs/GMs discussing more general issues.
All in all I am pleased that my attempts to improve communication have been working and that I was able to represent my playstyle and that of my supporters. I am a bit disappointed that we didn’t get any commitment on a few key things, but there is still time as we have some online meetings with CCP during the rest of our term.
The day after the CSM summit a few of us spent some time in and around Reykjavik seeing the sights and then it was over. A bus, plane, bus, plane, car with a few more hours of waiting about and I was home again.
Please feel free to ask questions in the comments but please be aware that some discussions are still covered by NDA and thus I can’t answer some things.
Meeting took place Sun 7th Feb at 15:17
Eve Wiki Link Summary and raw logs
Downloads Raw Log | PDF Summary
TL:DR
Present: ElvenLord, Alekseyev Karrde, TeaDaze, Mrs Trzzbk, Korvin, Z0D, Song Li, Sokratesz, Helen Highwater (alt), T’Amber (alt), Meissa Anunthiel (alt – afk at start)
Absent: Zastrow, Farscape Hw (alt), Serenity Steele (alt)
Results
Vote passed 9 for
2. Tower under Attack Mails to POS Gunners
Vote passed 7 for, 2 against (ElvenLord, Mrs Trzzbk)
3. Increase forum signature file size limitations
Vote passed 8 for, 1 against (Korvin)
Vote passed 8 for, 1 against (Mrs Trzzbk)
Vote passed 5 for, 4 against (Alekseyev Karrde, TeaDaze, Korvin, Song Li)
6. In-Game Account Expiration Countdown
Vote passed 9 for
Other Business
Next online meeting set for March 14th with the time to be announced later.
Meeting closed at 16:33