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| VP • Why being a teamer on VP kinda sucks |
| Quick disclaimer: This is written from my perspective and with my experience as a teamer. This might not go hand in hand with what you think it is like, regardless if you're a teamer yourself or not. This is in no way meant to shame people with a different opinion than mine, but rather a try to start a conversation. This can be seen as a rant from a teamer about their job on VP and how validated they feel in bascially providing a website with free content. It's mostly a request for not being treated like shit anymore and I feel like it's a request many teamers would love to make themselves. Feel free to discuss this in the comments (civilly) and share your view or your experience on team jobs here on VP. The weird setting of VP A u s e r - b a s e d c o m m u n i t y Like I already said in my DM blog, teamers on VP are not just some corporate employees pumping out stuff for the users of a platform to enjoy (like gSm used to be). VP is a purely user-based community. Although we have Kaj as the creator and owner on the top, all our admins are just regular users like you and me. For them, VP is as much private time and leisure as it is for us, rather than a job they have to follow with respective training. W h o a r e t h e t e a m e r s ? Like all of us, teamers are just regular players, who want to go the extra mile and provide content for this community - mostly in the hope to enrich the experience on the site and make all of us have fun on here. (I sound like I wanted to start a cult...) So basically, we all are kind of friends or acquaintances and collectively keep this ship from sinking. The special setting of a teamer A l l a b o u t t e a m w o r k a n d c o m m o n g o a l s Now, I've been on many teams in all my time on VP (I've been on NT, ET, SMT, DT and BT on the german server - to some of them I even came back after having had some time away) and generally speaking, most of the time it's really great. You get to work with people who might become friends, have similiar goals (regarding VP and its future) than you and you all are there for the same reason. R e w a r d s b u t a l s o r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s At least initially it was. But being a teamer isn't really the perk-filled life some still think it is. Being a teamer means being a regular user with an added resposibility. Sure, you get some snazzy features, like the ability to make news or competition content, you get roped into team-organised events and can help chose which sets and items to be used as codes for these events. I t ' s b a s i c a l l y f r e e l a n c e But does it change how you interact on VP? Does it come with some gratification from inside or outside of VP for helping keeping the site alive? No, it's basically freelance and people (kind of like real freelance) just take it for granted. That's not really their fault, because for a long time and sometimes even today, people still think that teamers are something special and different - just like they used to be on gSm. We're basically the weird kid from the next block, who's mowing your lawn and as a reward gets a glass of lemonade and the permission to use your toilet if needed. What I love about being a teamer P e r s o n a l r u l e s So for me, being a teamer comes with its own rule book - because clearly, Kaj or VP don't provide us with one and we as a community have to come up with them ourselves. And this is where most of the issues are rooted. As we all do this for some or other reason - maybe we like socialising, maybe we are bored and search fulfillment in life, maybe we just want to further our fun on a site by writing a text on something we love every month - we usually love our job and do have our own ideas of what should be important for us as teamers. C o n t i n u i t y , q u a l i t y a n d q u a n t i t y For most of us, this means having a certain type of schedule. Mind you, we are content creators and continuity is what keeps the community alive, so we do know about the importance of coming up with new stuff every now and then and regularly bringing you the content you love. We think and discuss in lenght what sets we should provide you with and what events you'd like the most. We try to balance it out - something for the lazy, something for the overachievers, something for those with some troubles, something that basically the whole community can enjoy as a whole. And the gratification most of the times is there. Sure, not every team has the same platform for their creations and work and thus the reactions may differ, but in general you get comments, you get people to interact and react to things you did. M y o w n e x p e r i e n c e Especially as a designer, there is nothing I love more, than seeing people make outfits with items I created and clearly using the stuff. I don't need my items to be super rare and expensive to feel appreciated, loving to use an item for me is gesture enough. Same goes for my blogs, where I love nothing more than starting to talk with people. You don't need to agree with me all the time and you don't need to go ahead and compliment me on my writing or editing skills. Just say what you think about the issue, maybe even start thinking about something that was, prior to reading my blog, complete news to you and potentially find a new passion. I like seeing, that people are happy and mostly responsive to the schedule I either set myself or we collectively as a team set. Maybe it's the weird workaholic in me, but there is nothing that fills me more with pride but the thought that me sticking to a deadline and delivering content people enjoy is a work properly done. The dark side of being a teamer But every coin as a second side to it and this is where things get ugly. Because in the end, again, we are just fellow users who enjoy being on this site and see our investment in a team as fun time. So naturally there are a few points, where people might get into conflict with each other. T e a m c o n f l i c t s On one side, you have team-intern conflicts, that mostly have been resolved by the admins stepping up and coming up with a definite set of rules for every team. But especially before that and still today, things can get rough. It is no secret, that content creation is a creative process and takes up a lot more energy, than you'd initially think. This is why it's so important to work in teams. But you can't force creativity and sometimes even life gets in the way of the most trivial and mundane thing. T h e s e r i o u s n e s s o f t h e j o b These have been valid points for activity and quality to diminish. But the issue with this is, that you kind of vowed to make an effort with this job. You do treat it like you would a real job and you certainly wouldn't dream of telling your boss, you're not coming in anymore, because you don't feel the vibe of doing stuff today. W h y i t e n d s i n c a t f i g h t s a n d p e r s o n a l w a r s And this is why it often comes to discussions and even fights. Not because you can't take some time away if needed (remember, we mostly are friends or at least in the tiniest bit compassionate about our teammates), but more because we all see the jobs on VP as something different. Some, like me, compare it to a real job or side hustle. Others see it more like a hobby that you either do or don't, but no one really cares if you want to take a break for 5 months to pursue other stuff. And these two kinds of people usually are to be found in every team. A t t a c k s f r o m o u t s i d e The other side is the issues with people from the outside. Even if you try to create as well as you can, there always will be people who don't like your work. That's not really something personal (even though sometimes people try to make it or misinterpret it as such), but it can get to you. If you keep hearing that every time you create something for VP, people are disappointed and wished for some other creator to step up and just rescue them, well it's basically a punch in the face. We are not dumb, we all know that not everyone likes what we do. But seeing how people openly react and sometimes being the target of mostly vile comments about your work ... it kind of gets to you. C o n s t r u c t i v e c r i t i c i s m o r h a t e ? Because mind you, we do this work out of good will, because we want to give back to the community and make it happy. This is just an utter discredit for all the work we put into it and it's basically telling us "if you're not XY, you can go home; we'd rather have nothing than the shit you create". Seeing how this is a community by us for us, it's a dick move. Because more often than not, those giving those super helpfull an not at all valid or in any way constructive comments, are people who would never in their wildest dream think about doing stuff on their own. And it sucks knowing that your haters are basically your neighbours and they think that they are so much better at stuff, they don't even need to prove themselves. How can we improve the situation? I s t h e c o m m u n i t y a t f a u l t o r a m I ? Well, it all boils down - again - to the same point: we are a user-driven community and need to work together as such. This means mostly being open and honest about things. To help make VP a better place for everyone involved, teamers and non-teamers, need to work together. W h a t t e a m e r s n e e d t o d o Teamers need to try and listen to the needs and desires of the community as a whole (doesn't prevent you from doing niche stuff, but that should either be something only one person specialises in or something rare). W h a t u s e r s n e e d t o d o Non-teamers need to communicate about what they like, what they don't, what they want. It is not about shaming an user for not doing stuff, you don't want to see. Go out and talk to each other. C o m m u n i c a t i o n i s k e y Maybe you don't like the competitions that are going around on VP? Don't go around telling ET they're shit. Go to them and give them ideas and inspiration for something new. (And I don't mean telling them people want to see more dress-up competitions, go ahead and maybe propose a new kind of dess-up competition and see if maybe you can come up with a new idea together.) Same goes for the other teams. Go to FT, BT, YT and NT and tell them what interests you and what you feel people should know more about. O r j u s t t r y i t y o u r s e l f ? And if it is too weird, well go the extra mile and do it yourself. The threads and blogging function are open to all of us! Go to DT and tell them what you think VP is missing. We all know at least one teamer who we think has a similiar taste or interest as we do - again, we are friends on here - so it should be easier for us to help shape the content of this website. But of course, it can't work, if people either think they are entitled to whatever and others are just needlessly defensive about their work. If you've made it this far and read all of it, thank you. I really would love to hear your opinion on all of this and maybe even see if there is a point I completely neglected that you feel should be mentioned in this too? (And yes, I have a shitton more of these blogs loaded up.) |
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