This is probably the hundredth closing post, but now that we've removed badges, I thought we could officially commemorate the members of each crew. I also wanted to comment on some of the feedback we've received.
While the crews had the same number of members, the activity level of each user wasn't consistent (I'll talk about that more below), so I'll trim the list to the top 50 point earners of each crew.
The Galaxolotls
-Blue-, -Lumi-, -Mars-, aericell, Aerith, Alolan_Apples, amemome, Asarena, aurora., BetsySundrop, BungoTheElf, Chibi.Hoshi, Cirice, Croconaw, CrossingKitty, daringred_, digimon, droqen, edenoakk, FraudulentDimetrodon, FrostyAlmonds, Fye, Gene., glow, God_Is_Life^-^, illumie, JellyBeans, Kattea, KittenNoir, Kitty2201, LateGamer, Mars Adept, Millysaurusrexjr, Mimi Cheems, Mr.Fox, neferet, nyx~, princess.looking.for.frog, Rabirin, Rosch, RosyLilacCat, Sarah3, Saylor, Shanica92, Shellzilla_515, ShinkaiTheSeaWing, skarmoury, starlightskies, Truji, Venn, Wildtown, ZeldaCrossing64
Actually, Nevermind
airpeaches, ali.di.magix, Amilee, AustinTEG06, Azzy, Biyaya, Brickittybrick, Coach, Corrie, DaCoSim, DaisyFan, dino, Dinosauuur, Firesquids, Flicky, Flyffel, Hat', Heyden, himekirako, idiotdoomspiral, IonicKarma, kikotoot, kiwikenobi, Lancelot, Libra, LoserMom, LoveGraceMarie, magicaldonkey, Midoriya, Milleram, Mr_Keroppi, Nougat, pipty, r a t, Ravenkitty22, RemMomori, Rhea, roseflower, Roxxy, Sara?, Sharksheep, Sheando, shellbell, Shinigamii, tarepanda3ame, tessa grace, themysterybidder, xSuperMario64x, Zakira, Zane
International Space Cetacean
Aquilla, Bluelady, Bob Zombie, boring, Bui, Cheremtasy, corlee1289, Darcy94x, Darkesque_, Dinosaurz, Drawdler, Emolga59, faerie, Flaming_Oceans, Freya_Druid, Giddy, Halloqueen, Hanami, Ichiban, Irescien, Iris_T, jadetine, JellyLu, JemAC, Jhine7, kayleee, King koopa, Kitsuragi, LittleMissPanda, MaiaMae, MiniPocketWorld, Minou, mogyay, oak, Oldcatlady, outofwrlds, Peach_Jam, Plume, Rainbowhorn, rass, S.J., seliph, Snek, Snowesque, Trundle, Vsmith, xlisapisa, Yoshi155, You got mail!, ~Kilza~
Moon Bunnies
Aniko, Antonio, Aurita, AuroraFox, Beanz, Blink., ConfusedDad, CylieDanny, deana, duckvely, duckykate, Equity, Foreverfox, Guire, Hatori, Holla, Hunter_Gr33n, Insulaire, itsmxuse, Jacob, jeni, Kirbyz, LadyDestani, LambdaDelta, lieryl, Liz!, Merielle, michealsmells, Mokuren, moonbyu, Moonlight., Mutti, Naekoya, neoratz, Newbiemayor, oath2order, OswinOswald, pottercrossing, Princess Mipha, Rio_, Snap Crackle Pop, Snowifer, That Marshal Fangirl, The Pennifer, Verecund, Vhoop, VillageDweller, xara, Yanrima~, Zerous
I hope you all had a fun time with your crews and maybe even made some new friends!
After reading and discussing all of the feedback left in the survey, we thought it would be helpful to comment on some of the common topics.
Active users on crews
Since I mentioned it above, I thought I'd start by commenting on inactive users and balancing the crews. This was a relatively common complaint because the winning cabin/crew is almost always going to be the one with the most active users. While we had some team vs. team tasks that awarded points, most points came from individual participation. This is how the event is structured because, despite the team element, most tasks are performed individually.
Unfortunately, every crew had inactive users and balancing them is a bit more difficult than it sounds. We also need to be inclusive to all users who express interest in participating, even if it may not be very much. Crews were in fact balanced when the event started, and also to some extent as users were added later. However, we're going to try a different method of balancing next time, so we'll see if we can do a better job then!
Team vs. team
As you probably noticed from a couple of the survey questions, we were anticipating the team vs. team tasks to receive a lot of feedback. Sure enough, a very large portion of the feedback we received mentioned something that falls under this category! A lot of these team vs. team tasks were a bit experimental and we actually saw changes that could be made early on. We definitely agree with a lot of the feedback you left about this and have already been discussing ideas to address it.
Bad sportsmanship
At some point during the event, we put up a notice about sportsmanship and this issue was also commented on in the survey. While competitive banter is fine (and fun), there's a point where it can cross over into bad sportsmanship and rude behavior. One thing I'd like to point out about this is that, whether it's related to an event or not, we don't typically discuss a user's behavior publicly. We did talk to people privately after some incidents, so I want to stress that we did not ignore this issue like some seemed to think.
Also, I think changes to the team vs. team aspects I mentioned above will help reduce some of the rivalry we saw. For example, no more being paired with the same team over and over.
Crew favorite voting
Another common piece of feedback was related to how we selected the favorite entries, which awarded the Rainbow Crescent Moon and extra tokens. For both camp events, we have used crew favorites based on reactions. While this method is flawed for such a big event, there is unfortunately no perfect solution. For example, using the staff favorite method would not have been realistic to select during the short timeframe and with so many other things happening at the same time. However, we are going to spend some time thinking about this to try to come up with a better solution. While we'll probably continue to use community favorite reaction voting for smaller events with lower stakes, we'll see if we can come up with some other system for the next camp event.
I hope this has helped explain the staff's point of view and where we can make changes for next time. Thanks for all of your feedback and help in improving the event!