Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Start Of A New Season

People often wonder what a moderator actually does in FM Live. They sometimes see us muting players or checking up on transfers, but as most would put it: "That's easy, any trained chimp could do that..."

That's probably true, as checking transfers is little more than setting up the right filters and views and checking current affairs daily. However, there is more to a moderators job than just checking transfers and keeping the chat rooms clean of filth.

We have a lot of work during the final days of a season and at the start of a new season. People sometimes underestimate this. Once the Football Association Organisers (FAO's) have set up the new competitions (which is a lot of work in itsself, well done lads), we have to check all of the FAO's work.

It's not that we don't trust our FAO's... We appointed them ourselves so we have full faith in their capabilities as organisers. We have to double-check everything, because if they accidentally make a mistake, the whole season goes tits up. And believe me, as mistake is easily made when you have to set up so many different competitions.

The slightest error in the calibration of a single competition can cause the entire season to delay for all federations, as a season can only end when all FA competitions have ended. As you can see, the double-checking of the competition length is rather important.

Because we believe in equality, we also have to check the financial settings for every federation. The bottom team in the bottom league has to earn at least 250k and the rest of the cash should be distributed accordingly.

Essentially the leagues and cups are already set up in terms of %’s for places so it’s only numbers of teams that will affect whether this is still correct. Suggest starting with the Prem and adjusting the total prize fund until the winners get exactly £1m. Then suggest adjusting all bottom tier leagues total prize money so that the minimum prize money is £250k. Adjust other tiers total prize money to suit somewhere in between. All leagues are to pay out daily, not as a lump sum.

Finally, we have to edit and approve all leagues before the FAO's can start them. Because of the lockdown of the FA's taking place only 24 hours before the seasons start, a moderator has 24 hours to manually check, edit and approve all competitions and cups in every federation. Believe me when I tell you it's quite a stressful task...

Still, the fifth season in Miller has gotten underway now without any problems, thanks to some excellent teamwork. With almost all of our FAO's and two mods online at the same time, we managed to check and approve all competitions in a little less than 3 hours time. Special thanks to Jordan by the way, for his last minute entry as "Super-FAO" to save the day for the OFA.

3 comments:

  1. This is why I appreciate FAOs and MODs and don't ever want to be one :P

    They try their best to keep things smooth and if there is a problem they know they will be hold responsible. I like helping people in the chat but I don't think I could be as helpful if I know I may ruin people's enjoyment with a small mistake.

    Also, I am glad our mods and FAOs don't have attidute problems which is common when you give people power according to my experiences.

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  2. Keep up the good work mate. :D

    FAO-ing for my first time was abit of a scare but you helped me out abit. Thanks.

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  3. Couldn't have done it without you guys Muqqy ;)

    Volkan, I think you'd make a fine FAO :p

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