Revision of Avatar policy

[JimmyTwoHand]

Recently it has seemed more and more obvious that the very sexy avatar may be harming the irregs to some degree by encouraging spur of the moment entry rather than considered decision.

It is therefore proposed that the avatar will be phased out in the near future and replaced with a signature logo instead. I know this may not be a popular decision but i do think it is for the good of the group.

With this in mind i am throwing open the doors to a sig logo competition. Feel free to use the original design or come up with your own creation. Just bear in mind that there are sig limitations and it would be good to have something that can be used side by side with images from the sig generator which are very popular(such as the ones in my sig).

Get creative people and lets see what you come up with.

[Thierry]

I'm good with photoshop, I'll see what I can turn up.

[JimmyTwoHand]

We have volunteer number 1. good egg.

[ChIck3nL3gz]

If I had PS I'd design something myself. But I don't. I can probably work on something in paint.

I'm disappointed to see that our avatars will be phased out. But, I guess its for the better. Maybe in the near future they'll come back.

[JimmyTwoHand]

I understand your disapointment but it is really for the best. If things start to come round then it may be within the realms of possibility that they return although that could be some way off i think.

[Chappie]

ok,

Maybe I'm a bit slow...but why is this happening???

Chappie

[ChIck3nL3gz]

The way I understand it we have people who join the Irrs but don't participate too much and yet they still sport the avatar. I could be wrong though and Jimmy may have a better handle on it.

[JimmyTwoHand]

Thats exactly the point. The avatar is very cool and seems to be the only reason some people are joining. I dont think this will cause too much of a fuss though. If everyone joined the irregulars for the right reason there should be no reason for any heartache apart from a mild pang because whiskeys design was so damn good. It also keeps a degree of seperation between in-house and the irregs.

The signature image will allow recognition of fellow squadies and the Irr tag will remain in game to foster teamwork on server.

[seforest]

I guess it's worth a try although I would think we'd want as many members as possible, token or not. Anyway, for me the opposite was true, I was reluctant to replace my Evangelion avatar with the IRR one (Although it is very well done)....Back to Eva!

[JimmyTwoHand]

We want members here for the right reason. New guys who want to learn and train, old hands who want to teach, people who want consistent teammates and tactics or scrims under a common banner. It doesnt work if people join and then just keep up their old server 1 routine. That just defeats the object.

We do want a large membership, but a large membership for the right reason.

[ChIck3nL3gz]

Well, I've been thinking on this some more and I think what we should honestly do is only allow the avatar and tags to be used if you actively participate.

We are after all technically an in house squad. Although we don't have strict routines because of everyones hectic schedules and the fact that we have a lot of people from over seas.

If you look at the other in house squads you'll notice that they also do not have large rosters and our roster of active members is fairly comparable to that of the other in houses.

I'm not saying we alienate those that are in our midst but do not participate, they are after all Irregulars but we should consider them more as NCO's the CO's (Non-Commisioned Officers and Commisioned Officers), we should honestly restrict at least the avatar to those who participate, leave the tags for in game this way we can identify Irregulars from pubs and such. And then once those non-active members in teh irregulars become more and more active in practices and games and on the boards they can use the avatar.

I guess it'd be along the same lines as awarding medals and trophies and such.

I'm only saying this because the other in houses don't toss their avatars at everyone who joins the site. I've noticed with them you earn the right to wear the avatar.


And again, we are an in house squad and should at least follow what some of the other in houses do that seem to work.

We do have quite a few Irregulars who actively particiapte regularly and those should be the ones who should be allowed to wear the avatar. I took a look at our roster this morning and noticed there are a lot names that I have never seen online whether it be on the battlefield itself or on the boards.

I myself joined the Irrs because I love the teamwork, the fact that I can hop on any of the servers and at any given time and see at least 4-6 guys from teh Irregulars that I have worked with on several occasions and that I now consider my friends.

I think that we should officially start acting like an In-House but keep a lot of our flexibility, we need to set up more practices that everyone who wants to be active can participate it would also let everyone know who is a core Irregular. The sig thing would be perfect for those who don't actively participate on a regular basis they would still be Irregulars but they wouldn't have an avatar. Keep those to core members who are active regularly, who post, and fight (or die) on the battlefield on a regular basis.

Please, don't take any of this the wrong way, but the sigs could be used to recognize Irregulars who aren't regularly active and the avatars could eb for those who are active.

Its only an idea I'm throwing out there to see if it would work or not.

I myself want to setup practices at least once a week either on a saturday ro a sunday at a time that those in Europe and those in the US can get on and play. I feel that we need some more training especially if we want to get into scrims witht eh other in house squads. And I feel that we definitely need set times with enough notice so that when you sign up and say you are going to be there that you are going to be there. At the same time I also understand things come up, and thats fine that's why I'm planning on giving at least a weeks notice before the scheduled date. And those who regularly show up to these I feel are core members and have joined the Irrs for the right reasons.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I don't get it. If the spiffy avatar is getting people to join just to look cool, and we replace it with a spiffy signature, won't we have the same exact problem?

[JimmyTwoHand]

I think it is wrong to say the irregulars are an inhouse squad. I understand where you are coming from on that but we are not. We have some common aspects which have developed beyond the original format to bring us closer to inhouse practices but the irregs are for those who like some aspects but cannot commit fully and also those who just want a banner to fight under in scrims. The irregulars are in effect a "team lite" which occupies a middle ground. We also have double the numbers of the next largest squad and on average 3-5x as many as most. This is a requirement of our open membership policy and also our erratic timetables.

The avatar points again raise the question of what is active participation? Im sure everyone has a common sense idea of what it means but when it comes time to draw a fixed line in the sand it is very difficult to come up with a set of criteria. It has not been managed so far, maybe you can come up with something?

It is appealing to think that the irregulars could serve a dual purpose. That it could be open to all as a banner to fight under in scrims and also providing some more advanced aspects like practices but again the implementation issues make it hard to see how this could work without it being an administrative nightmare. It would be nice if you could prove me wrong and get some proposals drafted though.

Regarding training remember we do not have any "rights" to server time. That again is a difference between us and the inhouse lads. Bear that in mind when approaching the admins about server time. So far they have bent over backwards to help the irregs and it would be nice to keep the relationship harmonious and beneficial to both sides. Have you considered "on server" training as an option.

If you can get guys on together at a certain time you can run drills defending certain flags and experiment with tactics in game as long as you make clear the objective before you start. Just something else to think about and maybe get working on. It would be a shame to leave all that enthusiasm untapped.

Good to see you stepping up and thinking about the directions the irregs go in.

[ChIck3nL3gz]

I guess what I should have said was that while technically we may not be considered an In-house we are theoretically an In-House. We do show up on the TG Wiki for BF2 as an in house squad. I also see where you are coming from on the "team lite" stance. I also know that we have double the members of the next largest squad but our roster does show more than half of them as "inactive".

To me, "active" and "regular" participation is that of frequent posts to the forums, whether they be in the Irregular board or not. As long as they are showing participation in discussions and ideas are coming out of their fingertips that does show an act of participation. Again, to me active participation is someone who is also seen on the battlefield once in a while. Again, a good portion of our roster is full of "unassigned" members; although now that I'm looking at it I know I've seen a few people from the unassigned list on the servers lately. Which is why I think that those who actively make it a point to get involved on the battlefield, on the forums should have the privilage of wearing the Irr avatar, I mean afterall, we are a squad even if we aren't technically "in-house" are we not?

I fully am aware that we do not have any "rights" so-to speak ont he servers. However, you honestly can not believe that; we do call this home we do support it. And as long as we continue to put requests in to reserve server time four our squad to practice I don't see why we shouldn't utilyze it. Which brings me to another point.

I feel that we should start acting like a squad. We should begin to practice, run drills. When I first joined TG I had noticed there was a lot of chatter on the Irr board about the Irregulars to participate against/alongside the other in-house squads. But again, nothing was set. Posts about training were made but none of it was followed through because they were set during the week late at night. Which is why I guaged interest in a weekend type practice with Shafik's help. And even though saturday (1/28) didn't go as well as I had hoped it was still better than a weekday practice at 9pm EST (in my opinion) and I'll continue to do weekend practices as long as I get some Irr's from across the globe to run. Because at some point in time I do want to run with some of the other in-house squads on scrims.

It is possible to also run drills in game, albeit much, much harder because its live. So, just like in real life you need a place to run those drills without the fear of being shot at. Once you've run the same drills over and over again it becomes instinctive to implement them in an actual game.

IMO, I'd like to see the Irregulars evolve into something a little more while keeping it's mission statement and values the same. I'm not saying we change our rules and make practices mandatory or that we schedule hard nights that we play with no ifs ands or buts, but it would be nice to say, "Guys, we are playing this day against this group of people and I'd like to see this drill run in game with these tactics." and have people sign up to the post saying, "Hell yeah I'm in let's show 'em that we are a force to be reckoned with." Instead of target practice for guys like Viper, Nex (even though we love them.) I'd like to see more scheduled practices so that the guys from the in-houses get on thier VOIPs and say to one another "Keep an eye on Jimmy and seforest in that chopper" or "Chicken and Tycho are flanking and they just wiped out Bravo with knives and ammo packs thrown at their heads get ready."

[Chappie]

Hey guys,

This really has nothing to do with the avatar..just an observation. It seems to me that whenever I hop on server 1 there are usually a few Irregs's on. However, it's nearly impossible to join the same squad. Most of the time that I'm able to log on it's pretty busy and the squads are at their max. So I end up joining with some other guys on the server.

Now I realize this is kind of the way the game is set up..but it would be nice to have some kind of routine/regulation that if you join the server and can't join a squad with some irreg's that as soon as that map is over the Irreg's form up on the next map.

I realize this might be an inconvenience to some, but the whole reason I joined the Irregular's was to play the game with a core group of people. Again, I enjoy my time on server 1. There are ALOT of great people on that server...but I think we need to play together as a group when we can.

As far as the avatar thing goes...I personally would like to keep it...but I'll do whatever the group decides.

thanks....

Chappie