Iri Ryorki wrote:Thoughts about main FC assignation aside, one thing I think would have been useful was a designated Logi coordinator.
Much of what you posted and my comments below would have been greatly helped by this. We really should have a designated FC and logi commander at all times, and they should probably be in the MOTD all the time.
Iri Ryorki wrote:I had to ask around a bit to find out which chat channel was being used for logi coordination...A few people idling in the POS but still in the logi channel, which meant having to explain to newcomers to work around them to keep the chain running. If you're not active please drop the logi channel so it's clear who needs to be included in a chain.
I think these two are somewhat related. If it is hard to get in on the logi channel in the first place, people are going to be reluctant to drop it when they're not on-station. Fleet chat was a constant stream of entertainment, so posting anything operational there and hoping that it would be noticed by somebody was fairly hit-and-miss. Whispering in the logi subchannel often didn't result in much help either, and I found it took a few rounds of asking to get in on the main channel.
You are correct that at times people just stepped up to try to sort things out, but it was one of those organic things that didn't happen all the time.
The other complication was that we were not all on the same grid - you could be on station and in the logi channel, but not part of somebody else's chain who was also in-channel. I found I had to pay attention to the watchlist to get it right. There was one point where I did see somebody in the logi channel and on-grid, only to discover they weren't actually in a logi ship.
There were times when I had to be more afk (but still monitoring comms) and I was idle at the POS. I think that in such situations it probably still makes sense to be in logi chat, so that if the fleet has to form up we're ready to go and the logi coordinator isn't dealing with invites on top of everything else. I'd be interested in whether somebody has a different take on that. However, I would say that this should only be done if comms are being actively monitored - and that if a fight starts and you're not joining you should drop.
Iri Ryorki wrote:In addition to this a few people didn't listen to, or didn't notice, the instructions that everyone else was following so seemed to be turning up at random (wrong) locations and expecting to get in on an organised chain.
Again, I think having a logi coordinator designated would help here. I suspect we were largely on at different times since most of the time I was joining it seemed like nobody was in charge and I would basically just end up picking a hole and bugging people to include me in the chain. At other times it seemed like there was somebody actively inquiring about active logi at each hole and keeping things in balance. This tends to go along with somebody else's comment about level of organization going up and down.
One thing I did want to comment on - the general disorganization when we weren't bashing structures turned out to not be too much of a problem, but that was only because nobody more organized than us decided to take advantage of the situation. If at some point neighbors in the c3 showed up in a bunch of t3s it could have been really messy if they picked a time when we had 3 tackle, 2 dd, and maybe 2 logi on station with 4 people scrambling to figure out who was going to be the FC. It wouldn't have helped that sometimes people had to call break 5 times in a row to get others to stop yammering about whatever. I think the key to these kinds of operations is to be good at creating content to distract everybody from boredom (otherwise nobody stays online), but at the same time always being organized and ready to switch to combat (which is why we wanted them online in the first place).
