To make this as painless as possible, let's list the questions [and answers] so you don't have to read stuff which you're not interested in, okay? Okay.
The NGP [Neighborhood Guide Program] is a district program that allows residents with limited time to help FC and their district. Volunteers are assigned City Pubs streets to monitor & surf. These guides then check their streets for good sites and bad sites. The Guides send out welcome letters to the new citizens on their street; they sign guestbooks; and give out help [a site has a broken link, the guide would send an email with ways to fix the problem]. When they come across a good site, they recommend the site to the Ministers to be put on the district recommended sites list or for the district award. Unfortunately, they also come across sites that do not meet FortuneCity Guidelines. When they do, they tell the head NG the URL and problem. The Neighborhood Guide Admin [NGA] then will check the site and take the action neccesary from there.
But in the pubs district we only want that to be part of the role, and in our case not the main part. We really want basically people to take part in the virtual community thingy more. After all the more thriving a community we appear to be the more people take part and the more fun it all becomes, and that's what really matters after all. No point doing something that isn't fun, unless you're getting paid or something!
Um, you! We [that is, Fortune City, the pubs and I] need your assistance in helping out. This is a volunteer program run by the citizens who make their home here.
Basically, if you wanna take part, have a laugh, do some street surfing of course, then join in. If you'd rather sit back set up a site and do nowt else then do that, either way it's up to you. Of course you've gotta show some commitment to the role, else you don't get ya extras, as much as they are, ooohhh 2 whole extra Mb's!
Why is it needed -- or even desireable?
Any community or society composed of individuals must have a foundation based in a set of rules. Without them anarchy would be the result -- and no matter how unpleasant it may seem to live under the gimlet eye of "Big Brother" [or Big Sister in today's politically correct world], anarchy is always worse. No offense to anachists of course :-):
Fortune City is such a community of web minded individuals, and therefore has a set of rules to ensure the greatest measure of freedom and a pleasant environment for the greatest number of its inhabitants. Naturally, not every person will agree with its administration. That is to be expected in any organization, but again, the key words here are the Greatest Number.
However, try not to think of the NG program as a "Dirty Harry" kind of cop -- rather the "Officer Joe Bolton" kind of friendly officer on the beat, ready to help out. There is much more to the NG program than going around looking for non-compliant sites. We want to look for the good places to visit out there, mention them to the ministers so that they'll get some deserved recognition, and perhaps submit them for one of the FC awards.
The matter should be [and will be by myself] approached in a positive manner rather than a negitive one. And if one of the guides happens upon a non-compliant site, well, first the webmaster of that site must be politely notified of the disgresson. After all, he/she may not be aware of his/her (Say_Ten - Political correctness, dontcha jsut love it!) breaking the guide-lines of the city. Then, after notification and a period of time, if the webmaster chooses to ignore the polite prod, his site will be scrutinized by regular FC employees. No direct action is taken by the guide at any time.
The team of Neighborhood Guides, together with myself, will cruise through the streets of the City Pubs looking at each and every residence which is occupied. Naturally this is an ongoing task as new people move in and occassionally residents move out as time goes along.
Each NG is assigned a block of streets by myself. You can think of me as the Sergeant of the Guard if you like (Say_Ten - Got that you misserable pile of worms droppings!). Each NG, according to his/her own personal schedule, visits homes on his/her "beat", looking for ones that ought to get some recognition or perhaps even be recommended for the District Award. Also, if the NG sees that the owner of the home is having coding problems [such as broken links, missing graphics, et cetera] then he/she can notify them of the situation -- and perhaps even offer some helpful advice as to how to enhance their page or retify the programming error[s]. It's the neighborly thing to do. You'd tell your next door neighbor if his house was burning down, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you???
I would expect this "Officer Friendly" type of attitude in each person who works with me on the NG program. In the event that the guide happens upon a site which is at odds with the FC guidelines, he/she would notify the webmaster via email [carbon copy to me] of the rule which is in question and giving them ample time to correct the matter or relocate to a more suitable server [ie if someone wants to have a hard-core porno page, it needs to reside on a server which allows this type of site -- FC does not].
I will follow up on the original email and visit the site to verify that it, in fact, does not comply with the guidelines. Now the clock begins to run. The webmaster of the site in question has seven [7] days to correct the matter or to relocate. If in that time he/she does not choose do so, I will email them personaly -- again requesting that they bring their home within FC guidelines and give them a day or two more. Should compliance yet remain a problem after the extra time, I will recommend the site's removal from the FC server to the appropriate FC administrator. From there, the matter is in official FC hands. (Say_Ten - Make sense yet?)
Who can suggest a site for recognition?
Any resident of FC can. The NG are the regular "patrolmen" on the beat, but anyone who comes across a really good site can recommend it to either his local NG, myself, or one of the ministers. I would prefer that people do not recommend their own sites simply because I know of the amount of mail this generates. However, if you really want to submit your own work then we'll look at it as time permits.
In the matter of a site where compliance with the guidelines is a problem, you can notify either your local NG or myself [please, the ministers have other tasks at hand and this is my function in the organization.]. We will then take whatever action is deemed appropriate. Keep in mind that this entire program deals only with FC sites. We won't visit a site located on another server.
You simply email your NG. Naturally, we will need the suggested home's web address. It would be nice to have its title too, so we can be sure of being at the correct location [mistakes do happen]. Your email and home address would also be appreciated if you choose to supply them so that we may acknowledge your communication. No you don't get a free drink, not even a hearty pat on the back, maybe a nice thankyou e-mail!
Again, remember, the NG program only deals with sites and folks located on the Fortune City server. Others will not be visited.
YES !!! I hope to get a great number of volunteers. The more people we have working on this program, the better the district can be covered. The requirements for becoming a Neighborhood Guide are:
If this sounds interesting and worthwhile to you, click here to apply. I will get back to you, usually within a day or two.