The Professionals

[Cz]

We're breathing life into the Professionals program again. Through discussions among those already involved in the program we've agreed on how the program will work from now on to ensure its usefulness and longevity.

Recruitment will be announced later through threads in the profession forums.

The Professionals program

Purpose
The Professionals program exists to
- inform Funcom of the players' wishes for future development within their profession.
- make sure bugs that affect the different professions are reported to Funcom with enough details to allow the Anarchy Online development team to fix them without any unnecessary delays.

Composition
The Professionals program consists of
- the Funcom community team.
- 28 representatives of the players, two from each profession, known as the Professionals.

The 28 player representatives are appointed by the Funcom based on applications, requirements for the position, support in the community and evaluation by Funcom.

A potential Professional must
- have been a member of the Anarchy Online community for at least six months. (Exceptions may be made for Shades and Keepers.)
- have a character of at least level 150 (title level 5) in the profession. (Exceptions may be made for Shades and Keepers.)
- be active on the profession's forum.
- be in good standing with Funcom both in-game and on the bulletin board.

Activity
The Professionals will create and update two separate lists for their profession:
1. Main concerns and wishes of the profession.
2. Bugs affecting the profession.

How these lists are made, their layout, and how often they are updated is entirely up to the Professionals, but one should remember that the players will most likely expect both to be up-to-date and include a prioritization of the bugs and concerns / wishes. Other initiatives than making these lists are also entirely up to the Professionals.

The Funcom community team will handle these two lists in different ways:
1. The top ten entries on the concerns / wishes list will be included - though maybe in shortened form - in a document about profession concerns and wishes to be presented to the developers at their request and prior to major content update and expansion pack meetings.
2. All entries on the bug list will be confirmed reported in the internal Funcom system for bug reports and assigned to the appropriate developer(s).

Important: To write bug reports is not a responsibility of the Professionals. Bug reports should normally exist in Funcom's system before they make it to the list, and the list need only be a list with short descriptions for double-checking.

Thread tools
To manage discussions, update the lists and keep the profession's forum in a constructive tone the Professionals are allowed - but not required - to use some moderator abilities (in their own profession's forum only):
- Opening and closing threads.
- Sticking (rooting) and un-sticking threads.
- Edit the posts containing the profession's lists of concerns / wishes and bugs.

Note: Moderation is the responsibility of Funcom and the ARK moderators, not the Professionals.

Visibility
The Professionals need to be visible to the people they represent. To ensure this each Professional will have "<profession> Professional" included in their bulletin board title, and a list Professionals will be maintained (rooted) in the Community Corner forum.

(The list will be posted when new Professionals are added. For now please see below in this post.)

Recruitment

The process for appointing new Professionals takes approximately three weeks. The final choice is made by Funcom, but players are encouraged to show their support for eligible candidates through a poll. The process is as follows:

1. The open position is announced on the Community Corner and the appropriate profession forum, and people are given 7 days to apply for the position.
2. Funcom looks through the applications and makes a list of those who meet the requirements given above. The list is posted in the appropriate profession forum, in a thread open for discussion. The candidates are asked to present themselves (max 100 words) in the thread.
3. A poll is posted three days after the list, and is open for seven days. This poll is to see whether each candidate has support, and is only a guide for Funcom in choosing a new Professional (or two).
4. Based on internal evaluation and show of support from the poll Funcom decides on the most suitable candidate and contacts the candidate. In the unlikely case that an agreement can't be made, the next on the list will be contacted.
5. The new Professional is appointed and announced.

The current Professionals

Adventurer
Inocybe and Jayde

Agent
Mattie and Morphex

Bureaucrat
Charles and Szentasha

Doctor
Georg and Letah

Enforcer
Arinia

Engineer
HighOrbit and Lyricia

Martial Artist
Chronita and DaveDread

Nano Technician
Fingers

Trader
Mercatura

Needed Professionals

The following seats need to be filled:
Enforcer
Fixer (2 seats)
Keeper (2 seats)
Meta-Physicist (2 seats)
Nano Technician
Shade (2 seats)
Soldier (2 seats)
Trader

Recruitment will start shortly. Please look for threads regarding recruitment in the appropriate profession forums.

If you have questions or feedback regarding the Professionals, please address them to me.

[Cz]

Here's some additional information based on questions and feedback I've received regarding the Professionals program so far.

Dimensions
The Professionals represent their profession, and should draw on input and experience from their profession community. Thus we will not have any rule or guideline about getting a certain representation from any dimension.

Players from Die Neue Welt are absolutely free to apply for a seat in the Professionals program. However, the forum activity requirement is based only on the profession forums on this bulletin board, not Gamigo's bulletin board for Die Neue Welt.

Side, breed and organization
As said above, the Professionals represent their profession. They do not represent their side, breed or organization, nor a specific playing style (e.g. choice of weapon). Thus there are no rules or guidelines about trying to balance these aspects within the Professionals. If all the best qualified candidates with enough support are neutral players from Die Neue Welt focusing purely on Throwing Weapons (picking a rather unlikely combination for emphasis), those will be the ones invited to join the program.

Current Professionals
The current Professionals will stay in the program until they choose to step down or Funcom finds it necessary to remove them. They will not have to step up for re-election at this time.

Word count in the presentation
We won't disqualify an application if the word count goes a tiny bit above 100 words. Don't even try close in on 200 though, and please try stick to the 100 words limit. We do consider the ability to get to the point and prioritize and focus on the most vital information a very important quality.