News / New NE Admin 2020

Dear New Element,

here's to a Happy New Year 2020!

I am super glad to begin a new decade of RCT with all of you, after what will soon be 18 years since the site's initial launch. It's quite unbelievable to type this fact down, and more so how it reflects in the diversity we now see in the community as the age gaps spread on. I think it's a good thing, and I'm excited to see what you guys will send us in 2020. Especially after we saw five spotlights in 2019! Two candidates are even still pending with Terra Fantasia and Bethlehem Steelworks as I type this. And indeed, the submission queue is not empty right now, and we'll soon start releasing parks again to kick things off.

 

► For this new year, there is one major news: G Force and ][ntamin22 have both agreed to step down from their admin roles. It was an amicable decision amongst the four of us, and I'm thankful for their engagement whilst inside the admins circle. In the three years since they had joined, we've seen a few changes at NE - for me predominantly the move to Discord as the main exchange platform, with all its pros and cons. Although I wasn't initially warm towards Discord, it was good we had new people in the team then who helped me see the positives about it. Both have helped with various admin tasks throughout their time which sadly the site doesn't always make visible. Both have also given helpful and objective input on many decisions we made which I much appreciate. Yet in more recent time, they agreed their engagement wasn't quite as strong anymore, and that's fine. After all, NE is something you do in your free time voluntarily, and so it must be okay to pass the position on.

This means we are looking for someone new. Liam and I had a chat and decided to recruit only a third active admin for now.

Being an admin of NE is not too dissimilar from a job in real life, and NE itself is often surprisingly similar to an actual company. You have a set of tasks that need to be done by a certain time, and the more smoothly you get it done the better. With NE4, geewhzz and I tried to break down the workload coming in every week into smaller parts, which led to the job distribution system like panelist votes or park logos. As an admin, there will be a few more jobs like these - mainly all the preparatory work going into upcoming releases: object linking, file preparation and map making.

Then there are other, less organised jobs like all the work going into site events when we do them, which especially for bigger contests like H2H can become a lot. Another example would be the NE Awards - more detail on that below.

We also have an admin channel on Discord where we discuss all the above, site politics, contest rules, or anything that needs attention. It is important to keep in touch here.

Like with any job, there are some requirements. No one will meet all of them, but to give you an idea - from most to least important:

- You should have experience as an online content creator. It doesn't matter if that's a blog you once did, a YouTube channel, or examples of graphic or web design. It's crucial you understand what it's like to entertain an audience and feed it with content. This then consequently necessitates certain technical skills, which for us mean Photoshop and HTML. Generally, you should be quite computer-literate, allowing you to prepare digital content to good quality in short time, or learn how to quickly.
- You should have shown a supportive, genuine and kind demeanour in the community for at least 2 years. You are level-headed, well respected and agreeable. You show you have a sincere concern for the development of upcoming players, whom you want to incentivise and support.
- You should love NE, quite simply. You should like our culture of competitive parkmaking, demonstrate good understanding of the site's history, and know the various building styles it's seen. You will have something thoughtful to say about the more meaningful releases from the past 8 years. You should also have a desire for the site to be in good shape: no missing downloads or bad maps, no disrespectful posts on the forums or Discord, events running smoothly and on time, etc.
- You can open LL parks. The site's origin is in LL, and it's sometimes relevant to open very old parks. We do archival work that mostly goes unnoticed. But over the years the desire for RCT parkmaking conservation has grown, and is now organised into a small sub-team of members. If you cannot open LL, you cannot really help here.
- You have experience as a website coder. This is the holy grail of skills nobody usually brings, but as you will know: NE needs a new main developer. geewhzz is still with us, and still paying for the site, too, but he cannot commit to coding like he used to anymore, which is more than understandable. Thus, if you want to code for us we are very interested.
- You are in a circumstance where you have enough spare time, or otherwise can manage your time extremely well to still give enough support. You also expect to stay with NE for the coming years.

As an example of your first task: since it's that time of year, we would be happy for someone's help with the preparation for the 2019 NE Awards: this means to collect nominations and all the respective information, perhaps also with the help of other members you reach out to on your own. You could compose the award's topic, set up the poll, help establish a suitable date for the ceremony to take place, plan with us what we might do as an awards surprise, etc.

If you find you want all of the above as you read this, then please send a PM to Liam and I by 19 Jan. Tell us why you want to do this, where you think you might be able to help, and where you may not. As mentioned, we will choose one candidate to join us into a group of three active admins.

While the above my sound a bit harsh and too much like work, let me also say that it's a lot of fun. It's nice to be at the forefront of RCT culture, and know and see everything major that happens, first. NE will always be the longest standing RCT community in the world. No other website has ever offered near the same amount of content for the game, or has seen a similar parkmaking culture grow and flourish to our extent. There is nowhere else with a similar degree of competitiveness and parkmaking quality. That has been NE's mantra from day 1, and it's stayed this way. This is your very rare chance to get near the core of NE, and to get your hands on the wheel steering it.

We hope to hear from you.

Truly sad to see this. I know this isn’t “goodbye” but I do know what being an admin on this site means. No matter how small the role or how little you may have done, a thank you doesn’t quite cover it.

You did great work here, boys. From the site, to the Discord, and in parkmaking. Godspeed in your next steps; hope all is, and goes, well for y’all.

posix, Liam: I’m probably not worthy, especially given the first requirement. I know I’m a weirdo. I do care about this site though, maybe more than most. Don’t discount me, if possible, and consider this my official nudge not to forget about me, okay? Love you guys.

Thanks for the work. Good luck on the search!

Im seriously semi considering. Consider me considering

Can't wait for the long awaited Kumba return to the admin chair.

I'd like to stress that the requirements are 'soft'. No one will meet all requirements. For example:

 

- You should have experience as an online content creator. It doesn't matter if that's a blog you once did, a YouTube channel, or examples of graphic or web design. It's crucial you understand what it's like to entertain an audience and feed it with content. This then consequently necessitates certain technical skills, which for us mean Photoshop and HTML.

 

I don't use photoshop and I don't know HTML. You can pick your own tools and methods as long as it gets the job done!

@][ntamin22 @G_Force Huge Thank you for your commitment. Being admin of such a community is not an easy task and I think you two managed it amazingly. You always stayed calm, even if times were critical and have been as neutral and objective as possibly. That’s something you’ve earned a lot of respect for! I think this site will miss an important constant with you two stepping down, but you are also at a point where you can look back at your adminship with pride. You are also a great example for future candidates! Please stay active as the great examplary member you are!

I wish all the candidates good luck! I won‘t reply, since if i understand it correctly i‘m not really fitting what‘s required at the current state of the site. But, as said on discord, if you need me for whatever reason to do some work for this wonderful site in another situation, feel free to contact me!

If you ever need help with some of that "LL archival work", hit me up 

Happy 2020 New Element. Thank you very much G-Force and ][ntamin22 for your service. Best of luck to Posix and company on your search for a new admin. And best of luck to those applying. Quite obviously NE is the best RCT site in the games history and here’s hoping and believing it remains online for a long time to come.

i dont meet most of the requirements or have the time and energy to commit but i also am happy to help with anything ll related if you could use it

Thank you G_Force and ][ntamin22 for your time and service to NE. Look forward to what 2020 has in store for our community!

Two great admins stepping down, thanks for your work guys. Hopefully you can still help out here and there where possible. What you've done for NE is greatly appreciated. That goes for the admins that are staying on too, you guys are rock solid! You don't deserve any flack for your work on here, your commitment to this site is amazing and greatly appreciated.

 

I'd love to offer myself help, but I don't think I'd have the time/energy to really provide whats needed on the site. Plus I may be lacking some of the necessary skills. But if you wanted to split the admin roles again I might be able to help out, I'd need to discuss that further with you guys. (Plus I don't frequent discord so there's that...)

Thank you all for the kind words.  Ultimately despite having great ambition and desire upon entering the role three years ago, during the last year my life has changed a lot due to graduating from school, and moving among other things.  As a result those qualities have diminished greatly in me, so unfortunately I just wasn't meeting the requirements any longer to deserve the role. 

 

Hopefully we can find someone new to take up these spots and help breathe some new life into the site, its definitely a tough gig, it isn't always easy and often thankless.  Luckily a lot of the processes have gotten tremendously easier in the last few years so hopefully it isn't quite as draining.

 

Anyways, good luck to all those who apply!  And thanks again for the words, I definitely plan to stick around, in what capacity I don't really know.  There's been little inspiration to play RCT since Southwinds but hopefully that comes back sooner rather than later.

Again, thank you to G Force and ][ntamin for the work they've done the last few years. I cna't wait to see who comes next.

 

Even though being an admin would be a great honour, I'm not gonna put myself forwards as a candidate because of my two digital left hands, and the fact I can't make that much time free anymore for managing a website, let alone play RCT.

 

Good luck to your succesor!

THX to G-Force and ][ntamin for the good work.
Nice people ♥☺

You guys will be missed around here, you were both great admins.

Thank you G Force and ][ntamin22 for all you've done for this site and community. Good luck to Liampie and Posix, I hope you guys find someone that fits with what you are looking for. 

► CoasterCreator9 becomes new third admin of New Element as of 2020.

Great choice In my opinion. A very active, helpful member! All the best for your new admin job CC9! :cheers:

Thank you everyone for the kind words both here and on Discord. I'm really excited, and it's a great honor to be a part of the team that keeps NE running.

 

Great choice In my opinion. A very active, helpful member! All the best for your new admin job CC9! :cheers:

 

This means a lot - thank you.