Ministry Channels

Seifur

This is something I'd like to have to make communication with a ministry's aides easier. Only the minister and those aided to the ministry would be able to see the channel and use it. It could work similar to clans.

Some example commands:
MINISTRY [<ministry>] TELL <message>
MT[#] <message>

MINISTRIES
    Display a list of the ministries you're a member of and the channel used. (ex: MT3)
MINISTRY SWITCH <ministry>
    Would set the specified ministry as the default for MT|MINISTRY TELL.

HISTORY MT
    Would display channel history like other orgs.

Example messages:
(Chancellor): Elawien says, "."
(Ministry of Trade): Seifur says, "."
(Ministry of Development): Jadys says, "."
(Treasurer): Yen says, "."

Eld

It could work similar to clans.

What's the benefit over just using org clans, as people currently do?

Seifur

Likely isn't one other than not having to spend gold to buy one.

Sarapis

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be discussing something like this:


Is a potentially useful idea, but if everybody is already using clans for this I'm not sure how much is gained by a new system to support it.

Valkyn

Everyone is not already using clans for this, it's too expensive. Most cities tend to have a few of the important ministries that use it having clans, and the rest get left out.

Eld

Valkyn said:

Everyone is not already using clans for this, it's too expensive. Most cities tend to have a few of the important ministries that use it having clans, and the rest get left out.

Oh, I didn't register the part where it would be separate channels for each ministry. Was thinking in terms of Hashan's setup (last I checked) of one catchall clan for all ministries. If having ministry-specific channels would be strongly preferred, then yes, being able to do that without buying clans for each would definitely be preferable.

Sarapis

Easy to have both - one option to send to all members of all ministries, another to send to a specific one. I think it's a good idea.

Aerek

I can't think of many instances where this would actually be necessary, though. I don't think our bureaucracies are quite -that- huge or cumbersome that they all need their own channels, especially as I don't think channels (requiring everyone to be online together) are half as useful as news boards (which allows for communication across timezones) for facilitating inter-ministry coordination. Cyrene has one clan for all ministries, and its single channel, newsboard, and CLHELP capability does a very efficient job of serving all offices at the same time, and actually makes it more convenient to keep the right hand informed of what the left hand is doing across those different offices. (War and Security needing to coordinate with Culture to start arena events, for example) I think a single clan can provide all of this functionality for any city, and I'd be surprised if there was a city that didn't already have one for that exact purpose. A 500,000gp investment for this does not seem unreasonable at all in that light.

Now what I would think is handy is a MINISTRY MSG so that Ministers could send messages to all their aides at once. That would be a boon to help relay orders to aides that are rarely online all at the same time. (And don't read newsposts as religiously as they should!)

Kyrra

@Aerek, Ashtan doesn't have a clan solely for that. Development and Culture have clans. I think maybe Maritime does but that seems newish. None of the rest do. All the Ministers are in the city council clan, but their aides are not.

I love the idea of a way for a Minister to message all their aides though. While I have no problems with writing something out in notepad, doing AIDES <MINISTRY> and just mass messaging people, it is a little bit tedious. Especially when some ministries have a lot of aides instead of just a couple.

Ariettie

Kyrra said:

@Aerek, Ashtan doesn't have a clan solely for that. Development and Culture have clans. I think maybe Maritime does but that seems newish. None of the rest do. All the Ministers are in the city council clan, but their aides are not.

I love the idea of a way for a Minister to message all their aides though. While I have no problems with writing something out in notepad, doing AIDES <MINISTRY> and just mass messaging people, it is a little bit tedious. Especially when some ministries have a lot of aides instead of just a couple.

Ambassador has a clan, too!. I find it useful, but mainly for CLHELPs and pointing people toward the public information for the application process. People almost never talk on it.

Tibitha

In cities currently set up where all Ministers and their Aides are in a single clan I can see this being less useful (though in small cities this is probably going to end up being CT  ).

In other cities, like Targ, where we have Ministry clans for a few of the Ministries (Culture, Maritime uh... are there others?), I really like this idea! However, it will probably not remove the Ministry clans completely (as they're being used for help files, bank accounts and newsboards as well), but it will give the Ministries that didn't warrant getting a clan a nice neat way of discussing things.

Austere

I have a ministry clan and can't for the life of me think of what to do with it beyond copying over help files.  It has everyone in the military in it, so armytell is the same,  but people don't fall through the induction cracks.  If I need to address the troops, I would just write a city news post. Message aides would be useful, but I don't really ask a lot from my aides that need to be addressed at a later date. .I dunno. Just not something I would personally use.  Doesn't mean it's not a great idea, though! 

Halos

Austere said:

 just write a city news post.