Discussion of changes to Breakroom thread policy

mod: it's totally up to you whether to post your questions/requests in the breakroom thread or in its own thread.

Having said that, if you post it in the breakroom thread, I'm going to ask/enforce (to the best of my ability) that only room employees respond with feedback, in keeping with the rules of the thread. If you want feedback from others, you'll need to post it in its own thread or in LC.

Even though you may welcome feedback from others, I can tell you that I get many, many complaints from room employees about non-employees getting involved in conversations here, it is probably the post report type I get most often here in CCP (even more than spam reports).

So the standard for anything posted here will be what the OP states, even if you personally don't mind a wider audience.

Thanks.

Of course neither you nor anyone else knows for sure who here is an employee and who isn't.

And the employee who started this thread specifically said that
"Of course, anyone is welcome to post here, whether you are a gaming employee or not" (direct quote).

I did not realize this. Thanks for the feedback. I understand both sides of it so it is all good.

Agreed, but I will do what I can, and we'll make it work.

That may have been what was originally said (I didn't bother checking), but it's not what the thread has evolved into, or what the current rule is.

As it happens, the OP has now asked me to edit the OP to remove all ambiguity going forward. So the proposed change will be to make it so that only cardroom employees can post in this thread going forward, full stop.

For the next few days I'll leave it open here for people (including non-employees) to provide feedback on that change, then will make a decision around the new year.

Thanks all!

Well obviously I think that is a terrible decision.

A bad policy in general, but again, you have no way of knowing who is or isn't an employee.

What about former employees?

And then I suppose you won't be allowed to post here yourself?

Or what about people who are in the business, but don't work in card rooms? I deal in bar-poker leagues and home games.

Perhaps it really should be more about defining what this thread's intentions are rather than who can post here.

I think the intentions are stated pretty well in the OP, and the original guidelines were fine. I haven't seen many violations of them and think the few that happen could easily be handled on am individual basis.

Former employees are welcome to post in the thread, within reason (ie if you worked in the legal dept for a week back in 1995, maybe don’t).

Correct, I will not be posting, except in mod capacity when needed.

Which is fine I try not to post here anyway. When I do it’s usually an accident, ie I didn’t realize I was in this thread.

We've had players come in here and derail threads before. Replying to every post whether they knew anything about the topic or not. I don't know if those people got bored and left on their own or if a mod had a talk with them.

Sometimes we want to bitch, tell stories, or ask advice from others who have been doing this for a while. Some things you just don't fully understand until you've been the one sitting in the chair.

As for who gets to post here, I feel like if you're posting something from the point of view of a card room employee then that's fine. Past, present, soon to be, or just asking us what our thoughts are on something. Someone who's only dealt home games, for example, could certainly contribute to some discussions but not others that are specific to working as an employee in a regulated establishment. Just like I wouldn't be able to give them advice on how strict to be with rules, working for shady game runners, etc. I can imagine some of the things they likely deal with, but I'm not in that world so I don't really know.

I don't mind the occasional post by a non-employee either looking for an insider's perspective or someone just coming in to say "hey, thanks for ...." but what I don't want is non-employees coming in to give their take on how a situation should have been handled or what a ruling should be.

And if we banned all non-employees from posting anything whatsoever I'd be fine with that too.

As for mods posting in here, I trust that they were appointed as mods for good reason and they were vetted by the 2+2 higher-ups, so they're welcome to post as they see fit.

This is mostly the case for me as well.

But not this time!

You don't think it could be important or at least useful to know how long time card room customers think particular situations should be handled? In the long run, shouldn't every situation be decided the way most players would want it to be?
"The customer is always right" seems to generally make for a more successful business of any type.

The question isn't if card room employees appreciate feedback. The question is if they want for customers to come into their (virtual) breakroom for that. Do you walk into the breakroom of your local casino if you see the door is open? Have you ever walked into a Walmart breakroom to let employees know that Barilla pasta on aisle 14 needs to be restocked?

Easiest solution would be an invite only thread that regular users don't even see plus a "dealers stories thread" that everyone can interact in.

We already have a thread for people to ask how a certain situation should have been handled. There's no reason to be asking those kinds of questions and not allowing customers to give their input, as the way they should be handled should be based on what customers want (unless your want your place to go out of business).

Maybe we should also have a thread where players can complain about dealers and other card room employees, but none of them are allowed to post in it? Makes the same amount of sense.

Going to take this opportunity to legally post in the epic thread.

As one who has been in card rooms since the 90's, have played for a living, have had many conversations with dealers and floors about the business, I would never, ever think that my statements and opinions belong in this thread. I've never been in the box, never been an employee at a card room. I've got enough of a clue to realize I don't belong in this thread. But I can still appreciate it without actively taking part.

But my opinion on that is meaningless, so is everybody else's opinion who isn't an employee. The only opinions that matter are the OP, the mods, and to a lesser extent, the other employees that post here.

Some posts from them over the last few months...

Cliffs, if you aren't a card room employee then get a clue and realize your place is not in this thread. Hopefully, going forward, mods will delete offending posts and give those posting them some time off.

If the general public was unable to view this thread that would be a great loss to those who enjoy it and can learn stuff at the same time. If randoms can interact in a thread, it will instantly turn to junk. That's the beauty of this thread, no randoms except for those who can't grasp the concept, therefore it's a great thread.

Out of respect, this will be my only post here. I will not be drawn into the incoming salvo of excuses on why it's OK for randoms to post here. I appreciate the insight of the employees that continually put up with crap while in the box.

As someone who has inadvertently over-discussed in this thread a time or two, totally agree with nitBO. This thread is very valuable and interesting. If a situation is posted that benefits from outsider input, either that person or any other person can obv start a separate thread in the forum for that purpose.

I think it's better not to post here if not an employee feeling the work under his/her skin. I'm otherwise all for inclusion, but this is a thread dealers want to have and many non-dealers want to read. We can't have it all.

Would appreciate if dealers also do threads with everybody's views welcome. The risk is those go to this thread too. That's the main downside, risk of exclusion.

It’s one thread out of the entire forum. Let them have it. Sheesh.

The Casino & Cardroom category is full of threads on "What do you think of this ruling?" or "How should this situation be handled?" and plenty of dealers and non-dealers share their thoughts.

Is that what you meant?

Yes. But sometimes posts here deserve broader attention. Difficult for this thread not to become a bit unbalanced. But worth the effort I would say. "Excluding randoms" is always there lurking. Who wants to be a "random"? People can get hurt when being excluded in their own forum in plain sight.

Probably it's best to clearly exclude all but employees in the OP, and see what happens. Then anybody could lift general stuff into own threads, non-dealers and dealers.

I may or may not have explained myself, plaaynde out, Happy New Year!

You mean how the title of the thread says "for gaming employees" and the OP says multiple times it's intended for gaming employees?

And then it says "of course anyone is welcome to post" because the OP realized it would be ridiculous to try (or even want) to determine who is allowed in any particular thread.

It’s time to chill, Rob

Yes, the OP in 2010 said that. Then, in the 2019 update, they restricted that further saying

So stop going back to that old line as if it were the only guidance.

Frankly, I would keep the current guidelines, which allow for a bit of discretion, but would delete the old "anyone is allowed to post" line from below the update. I don't think non-employees should be absolutely verboten, but I do think some customers, and yes chillrob, I think you are one of them, insert themselves into the discussion way too much.