Your feedback is in, and the board has spent all of last night discussing each point. Keeping in line with our promise to speed up things and become more efficient, the changes as listed below will be rolled out effective immediately.
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The Core System - Casual And Realistic VAs
Casual VAs - these need to be registered to check if the CEO is eligible and the VA is available. All they need to do is send a short mission statement and let us preview a decent thread and theyāre all good, then we can just leave them alone. No assessment, no monitoring, no activity requirements, and no website if they donāt want one.
Realistic VAs - Essentially what the current system is now. Realistic VAs should be relatively active and have a quality website etc.
Both types of VA require the user to be TL2. Rules on bumping threads, topic titles, and mass advertising still apply to Casual VAs just like they do to the rest of the entire forum.
A Revised Blacklist
Only those banned for trolling, serious offences, and violations that have resulted in harm to VAs will now be present on the blacklist - we have heard your feedback and opted to remove most of the individuals currently on there as they are not guilty of serious violations. It is now updated.
Clearer Rule regarding the powers of IFVARB and the internal running of VAs
The staff of any VA will have the right to determine how their VA is ran and managed internally - not the job of the IFVARB unless the staff fail to meet the expected standards repeatedly, and unless that is the case IFVARB will have to stay out of it all.
Clearer rule regarding action taken against people for offences on third party platforms
IFVARB promises not to ever actively monitor VA chats or community discord servers for ill behaviour and will only ever take action if a complaint is actually brought to us.
Live Expectations For Casual vs Realistic
Realistic VAs should have some sort of training program internally - the staff may choose what exactly this is and how it is ran. So long as itās actually being done then IFVARB will not get involved. If thatās not present and realistic VAs donāt want to do this, then they need to at least have the pilots guide in a visible and accessible area - a simple task that takes a few minutes and bears minimal impact.
Casual VAs are not required to have a training programme or to share the guide.
That being said, all groups have a requirement to act in a respectful and reasonable manner on live. Via PM or the pilot report form people may still report both types of VAs for unacceptable behaviour on the servers. For both types of VAs, the feedback will passed onto leadership and they can decide how it is dealt with, not IFVARB. If serious issues persist however then we may have to intervene.
Faster Review Times
More board members and more score moderators - Josh will be bringing people on shortly, and we expect a serious improvement in waiting times which we admit has been a real issue for way too long now.
More Positive Community Engagement
⢠IFVARB will be committed to engaging more with the community in the form of turning up to and supporting more VA Events
⢠IFVARB has added some more meat to the bones of the pinned thread at the top of this category to help newer users become more familiar with VAs
⢠IFVARB will be creating a website for future use - here we will engage more and act on many suggestions made in the feedback thread such as - publishing General VA related articles, both IFVARB and user reviews of virtual airlines, a periodically done "VA spotlight" and more info regarding us and the communities virtual organisations.
We really feel that we have done everything we can to satisfy the community within the realm of practicality, and are glad that we have had the opportunity to act on so much of your feedback. Here is to a good, new beginning.
The relevant changes as listed above are being adjusted on the various threads pinned to the category, as some of you have noticed. Expect more threads to be released in the short future detailing further changes, such the announcement of new board members.
Thanks, and happy flying!