I know staff reads notes. Staff assures us regularly that they read nodes. Regardless, writing notes can sometimes feel like shouting into the void due to the lack of any feed back in the vast majority of cases. It is a theme I've seen come up a few times. We know in our head that staff reads notes and are assured that it is happening but the lack of any signs that this has or is happening sometimes makes it hard for one to FEEL heard.
I think the current situation is understandable. I think there are a lot of good reasons we don't want staff commenting on every or even most notes. Many players and few staff means it's a lot of time and effort I think most players would prefer placed elsewhere. Sometimes commenting might ruin IC surprised. Worse, commenting might result in staff indirectly influencing the way a player plays their character.
But during townhall I had this idea of a way to provide a kind of indirect feedback to players.
Add a count to every note that gets incremented every time a staff member reads the note (aka the body of the note is displayed to a member of staff). This number is then displayed next to each note subject when a player does @notes and when a player views a specific note.
So say player Alpha leaves a note. The times read counter is now 0. They read their note. Still 0 - they aren't staff. GM Bravo sings in and the reads the note as they catch up. The times read count is now 1. Three hours later GM Charlie does the same. Times read count is now 2. Two months later a staff member reads the note because in impacts a puppet. Times read count is now 3 And so on.
I think that such a count would do a couple things.
First, it would assure players that they are being read. We all know it in our heads but here the game is SHOWING you. It's been read, Four times!
Next, if I see it's been read four times and I haven't been told I fucked up, then I can feel a bit more confident that my notes are acceptable.
Finally, it might give players an idea of what topics they note seem to be most relevant. If they look at their notes and one has been read 20 times and most 4 times, then that kind of note might have been one of value to staff.
As a bonus, it's possible that such data could be useful on the staff side. I can think of a few ways one might use it to gather possible insight.
Again, kind of a wild idea but I thought I'd just throw it out there.
