Trial Moderators

SUMMARY:​

- Bring back trial moderators, because of:​

- Kinship with fellow trial mods.
- Motivation to prove oneself.
- Safety net to not give new/inexperienced mods full access to screwing people over.​

- Make the Staff Managers in charge of the promotion from Trial to Full Mod.
- New mods are Trial Moderators for 1 month, before either being demoted or promoted.​

- Potentially specific criteria (eg amount of posts/time online etc)​

Now for the long winded fluff: this is why Trial Moderator was an important rank.​

As far as I can tell, the trial moderator rank was removed fairly recently. No matter who I ask, no one can quite give me a full explanation of why they're gone (Edit: Krissy has provided the following explanation: To motivate staff to work toward Super Mod, a once "unobtainable" position in the eyes of most. Essentially the idea was to make Super mod achievable and full mods to work hard.). Sure, it may have been annoying to have moderators with fewer perms, meaning they could help fewer people, but consider what a Trial moderator means. One stays a trial moderator until they've proved that they're worthy of the moderator title. This, in turn, means that a trial moderator will spend a lot more time on the server, working hard to achieve a specific goal. Once you remove this goal and set the first goal that a new moderator might have as high as a super moderator, then moderators will lose a lot of their motivation. It's no secret that, back when there were trial moderators, many of the full moderators tended to resign or become inactive after a few months of being a full moderator. I believe this is primarily due to a lack of goals and competition: if they realise they'll never become a super moderator, they lose their fight and motivation to continue being a great moderator. By removing trial moderators, you've removed that first motivation and goal.

Furthermore, being a trial moderator creates a kinship with your fellow trial moderators. I have very fond memories of being one of the three .net t-nubs along with Deku and Noveh. That sense of going through those initial stages of moderation with a small group of people in a similar situation to you was very reassuring. Not only does it create kinship, but it also creates competition. You don't want to be left behind: the only t-nub not promoted with the rest of your cohort. This further encourages the newer moderators to work hard to be the best t-nub there ever was.

But, you might say, this was only just removed! Surely we should try it out before reverting back? Well, I say, let's change it back before it does any serious damage. We don't want any of the new moderators (Who I must say, after meeting most of them, are excellent) resigning or becoming inactive any earlier than they need to. I know it would be difficult to strip away the perms of the new moderators who are already full mods, so perhaps we'll just let the next batch of mods be trials.

EDIT: And, of course, it's a good way to train and assess new moderators.

EDIT, new point: Staff managers should be put in charge of the promotion from trial moderator to full moderator, as Cyp has enough on his plate already, and it has been known that some trial moderators are left trialing simply because they were forgotten. After a period of somewhere between 2 weeks and a month, the trial moderators should either leave the team due to them being unsuitable, or be promoted. KingDG has also proposed that the criteria a tmod has to fulfill be clearer and stricter (eg. must have posted 200 posts on the forums in first month, mustn't have had any valid staff reports filed against them).

Hopefully you all understand where I'm coming from. From experience: an inactive and unmotivated moderator team is an unproductive moderator team.

 

I'm quite curious myself actually. x
Also, on another side note, support. The Trial Moderator position is crucial to the community. It allows there to be a trial period to see whether this player has done everything right so far and learned most of the basics. Even though Trial mod wasn't really considered "Trial" it still helped, maybe actually make Trial mod a trial, and have the staff managers decided wether they're ready to move forward. Possibly have a month limit if they haven't deemed worthy

 

Full support to this, it also makes sure that everyone knows how to do things.

 

support some full mods rn need to be taken back to trial lol

 

agreeeeedd

 

All the new promotions dough, myrm, and the others need to try trial mod. They shouldn't just be ugraded straight to that when trial comes back.

Support

 

Personally, I believe the trial phase was an important time. You learn the basics of being a moderator, and gain the trust of the team before being awarded more permissions.

The main reason I understood for it being revoked was that there was no time period for how long players held the rank for. For the trial period to actually function well, you need someone to watch over and be actively involved in mentoring the new mods and showing them what to do. I know I made a few mistakes in the first few weeks of being a new staff, but it was considered ok as I was learning and in possession of the trial rank.

If you're going to bring back the trial mod rank, then perhaps the staff managers can be in-charge of informing the admins regularly of who needs to be promoted etc.

As a last point, it's exciting to be promoted out of the trial phase, as you really feel you've earned your full mod rank.

I know it's just been removed, but support. It was useful.

 

I personally loved the trial rank. Newly promoted moderators were pretty much tested on if they could handle the position. Trial moderators then had to prove themselves (yet again) to be promoted to full moderator.

I really loved the idea of it and would love to see it again.

 

Support. I can definitely see where you're coming from and I'd like to see the trial rank re-introduced.

 

How ironic

 

Stay relevant.

 

Full support.

When players get promoted, they get promoted straight to full moderator. They have very little experience, and they need to earn their trust. A trial-moderator rank would be nice again so players learn how to use all the commands, gain trust, and so they have something to look forward to.

Not sure if it's coming back though

 

Support because T-Mod is a good rank to have. As Emerald said, people should learn all the commands and everything, while being a T-Mod c:

 

They were removed. Wow, what's next, random people getting mod..


Oh wait...

 

Support,

But the players that skipped directly to Full Mod to be put in the Trial Moderator stage so it is fair for the other Moderators who have earned their Post.

 

The rank was pointless. Most trial moderators were quiet for a few weeks then began to act like they knew everything and demanded they be promoted because being a trial moderator was so hard. Getting a single valid report as a trial moderator should be an instant demote.

The rank was flawed and bringing it back won't fix it unless the staff follow their own guidelines, which won't happen while certain staff members are on the team.

 

From an application, going straight to a mod. That's a big step.
The rank was a sign to aware people that the person had just received the rank.
Usually people rely on mods more than trial mods.
You never know, somebody can get the rank and start abusing it.
Anyways, all I'm saying is that, the trial mod rank was a bit like a way to inform people to not put their full trust on
that specific person.

 

I went from moderator to super moderator within a week. When I resigned and came back eight months later, the same thing happened.

Also, I'm not discarding the rank as a whole. I'm just discarding it while certain staff who care about no one but themselves are on the team. Recently, the rank has not done its job and that's why it was removed. I'm guessing, anyway.

 

Full support . This would help the community because it would show if the promoted person is actually ready for the position itself.