Oh boy here we go again. Another long read from the resident toxic ex staff member *queue comments about memes*

In all seriousness this is a review on the staff team. As you know I was part of this team and I like to think I made a bit of an impact in a good way...
I issue a disclaimer here: This topic is not intended to cause offense, or single anyone out. Unfortunately due to some roles being exclusive, I cannot guarantee a generalised opinion.
Let us begin.

First glance:

I don't often request staff assistance. When I have, there has been a decently fast enough response; but a much faster response to seek out a moderator. Discord is supposed to be the easiest way to get a moderators attention, though most are on dnd or idle so you don't know if you should bother them or not.

Reports are handled in a decently timely manner unless the matter is complex, in which it tends to sit for days or even a month until someone wants to chase it up to "keep the forums clean".
On that note, the forums are kept relatively clean by staff who actually care about moderating the forums... or know how to moderate the forums.
If I go on the server right at this moment there is likely to not be a moderator on. The team is small for a "growing" server and doesn't have good coverage of timezones.

Ban appeals are done fine and most of the time punishments are fair but all over the place (will explain in depth).

From a player perspective staff can be exclusive and communicate much more happier with other staff. This sometimes causes ill opinions of staff. There is certainly an issue with communication between players and staff and between staff themselves that is quite apparent for more experienced users.

In depth:

Staff have discord. It is a requirement that staff have communication outside of the forums and server. Yet not a lot of staff utilize it.

Some have made the excuse that they do not know how to use discord... a simply ridiculous excuse given most staff have been promoted long enough to have learned by now.
Others like to always have their status on do not disturb to not get alerted, even if they aren't busy so it is hard to get their attention when something is wrong

When you look for staff you look for the person who is online and people get deterred by those who are idle or on dnd. It would be beneficial for staff to use discord more.

Over time I have noticed things sit for a long time on the forums without replies. For example, I opened a fairly complex report outlining things but there were very few responses with only one staff directly contacting me about the matter. No action (that I am aware of) had been taken and I closed the report. It isn't so much something I cared to follow up, yet, it sat for a while. If a report is easy, staff flock to them and some complain that another staff keeps doing reports. However if the issue is complex and requires staff to handle an issue with difficult people, no one takes it and nothing gets done. That is a huge dent in what could have been the most productive the team has been on reports.

On the topic of forums, there is a good majority of staff who don't know how to moderate the forums. What is apparent is a lack of communication and inconsistent warnings and punishments. There are times staff are too harsh and enforce rules in odd ways, and some who let things slide too much. For example an on topic comment with a small off topic part shouldn't be an issue, yet a staff decided it was and edited the post. But a user who constantly swears doesn't get any action against them even though the rule says no swearing at all. So a small off topic remark in an on topic post is edited but swearing is not. The inconsistency is literally like your dad saying you can have candy, then your mum tells you off for trying to grab some. Find a way to be consistent.

And following on from this, punishments in general seem fairly mixed up. Repeat offenders to some moderators are given harsher treatment. Some staff don't. There seems to be some communication issue between staff where staff are not aware who is a repeat offender or what their offence was, and any details regarding it which can inform their decisions. Knowing a players history shouldn't be hard if they are repeat offenders... right?

Staff promotions are exciting. People that worked hard can finally be accepted and all it takes is... 10 months?? a year?? For real??
The helper rank was introduced to the server and what I could gather, is a version of trial mod that can last much longer depending on the helpers activity and skills.
This rank could have opened the doors to more people given the chance to be staff. It was the perfect opportunity to have a large wave of promotions, train potential staff and train bad habits out of these players. It is that kinda of thinking that would have seen more staff on the server at crucial times doing more things and getting things done.

Next issue is obviously activity. Let me tell you real quick. The amount of times I defended staff inactivity was insane. There is always AND I MEAN ALWAYS an excuse why some staff are not active. Let me break this down:
- School: Most common excuse in the teen category. If you have school and are staff... you have yourself an easy reason not to come in game.
- Work/College: Alright so now you are an adult and you have responsibilities like work and college, there is just no god damn time for minecraft... but I can squeeze in a little LoL
- Holidays: Woo! I get to go to another country, state or location and I won't be around much ok love you toodles 333
- Other: What more can I say... your my... oops I drifted off. Other is just my being too lazy to list more.
Now does this sound familiar.
"I have a lot of school work and exams are coming up, so I'll be more active in the summer"
"So i'm going on holiday and I am busy because it's summer sorry"
I know better than most that all the reasons above are valid. It is fine to be busy. Staff are human.
HOWEVER
What is not okay is the staff that have a role as such and continuously have an excuse, who use that excuse and make promises to be active and hold on to a role they are not doing anything with. If my calculations are correct there are around 8 active moderators who are doing more of their fair share on the server while 6 moderators coast along with their tag in place.
But what can we do about this? The higher staff are in no position to judge inactive staff when they themselves are not active.
Just remember you can make all the excuses in the world you want and tell me i'm wrong. But we know the difference between a staff than pops on once or twice a month yet has time for everything else and a moderator who dedicates time to the server and contributes.

Now all the "negativity" is out, lets talk about positives
Since gaining an active admin we are now getting more done on the server. There are obvious advancements in staff permissions which helps them do more tasks and easier. In general most staff are friendly and approachable. Majority of the staff are mature and helpful and also can have some fun. Some staff know when to let loose and when to be serious.

I could go on and on but I'll save some opinions for another time. For now, I hope you enjoyed my review. As always here is the tl;dr verison

- Some staff don't ustilize discord and need to stop using not knowing how to use it as an excuse
- Staff need to use dnd less
- Complex reports or reports that require discussion often are left to sit for a long time (and ruins the speedy pace reports are usually handled)
- Forums moderation seems to be an alien concept
- Player history is often not shared knowledge between staff and punishments get mixed up because of this (forums). Some things get ignored and smaller issues are dealt with harshly.
- Repeat offender punishments are not consistent (from communication issues likely)
- Not enough promotions, promotions are too selective and more players could be given the opportunity if time was taken to train and monitor them
- Inactive staff cannot be handled due to inactive higher staff (inactive staff don't step down even when they haven't contributed for an extended period of time. Inactive staff using many excuses)
- Active admin makes for timely fixes and additions to the server
- Friendly staff that let loose but know when to draw the line is a blessing (not too strict, not to relaxed)

Peace out

 

Most likely.

 

DnD is useful if you are doing something where you don't want pings
You can avoid noises on servers by muting them or muting the channels you don't want to hear
Using it consistently can be a hassle for most users trying to get a staff members attention unless you are someone who is really great at checking discord. It isn't a life or death thing. Mods are free to use discord how they want regardless of my review. But for a better review, I see better use of discord to be beneficial.

 

Like when I was staff I would take breaks sometimes for personal reasons. I can understand when staff have been active and they get burnt out that breaks are good. You don't want to always have excuses for not doing something you chose to do.

 

The reason most staff use it is because they don't like notification sounds.

I used to handle things on minechat in the car in the middle of shopping because it was that easy to do. It comes down to a lack of dedication on a lot of people's part. But also a lot of the excuses i mentioned.

Staff don't have an expectation from within the team to be active. However, we as a player base see active staff as beneficial because we know all too well when the cat is away, the mice come out to play.

 

Minechat exists but as a paid app (no lite version)