I wouldn't call it selfish because there's been times where there's been like 2-3x as many staff members on the team than there are now. There's enough room for what's needed.

 

Quite frankly one of the biggest reasons people used to join the forums was to create a ban appeal. Which, honestly, is pretty ironic considering a portion of these players end up becoming moderators. I agree that forum advertisement needs to be a bigger concern for the administration team. I miss the old forum. Perhaps there could be some kind of in-game incentivization for linking your forums account with an IGN, like 5 grass or something.

 

Yes but with our community growing like a few months ago we would get like 90-ish players on .net and now were getting 120-130+ and the community is growing, the staff team isnt which we need to fix that

Agreed More staff would only cause a sigle problem and that might be Overstaffing which is basically a bunch of staff on at once and then on other times no staff at all i sort of eluded to it in my previous post but as i already said pick staff from varying timezones or flexible hours.

Yeah Kai doesnt get enough appreciation i might try to do something about that ;>
but there are some staff that havent been on in litteral Years * cOUgh cOUghhHh* myrmwife * cOOUUgH coUgh*
i mean i get she is taking a break but a break that lasts longer then like 4 months isnt a break. Its a leave personally

yeah someone made a suggestion about it there is flaws im positive but i cant see any clear ones like if you try to link the ign to two accounts it wont let you but one thing that may go south is if the player changes their name but perhaps Leeeroieee could cook up something to check the

 

Not gonna lie kai is the only mod that actually kept his word on the mod app (so far). Never seen moonlight for ages

 

I dont think its right to throw shade on staff regardless of their activity. There are many mods who are just as active as kai and who can do just as good a job.

 

It’s probably because I’m the only one without a busy schedule. I don’t worry about school anymore, and my job isn't much of a busy one. Everyone is doing their best to balance IRL and modding. Perhaps during summer vacations, some mods will be more active if they don't have any summer schooling or any other activities.

 

I randomly stumbled upon this thread and after reading I do have to say that on /classic there are some people (including me) interested in applying for helper, if not mod, but are scared off by the forum activity requirement. I also want to add, with no disrespect to staff, that I haven't seen any mods on /classic recently, other than one time when they were requested there for help, however this is not a reliable representation seeing as I am not online 24/7 and might have missed someone coming by. I support a bigger staff, but as mentioned before in this thread, quality stands above all. I apologize for the possible lack of substance in my reply, but I had to share my thoughts about the forum activity requirement.

 

all we need is kai my guy, no one else.. well maybe lee and mat t but like kai is great uncle bro

 

I agree that there should be some new helpers accepted. Saying that, I read Michael's post and completely see where you guys are coming from and as a manager of various communities, I think in the exact same way, however, there is a point where there needs to be a larger body of staff to be able to provide more constant moderation and I think that may be the case. I don't think it would hurt to go through all the applications that are currently open and fairly recent to see if anyone would fit. They might not be the Perfect candidate but (this might vary from server to server) that's what the helper role is for, to teach and make sure the person is a good fit as staff for the server and a good fit for the staff team.

I would love to see some new helpers in the future as I think the staff team needs a few new faces to increase activity.

Best regards,
Terminator966

 

Adding more staff would definitely help players considering there usually is no mod on the server at any given time. Skyblock is especially in need of developers, since having only 2 developers makes the work really slow.

 

I do understand your point, but I feel like you completely missed my point. I agree with like 2-3 more, but I doubt we need a lot. I'm 100% sure Skyblock was fine with the same amount of staff we have now, back when 400+ people would play/

 

oh yeah i was trying to make adding only a few staff clear in my original post

 

In all honesty, I don't think they can really solve the problem so simply. It's a smaller server, and there's only a small number of staff applications as is. They can't hire the first person to submit a staff application without careful consideration.
Will this person be responsible?
Will this person be active?
Can we trust them to act accordingly in a situation?
Do they work well in our community?
And lots of other factors to consider. I'm sure if more suiting people applied, we would have a lot more staff, but it seems that most applicants are new players that just want to help.

So, No support (I guess?) because it's kind of out of the current staff's control. They cannot accept anyone who does not meet their requirements, and they can't simply force people to apply either. I think the process is fine right now.

 

Maybe there'd be more staff if people could actually make decent applications and be fit for the role when applying, 'jus saying. If all of the current applicants right now, that (in my opinion) are fit for staff were to be accepted, we would have a mere 2 extra staff members. UP YOUR GAME YALL.

 

Although mods are AFK and many people aren't satisfied with it, the way I see this is with this common phrase "Quality over Quantity" A way to visualize this is for example if 1 Mod can do the job of 5 mods then why are we wasting resources/time having 5 mods when we already have one qualify mod?

 

No support XD (Its Moist_Ciabatta btw)

 

Mods aren't paid for their work on the server, they are volunteers so they have actual lives to deal with outside of skyblock so they aren't being selfish. They were chosen because they are qualified, and can do the task at hand, regardless of your opinion on the situation.

 

Is there a Mod FAQ?
- What are the benefits and responsibilities for a moderator and how are they held accountable?
- Could any more of those responsibilities be automated?
- Could the responsibilities be split up in a different way, to create more roles with less power each?
- What is the overall life-cycle of a moderator, and could that be automated more?

I'm somewhat interested in becoming a mod but haven't applied for a few reasons. I've heard a players have to be active on all 3 servers to become a mod. But I'm all in on Survival, and have no interest in Economy nor Classic. How many other players would become a mod but for that requirement?

Additionally, the requirement for a certain # of forum posts - I understand that this is to ensure moderators are community members, but again how many potential mods is this blocking?

 

There isn't any sort of official public "Mod FAQ"; however, in general, the assumption for staff members is that they are to use their permissions to help out on the server, and work respectfully within both the team and the community. While there are a few more specifics that I don't feel the need to describe in detail, moderators can be thought of as "role models", per se, for the community, meaning that they are generally expected to not only uphold the explicitly stated server rules, but also to encourage positive behavior and honesty within the community.

In the rare cases that staff members are seen to be unfit for their position, it is common to either create a staff report, outlining the various incidents and attempting to come to an understanding, or starting a private conversation with the involved staff member(s), which may include the managers if the player feels that talking with the staff member alone would not be productive or that they would be ignored. The first step is always to attempt to discuss the issue, the desired outcome, and to also get stories from both sides of the situation. Infractions, or possible demotions, are never our goal, so it is best to try to come to an understanding between all involved parties; however, we also do realize that more intense measures are sometimes necessary, depending on the severity of the situation, which is why there is a section dedicated to staff reports. While the majority of the reports that I have either directly dealt with or seen are made by players that have personal grudges or only intend to cause unnecessary drama based on faulty logic, the section remains open to provide an outlet for players to express their concerns, if they feel that any particular staff member is no longer deserving of their position, assuming that they attempt to respectfully explain the situation. Just as the staff team holds players accountable for breaking the rules, the community must also hold its moderators accountable for their actions. Again, these are quite rare, as the selection process is very thorough; however, this is usually the method through which staff members are held accountable, if the community feels that an issue has arisen that must be immediately dealt with.

This is often a difficult question to answer, as technically, you could answer yes; however, there are many aspects to being a member of the team that, in my opinion, shouldn't be automated, as it will reduce the chance of the game making larger mistakes, and allows the users to understand that they are being dealt with by an actual person, rather than just leaving the decision up to the game.

One example, is the automatic mute put in place by the server for using a specific derogatory racial slur, aimed at individuals of African descent. The console will automatically mute any players that use this word, in its full form, without any changes made to the spelling, spacing, or other methods used to avoid the filler. To get back to the question, while we could lengthen the list of words that result in automatic mutes, essentially providing more automation, it would give it a much higher chance that a player may accidentally use the wrong consecutive words, or mistype a letter, leading to an unfair mute which they may be forced to wait out if there are no staff online able to help resolve the issue. This is why only one, correctly spelled, version of the word results in an automatic mute, as there is absolutely no excuse to be using that sort of language, and doing so can only be done intentionally. This is not to say that players that evade this system do not get punished in the same way, but rather that it is not automatic, and staff members are responsible for enforcing the mute in those situations, as they are better able to understand the context regarding the situation.

To put it in perspective, I am sure that a majority of the players have at some point during their time here accidentally triggered the swear filter, as it detected unintentional words between phrases, which if randomly, and intentionally, said in chat, could be seen as quite offensive. I will assume that it was not an intentional triggering of the swear filter, but rather an unfortunate placement of words or a few mistyped letters. If the automatic mutes were this strict, which is technically a possibility, it may prevent some players from getting through with mildly offensive comments; however, it would almost definitely accidentally mute players that didn't deserve it, which would be an annoyance for both the players that have been wrongfully muted, and the staff team.

There are many more examples; however, I feel that this adequately illustrates the point. To answer your question, yes, some of the responsibilities could be automated; however, the better question, is to ask whether they should be automated. The more we rely on automation rather than informed decisions made by staff members, the larger possibility there is of a potentially large mistake occurring.

​

I do not feel that I am qualified to give a definitive answer regarding the question, as I am not in charge of the distribution of permissions, or the roles within the staff team; however, while more roles with permission levels that increase at a slower rate may seem convenient, it could also lead to a few unforeseen problems, especially with organization. At the moment, the system is fairly self explanatory, with only three tiers of staff ranks, the first being an "introduction" to the team, per se, the second being for those who have grown used to effectively carrying out their responsibilities, and the third generally being for older members of the team that have gained enough experience and community trust to be given more dangerous permissions, that can be used to help players, but are also extremely dangerous if used incorrectly. Adding more roles may complicate things.

I believe the second part ties into the previous question regarding automation, and I do not feel that I have much more to say on that matter. However, with that being said, there are many aspects to being a staff member that are not often considered at first glance. Our primary goal is to make this server into a safe place for anyone to play the game however they enjoy it, without needing to worry about any sort of negativity. This is a game meant for enjoyment, not stress. Unfortunately, this is a very idealistic view; however, that is our end goal. In an ideal situation, we would not be needed, as all players could be trusted to interact with each other in a respectful and honest manner.

One thing that many players do not initially realize, sometimes until after they are promoted, is that being a staff member comes with a certain responsibility to often put the interests of the community above their own. While I don't want to "scare", or discourage potential applicants, it really is a job primarily intended for those who just have a genuine interest in helping players as well as the server out, and that their in-game experiences will significantly change. It is quite common for staff members to start changing how they play, and becoming less involved in the extremely specific aspects of the game, such as the economy, or building various projects, not because they are not allowed to participate in the server however they wish, but because being a staff member comes with quite a bit of responsibility. After being promoted, it becomes more about helping players and working towards the improvement of the server as a whole, rather than playing as one had before, due to the fact that the extra responsibilities can be time consuming at times, especially when one is new to the process.

While there is nothing wrong with playing the game as normal when we have the time, or taking occasional breaks when necessary, many staff members that have been around for quite a long time end up focusing much more on fostering a positive environment and putting the needs of other players above their own, rather than playing the game exactly as they had before, as that is often what the job requires. Again, this is not to say that we can't play as we had before becoming a member of the team, but that being a staff member really changes the experience, in my opinion, for the better; however, not all people feel this way, which is what I believe to be one of the most common reasons for some players not wanting to join the team. They would just rather play here to enjoy the game without any sort of obligations/time commitments; there is nothing wrong with that.

While it is important to at least gain some sort of basic familiarity with all three servers, it is not a requirement to play on all three servers exactly equally. It is perfectly understandable that many players will have a favorite server, which they play on most often. Before economy shut down, there were even separate teams for economy and survival; however, with the current size, it is not really necessary to do that, so instead all staff are given global permissions, which allows them to help on any server, regardless of which one they most commonly play on. Staff members are required to help players on any server that they need assistance on; however, that does not mean that the time spent playing on classic, skyblock, and economy, must be divided exactly equally to have any chance of being accepted. It can't hurt to be active on all servers, to not only interact with more people but to become more actively involved in both communities; however, sticking with one server for the majority of one's time here is not something that will automatically exclude them from any sort of consideration.

 

First off, I don't get why this is in suggestions I feel like this is more appropriate in the discussions.

Second, more staff is nice but we also have to keep in mind just cause we have 40 staff members on doesn't mean it's gonna help. What if 15 of those staff members are inactive, 20 are partially active and 5 that are really active? That's going to cause problems for the community and give a bad reputation. We already got a reputation for having some salty staff (tbh more ego just to become a super mod my opinion don't judge me ) so why add that on?

With more staff, I feel like it would give the staff managers too much to handle with and you would need to get even more staff managers to handle the amount of staff. I say that because:

1. More staff would mean more resources would be need:
2. You would also have more staff contacting the managers (or devs whichever) and since those guys are hella busy, makes things more slow and complicated
3. It's somewhat pointless in a way. Skyblock is a small server and to have a large amount of staff to cover it isn't needed. Seriously it'd get kinda annoying to see 20 different mods chat about BertBerry's love of Tele Tubbies

But if we had more developers and managers then it would take away more issues that are in the community.



Sorry if it's long, but I just wanted to copy Michael's method of making 5 page single spaced essays ...if I did even try lol