I want to remind you that the main topic of this thread is communication between staff + players, and from the server in general, however, I have to go in depth with all issues that players have been mentioning and have gone heavily untalked about. (A majority of this message was copy and pasted between me, and a member of the staff team. After close consideration, I decided this thread had to be created the right way, which is created by a player of the community. Having a staff member create this thread may promote bias throughout the thread and it may not come off as a good way. However, these comments need to be made public and have a public discussion and are not just opinions from me, but from past and current players of the community. What I have learned from my time being back is that this has been an issue for a while, which is kind of making a statement to the players. The staff team are suppose to be role-models for the players, and right now I don't think we are in that position.) Before I start off by saying anything I don’t think any of the staff should see this as an attack, but an opportunity to give a final listen to the community who which is the most important part of the server, and we do not feel that way. For most of us, we have not been heard and player's are on the verge of leaving because of this issue being tossed out and not taken fully seriously. Now, to chat about this! I believe all of the staff are doing and have been doing a good job. Nothing is meant to take away from anybody. However, the influx in threads, discussions, discussions between community members, has opened a lot of sparks of conversation. Some of the actions of staff members has been seen as justifiable, as well as their overall attitude talking to us community players. We feel as though we are all below the staff team and they have a major power ruling over the community. I personally know that is not the case, however, it is coming across that way. When words are spoken by us players, they seem to go unnoticed for months without a reply, or have been noticed and then never heard back from. I believe there are some possible candidates in the running between staff, and I feel like having a variety of staff members is what the team has been missing. A majority of the staff member's handle things the same way, speak to players, etc. While there are a certain set of guidelines to follow as staff, the originality of the team in general is lacking players from the community. After all, all of you guys on the team are Skyblock players first and have started like that and will always be Skyblock Players! Having a voice for the community is always great, but when it is speaking volume, there seems to be some sort of bias in the issues that are going unnoticed that are all staff related, and the player's are seeing this as staff trying to keep their position and backing each other up. I understand it is very important to back your team up, each and every person. However, when there is something unjustifiable a few times and goes unnoticed and having players say that the staff report will go no where, it is upsetting and we as players can see that we are favored over. More communication between all platforms and the community I feel is what is best. A direct message from staff and an open discussion with players to feel free to comment their opinions. To be honest I really did not want to have this discussion or make a comment on this thread, however, what I've noticed is the community's voice is not being heard and I would really like to be the voice of the community, as we are the player base and what is the most important part of Skyblock. Over the years, the relationship between staff and community members I personally feel has declined to a new level. There isn't any personal connection going on between staff and players, with there only being limited staff at a time at the moment, it would be really great to hear from some people on the staff team. Something I would like to make an example of is the application process. It hasn't had any update in a year (the discussion/suggestion), as well as some other threads like that that have gone unnoticed. You have some great candidates that I believe would fit the position and bring originality to the staff team, as they are the player base and I think the staff team just has to remind themselves that they are players of skyblock. I'm going to make a short message on the activeness on the team. I understand activeness, believe me, I do. However, there are some members of the team that never come in game, don't do moderation work on forums, and really only talk in the discord at times. This defeats the whole purpose of applicants being told to "not help when help is only needed", because some of these members only get online rarely to help someone that is needed then goes unseen again. I understand everyone has their own personal life, issues, events, etc. However, if it's been on going for a few months and there hasn't been an activity change, I think it's time to get the message across the staff team that there are applicants that are on a large portion of their day, that are able to be part of the trial-moderator role, that can be active on forums all day. The more active candidates go unnoticed, and it's a little unfair that they do not get a chance to prove themselves. I believe having more staff team on will only bring a positive influx in the server and is a great way to start building back a relationship with the community. There have been numerous occasions where it has stated that something is being worked on, looked at, or is noted by the staff, but then never seems to get a clear answer. We as players, would really like to see this server stay alive and flourish again, but that starts with the staff team as we as player's follow some of you as role models. To be fair, some haven't been the best role model's to the community (am talking about myself but also some others), and when that is recognized by the community, I think it's time for a change and if one is not made soon the player base will continue to be unhappy. I'm not sure if you're a videogame player, but I'm going to state my example here as I really liked it When a new game is announced and nothing is said about it for months/years, it loses all of the hype, gets negativity, players target the developers/staff team, etc. Which is being replicated here, sadly, and while more frequent updates are always helpful to us players!, we would rather have a more open connection and comments from the staff team as in recent years, they have been very limited towards players. Not listening to our opinions and feedback, can be seen as a bias staff team. By the way, if I have offended anyone on the staff team please let me know as that was not my intention and I will do better on rewording on what I said, however, I believe I covered almost every topic the community has been talking about, and I'll be sure to leave anything down below. I would really like to hear your opinion, as well as team members and the community on this. I believe every staff member has their own voice of reason and opinion, and that usually goes unnoticed and at times staff forget that they are also a player and have an opinion. I've mentioned that a few times because it is forgotten and besides the community, the most other important thing. To add onto this, whether someone else is promoted or even if it's the current staff team, a community voice on the staff team is and has been the best thing, as many old moderators tend to forget they are players and don't play Skyblock to play Skyblock, just to come on and moderator for a few minutes every other month. This statement right here I feel like is what is hurting Skyblock, and if you do not play the game anymore if you are apart of the staff team I believe it is time to resign. There are many applicants who are on the entire day, helping, would make wonderful applicants! but they tend to always go unnoticed for long times, and don't suit "staff team role". I'm sorry to say it but it comes across and basically is holding your power, as you have had it with years, and there has been no change in anything since. A suggestion for a thread to be created by staff was commented to me, however, I took it into obligation myself to create this thread as I believe the best way from here is to rebuild the connection with the players, and having a community voice instead of a staff member voice seems to be more fair. Many comments about this issue have been commented by staff in the past, but we as a community cannot take your word anymore unless we see some change, most of the community is sick of this issue. Please do not leave any hateful comments towards the staff team. No hate is directed towards any single one of them, however, this issue needs to be spoken about in the public and there is time for a change. If a change is not made, I'm sorry, but the server will stop thriving soon and no one wants to see that. We would all like Skyblock to be a place it was back a few years ago with a few hundred co-current players and it is possible, I just don't believe as much of the effort on the current members of the staff team are being put use rather than some current applicants are to put in so much effort every single day. (Some words/sentences might not make sense as a majority was copy/pasted from a conversation with all of my messages, I will be fixing those). I hope to hear an opinion for each of you on this topic as community feedback from each player's is the most important thing for this thread to go anywhere, thank you.
You make very good points. A lot of these points have been stated before which means that there's not a lot going in order to resolve the issues the community is seeing. A lot of people see the way staff applications work and the way staff applications are supposedly chosen as an issue which is something that would need to be fixed as soon as possible. I agree that there are a ton of applicants with so much potential and it's really upsetting seeing their applications open for so long. I understand that there are numerous factors that need to be evaluated because in the past, people have seemed like the perfect applicant and would do so much but these people then turned out to be something unimaginable which is why there might be a delay when choosing applicants. But, when people are starting to wait for a response on their application for months, they start to lose hope and give up. I personally think the ratings on applications need to be removed. Because when you support someone, or give them a neutral or even a no support rating, they won't know why you chose to give them this rating. With supports, it's obvious that you believe the applicant can do well but it's sometimes better to explain why you're supporting the applicants. What are their pros, what assets do they carry and what potential do you see in them? Neutrals are by far one of the worst ratings on a staff application. They're an in-between of support and no support. No supports should definitely come with a reply to explain why you do not support the applicant, what they could improve on and what things do you see in a potential new staff. In addition, there should be more clarity between applicants, the community and staff members regarding why an applicant is chosen to be promoted, why one has been waiting for months and if someone isn't going to be promoted. Telling them beforehand instead of letting them wait for a few months would help the applicant and see the things they need to improve on and why they aren't going to be promoted soon. That's just my opinion on this, no hate at all. :)
There definitely isn't a lot of variety in the team - while I do love the team itself, they all aren't that different. I think promoting one or two new applicants that are currently in the running wouldn't hurt. Diversity is always wanted. Communication would be 100x more helpful - and I think that there needs to be a genuine sit-down and communicate their feelings, and that the players and staff hear each other sides with no punishments for expressing opinions, and that the community is actually listened to. While there have been discussions in the past, we were told this stuff and it seems nothing has changed. Activity is largely pushed for applicants but not so much for the staff team itself. I understand that people do have an outside life, but it is a bit disappointing that applicants are expected to be on 24/8 but when certain staff members go inactive for months at a time, it's essentially oh well. Activity really needs to be pushed more for the team itself - it doesn't do much good when applicants are on 24/7 with no permissions. I also think that inactive staff members really need to be demoted - regardless of how good they are or how well you know them. It really is disappointing that a lot of promised changes are not happening - while I do like the little stuff being added, I wish stuff like /ma would come back. We have no clue whats been happening with that - just being told "its being worked on.". I know I am, and so are a lot of other people, sick of hearing that and feeling like we're just being told that while nothing is really happening to it. I think one way to help fix this is genuine re-evaluations of staff. When you work at a job in real life, you get evaluated every once in a while to make sure you're what is best for them at the time. I think that needs to happen here as well. I do think that while it is sucky that stuff like that happens, I don't think it's fair to keep people applying for 2+ years. Especially when other people are being promoted in a shorter time. I would rather be flat-out denied compared to applying for 2+ years. facts
I find it surprising you came back to the server a few days ago and here you are making a 40 paragraph essay like damn bro what have you been doing the past few days that made you create this thread. I'm pretty sure there was a few threads about this but Im gonna be honest, the staff probably won't try to be more open or transparent with the community (at least the long time and well known players). I admire and love some of the staff members here but often times they hold bias towards some people from my point of view and tend to spill more information to them rather than to others who are also well known. What bothers me the most how people get on the staff team. Anyone can disagree with me and thats cool (don't really care if you do lol) but as a long time player there's always a clear bias on who gets picked. A staff member can reply and sugarcoat it all they want you're not even helping the situation just making yourselves look good in front of greenies and players who hardly have any experience playing skyblock. Its pretty clear the staff picked are picked because they are loved by the staff team and they follow the same vision and goals. I can name at least 20 different (including me) people that applied who had great qualifications but had their application stand for years because most if not all felt like they would not fit on the team. It's honestly like applying to a job that you are qualified for but never get in because they happened to choose someone who they believe fits within their character and not based on qualifications. The more the staff team keep bringing in people they like the most the less transparent the communication gets between players and staff. some staff don't realize this but this lack of transparency and communication deteriorates the relationship and leads to some of the community members breaking the rules because they don't feel comfortable with the staff and are willing to make the experience worse for them and everybody. If the staff wants to edit this go ahead like you're not helping either way just making it look more friendly towards people who are gullible of loving the staff lol
I did not intend to make a comment or a post about this in general, but from the volume of what I have heard from only a few days, I felt the need to make this for the community in general I would also like to mention I was asked to delete the thread at one point and also archive it, but I pushed for this to remain open from a community member and the community. It's great to hear the volume of this and the community speaking about this. | I would also like to add that any and ratings, especially from staff, should be explained in the comments.
This thread was allowed to be remained open after I pushed for it and I stated multiple times that it is a silence of voice. Never in my time here, has there been such a silence of voice, or even a silence of any individuals voice ever in the community and back in classic days this would've never even gotten to that point and the staff always made sure we were being heard and all had personal connections with the staff team. Right now there is really is no relationship between staff and the community, and even if there is, it isn't a good one. This thread is to promote conversation and to get this thread seen and to get this topic seen by all of the staff members and to hear all of their reasoning on this. By the talks of me getting told to take down the thread, then again told to archive it, I really wanted to make sure this was done the correct way, in a public conversation. By the looks of being told to take it down at first and such conversation, it seems as though the staff are already not taking a serious look into this matter and aren't all agreeing with this points which already isn't setting a better example. It seems as though some of the staff are already seeing this as an attack, and that itself is a problem.
It seems like a starting process have been made, and 3 developers have been removed from the developer role, most likely due to inactivity, from on the forums. It still says "Developer" where the member name is posted, however, that does not change with rank removal and I believe has to be done manually. If a staff can confirm this, that would be great as I don't want to send false information. [Edit] Sprock is also no where on the staff list anymore, which also leads me to believe this. If this was a true change however, it still doesn't really fix anything as developers are not really part of the staff, but it is a start.
I believe a staff has yet to confirm this, but due to Souly becoming a Helper and obtaining the role on forums, it leads to me believe this change was true. TL;DR - I do suggesting reading this entire thread, or you are able to read trin comment on the key parts of this thread in the spoilers of the reply. However, it is kind of complicated to give a TL;DR, but I still can. This thread isn't here just to discuss the application process, as a thread or two are already existing, however, it goes in almost total depth with all of the issues the players have been seeing/speaking against for months that are directed towards the staff team that have been going unheard or intentionally ignored for months/years. This thread is to remind everyone here that they have a voice, and if they choose to speak up about this, the more volume on this thread will lead things to change faster. Some of our player's are choosing to leave, give up, or are sick of even speaking about this issue due to it going no where which is already not sending the best message to the entire server.
This thread is already speaking some volume, and a staff member has yet to comment. Some of these team members might have been told to not respond to this thread, which is still giving evidence to prove this point and it's making this situation a lot harder as one of the main issues is communication, which this has still failed to receive. It's sad that so many players agree with this and have been saying the same things for months/years and we go ignored, which is why there are so many people that are not in this community no longer. [Edit] Also would like to add there are a few people that wanted to created this thread themselves, however, they are believed for it to go absolutely no where which is very upsetting to hear how the community thinks about our voice.
We should form a players union. Okay but seriously, this is a topic I cannot seem to shut up about - it's both an interesting and important topic to me. For ease of reading, I'm going to try and divide this into sections. This is gonna be a long one though. Strap in. History A Bit About Myself I've been around for a while. Since 2012, actually. I haven't been active during the entire time - my playstyle generally involves being very active for about 2-4 months, and then disappearing for 10+ months. My latest gap was actually a 3 year gap. So...it's been a while. The reason I bring this up though is because I've witnessed "the past" that a lot of people seem to long for firsthand. Player base I think one thing that gets missed in a lot of these threads is that the player base is simply smaller these days. There's not really a way to get around this fact. Every year that goes on, "challenge maps" like skyblock kinda just get less relevant, due to the fact that...other things come out. Obviously there can be resurgences in popularity like when a big YouTuber or Twitch streamer decides to play a skyblock map, but for the most part, a server that focuses speficically on one challenge map will naturally decline over time as it loses mainstream relevance. This isn't an inherently bad thing either. I just think it's something people fail to take into account. We have maintained a fairly consistent number of moderators, despite having a less vast playerbase. This kinda means there is actually less demand for moderators than there used to be. Rose Tinted Glasses For those of us who have been around a long time, I think it's easy to look back at the past and feel that "things these days ain't as good as they used to be". I think this view fails to take into account the way the player base has changed (see why I ordered these sections the way I did?) and also is falling into the nostalgia trap of rosy retrospection. Again, I was around during some of these periods of time, and as much as I miss and love the moderators of the past, I feel like people are forgetting the large periods of apparent inactivity from those staff members as well. Even well loved moderators took long breaks or just straight up quit, and retained their moderator titles for a long time after it was apparent they were no longer interested in playing regularly. What I'm getting at is this - these are not new problems. They have existed in cycles for the entire history of skyblock; I've seen it multiple times over the years. Present A Note on Critical Voices One thing that I think is important is to remember that no opinion is coming from a neutral source. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell whether criticisms come from a place of feeling wronged or slighted by the moderators versus a place of constructive feedback. It can be difficult to tell whether praise comes from wanting to defend your friends or if it's genuine and earned. Someone who has a lengthy history of bans might have criticisms that are largely dismissible or unfounded, while someone who is close friends with the staff team might be bending over backwards to defend what are obviously mistakes or failures on the part of staff. This isn't to say that every criticism or bit of praise can just be dismissed outright or that these discussions aren't valuable. It's to say that extremist positions (such as insinuating that mods are dictators who silence the opposition) should not be met with a rallying cry to grab pitchforks, but with skepticism. Examine your own biases and the biases of the sources of information you're reading when it comes to topics like this; oftentimes you are being fed a snapshot of a situation from a certain angle and aren't seeing the whole movie with 360 view. Lastly, as easy as it is to post "mods suck" and have these really long discussion threads, I actually find specific calls to action pretty rare in these types of criticism. For example this thread itself is very long, but it doesn't actually offer much in the way of specific feedback or solutions. It meanders back and forth between "players feel unheard" and "I'm sure staff are doing their best, I don't want to attack them" for about 15 paragraphs. This isn't to say that threads with specific feedback don't get posted, nor that the points raised in here are meritless. I just don't understand how anyone is supposed to meaningfully respond to 15 paragraphs with no specific criticisms or suggestions. I think I'd love to see more targeted discussion or suggestion posts about specific topics, because those are tangible changes that can be made. Vagueness is very unhelpful in feedback. My Criticisms If the last section can be read as "criticisms of the players", then this section can be read as "criticisms of the staff". I think the single biggest point of frustration for players (myself included) is a lack of transparency and communication in a lot of the goings on of the server. This is something I've talked about before - and I think it still holds true. I think the biggest area this can be seen is actually in the threads about staff feedback and also in the moderator application forums. It's exceptionally rare to get moderator feedback in threads that are explicitly made about moderators, which is...interesting, as it appears like the feedback is being ignored. I think moderators absolutely need to be a part of these discussions too, otherwise we're not really getting the full picture. Now that isn't to say I haven't seen positive changes. In fact, I've really appreciated seeing Dexuby posting on the forums and kinda surprising us with certain updates recently. I've also seen more moderators hopping into discussions on here and voicing their own opinions on some topics. I don't know if these have been intentional responses to recent criticisms or if it they were merely fluke, but nonetheless, I've personally been seeing more of an active effort to communicate in some areas. Future What I Want to See I think the single biggest change I want to see going forward is proactive communication from staff going forward. As I mentioned briefly, I've actually seen some of this happening recently, and I truly hope it continues going forward. I think for moderators, it's worth remembering that for the most part, these discussion threads and callout posts aren't entirely unfounded - they come from a place of wanting to make the server a better place for everyone. Being able to recognize that some players have concerns and respond appropriately can go a long way to appeasing players who feel (justified or not) uneasy about the state of the server. Closing I think a lot of players need to remember that staff members are not "out to get you", and they don't exercise their mod rank as a way to wield power over others, but to keep the server a safe, inviting, healthy space for the players and community. And most importantly - they are humans with lives that extend beyond this game. I think a lot of moderators need to remember that players offering criticisms and feedback want to keep playing here and have fun with friends. The feedback might not always be coming from a neutral source, but that doesn't mean the sentiment behind it isn't important to understand and respond to. We all are playing a Minecraft game together. Like one of the biggest things that gets lost in here is that...this literally could not be less meaningful. Huge heated arguments coming out of a game is very silly. We are playing digital Legos. Stop making drama where it isn't needed, and communicate to each other like normal humans.
I am bumping this thread due to a thread being locked that may not have been in the right section for conversation, but did have some really good conversation between staff and the community going on that does have to continue. The thread was locked for correct reasons, however these conversations were still going. These conversations do have to continue for these issues to get noticed, and currently there is not another thread open for that. Feel free to continue thread replies for that thread here.
I have actually become more enlightened since my essay earlier in this thread and will simply start shutting down all drama with “this is a block game”
