Forums Staff Applications suck.

idk if it’s just me but i’ve noticed abit of an algorithm of players that open their apps a week or two before promos getting it above others that have shown dedication for months/years in some cases ? this is just a genuine observation and not directed at anyone as i love everyone :3

 

Please only comment if you have something relevant to add.

 

I’m so glad someone has finally made a thread addressing the application system, because I completely agree that it’s silly.

I’m a strong believer that all applicants have the potential to become a good staff member eventually- whether that’s at the time of applying, or a while later. However, most applicants don’t even get close to proving themselves.

There’s extremely high expectations of applicants, and most with massive amounts of potential go through a “sitting on the fence” period; waiting months, or even years in some cases, for valid feedback before becoming completely burnt out and leaving. I understand the staff team have to carefully select who they promote, check their background, etc. however I think they should sometimes be more lenient and give those with clear potential a chance.

Secondly, I have problems with this whole “get to know the community more first” feedback I’ve seen on some applications. Although I think it’s a good thing for a staff member to be familiar with the community they’re working with, I don’t believe it’s at all necessary. A staff member’s job is to enforce the rules, handle reports, appeals, and assist players in need. You don’t need to be everyone’s best friend on all platforms in order to do that by any means.

 

I wanna add that the reason we have a helper role is solely to determine if the "trainee" can adhere to the expectations of a full moderator. the limited capabilities of a helper as well as their position on the staff team are there to train them about what their job as a moderator will be like. It also gives them the opportunity to show to the players they can fulfill their promises addressed on their application

 

I completely agree. Helper is the rank that replaced Trial Mod after all. It should be used as a trial rather than a Junior Mod position in my opinion.

 

This is something I would like to see. What used to be the case I’m pretty sure, is that we had Trial Mod and the position was used to test potential mods with mostly the same capabilities as helper right now. It’s become what seems Helper, just being well, a helper. It feels that they are almost always guaranteed moderator position, just the time it takes may vary for player.

I think more people should be promoted to helper position to give the applicants who are clearly capable a chance to see if they work as part of the staff team before choosing who will actually get promoted. Like Tog said it feels more just like a mod position with slightly less access to commands and abilities rather than an actual test position to try out potential new staff team members.

I’m too lazy to write another essay so I’ll just make this short but basically I’d love to see more helpers with the actual intention of TESTING new players out

 

As a recently promoted staff, I want to give my opinion/perspective on how I felt when applying and what some things mean generally.
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When applying, you probably see other applicants with many supports already which starts to make you feel down and worried you won't get promoted. You have to also make sure your application looks good. People don't like too much or too little. It's kind of hard to get the right balance because when writing your application, you want to list all of your traits and sometimes you "overwrite". This is one thing I was worried about. I had to cut a lot of stuff from my application originally and then after posting edited a bit more because it looked empty.

Another thing which gets applicants worried is what others think about you. Sometimes when you get too many no supports, neutrals or no judgement at all, it gets you down and you end up taking down your application.

People also have comments such as "low activity" "not seeing you help" etc.. (I'm going to admit, I've made such comments before) and it brings them down. One thing I want to suggest is to take it easy on applicants. This also goes for me as well. We sometimes have a lot to judge, we don't know how the applicant feels. So it's fine if they're active one platform mainly, we can always connect there and see how they help. As Kerahna stated, once promoted, you can be active one platform mainly but we expect you're able to go on other platforms and help out when needed. This is why we ask you be active on different platforms to familiarize yourself with how players are there.

When we ask you to be active on Forums, this means we want to see you able to recognize forum rules and able to report posts, help out, report players etc. We would like to see you able to recognize a double post, a rate abuser, a grave digger or another rule breaker.

When we ask you to be active on Discord, this means we want to see you able to understand how the platform works, you able to be active to know when someone needs assistance in-game or if someone needs general help.

When we ask you to be active on Skyblock/Economy, this means we want to see you able to understand how the different communities interact. Survival and Economy are two different places - one is more active, the other is more chill and with different playing abilities, we want you to recognize the difference between them. One has Skybucks, the other has grass. One has a hostile warp, the other doesn't. But which? That's what we want you to know and understand.

I think what some players think is that they're completely ignored but we want to see how you interact with players and get to know you better. We need time to better evaluate you and understand you. We see how you've interacted with others, if you're familiar with our server and are aware of how things work.

Also just a note to those who wants another staff role added, that's way too much. To add a junior helper etc.. it's too much to configure. As a better alternative, discord moderators can maybe not be able to apply for and rather given to those who are deserving. This doesn't mean every applicant gets it but this shows that the player is able to be staff. In your position as discord moderator, we can evaluate you better and see how you interact with others. Another position is forums moderator, we can evaluate your understanding of forums and if you're able to recognize how forums work.

This is my opinion/statement, if you disagree, that's fine but this is how I view how staff applications are looked at and what some comments really mean.

 

I’m just going to clear this up, this isn’t what people are asking for. My post above this sums up what we’re saying. Our point is Helper role is treated as if it is a Junior Mod role. What used to be the case was a trial Mod where applicants were promoted to be TESTED as a moderator to decide whether they would be worthy of being promoted to a full moderator. It now feels as if promoted to helper, the player is basically just a Mod with less perms, and will always get promoted eventually just the time it takes may vary.

 

Just wanted to give my opinion on the whole new role idea. Just like others I believe there should be some type of a test period where a few applicants get accepted and only the qualified ones make it to the next stage.

FYI: Adding a new role into the config file isn’t very difficult, I’ve owned a server before and it could be done by a great developer ( which this server has ) in a matter of minutes.

 

Thank you for clarifying.
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The helper role is essentially trial mod but just redesigned (name/colour). Our duty is mainly to moderate chat and that's how we start to understand the different varieties of people. We still are TESTED. Our superiors (mods/smods/manager) look at how we are handling things and give their judgement. I'm not gonna say much because I don't see what else to add lol, but the main point is we are TESTED. This is coming from a helper. : )

 

trial mod had lot more perms n all that and i feel as if it meant that someone would eventually get promoted to mod, however i feel as though helper should not exactly be seen as a role where there has to be a promotion after a certain period of time. i feel as if its a role all on its own and i don't think it's a trial for anything, however it does help show if someone is ready for a promotion to mod & if so, theyd get it. thats just how i personally think of it tbh.

 

I'm going to keep my post pretty short just because a lot of my feelings has been summed up

but honestly, I feel like while we shouldn't go all crazy on promoting people, more should be promoted to helper to prove they can handle it. if they cant handle helper, then demote them, but don't leave the applicants sitting here applying for ages to 'prove themselves' - instead give them a chance. because we don't know what to 'prove'. you say to look at the recently promoted, and I'm sorry for what I'm about to say but when you look at the recently promoted, they're all either friends w agent or kera, it's why it looks like there's bias. I honestly think with how the roles are now there's no point in keeping a helper role - you're almost always guaranteed a position as a mod so helper just seems kind of pointless at this point. I think that some closure would be appreciated, because yes while you cannot send us a list of what we need to be/doing bc it's 'private info', maybe just general guidelines, ex. active on the forums for at least 30 mins a day, ingame for at least an hour, and so on.
personally, for me, I feel super burnt out applying. when I started applying it felt like the server went from somewhere I wanted to play because it was fun to I had to play or else I would get no supports because of the rising expectations for staff applicants. and seeing promotions de-motivate me too, and it's not because it wasn't me who was promoted, it's just I don't know why this person was picked and I don't know if I'm close, if I'm doing something wrong, if I even have a chance. because yes, whilst everyone 'has a chance', the chances are higher for some and lower for others due to history, etc.

 

This is something I was going to talk about and might write something on it later if I’m not lazy, but this is something I think should happen

 

i agree with this bit here. promotions happen so rarely and when they do, not many people get it. i (personally) feel as though there aren't many staff on the team in general, so im always confused as to why promotions aren't that common, or at least not as common as before. like i've said before i don't see helper as a trial mod rank, i see it as just a helper rank, so i agree that maybe more players should be given the chance to further prove themselves.

this is something i believe all applicants relate to as well. it's a little bit unfortunate that that's the case. i've always felt bad for applicants who had their applications open for many months/years because i personally thought that they at least deserved to be told why they're not fit for the position. now being one of those applicants who has had their application open for almost a year myself, i understand the frustration and i understand how demotivating it can be at times. especially with all the standards that are set for applicants and all the different things we're told we need to work on, it's tough to keep going or to keep trying.

i think you had some very excellent points.

 

apologies for a double post but this focuses on something else, anyways just a piece of advice to all applicants, remember that what's most important is that you enjoy the game. when your enjoyment fades away, then there's no point in applying anymore. yes, we want to help the community & want to make it a better place for everyone, but how you view the community and the server itself matters too. when it comes down to it, make sure you're having fun. this is minecraft, it's a game, it shouldn't be making anyone feel this way.

we are all literally just playing a game. as long as we are all on the same page, we can easily change these high standards that everyone wants us to meet. remember we're just humans playing a block game, this is supposed to be a hobby not a job. we are the ones willing to give up some extra time to help the server, so we shouldn't be feeling like the server is no longer fun or enjoyable because of these sorts of reasons.

just make sure you're havin fun tbh, applying can be tough but it is not worth sacrificing your enjoyment for. at the end of the day we're all jus tryna have a good time.

thank u!

 

My take on this:

Yes you’re right, and there fact that people have to wait so long for a response is very wasteful in terms of time, dedication and effort. I have seen plenty of people who try to put in the effort, but they don’t fit into the position. The staff team should assign a higher-up staff to review applications every 1-2 weeks. If they don’t fit the position, deny it and tell them to apply again in 30 days. Else, spare them waiting months to get promoted and promote them now and give them some fresh motivation to help out on the server.

In short, just review applications more often lol

 

Pls do this

 

nice thread!

 

So much for making a change lol (no hate on Bree I think she’s lovely). I think Satan was right, at this point let’s just offer a buy in for Moderator rank. I feel sorry for the applicants who have given their all and been totally overlooked once again. Bree was a good promotion but why only ONE? We need more mods not just one new one.