See, I’ve not had this impression at all. Because when one application has, say, 80 community supports and another has fewer but gets chosen, it leads me to believe that in the end our supports do not matter.
I can see why you’d believe that, but like Boba mentioned we don’t see everything, it’s not a transparent process. There has to be a balance, there might be 80 supports for a popular player but concerns outside of our vision or level of inclusion can still exist and we have to keep in mind those concerns exist. It’s tough finding that balance but I trust right decisions are made for right reasons. Sure some people don’t trust that, but many do.
Serious answer here. It doesn't matter if you are liked by the community. It doesn't matter if you are liked by anyone. Change your personality completely and be fake towards your friends the staff team and everyone who joins the server. Do that for a couple months and I guarantee you, you will be chosen as a helper within a year. Then once you're helper forget everything you were doing and go back to your normal self obviously if you become extremely rude or harass players then you will get kicked off the team but for the most part it's your own free will at that point just use your head. And if you think what I just said is BS then open your eyes today an OG player was promoted whom of which in the early days of Skyblock has numerous allegations brought forth by multiple females who were minors at the time about inappropriate requests and behavior being displayed by said individual. Now obviously yes this was years and years ago but for me that right there just screams RED FLAG but yes let's put them in an authoritative position where they are a "high ranking" player with special perks that they can use maliciously to interact with even more young individuals seems like a great idea. TL;DR: Be fake for month/years and whallah helper/moderator position!
And regarding Calidre's response which seems a great response to me, Just don't forget it takes Kerahna who is the Staff Manager amount of time to review the specific applicant's history, trust, reputation from the community, and so much more in private. It's not just the opinions from the staff team. This seems pretty wrong to me tbh.
I agree, it is wrong that players’ supports don’t count more in the process. I like you, you’re fearless.
Everything is less transparent now, idk. Remember when someone could report you and you had the chance to defend yourself right on it? Now they’re all privated, as staff reports are, so no one knows what is really going on. This is two giant steps backwards, the way it is now. You are right, there is a lot we may not know. But there are a handful of people informing Kerahna about each applicant, and that’s not fair. Cuz to make a community happy, you’d want the ones most chosen by them to look over them, shouldn’t you? If not, then the applicants are appealing to the mod team alone, and they choose their friends every time.
As previously mentioned, when choosing new staff applicants everyone's opinions/posts on the applicant’s thread are read and considered. Kerahna also reaches out to the staff team for feedback which is also taken into account. As much as people see staff applications as a popularity contest, they aren’t in my opinion. If a player is active, knowledgable and kind, generally people want to become friends with them and interact, it’s a natural progression! Anyone is welcome to make friends on the server, it’s healthy and what makes the Skyblock community so welcoming and fun. Regardless of if we’re friends with an applicant or not, there’s always constructive criticism to provide in 99% of cases, of which you can see in previous applications. There’s a lot that goes into considering an applicant for the helper role, more than “oh this applicant is friends with some mods, they must be a good candidate!” Hope this shines a bit more light into the process taken for promotions.
we've seen applications get 50+ supports and not go anywhere, I think it's just a formality & something you have to do in order to check the boxes. it's kinda like submitting a resumé, you may be qualified but it sometimes just comes down to whether or not they like you/want you as part of the team.
It’s the popularity amongst the mods that counts. Proof? You keep picking candidates in your own time zones. Only net players, cuz eco candidates never get chosen, as they are never seen. You have huge gaps in time when no mods are on. You need a bigger staff team, and to get rid of the inactive ones. You guys need more helpers cuz they are so eager at that phase, but I digress. Applying for a mod position is so high stress on so many levels. Either the community supports need to count for more than they do now, or mods should refrain from supporting or not supporting applicants publicly. You make our reports private and our appeals public, show us the mod team votes after a candidate is chosen. Kerahna is busy doing the things the rest of you can’t, when she is on. She can read the applications then ask your opinions, then make them public. That way you aren’t influencing friends or hurting non-friends for up to a whole year till their applications are even considered. Reduce the stress on them, you know?
For context, when I became staff, I only ever played on Economy and I had 1 or 2 friends on the staff team… I’ve now been staff for 2 years. I now play Skyblock more often as my main project is there. The talk around having friends and having to be popular is a huge misconception. It’s not at all how Applicants are evaluated. It may appear that way as you may see us laughing in game or having fun once they’ve been promoted, or even before, but a good person is going to make friends with anyone, regardless of their rank status. Community supports and opinions matter. They are counted. It’s one of the main factors.
When you applied, were you not given the regular shpeel...play more survival, be active on forums and discord? I’ll have to read more accepted applications one of these days, maybe that will help me. The few I’ve read from recently, both accepted and rejected ones, were very confusing. How are applicants evaluated?
I don't have much of an input, but I'm happy to see that there are multiple people who share simulair opinions on the whole process as I do. I also think inactive staff should either be put on hold or get their perms revoked so they can make space for another active enthousiastic player. This way people don't instantly freak out when there are 2 staffmembers on
And on the topic of ongoing assessment and staff requirements, Drogo believes that staff reports should be public viewing. Too often, staff and the staff manager act very poorly showing too little respect for the rules and taking no accountability for their failings. Noobcrew has said, "staff make mistakes" and that is 100% understandable and forgivable. The problem is that they don't acknowledge them and seem to want to hide them away. It's this and other deliberate actions that need to be aired.
Of course we have the avenue of simply discussing it in forums, but best it be handled in the appropriate forum and be appropriately visible. Unlike some staff, some players value proper and due process.
Hey Jane, I'm going to do my best to explain and answer your points, if I haven't covered something enough just let me know! Our staff team actually covers a wide variety of timezones, including PTZ, CTZ, EST, BST, AEST and more. We do our very best to cover active timezones as much as we can, though there will always be gaps unfortunately. I do not believe this has anything to do with popularity, neither do we promote simply out of necessity. This is untrue, there are actually many mainly-economy staff members that currently play our server. Such as myself, Frez, Megan etc. Yes, we don't play economy as much as we do survival simply because there is more of a need on survival Skyblock for moderation than there is on economy. This is due to the player base differences as economy is mainly made up of afk players at this time. Regardless of if we play survival more often, if help is ever needed on economy any staff member is always willing to hop over and assist! A simple dm goes a long way to know help is needed. We do have gaps, but unfortunately that will always be the case as staff get busy and there are periods of time where we don't hop on as often/don't play for as long as we used to simply due to life progressing. I find playtime can fluctuate quite a lot and it really is due to what's happening irl! Real life always comes first. Yes, this can be a problem when there's no staff present when issues are breaking out, but there are always other ways that problems can be handled outside of staff being online 24/7. If you have a query you can always use our discord help channels or make a forums post asking about it. If someone breaks our rules, you can easily report them on the forums, report them in the help channels on our discord server or dm a staff member and more often than not someone is available and can hop on to deal with said issue. As for the second half of your question, this largely comes down to the amount of applicants we have at any given time. We don't have many applicants at the moment, but we always encourage anyone who is considering going to helper to apply! (Provided they meet the requirements of course). I think it's amazing how excited new helpers always are, so having the boost of community congratulations is always great! I agree, applying is a very stressful time for the applicant. It's hard to put yourself out there, I know that first hand when I applied for a staff position some time ago. It also isn't easy accepting and implementing changes when players/staff provide constructive criticism. That said, I think is necessary for anyone who has applied but also for current staff members to take everything into consideration and make changes where needed. There's always room for improvement, but it's how you handle said criticism that matters most. No one likes being told they can do things better, but it's important to help someone learn and grow, provided the criticism wasn't done out of malice or ill intent. This isn't true, we do not 'vote' at any stage of an applicant being considered. Ultimately, it isn't up to the staff team, it is up to Kerahna as our staff manager. As I explained in my first message here, all feedback from players and staff is taken into consideration when such a decision is being made. Staff applications are regularly reviewed and considered. If an application is up for an extended period of time without a response, that doesn't mean that Kerahna or the staff team hasn't seen it. I agree, if there is any way to reduce stress in the application process, I think it would be a good thing for everyone. There are always things that could be improved upon, however, I assure you that a lot of time and effort goes into reviewing and making decisions on current staff applicants. Hope this helps to explain the points you've made.
That is such a great idea, if they are put on a temporarily inactive status!! Staff make mistakes, yes...some are forgiven for theirs but others get demoted? Applicants have made ‘mistakes’ in the past, but the community isn’t told what it was, we are told ‘trust us, it’s not what you think’? I want to know. And those freaking ban appeals, how gut-wrenching to read. The patronizing, the power-tripping...like, a mod won’t answer for two weeks but shuts the appeal down because the player hasn’t answered in three days? Wrong. And why can’t we make punishments easier for the staff and for the players, like why can’t bans last one month each, for lesser “crimes”. A player did something wrong? Ban/mute them for a month. Each time. Rinse repeat. Queenie’s whole history is brought up for her permamute but we’re supposed to forget about the new staff’s past? It’s so biased, I don’t understand why the whole process can’t be less personal and more consistently open, across the board. Staff reports were always visible in the past, why are they private now? I love this server. I love this game. It could be soooo much more popular with just a few simple tweaks. You’re permabanning daily players, and kids! The game is not where they should be learning how harsh and unforgiving real life is. Ban them for six months! They mess up again, ban them again! Don’t tell them permabans are permanent when right on the ban message it says where you can appeal! And don’t get personal in the appeals. Be professional and factual. This is why it is so important for the community to decide who they respect enough to moderate them. I’d only choose the ones who are friendly and factual, not the power-tripping, condescending ones. But that’s just me. P.S. I love you, Bree! Thank you for taking the time, I so appreciate it!!
Or when staff don't like factual content that can't be argued and puts the server or staff in a bad light.
I definitely see your point however one issue with that is if everyone has the least bias towards the applicant and they all do put in their share of feedback and comments. Of course, that is not the case. Someone who is really popular on skyblock would get mod more easily and it is unfair to others who aren't as popular but have the same qualifications or better than what is required. Now some of you may point out mods have bias and yes that is true since they tend to interact with the community a lot (least some do). that being said though just because one person is popular they may not meet the requirements and there is people who may not agree with them which also puts them at a disadvantage since now that person is a staff member and they can abuse their power towards anyone they don't like and (probably) still get away. Least that's how I see it. Quite frankly I see it happening with few people on this server who are more than likely to abuse their powers and still get away with it. Also this isn't an election where skyblock is gonna make massive changes, its a server so if you don't like it you're more than welcome to leave and return when you feel like so lol. The staff here (while biased and tend to cherry-pick the ones they like) do have a better understanding of the player (i.e. ban history and their actions). If they want to they can bring up their history and use it to back their claim on why they can or cannot be staff. I think if anything, it should be the same however maybe the selection process be tossed up a bit and give others a chance. Will there be more resignations and demotions? Probably yes (yes I admit it). But will there be more qualified staff who have knowledge in a variety of areas and add diversity to the team? Absolutely.
Reports absolutely should be private. If I have a concern over some unsafe or harmful things being said or done on the server, there is absolutely no reason that the concern should be aired out even more. This is true (imo) for all reports. Also it seems highly inappropriate to have the accused person and the reporting person "debating" in the same thread. I would hope procedure for staff reports, specifically, is that the staff mentioned in the report should be as removed from the report as possible while it's being investigated / handled by someone else.
