The Staff team needs to be trained

Notice: I deeply respect each and every staff member currently on the team, and each of them has wonderful personalities and highs, and in no way am I dissing any of them in any way. So please, don't go off ranting against this thread and just understand where I am going with the points I make.

This has been on my mind ever since the new staff were released. They completely skipped the Helper stage and moved to the Moderator stage. Helper wasn't just there for no reason, it was there to see if the staff member fit the position of staff. Not only that, but helper was a period where the other staff (usually an Administrator or Owner) train the helper with commands, such as punishments, and how to deal with the players in all situations.

The players were given Moderator and as far as I could tell, they weren't given training. However, Jeremy was previously a staff member, which excuses him from this situation. Miner is an older staff member, meaning he knows how to deal with most of the commands, however, Kaiziieee was mostly confused (just seeing as she attempted punishing players). Although, she did eventually get to know the commands and punishments, she didn't know at first and you don't want to come on a server and see an untrained staff member (in general).

I do not know why the decision was to remove the helper rank. But if you train a staff member, then the result of the staff's experience will definitely improve in different situations. For example, when someone is screaming at another player, you need to know how to deal with these situations appropriately instead of muting the player, they need to know to verbally warn. Along with cap spam, verbal warnings are always appreciated instead of straight up warning. Which is slowly changing throughout staff, but it still happens once in a while.

At this point, staff is in decent shape but there are weak spots, and those weak spots need to be patched up so the staff team can be at the maximum of their ability. The staff can't fix these problems are their own. Training should be mandatory once a staff member is promoted. And yes, i understand staff members make mistakes, and everyone makes mistakes every so often.

 

Half the staff team isn't even active on the forums.

 

Every staff member is going to be confused and a little overwhelmed when they first get moderator. That's why the other, more experienced staff members are there to train them and help them grow a through knowledge on punishments and such. I personally have helped teach Kai and Miner both about the different commands. Even if they did go through a helper phase, not all staff are going to know all the commands the second they become moderator. Yes, helper could be helpful, but it isn't needed.

Although not all the staff are active on the forums, they have all been provided the link to the staff forums so they can check if needed.

 

I thought the forums is part of the server, and each staff member is supposed to split there time on each and every server (that has active players)?

 

Not all the mods are active though(Temp,phoe,ken)

 

I gotta agree with that forums point. Sometimes it takes bricks for a report to be checked and it's always done by like the same 3 people.

 

I do agree, training has fallen by the wayside. I don't think helper did it correctly as that was more of a tag than an actually training phase. Most helpers were just taught by other mods. I learned most of my staff magic from remmi, napkin, and gio. But I feel that this sort of lack of a training phase has started to show. I know that I was previous staff, but staff has changed a fair bit. I needed to relearn a lot of stuff, but I did catch on rather quick since it was about relearning it vs learning and remembering. But maybe like a more formal one on one elder staff and new staff program thingy. I am not a fan of being all formal and big server like on such a small server like we are, but something like this will ensure that we get quality staff.

 

Tbh I'm not even going to read it and I agree
Most the time I see players being ignored here and there and it makes me cringe because like they just sit there helplessly and I can't do anything about it

Like if you sign up for staff you must help, not just be there for the rank and boast to all your friends

Tbh it's better boasting about how helpful you are rather than your "powerful rank"
and I'm not saying everyone does this but it sure does seem like it

Really when someone asks for help you should answer them right away and not hit them with a "in a couple minutes" thing

A bunch of issues need to be fixed and training is good but then again who will train them because everyone is so "busy" Don't you know

Yea that's the other thing
If a mod doesn't know a command or an answer to a question they should post something in the staff chat on skype. I remeber doing this plenty of times when I was a staff member and this was one of the best ways to help the person and yourself to learn the command or solution to their problem.

If it is more simple you could simply just google "How do I get rid of the tree tool in WE minecraft"
And Google will answer your questions (like always lmao) the player themselves could've googled but the staff are there to help and make life easier on the server y'know....

 

it does make sense to me. learning basic and commands should be on the criteria, even possibly to get in in the first place.

and the whole point of staff is to help, even if that means the staff googling it..

 

christ you should all tone down a little with the demanding of extreme professionalism. I mean, admit it, we only have about 20 players max on the server and you guys here think the staff should be trained to handle like 200 people at a time.

 

Word. ( no, not Wordguy )

 

I'd like to commend Kash for making such a professional and well-worded post. When everyone feels agitated with staff these days (and I understand why, to an extent), it was a nice change to have someone make a thought-out post without any snide remarks. Well done Kash, I respect you for that.

I do think that Helper was more style than substance. I understand the idea of 'easing people into staff,' but I don't see how our server improved with a Helper rank. When I first became staff 2/3 years ago, new staff were assigned a mentor to show them the ropes (mine was J6Unlimited, for all you old-timers ). Please remember though that it takes time to get to grips with everything. I would welcome the introduction of this idea again as it seems to have faded post-arcadia.

Even if we don't post everyday, a lot of staff check the forums multiple times a day (as I do), but it's a valid criticism to say not everyone is on enough, so that's something we should take into account.

We've had this discussion over online-time more times than I can remember (regarding me, Temp & Ken as it so happens), and if you don't know why we struggle to get online, you must've been living under a rock for the past 2 months xD

Firstly, when half the staff team was just laid off in early 2014, that's what ruined the server in the first place (when our player counts of c. 100 were replaced by c. 20). No-one's quite forgotten about that yet.

"That was in the past, move o-" -- If you remember those times, you won't forget them easily.

Secondly, the names mentioned have made invaluable contributions to the server, which most people - who weren't regular players 3 years ago - won't remember. It's a mark of respect to show the server's gratitude to their contributions, and how they used to dedicate huge amounts of time to the server (possibly more so than staff do now) in order to maintain the high player count, where every staff member - regardless of rank - put in the effort like that of an Owner.

Thirdly, we've all grown up a lot since those times. The days when we could spend night after night after night on BuildCraftia have long gone, replaced by higher education and such. The reason the new mods were appointed were to maintain the server day-to-day. And I hasten to add, nearly all of staff are online during the holidays, at peak-times.
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Is the solution to just lay off half the staff again? If you look at history, you'd realise that's the worst possible thing the server could do in its current state.

And I'd agree with Olo's point: this server is so minuscule now, I doubt there's much to be gained from acting professional 24/7.

Implementing ideas from the past doesn't always work.

Disagreements are welcome.

 

I agree with the professionalism bit. We are a small server and there's just simply no need for everything to be formal. I think we struggled with that a lot in our first few months on the new bc. But back to topic. A mentoring program is formal and what not, but the problem is that currently staff team is kinda being left to fend for themselves with the inactivity of a few people who shall not be mentioned. I think that is kinda taking away from the overall time that is alloted to mentor the new mods. A lack of staff also does not help this. But besides the point, a one on one mentoring program would be way to formal than I would like it to be on such a small server, but I think it necessary for right no I guess.

 

I would just like to say, having old staff members who can no longer truly commit the time to the server to help as mods doesn't help the server in the slightest. All old staff members are given MVP, so why should there be exceptions? I know this is a small server, but I think having staff members who aren't willing to/can't commit the time to the server anymore shouldn't keep the rank. It makes it seem like certain people get more benefits just because they are older staff members and not all the rules apply to them. This is not to say I don't respect these old staff members for all the time and effort they have given to the server in the past, because I am grateful and respectful of them, but I just think it's pointless for them to continue on as staff members if they are not there to be a member of the staff team.

We can mark the respect to these old staff members in other ways than just giving them mod. And yes, I understand that they are available during the holidays and peak-times, but it is my belief that if you really want to be a staff member you have to be able to be there at all times and be an active member of the community.

Yes, "laying off" half the staff once again might not be the best possible outcome of this particular situation, but it is not the worst, either. These staff members are not active enough to be there to support the server, so it wouldn't really be "laying them off" it would just be taking away their staff rank since they are unable to be on the server often enough.

**On a side note, this is NOT an attempt to slander/offend anyone, I'm just stating my own personal opinions on the subject matter at hand. Any disagreements with my opinions are welcome.**

 

There is a fundamental flaw to this statement. You're stating you, "you struggle to get online," which shows you're not assisting the server and therefore shouldn't be staff. Although showing a sign of respect, without anymore contributions from the staff mentioned, there is no longer a requirement for their service and should be played off for inactivity. Perhaps, due to their contributions in the past, they could be automatically given Penguin in return.

Furthermore, the reduction of staff to the remaining active ones would be more of clarification as people don't recognise you to be online consistently and therefore, not managing the server within your role.

 

Very formally put.

I'm not going to disagree, because your points are valid from your perspective.

Sometimes, someone has to deliver the cold truth: the server hasn't moved anywhere for over a year in terms of popularity. The only thing keeping the server afloat is the 1/5 of the playerbase that returned after Arcadia. If you firmly believe (validly) that older staff members should be laid off, then you can pursue that argument. All I say is, that's what brought about all the problems in the first place. Kick them out, and we'll all go our separate ways and cease contact. It's an irony that most of the Retired Staff - who stuck around - are largely unhappy with how the server is run (and I was / may be one of them).

In short: I think staff is the least of the server's worries. If you're passionate about it, then go ahead. But it won't achieve anything, and I can't see the server getting anywhere anytime soon, because there is no leadership.

Disagreements are welcome. (And if you're commenting on how the staff should be laid off, please don't as I fully accept the validity of that argument, even if I disagree with it).

 

There should be a Staff Manager, or in other words, someone to lead, train and focus the team.