[PMC] New possibilities for the moderator process

[Trooprm32]

Ive never been a fan of the applyformod page... seeing something done with it would be nice.

[Denevien]

So far, we've made it so names go to a page admins can view so they can go into discussions. I plan to tweak the page a bit more to still be fun, yet more professional.

[buzzie71]

I am quite liking this plan actually :D

[Denevien]

So, I reworked the page a bit (but it has not been loaded to the actual page yet). Here is a picture of what I came up with using suggestions here. When submitting a name, it still sends to a fun silly page (changing it from ponies to something else), but as mentioned in my earlier post, it will send the player name to the admins. We can use these during brainstorming threads to get new ideas of possible staff members. I feel this new set up is a nice balance between the fun atmosphere we enjoy, while still professional enough to get the job done. I tried to please both sides with this, so please let me know what you think!\

 

EDIT: Already changed sumbitting to submitting on my end.

[Cyotie911]

So, I reworked the page a bit (but it has not been loaded to the actual page yet). Here is a picture of what I came up with using suggestions here. When submitting a name, it still sends to a fun silly page (changing it from ponies to something else), but as mentioned in my earlier post, it will send the player name to the admins. We can use these during brainstorming threads to get new ideas of possible staff members. I feel this new set up is a nice balance between the fun atmosphere we enjoy, while still professional enough to get the job done. I tried to please both sides with this, so please let me know what you think!\

 

EDIT: Already changed sumbitting to submitting on my end.

Denevien, I would suggest that if you want that page to be taken seriously, then you're going to need to completely redesign it.

The issue with just changing it around a little is that, I'm sure that there are going to be people like me, who click on it and knew what it looked like before and won't bother looking at it closely and notice the difference.  They are still going to assume that it's the same old troll page.

[Denevien]

Denevien, I would suggest that if you want that page to be taken seriously, then you're going to need to completely redesign it.

The issue with just changing it around a little is that, I'm sure that there are going to be people like me, who click on it and knew what it looked like before and won't bother looking at it closely and notice the difference.  They are still going to assume that it's the same old troll page.

What about a change of looks. Will the text I have work if the page looks different? That way, people will see it is different and take time to read it? And I don't mean just change the background color, like actually change the whole thing, but keep the wording I have.

[Cyotie911]

I would probably remove the big "Can I be a mod? NO.."  That's a bit to trollish.  If we seriously want this to be a legit mod application page, we can't tell them NO right off the bat.

 

Other than that. I like the rest of the wording.

[forty_two]

I would disagree with a self-selection process for mod nominations, but the majority of my points on this have already been said in this thread so I'll leave off the hurrumphing for the moment ;)

 

I do like the changes to the applyformod change, it was getting to be a rather outdated joke and as Faz said the original reason for its existence has pretty much ceased to be an issue (I don't recall seeing anyone asking for OP on this P rev). I'd like to suggest an alternate wording for the page though, as follows:

 

 

Can I become a mod right now?

 

No, but don't give up...

 

Moderators on these servers are selected by existing staff, not by applications.

 

We believe our moderation team should be formed from people who have shown themselves to be helpful, knowledgable, and mature through their actions in the community. With this in mind, the current moderators will suggest players who they believe show these traits. Play as you would normally, enjoy yourself, and you will be noticed.

 

If, however, you believe you or someone else would make a good moderator and have as yet been overlooked, you can put a name into the form below. The current staff is not all-seeing and input from the community is valuable to us.

 

It's not perfect - a little on the wordy side perhaps. However, the main themes I'm trying to put into it are a qualifying of the initial 'no', an  explanation of our focus on player actions as a measure of character, and the addition of potentially suggesting people other than oneself. I also kept mention of knowledge as a broad term rather than purely of the rules because I feel it's not that important to know the minutiae of this, potential moderators should rather have a broader understanding of how and why people should behave in a community.

[Denevien]

I like that ^

[redwall_hp]

I like it too, forty_two, though I have a stylistic suggestion.

 

How do I become a mod?

 

Moderators on these servers are selected by existing staff, not by applications.

 

We believe our moderation team should be composed of people who have shown themselves to be helpful, knowledgable, and mature through their actions in the community. With this in mind, the current moderators will suggest players who they believe show these traits. Play as you would normally, enjoy yourself, and you will be noticed.

 

If, however, you believe you or someone else would make a good moderator and have as yet been overlooked, you can put a name into the form below. The current staff is not all-seeing and input from the community is invaluable to us.

[buzzinbee]

I like forty_two's suggested wording. Although I still like the video idea. What I'd do is publicly announce that the rule of don't ask has been abandoned and that players that believe they have the necessary traits to become a moderator or know someone with the necessary traits to become a moderator can inform a staff member who will bring their name up in the next brainstorming thread.

[WayneByNumbers]

Since we seem to be getting down to the nitty-gritty details, I've got one.  If the page is going to be geared towards accepting all suggestions, and not just self-suggestions, the current URL might be a little misleading.  Perhaps it could be changed to something like nerd.nu/modsuggestionbox or something similar, and the old applyformod address redirect to that (so as not to break old links).

[Judge Dread]

I think I'm ok with the way this is heading. Might be nice to think about adding two command if we go this route. First a /nominate [palyername] [optionreason] might be helpful we could respond with a simple message saying the player will be looked into during the next round of nominations, and second a /applyformod which will add their name to the list we could respond to this with a link to becoming a mod is not a promotion and or moderation guidelines so they know what they are getting into. That aside I think we're missing a bigger piece of the puzzle for me it was never about names we can grab some from the usage page if we need them. The problem I think we face is getting to know our candidates. I couldn't tell you the number of times I abstained from voting because I didn't know the people. I think we need a better way to get to know our possible mods, while a list a names is a good place to start I would love to see a change in how we deal with them, whether its a more active approach on our end aka we go talk to them, or we have someway for them to talk to us in a less formal matter. This is kind of a tangent but still in line with the conversation, but one of the problems we face is once someone is nominated they tend to campaign and we don't necessarily get to see them instead we get to see them as they want us to see them (aka brown nosing and being an upstanding citizen).

[sansapants]

I like Dread's suggestion of in-game commands. One problem I foresee with using modified version of the current mod application page is that anybody can submit any name - theirs or other players'. This may lead to the possibility that one's name has been submitted for consideration as a mod without the knowledge of that person, or to someone spamming names for consideration.

 

By having an in-game command, we'll ensure that one can only submit their own name, or, if they nominate another, we will have a record of who made the nomination. Prohibition against spamming applications and nominations could then be added to the rules.

 

Another alternative would be to require nomination from a registered account on the forum, again so that we can track who submits names for consideration.

[buzzinbee]

One problem I foresee with using modified version of the current mod application page is that anybody can submit any name - theirs or other players'. This may lead to the possibility that one's name has been submitted for consideration as a mod without the knowledge of that person, or to someone spamming names for consideration.

Personally I'd just like to make it publicly known that you can put tell a staff member that you are interested and know that they will put your name into a brainstorming thread. I don't really see the need for commands or submission pages if a player really wants to be a member of the staff team why not let them talk to us?

[buzzie71]

Personally I'd just like to make it publicly known that you can put tell a staff member that you are interested and know that they will put your name into a brainstorming thread. I don't really see the need for commands or submission pages if a player really wants to be a member of the staff team why not let them talk to us?

 

My guess is that there are players who think we (the staff) are intimidating and are worried we'd act against them if they flat-out asked if they could be mod.  Perhaps they would be more forthcoming without someone to potentially think bad of them (and say so) listening to their request.

[buzzinbee]

My guess is that there are players who think we (the staff) are intimidating and are worried we'd act against them if they flat-out asked if they could be mod.  Perhaps they would be more forthcoming without someone to potentially think bad of them (and say so) listening to their request.

If a player doesn't get along with any of the staff members at all, they might not enjoy modding. That may sound harsh but there are so many staff members that you should at least get a long with one of them. If we make a post saying you are allowed to ask this, so the players know it's allowed then I think they would just go up to the staff member that they feel most comfortable talking to.

[Denevien]

This may lead to the possibility that one's name has been submitted for consideration as a mod without the knowledge of that person, or to someone spamming names for consideration.

But, that is how it is currently done. We let them know before we vote, but assuming people keep modchat private, well, private; the player will not know they are being discussed until we move to the next step and approach then before we add them to a voting list.

[buzzinbee]

We should probably get this thread to a conclusion as soon as possible the suggestion about this was made quite a while ago, it would be nice for the players to see something come of it.

[Mrloud15]

If there are no objections this post will be moved to the archives on July 7th.