Creative - The Current State.

[EeHee2000]

Alright, first off, Creative is in a terrible state. 

You mightn't agree with this, and I'm fine with that. However you mightn't know all the facts. Here's a general summing up:

 

Creative is considered the "old horse" of the community. We average about 5 or so players online at a time, and on a good day we can reach around 15 or so. 

We have zero active, dedicated moderators able to attend to Creative. With the banning of ROCKONN, a mod who's spent over 350 hours online this revision, there aren't any more frequently active, focused moderators able to attend to Creative. Sure, we have admins, such as Buzzinbee and LetsBeFehr, but they aren't always on, either. Perhaps with the low player count, there aren't all that many modreqs to do, and I agree with that. However that should change. The Creative server shouldn't be so devoid of players that there aren't even any modreqs to do. 

Going further into the moderators issue, I'd like to raise a few points. 

I was told with confidence that the Creative server would get a small amount of mods, maybe 3 or so, by 3 admins, one whom is also pushing for the development and revival of Creative. 

Two Creative players were put into the voting thread, and I'm perfectly okay with that. What I'm not okay with is the fact that they are the two lowest voted players, despite one of them being a veteran of the servers, and the other having spent a whopping 370+ hours on this revision alone, holding first place for usage stats. It's been raised so, so many times by many people that Creative needs new mods over the past year, yet even a player such as Magnyus, who's now left the servers, couldn't get it. It's impossible for a C player to get mod. Not to attack PvE in any way, but to rather state an obvious truth, PvE has most of the power over who does and doesn't get moderator. PvE usually has in the least 3 moderators online, which would be at about 3AM EST. During the day, they'd usually have about 10~ moderators online at some point, correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

With this taken into account, none of the PvE players come onto Creative except to plan town builds. No socialisation is done between the two servers. The contrast just completely rips apart the "community" sense of nerd, because of the huge differences between them. 

 

Here's a memory jogger: Remember the 3M meetings? A lot of people attended that, to our surprise. Run by Magnyus and Nickeox, with NEVAstop and myself running the secondary meetings, it proved to be filled with thoughtful, well spoken conversation. Dozens of suggestions were raised and none were dismissed. It was formal, it went perfectly.

Now, tell me two things that came from those meetings.

Fun fact: Nothing ever came from them. Nothing at all. If you think there's a reason to disagree with me on that, go ahead. But first, please listen to the recordings. Please don't argue if you just disagree for no reason, because the evidence here is overwhelming.

 

All we can really do for Creative is watch it die, as much as I'd love to think otherwise. PvE mods will always vote for PvE mods, whom shall vote for more unnessecary PvE mods. Will Creative get a share? No. It hasn't, and after this modvote it likely never will. Because it's dying. I know there are certain admins pushing hard for Creative's revival, and I really sincerely appreciate that. But nothing ever comes from it.

It's just ridiculous, and certain admins can't bring themselves to do anything about it. Why? Because they couldn't care less. That's the honest answer. Survival also needed mods quite badly, so they got their batch of mods last vote. If Creative needed them badly back then but didn't get any, how badly do we need them now? Very badly. Do we get any mods? Nope. PvE and Survival do. Let me know what you guys think. 

 

EDIT: Just to mention, I could ramble on all day and night about this. The list goes on, and on, and on. And on. I want this to be a discussion toward developing Creative and finally pulling it out of limbo, not PvE players arguing with me for no reason. If you take offence to what I've said, go ahead. 

Edited September 24, 2014 by EeHee2000

[TornadoHorse]

Gonna link this creative discussion thread posted by Difficult1 a couple of weeks ago. Quite a few suggestions were brought up but nothing came of it, it's worth a read. I don't know whether creative is beyond fixing now, but if you seriously want it to get better then you're going to have to be more open about new ideas. Ideas that originally would never have been considered on C. Us being afraid of change is why we're so behind all of the other minecraft servers. I'm not saying we've got to ditch our morals and turn to donations or anything like that, but just being a bit more open minded and working together for a better change could go a long way.

 

I can't confirm some of all of the things you've pointed out just because C isn't a server that I play on too often, but I certainly agree with what you've said about moderator selections seeing as S was and still is lacking active mods (at least it is for my timezone). I think the problem is that moderators are selected too late in their time on these servers. Take Magnyus for example, I honestly can't think of anyone better who should have been modded that wasn't. He was put in the vote right at the end of his time at nerd, somehow he didn't get it despite having a lot of support and now we've lost out on the opportunity for a fantastic staff member. If a player has managed to get that far in the voting procedure and has that much support, especially from the players, why not just give them a chance? In the worst case scenario they do something wrong and get demodded. 

[ROCKONN]

What we need, at the moment, is to find new source of players (specifically for C, and for the servers in general). The only way to accomplish doing so is to advertise, and not to make a contest out of doing it. While a nice idea, it's not an effective method for it, and in my eyes seems to only be a delaying method for actually advertising. We've had more than enough time to consider the sources, the image we want to put out, everything involved in the process since it was first suggested months ago. What I propose is the following, in reference to this point:

 

-A more interesting, less-barren, easier to embrace Lobby spawn should be constructed. Now. The current Lobby, in addition to paying no attention to the player-spawn orientation, is just sad-looking. It suits our purpose to just exist, but little else. A new spawn, more arrow-shaped, will do wonders for new players connecting to our network.

    -I've seen that FatherSouth has provided a temporary lobby world to us. This should be used, at least for now, as it's less likely to drive off players looking for a professional-looking/feeling server.

 

-Direct connection IPs should not be posted outside of the game. While a nice convenience, we want new players to see everything we have to offer, and not just jump into what they think they will enjoy. By forcing a player through the Lobby world, we will present all our options to them, which might otherwise go unnoticed. Direct connection IPs should be posted in the spawn of each individual servers, along with signs advertising the other servers.

 

Should staff members concerned with physically creating/writing advertisements for the server- among other players, I am more than interested in assisting doing so. Contact me with your plans as soon as possible, or post your status on this effort with the same haste.

[EeHee2000]

Gonna link this creative discussion thread posted by Difficult1 a couple of weeks ago. Quite a few suggestions were brought up but nothing came of it, it's worth a read. I don't know whether creative is beyond fixing now, but if you seriously want it to get better then you're going to have to be more open about new ideas. Ideas that originally would never have been considered on C. Us being afraid of change is why we're so behind all of the other minecraft servers. I'm not saying we've got to ditch our morals and turn to donations or anything like that, but just being a bit more open minded and working together for a better change could go a long way.

 

I can't confirm some of all of the things you've pointed out just because C isn't a server that I play on too often, but I certainly agree with what you've said about moderator selections seeing as S was and still is lacking active mods (at least it is for my timezone). I think the problem is that moderators are selected too late in their time on these servers. Take Magnyus for example, I honestly can't think of anyone better who should have been modded that wasn't. He was put in the vote right at the end of his time at nerd, somehow he didn't get it despite having a lot of support and now we've lost out on the opportunity for a fantastic staff member. If a player has managed to get that far in the voting procedure and has that much support, especially from the players, why not just give them a chance? In the worst case scenario they do something wrong and get demodded. 

Yeah, I saw that thread, it died down a little too fast.

However, Creative's been very optimistic about trying new ideas. We've been speaking to admins about advertising, we've got the SB contest coming up very soon also. We've tried a lot of options, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes which we've experimented with. Yes, I want to revive C, but I don't really see too many good opportunities to do so despite the best efforts of our players. This is because we need the community to pitch in a little.

[ROCKONN]

In regard to moderator selection, I have only this to say: We enlist additional staff members based on a need for them, not just for the sake of doing so. Does one of our servers, which has a minimum 8 staff members on at all times, need more help?

 

Hint Hint PvE, no it doesn't.

 

Current moderators, take it upon yourselves to expand outside of your comfort zones, learn the additional rules for the other servers, ones that weren't gone over in your initial mod training. The need for staff on all servers is ever-present. Look for how you can help at all times, not just when help is asked for.

[EeHee2000]

What we need, at the moment, is to find new source of players (specifically for C, and for the servers in general). The only way to accomplish doing so is to advertise, and not to make a contest out of doing it. While a nice idea, it's not an effective method for it, and in my eyes seems to only be a delaying method for actually advertising. We've had more than enough time to consider the sources, the image we want to put out, everything involved in the process since it was first suggested months ago. What I propose is the following, in reference to this point:

 

-A more interesting, less-barren, easier to embrace Lobby spawn should be constructed. Now. The current Lobby, in addition to paying no attention to the player-spawn orientation, is just sad-looking. It suits our purpose to just exist, but little else. A new spawn, more arrow-shaped, will do wonders for new players connecting to our network.

    -I've seen that FatherSouth has provided a temporary lobby world to us. This should be used, at least for now, as it's less likely to drive off players looking for a professional-looking/feeling server.

 

-Direct connection IPs should not be posted outside of the game. While a nice convenience, we want new players to see everything we have to offer, and not just jump into what they think they will enjoy. By forcing a player through the Lobby world, we will present all our options to them, which might otherwise go unnoticed. Direct connection IPs should be posted in the spawn of each individual servers, along with signs advertising the other servers.

 

Should staff members concerned with physically creating/writing advertisements for the server- among other players, I am more than interested in assisting doing so. Contact me with your plans as soon as possible, or post your status on this effort with the same haste.

Yes, advertising's been brought many times now, it's very likely that some ads will be done soon. However, I fully agree with not making it a contest and just doing it. 

 

EDIT: Totemo, are you fucking kidding me? Why the downvote? 

Edited January 15, 2014 by EeHee2000

[EeHee2000]

In regard to moderator selection, I have only this to say: We enlist additional staff members based on a need for them, not just for the sake of doing so. Does one of our servers, which has a minimum 8 staff members on at all times, need more help?

 

Hint Hint PvE, no it doesn't.

 

Current moderators, take it upon yourselves to expand outside of your comfort zones, learn the additional rules for the other servers, ones that weren't gone over in your initial mod training. The need for staff on all servers is ever-present. Look for how you can help at all times, not just when help is asked for.

A trait I'm seeing is that PvE mods stop being members of the community, and rather just mods of PvE. They just abandon all other servers and flock to PvE, the other servers forgotten. PvE is the last resort for all mods, and that last resort is fast becoming the only resort. 

Edited August 13, 2014 by EeHee2000

[LetsBFehr]

I do appreciate this thread.  It brings up some issues that I feel need to be addressed.  

 

Mods

I completely agree that this is an issue.  We don't have ANY active C mods.  Looking through the modreq list, marting and I alone combine for more than 50% of the modreqs.  While we don't require mods to ever do modreqs, it can sometimes get tiresome when you log on to 10 requests and feel the need to do them because they were made 6 hours ago.  The way to solve this is to get new mods.  Unfortunately, our voting process hinders this.  We have 2 maybe 3 mods who play C a couple times a week, and 4 admins.  When a C person is up for nomination, those 6-7 votes aren't nearly enough.  While some people vote yes because they know C needs mods or they know them from another server, it helps, but still C players are easily the lowest on the list for nominations.  I don't have a problem with this, but if you know C barely has mods, why refuse someone such as Magnyus who was a great player and had a good amount of votes?  If we expect everyone to get a certain percentage when 70% of voters don't play on C, it's going to be extremely tough.  Ultimately it is the head admins' choice, but I believe that the distribution of mods and the need of mods should factor in to their decision.

 

The community

I think we all can agree that C has a bit of a community problem. In the past, many cures have been discussed such as disabling flying and building large community builds.  I think that the only cure for Creative is the playerbase.  As an admin I do everything I can to promote a better community.  I've really tried to put an emphasis on having things other than the traditional "lets build together".  PVP is new and is a hit, and speedbuilding I hope will be a big success.  But in the end everything myself and the other admins do only goes so far, it is up to the larger community to attend those events, tell people about the servers, and make C a great place.  The community isn't fixed by the efforts of few, it's going to take everyone.

 

Lobby

I agree that the lobby needs to change.  It's not my call but waiting for a "contest" to design it could take months.  Just pick a build.

 

 

Myself and the other 3 admins are ALWAYS up for suggestions.  Whatever you ideas that you have that you may need help on let us know.  We all care about Creative and are willing to do everything we can to improve it.

 

-LetsB

[EeHee2000]

I do appreciate this thread.  It brings up some issues that I feel need to be addressed.  

 

Mods

I completely agree that this is an issue.  We don't have ANY active C mods.  Looking through the modreq list, marting and I alone combine for more than 50% of the modreqs.  While we don't require mods to ever do modreqs, it can sometimes get tiresome when you log on to 10 requests and feel the need to do them because they were made 6 hours ago.  The way to solve this is to get new mods.  Unfortunately, our voting process hinders this.  We have 2 maybe 3 mods who play C a couple times a week, and 4 admins.  When a C person is up for nomination, those 6-7 votes aren't nearly enough.  While some people vote yes because they know C needs mods or they know them from another server, it helps, but still C players are easily the lowest on the list for nominations.  I don't have a problem with this, but if you know C barely has mods, why refuse someone such as Magnyus who was a great player and had a good amount of votes?  If we expect everyone to get a certain percentage when 70% of voters don't play on C, it's going to be extremely tough.  Ultimately it is the head admins' choice, but I believe that the distribution of mods and the need of mods should factor in to their decision.

 

The community

I think we all can agree that C has a bit of a community problem. In the past, many cures have been discussed such as disabling flying and building large community builds.  I think that the only cure for Creative is the playerbase.  As an admin I do everything I can to promote a better community.  I've really tried to put an emphasis on having things other than the traditional "lets build together".  PVP is new and is a hit, and speedbuilding I hope will be a big success.  But in the end everything myself and the other admins do only goes so far, it is up to the larger community to attend those events, tell people about the servers, and make C a great place.  The community isn't fixed by the efforts of few, it's going to take everyone.

 

Lobby

I agree that the lobby needs to change.  It's not my call but waiting for a "contest" to design it could take months.  Just pick a build.

 

 

Myself and the other 3 admins are ALWAYS up for suggestions.  Whatever you ideas that you have that you may need help on let us know.  We all care about Creative and are willing to do everything we can to improve it.

 

-LetsB

Great to see that you guys are still actively supporting these sorts of threads, it really does help. All we need is to act upon them for once. 

[TornadoHorse]

Ultimately it is the head admins' choice, but I believe that the distribution of mods and the need of mods should factor in to their decision.

 

On this, what is the current process for mod selection? I believe it is:

 

Players are nominated - Discussion in private - Heads decide from discussion which names go forward  - Public vote - Heads decide who gets selected

 

If so, what is the point in the final stage? Why can't the people who get more yes votes than no be selected, rather than having the heads pick through the names again? I'm really curious as to why Magnyus didn't get it last round along with several other players who should've been there. Without meaning to take this too off topic, I don't think it should be ultimately the heads' choice. Allow the final choice to come down to the vote.

 

Also, think about editing the voting options. Rather than having 'Yes' or 'No' where the no also includes not knowing the player well enough, add a 'Neutral' or 'Don't know player' option. With there being so few mods playing on C, they're unlikely to know the players, so the players will get a straight no, limiting their chances further. I've brought this up with a couple of staff members before and got a mixed response, but I think it'd make the vote fairer and increase the amount of C players getting past the voting stage.

[EeHee2000]

On this, what is the current process for mod selection? I believe it is:

 

Players are nominated - Discussion in private - Heads decide from discussion which names go forward  - Public vote - Heads decide who gets selected

 

If so, what is the point in the final stage? Why can't the people who get more yes votes than no be selected, rather than having the heads pick through the names again? I'm really curious as to why Magnyus didn't get it last round along with several other players who should've been there. Without meaning to take this too off topic, I don't think it should be ultimately the heads' choice. Allow the final choice to come down to the vote.

 

Also, think about editing the voting options. Rather than having 'Yes' or 'No' where the no also includes not knowing the player well enough, add a 'Neutral' or 'Don't know player' option. With there being so few mods playing on C, they're unlikely to know the players, so the players will get a straight no, limiting their chances further. I've brought this up with a couple of staff members before and got a mixed response, but I think it'd make the vote fairer and increase the amount of C players getting past the voting stage.

The HAdmins generally, from what I see, pick the players with the best vote scores unless under special circumstances.  I agree fully with the 3rd option idea for voting however.

[Denevien]

Should staff members concerned with physically creating/writing advertisements for the server- among other players, I am more than interested in assisting doing so. Contact me with your plans as soon as possible, or post your status on this effort with the same haste.

If you feel advertisement is that important, why have you not submitted anything here. I was excited about getting ads out there, but I'm not very good at designing them. So, instead of throwing something together that would probably cause complaints from the community (you all remember the server icon I drew up), I decided to let the members of the community who are better at this sort of thing have a chance. Since becoming a Head Admin, I've tried listening to people who say that the community should have a voice. Now, in this thread alone, two separate topics are being discussed saying that we should just make a decision, and that there is no need for a contest. I'm willing to work with and for the players, but everyone needs to take a second and decide what they want.

[Denevien]

On this, what is the current process for mod selection? I believe it is:

 

Players are nominated - Discussion in private - Heads decide from discussion which names go forward  - Public vote - Heads decide who gets selected

 

If so, what is the point in the final stage? Why can't the people who get more yes votes than no be selected, rather than having the heads pick through the names again? I'm really curious as to why Magnyus didn't get it last round along with several other players who should've been there. Without meaning to take this too off topic, I don't think it should be ultimately the heads' choice. Allow the final choice to come down to the vote.

 

Also, think about editing the voting options. Rather than having 'Yes' or 'No' where the no also includes not knowing the player well enough, add a 'Neutral' or 'Don't know player' option. With there being so few mods playing on C, they're unlikely to know the players, so the players will get a straight no, limiting their chances further. I've brought this up with a couple of staff members before and got a mixed response, but I think it'd make the vote fairer and increase the amount of C players getting past the voting stage.

The reason Heads have the final say, is that we encourage people to come to us with their concerns of players on the list. We are not in the business of dragging names through the mud, so we don't make these issues public. But, if a name makes it to the voting thread, then doesn't actually become a mod, I hope people can trust us when we say that there is a valid reason for it.

 

Regarding your second point, we kept away from that, because we didn't think it fair to the player to be posted up in public, just to have a NO thrown at them by someone. Now, recently we've changed it so that we ask the player if they want to be on the voting, and make sure to mention that it doesn't always mean they will make mod. Since they are agreeing to being there, maybe this is something we can revisit for next round.

[ROCKONN]

If you feel advertisement is that important, why have you not submitted anything here. I was excited about getting ads out there, but I'm not very good at designing them. So, instead of throwing something together that would probably cause complaints from the community (you all remember the server icon I drew up), I decided to let the members of the community who are better at this sort of thing have a chance. Since becoming a Head Admin, I've tried listening to people who say that the community should have a voice. Now, in this thread alone, two separate topics are being discussed saying that we should just make a decision, and that there is no need for a contest. I'm willing to work with and for the players, but everyone needs to take a second and decide what they want.

Somehow overlooked that post, I'll get right on that. Anyone with a suggestion for including general topics, gimme a shout.

[Diznatch52]

If you feel advertisement is that important, why have you not submitted anything here. I was excited about getting ads out there, but I'm not very good at designing them. So, instead of throwing something together that would probably cause complaints from the community (you all remember the server icon I drew up), I decided to let the members of the community who are better at this sort of thing have a chance. Since becoming a Head Admin, I've tried listening to people who say that the community should have a voice. Now, in this thread alone, two separate topics are being discussed saying that we should just make a decision, and that there is no need for a contest. I'm willing to work with and for the players, but everyone needs to take a second and decide what they want.

Perhaps something should be done now by the admins while waiting for the community to design something else? Is that a possibility?

Same thing with the lobby. Just throw something in there, like roastnewt's suggestion, while the community works on a more agreed upon final product.

[Dumbo52]

First off, to those who've noticed, I have to apologize for my absence over the past two weeks. I hope to have more of a presence over the next few weeks to help out with modreqs. One of the most prominent issues being discussed here is the staff. I've stressed before that mod nominations appear to be heavily weighted toward PvE players, and I understand that this is due to the fact that the P player base is significantly larger than that of Creative, but we're in desperate need of more moderators. While people's concerns about players should certainly play a role in the selection of moderators, I hope that the heads will be able to take into account the fact that most "NO"s are from moderators who are unfamiliar with a certain candidate -- and for Creative candidates, that's the majority of the staff. I don't necessarily think our system of choosing moderators needs to be change, but I'd like to make sure the final selection is fair to everyone.

 

Additionally, I agree that the lobby could benefit from a facelift. Including universal rules on sign boards and building an area that looks a lot nicer would be a good start. I'm not sure why the details of the contest haven't been posted yet or what FatherSouth's build looks like, but if its better than our current lobby, I don't see the harm in replacing it.

 

Here's a memory jogger: Remember the 3M meetings? A lot of people attended that, to our surprise. Run by Magnyus and Nickeox, with NEVAstop and myself running the secondary meetings, it proved to be filled with thoughtful, well spoken conversation. Dozens of suggestions were raised and none were dismissed. It was formal, it went perfectly.

Now, tell me two things that came from those meetings.

Fun fact: Nothing ever came from them. Nothing at all. If you think there's a reason to disagree with me on that, go ahead. But first, please listen to the recordings. Please don't argue if you just disagree for no reason, because the evidence here is overwhelming.

 

I wasn't aware that a recording had been posted. I'm unable to find a recording on the subreddit or forums; would you happen to have a link to this?

 

I'll try to post more thoughts after I listen to the recording.

[Magnyus]

First off, I'd like to formally announce exactly why I "left" the servers.

 

As many of you may know, I had been spending an absurd amount of time playing on C, throughout many different hours of the day, whether it be building, chatting, exploring, or helping out others I was almost always on. So naturally, I was getting bored. Then the Summer Mod Vote popped up, and I found that HailSaban (who happened to be very new at the time) had been put up for nomination whereas I was not simply because I happened to not be present online when JohnAdams and Thrawn logged in to see who had been playing the most. That was disappointing, but hey, I got over it and kept playing, with everyone around me telling me I'd be a shoo-in for the next vote.

 

More hours, more posts, and of course more effort. At this point I had been playing so much Minecraft I was starting to get sick of it. So I gave myself an ultimatum, if I didn't get modded, I would leave. I was putting far too much effort into the server only to see absolutely nothing come out of it. The 3M meetings which Nick, Eehee, Neva and I had made ourselves because we were tired of waiting for the admins to set up a meeting for C players. The countless threads I had made and commented in. Not a single idea that anyone came up with really came into fruition. Then the October Mod Vote reared it's ugly head. If you revisit the poll, I am the only nominee that is from C. I thought I would be modded on principle, simply because I was from C and we were in desperate need of mods more than two months ago. So much for that, I didn't get the vote, I didn't want to put in any more effort for nothing.

 

*stretches fingers* Alright, let's get started.

 

1. Here's a memory jogger: Remember the 3M meetings? A lot of people attended that, to our surprise. Run by Magnyus and Nickeox, with NEVAstop and myself running the secondary meetings, it proved to be filled with thoughtful, well spoken conversation. Dozens of suggestions were raised and none were dismissed. It was formal, it went perfectly.

Now, tell me two things that came from those meetings.

Fun fact: Nothing ever came from them. Nothing at all. If you think there's a reason to disagree with me on that, go ahead. But first, please listen to the recordings. Please don't argue if you just disagree for no reason, because the evidence here is overwhelming.

 

2. It's just ridiculous, and certain admins can't bring themselves to do anything about it. Why? Because they couldn't care less. That's the honest answer.

 

1. As Eehee mentions the 3M meetings were to generate discussion and ideas amongst the C players, and while our formatting was a little strange, we still managed to have fantastic discussion, unfortunately, like everything that relates to C, it's nothing but illusion. Nothing came out of it except for arguably the Hub server, (which was nickeox's idea by the way) something he wasn't even credited for. [as for the recording, I'll ask nickeox to post it later]

 

2. I have a feeling that someone would say that this isn't true. But take this into account, Why does it feel that way in the first place?

 

3. I don't know whether creative is beyond fixing now, but if you seriously want it to get better then you're going to have to be more open about new ideas. Ideas that originally would never have been considered on C. Us being afraid of change is why we're so behind all of the other minecraft servers. I'm not saying we've got to ditch our morals and turn to donations or anything like that, but just being a bit more open minded and working together for a better change could go a long way.

 

3. At this point, I think the C players wouldn't mind any change, so long as there is change. I am also getting extremely annoyed with the excuse that "we are going to change anything", it's absurd, clearly that mentality isn't working. Like Tornado, I am also not saying that we drop everything and start offering ranks, and perks to donaters, etc. I'm merely saying that we should be free to discuss and act upon any changes we may come to an agreement on.

 

4. What we need, at the moment, is to find new source of players (specifically for C, and for the servers in general). The only way to accomplish doing so is to advertise, and not to make a contest out of doing it. While a nice idea, it's not an effective method for it, and in my eyes seems to only be a delaying method for actually advertising.

 

4a. -A more interesting, less-barren, easier to embrace Lobby spawn should be constructed. Now.

 

4b. -Direct connection IPs should not be posted outside of the game. While a nice convenience, we want new players to see everything we have to offer, and not just jump into what they think they will enjoy. By forcing a player through the Lobby world, we will present all our options to them, which might otherwise go unnoticed. Direct connection IPs should be posted in the spawn of each individual servers, along with signs advertising the other servers.

 

4. I'm going to be frank, Denevien's reply to my post on the Advert thread felt as though it was brushed off. I agree with Rock that the advertisement issue should not be a contest, and rather something a bit more organised. I asked if we could be informed with the process of how we'll be advertising and was simply given a childish and silly response in return.

 

4a. This, on the other hand, should be a contest. Because it involve the community a lot more than advertising does, and yes, the current hub server looks terrible. But it's nice to see that this issue is being handled with already.

 

4b. Agreed, the Hub server should serve as an introduction to what each server has to offer, like a sort of museum. Any new players should always start off in the hub server so that they can at least sample a little bit of each server and then decide for themselves which one they'd like to go to.

 

5. Mods

I completely agree that this is an issue.  We don't have ANY active C mods.  Looking through the modreq list, marting and I alone combine for more than 50% of the modreqs. The way to solve this is to get new mods.  Unfortunately, our voting process hinders this.  We have 2 maybe 3 mods who play C a couple times a week, and 4 admins.  When a C person is up for nomination, those 6-7 votes aren't nearly enough.  While some people vote yes because they know C needs mods or they know them from another server, it helps, but still C players are easily the lowest on the list for nominations. If we expect everyone to get a certain percentage when 70% of voters don't play on C, it's going to be extremely tough.  Ultimately it is the head admins' choice, but I believe that the distribution of mods and the need of mods should factor in to their decision.

 

6. The community

I think we all can agree that C has a bit of a community problem.  I think that the only cure for Creative is the playerbase.  As an admin I do everything I can to promote a better community.  I've really tried to put an emphasis on having things other than the traditional "lets build together". But in the end everything myself and the other admins do only goes so far, it is up to the larger community to attend those events, tell people about the servers, and make C a great place.  The community isn't fixed by the efforts of few, it's going to take everyone.

 

7. Lobby

I agree that the lobby needs to change.  It's not my call but waiting for a "contest" to design it could take months.  Just pick a build.

 

5. Nick and I recently made a list of all the mods that are currently active consistently on C. We only counted about 3, and we were being generous. We counted about 25 give or take for PvE, and 10 or so for S. That is absolutely pathetic, 3 mods should not be in charge of C at all times. C NEEDS MODS. I don't think this can be expressed any more than it already has.

 

6. Too true, unfortunately it isn't only going to take C's (practically non-existant) community, but also the other two servers. And I'm going to be honest, we don't exactly see eye-to-eye with PvE.

 

7. *cough*shamelessselfplug*cough* I could offer that Mira's design be easily reworked as a Hub. I have a few other ideas as well.

 

8. Players are nominated - Discussion in private - Heads decide from discussion which names go forward  - Public vote - Heads decide who gets selected. If so, what is the point in the final stage? Why can't the people who get more yes votes than no be selected, rather than having the heads pick through the names again?

 

9. I'm really curious as to why Magnyus didn't get it last round along with several other players who should've been there. Without meaning to take this too off topic, I don't think it should be ultimately the heads' choice. Allow the final choice to come down to the vote.

 

10. Also, think about editing the voting options. Rather than having 'Yes' or 'No' where the no also includes not knowing the player well enough, add a 'Neutral' or 'Don't know player' option. With there being so few mods playing on C, they're unlikely to know the players, so the players will get a straight no, limiting their chances further. I've brought this up with a couple of staff members before and got a mixed response, but I think it'd make the vote fairer and increase the amount of C players getting past the voting stage.

 

8. Picking whoever has more yes votes than no puts all the PvE players at a huge advantage. And that is essentially the system we're using right now anyways. Unless of course they do add the "Don't Know Player" option, then a lot of those "No's" will be "Don't Know's".

 

9. You and me both Torn, you and me both. (and everyone else)

 

10. MCP pls. This should just be a standard, why it wasn't implemented in the first place, I have no idea.

 

11. I hope people can trust us when we say that there is a valid reason for it.

 

12. Regarding your second point, we kept away from that, because we didn't think it fair to the player to be posted up in public, just to have a NO thrown at them by someone. Now, recently we've changed it so that we ask the player if they want to be on the voting, and make sure to mention that it doesn't always mean they will make mod. Since they are agreeing to being there, maybe this is something we can revisit for next round.

 

11. Apologies, but I don't trust you, because the head admins decision went against what every single person I talked to told me. They were all disappointed when they found out I wasn't voted.

 

12. I think this is rather senseless, a nominee should automatically be someone who can handle rejection. I would prefer a straight up "No" a thousand times over than not being told anything. Also any No's can open up the possibility for a player to make amends with whoever said no.

 

13. [We're] in desperate need of more moderators. While people's concerns about players should certainly play a role in the selection of moderators, I hope that the heads will be able to take into account the fact that most "NO"s are from moderators who are unfamiliar with a certain candidate -- and for Creative candidates, that's the majority of the staff.

 

14. I don't necessarily think our system of choosing moderators needs to be change, but I'd like to make sure the final selection is fair to everyone.

 

15. Additionally, I agree that the lobby could benefit from a facelift. Including universal rules on sign boards and building an area that looks a lot nicer would be a good start. I'm not sure why the details of the contest haven't been posted yet or what FatherSouth's build looks like, but if its better than our current lobby, I don't see the harm in replacing it.

 

16. I wasn't aware that a recording had been posted. I'm unable to find a recording on the subreddit or forums; would you happen to have a link to this? I'll try to post more thoughts after I listen to the recording.

 

13. Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

14. I would like it to change, but in reality, all that needs to change is factoring in which server is in need of mods, not just exemplary nominees for the sake of having a vote.

 

15. It was posted earlier today, Here.

 

16. I mentioned earlier that I'd ask nick to post it, and just for clarification, the recording is for the mumble meetings we had hosted a while back.

 

*phew* That took longer than I expected.

 

Looking forward to seeing this unravel itself. I think that this is long overdue.

[HailSaban]

Seeing as how I was mentioned by Magnyus, I feel slightly inclined to reply. I was playing on C, as usual, when difficult1 comes on and mentions the mod nominations. Still being fairly new, not knowing of the forums, I asked for a source. I was incredibly surprised to find that I, a C newbie, had been nominated. At the time, I was a bit disappointed with my denial of election. Looking back though, in my case, I get it. I was new. Perhaps too new. After seeing Magnyus get a decent winning ratio in the election, yet still not be elected, I was confused. I thought about it, and after some discussion amongst others, I began to realize just how unbalanced it is. P as it is, is loaded with mods/staff. S is fair off. C has few active moderators. Yes, yes. C does have 4 admins. Despite this, they have their limitations, too. They can't always be on. With the recent de-modding of ROCKONN, which, on a different note, was total and utter bullshit, there is hardly anyone to fill role. (Also, excuse my language in that past sentence. I need to put emphasis on it.) I don't think anything will change after this runs its course. We will probably continue with our unjust and unreasonable mod-voting ideals.

[BeastBruiser]

regarding the mod voting process, There needs to be the third option, a vote of no when I have no idea who the player is makes absolutely no sense. 

Possibly another idea would be to classify the mods towards what server they play most on. I.E. within the voting mention what server they tend to play on, and elect the top 2-3 or whatever from each server. (or however many make the cut/are needed.)

[ROCKONN]

regarding the mod voting process, There needs to be the third option, a vote of no when I have no idea who the player is makes absolutely no sense. 

Possibly another idea would be to classify the mods towards what server they play most on. I.E. within the voting mention what server they tend to play on, and elect the top 2-3 or whatever from each server. (or however many make the cut/are needed.)

While that's a great idea for ensuring there's always someone online for each server, that doesnt solve the current issue, being that staff members in general tend to stick to one server, only going to another when asked for help. While this isn't the case in some instances, it is in the majority of them, as many of you have noticed. Moderators should be expected to act for the community as a whole, not just one of our servers.

 

Some things that might help in bringing this to pass: Server-specific training for all servers in initial mod training. Some might argue against the fact, but its become a matter of "learn the general commands on c, then go with instructing members to p/s (respectively) if you're a p/s mod." For "c mods" training ends there, on c, with no additional information, other than to ask for help when moderating on other servers.

[BeastBruiser]

I know when i did the training I only covered the basics of several topics, protections being one of them. I know enough to do beacons (the only time protections are needed on S) but not much more than that. And I haven't had the free time to ask for additional training to learn more about them until recently because of work. while the training does attempt to cover everything, expecting a player to instantly understand and remember everything is a bit much.

Until i was modded I hadn't played on PvE more than a couple hours if even that, and the only time I went on C was to show/teach/learn redstone to other S players or see a build that someone mentioned.  so to expect me to mod on another server that I hadn't played on isn't fair to me or the server as I do not understand the rules or play style (even after playing on PvE during S's recent chaos I still have a lot to learn.) That being said I do still try to log on to the other two servers and check for any modreqs that I can easily accomplish/not mess up.

[ROCKONN]

You are, as a moderator, entrusted with the physical ability to handle modreqs on any of our servers. By that point alone, instruction for conducting yourself, as well as learning the specific rules for each server, should be a part of initial training. Whether or not time is had at the time of initial training is not the concern, it should be taken upon oneself not to do anything with one's powers until ALL rules are properly understood in how they should be enforced, among other aspects. If timing IS an issue, another session of training can supposedly be arranged at any time, at your request. Recent developments, among past, have led me to this firm belief.

[Magnyus]

If I'm not mistaken our old policy used to require mods to play on all of our servers, while that was a bit extreme, since it's only natural to flock to one server. It should be a requirement to learn all of the rules and commands on each server since you are expected to assist on all the servers. I would also appreciate more moderators checking up on open modreqs regardless of the server, since it is a bit ridiculous that some can go on for more than six hours for something as simple as flowing water.

 

How about the server admins teach new mods on each of their servers? They'd get to know them (if they don't) and basically make sure that they know the ins and outs pertaining to the server.

 

If it's a problem of remembering the rules and commands, why not just make a document with the basics?

[buzzinbee]

The reason Heads have the final say, is that we encourage people to come to us with their concerns of players on the list. We are not in the business of dragging names through the mud, so we don't make these issues public. But, if a name makes it to the voting thread, then doesn't actually become a mod, I hope people can trust us when we say that there is a valid reason for it.

 

Could we not include server admins on the final say? It makes sense as we also encourage people to voice concerns to us with players and we would then have a much more balanced background of people to make up the final decision. Just now the Head Admins background goes as 3 from PvE, 1 from Creative and 1 from Survival. Yes Head admins should be aware of the problems for all 3 servers but there is no way in which you are going to be able to get rid of all bias for your server no matter how hard you try. If we involve the server admins on the final say we would have 6 from PvE 5 from Creative and 4 from Survival. This would have a much more balanced opinion and we would be able to determine if a player is actually suited to the role a lot easier than if the heads have to do it all.

 

I would also like to say if any moderator at all wants additional training on creative please do come and see me and I can walk you through the more difficult situations you may face on creative.

 

EDIT: I would also like to add that I am in favour of having the Do not know option in voting threads, it would be a lot easier to hit than the no button. I also would like to propose that we have a second level of training for moderators which is either compulsory for modding certain things on certain servers or highly advised. 

[nevastop]

At the time when i Joined nerd.nu, it was just before a reset on P. i found the servers from a post in /r/minecraft. i wandered around, but i didn't want to commit to anything since the server was about to reset, so i found out there was a creative server and joined it. i found i could build very impressive builds, and stuck with the server since. from what i have seen, the populations have been on a decline ever since i joined (rev 19). upon further research, i found the decline started around the time that the vanilla creative mode was implemented into minecraft. 

by keeping our creative server as vanilla as possible, with the addition of some of our restrictions, our creative server offers NOTHING that players cant get out of other creative servers. we no longer have that "large" community feel that some people would come to the server to experience. alot of C dedicated would build on the server simply because there work would get to be viewed and enjoyed by a large user base. the flying aspect while being a fantastic building tool, allows players to spread out far to much. there is no governing force outside of the world borders that keeps players congregated together, encouraging one another to get to know there neighbor.

I quit being as active as i have in the past due in large part to the lack of users online. I only started up again recently because the server i was playing on with some friends died down after we defeated the end dragon. I figured i should finish my spleef build.

so in a large part, IMO, here is what C needs:

1. flying. keep it, but spawn players in survival. encourage as much as possible to be done in survival, but let players switch into flying mode for building uses.
2. lets get some moderates on C who know the server. as much as i appreciate mods form P and S coming around to help out, its still no substitute for a Mod who resides on the server, and moderates chat, and takes care of small issues on a personal level.
3. ADVERTISING! lets get some players in. this has been discussed above. what will be done about it remains yet to be seen. 
4. EVENTS! the highest pops on C in recent history have been during in server events, such as the 10 minute build contest.
5. keeping up on the tech side of things. during rev 24, item durability was broken in /mode for nearly 4 months. yes, FOUR MONTHS. and to my knowledge, all it took was updating a single plug-in to fix it. also, at this time, on the modding side of things, we still don't have a 1.7 modjar. i have a hard enough time myself keeping up the latest and greatest way to get client side mods and install them, so i am still doing modreqs/protections without the CUI, optifine, and Watson.
6. while /randloc works, bring back /warp openspace. openspace brings new players together to a blank canvas, so they can work together or be neighbors. 
EDIT: also, lets branch out and use our subreddit more often. i often overlook ALOT of things, because i don't check the forums as frequent as reddit.