Thank you for your suggestion! I can certainly see how it would be helpful for those in-game who may not know who is part of the staff team get in touch with staff, or even to function as a kind of "alert" for folks online who would like to know if staff are available. There are a couple situations where this function might not be ideal, however.
In the past, staffing was considered a rather secretive thing-- no one knew who were mods and when they were online. Now, we have a public staff listing on the forum and do not operate under such hush-hush circumstances; you'll likely see moderators in-game from time to time, and most of them are more than happy to chat with you, so long as they are not busy monitoring the chat or managing questions in their inbox (as is their job). However, it is known by observation that rule-breakers tend to act up when they think staff are not around. If a moderator enters a map and someone points this out, it can lead rule-breakers to try to step out of line when they think they're off the hook. (This isn't necessarily a good move on their part, since reports are submitted often of behavior, even when staff are not online to moderate.) While staff are not "hiding" when we sit in the game, it is our job to be on the look out for behavior and take action when situations arise.
But, if someone sees that a staff member is in-game, wouldn't that lead to less rule-breaking? Not necessarily. More than likely, all it would do is promote a place for them to be "bad" whenever they see that staff are not online.
With a function like this one that sends off a little "bell" in the minds of those in-game, it would essentially lead to people acting out when they like and think they can get away with bad behavior. It makes staffing a lot harder. This is why we have refrained from incorporating functions on the forum that publically display when staff are online and which ones. Sometimes it's a good thing for us to be on the down-low. c:
I appreciate the suggestion, nonetheless! There would certainly be benefits to it, but the question is if it would outweigh the disadvantages. The forum provides a list of all current staff and is very easy to check, and staff will usually announce in-game when a moderator has joined the team, but it is true that one must visit the website to view it.
