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Gave this idea a rather....long think over before posting this so it isn't just utter nonsense. Hopefully.
I've observed in the past that the MIT system can be a bit overlooking, or non-inclusive when it comes to average members wishing to someday join the ranks of the staff team.
It is true however, that not everyone is cut out to be a moderator. But why not give people that want to try it out the chance to at least prove themselves?
I propose a system, that ISN'T the MIT system. This would be a real true trial period. There will be applications that must be submitted privately for the staff to go over. Nobody else in the game knows who submitted or who got accepted accept for the person that submitted. They ask questions and all that stuff and then go over them carefully. If the people don't have any horrible game records (such as being kicked or banned numerous times recently or generally causing trouble) and have acceptable answers, they enter the trial period, that only THEY know about along with the others that make it to the trial period.
However it's not public. They do not receive mod status or powers. Not even MIT status. Maybe no status at all. They are basically still normal members. Not even members that aren't in the trial period know. But maybe the staff can talk to them and put them through a series of tests. See how they react. See if they can be taught and are willing to learn. See if they have good skills in thinking and determining what is good and what is not. See if they work well with the other moderators. If after say...a week or two that some do pass, they become MIT's and later on to mod status. If they do not, they are turned down till next time if they are willing to try again whenever the need for more mods arise.
These people will also NOT be taught any moderator secrets or anything. Not until they have proven themselves and become MIT's.
I feel this will eliminate the problem of basically overlooking potential moderators. Everyone has an equal chance (unless they have really bad history) instead of just...guessing.
However this does not mean that ANYONE can be a moderator. You don't put your guard down and just let anyone stroll in. You look over applications and really think of the answers. Ask the important questions and read the answers. Be judgmental but not TOO jugemental if that makes sense? There should definitely be requirements before even filling out applications so a member that signed up last week and has not even been active in game and knows nothing about it can go and sign up. And upon submitting the application, if those requirements aren't met, they app is turned down and the person is told what they need to do to qualify if they want a chance in future.
It's a question to at least think about. We could have more moderators to help the game. Especially with the upcoming update, it would be a really nice thing to have, especially if numbers make a huge jump again.
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I'll be the first to say I think this is an interesting composition you've got here. I'm not entirely sure how the current MIT system works when it comes to fine details and what not, basically what's said in the Mod FAQ haha
I know there are maaany many members who do think they could cut it as a staff member, shoulder the responsibility and give their all into helping the game. I know the staff aren't blind to the help and content some members have given to the community, which shows especially here on the forums in the help boards and game content threads (mods, meshes, presets, etc.). This is why I think your idea to be so...innovative? It's new, and fresh. I'm not sure how exactly it would be put together and made to work effectively, but perhaps some bits of this idea could be utilized in giving the staff a new way in choosing MITs.
I do agree that with this new update, hopefully it brings in more members and brings back old ones, which if this is the case then as you mentioned, the staff may need more help. Perhaps they could implement a system such as this, sort of like auditions? I'm not sure how childish that sounds compared to the way they do things now, but who knows? Updates on top of updates haha
Anywho, thank you for sharing this idea, not many members have the courage to propose new ideas when it comes to staffing and what not, hopefully we hear some more opinions on this as I myself would be interested to read other members' take on this ^^
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this is how most other games/servers do it
decent system y'know
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I like the way you guys are thinking and we appreciate the suggestions. We’ve actually been discussing as a team some new approaches to seeking out & potentially training new staff. We haven’t quite decided exactly which approach we want to take yet but we’ve been considering both community suggestions & some neat staff ideas to incorporate into the process. We are very excited and open to the idea of trying something new soon.
Without a doubt we can always use more staff. We’re always keeping watch for some but it’s true that the current process can sometimes produce results slowly, or none at all. Trust me when I say it’s frustratung for all of us staff & community alike. We really want to get some new, friendly, fun, talented, and caring people to join the team. I don’t doubt that we probably over look some potentially great candidates.
The team has been wanting to change a lot of things with the community and how things work and this is just one of the many areas we’ve been setting our focuses to. The current way of picking staff has just been something FH staff have learned from previous generations of staff and it’s become a sort of tradition that we’ve carried on and respected. Given circumstances in the past the process has been very selective since we are very cautious about who we let in given the responsibilities. We’ve always held a firm belief that the FH staff team should be one of quality rather than quantity. We want what’s best and safest for both the community and the game in the end.
For this reason any new approach we take must still conform to ensure these standards of safety & quality in the MIT selection process.
With all this being said we thank you for your suggestions as they provide us with some interesting ideas to discuss and possibly consider implementing in the near future. We don’t like making any direct promises but we are still currently in the process of probably formatting a potential MIT application to present to the public for review and submission. Potential MIT auditions/applications could be an interesting new approach we take a try at, however keep in mind that we will still uphold to certain important requirements like age etc for obvious reasons.
We thank you guys for your continued feedback and care in this topic. We hope to implement some of your suggestions in the coming future. We can all do with a little fresh changes around here :)
In the meantime remember we have a MIT suggestion poll here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdasYOuAxfaCumi93zVqqfA9SSrhrTUr4H0mLMqkZooFJm4yg/viewform
And you guys can pm us anytime with suggestions for MITs!
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Well of course there must always be requirements as I said. It is true that we can't just accept anyone as an MIT. However this idea could very well help with kind of sorting out who would be good for it. Like I stated already, this "trial period" could be used to see just how people would react in certain situations without of course giving them the full mod powers that could potentially cause them to abuse and harm the game.
It's a very good way to at least let people try it out and it may even help the mods in choosing people! I really appreciate the answer Sura, and I'm happy with the things said so far. I'm curious to see everyone else's responses and discussion on this matter as well!
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Personally i thought they had a robust system you can't see, testing people they see as online often, or prominent, and we'd all failed them.
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so like other forum message boards do, right?
since this is a small community i don't think mods need to be cycled in and out a lot that often, however i do agree that the current mod recruiting system is not that transparent. as far as i know there never has been a moderator application thing open and mods are chosen based on judgement. this has been controversial in the past with ex staff members.
i know you've have been a mod on Cereal Soup and you have had some experience in the moderator choosing process, so i understand what you're getting at for sure.
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I think it's worth a shot. Most other games and forums, including animal games similar to FH, generally run off an application system. Usually just opening up applications for specific positions once in a while as needed. It never seems to go too badly, so I feel like there's no harm in trying a different moderator application system here.
I'm not sure how soon the next FH update/revamp/whatever will drop, might be soon, might be in another year. Whenever it comes, it'll likely bring in a large influx of users, so trying to recruit some more people to the staff team might be necessary to do before the update happens. I'd be interested to see how a different moderator recruiting system would play out here, but I can't imagine it would be too bad.
So yeah, support for this!
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so like other forum message boards do, right?
since this is a small community i don't think mods need to be cycled in and out a lot that often, however i do agree that the current mod recruiting system is not that transparent. as far as i know there never has been a moderator application thing open and mods are chosen based on judgement. this has been controversial in the past with ex staff members.
i know you've have been a mod on Cereal Soup and you have had some experience in the moderator choosing process, so i understand what you're getting at for sure.
I do have to agree that the choosing process there was a bit better than here, although if that were to happen here there would of course need to be a bit more thinking put into it and more requirements. Not bad talking CS at all, but they sort of just allowed anyone on the staff team that seemed ok and made them mod right away, which caused a few issues in the end.
I think it's worth a shot. Most other games and forums, including animal games similar to FH, generally run off an application system. Usually just opening up applications for specific positions once in a while as needed. It never seems to go too badly, so I feel like there's no harm in trying a different moderator application system here.
I'm not sure how soon the next FH update/revamp/whatever will drop, might be soon, might be in another year. Whenever it comes, it'll likely bring in a large influx of users, so trying to recruit some more people to the staff team might be necessary to do before the update happens. I'd be interested to see how a different moderator recruiting system would play out here, but I can't imagine it would be too bad.
So yeah, support for this!
Yeah honestly it would be really nice to have an application process. Sorta like jobs even in some ways in real life. Kind of a sucky example there but...
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The most efficient way I've found and recently went through is pretty much the same.
I sent in my application, waited less than a day for a reply (they were going through apps that same day, I got lucky.) and we were invited to a Discord server where we literally spent about a month talking and getting to know the staff. I liked this way since it's easy to fake yourself over an application but if you're in voice chat and constantly talking with these people daily usually it's hard to keep up any false bravado. Application processes are really good but I think there should definitely be a lengthy period where a person is just examined.
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The most efficient way I've found and recently went through is pretty much the same.
I sent in my application, waited less than a day for a reply (they were going through apps that same day, I got lucky.) and we were invited to a Discord server where we literally spent about a month talking and getting to know the staff. I liked this way since it's easy to fake yourself over an application but if you're in voice chat and constantly talking with these people daily usually it's hard to keep up any false bravado. Application processes are really good but I think there should definitely be a lengthy period where a person is just examined.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 7498327429874897428974897239847% this. That is actually a really really good idea! It ties in with the whole trial period, and you also get hands on with the staff to learn some things and how they work. Well, kinda. Nothing too detailed anyway.
And a few ideas on what could be on the application (this does not imply it will, that is up for the staff to decide if a plan like this goes through.)
Of course the age. 16+ only, just as it has always been. Mods younger than that...eh...not exactly really the best.
Should definitely ask if they have gotten in serious trouble in the past few months. And of course staff could check and see if everything they say is truthful.
They should have been on the game at least 6 months. Maybe a year. That may be too low. They should be rather active of course and know things around the game. Don't want any mods that have no ideas.
That's about all I got for that, if any one else can suggest they can!
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Typically we tend to ask questions like;
Why do you wanna be a mod, do you have experience in moderating, how many hours would you invest in moderating, etc.
Usually 6 months is a decent amount of time to have been around but people with more time take higher priority (mostly.)
Some applications put in situational questions like, "What would you do to stop an argument between so and so" and stuff like that lol. Those are decent.
on the age requirement, I started moderating when I was 13 and it was kind of a trainwreck. I'd say that some 15 year olds can handle the spot but if they really want it and for the right reasons they'll be okay with waiting a year or however long to apply. 16+ is good. :>
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Oh yeah, those are all very good questions. And yeah, the older the more mature sometimes. Sometimes young'uns tend to just want it to want it. If that makes sense. cx
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Please lock and delete this thread staff. It shows no purpose to the game, just the insane ramblings of an obsessive person.
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Please dont lock and delete this thread. It's quite the innovative idea that is still wide open for discussion, remains relevant, and may someday be implemented. Deleting this would serve no purpose.
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Please dont lock and delete this thread. It's quite the innovative idea that is still wide open for discussion, remains relevant, and may someday be implemented. Deleting this would serve no purpose.
^
I agree with Bloo here. I’m not trying to disrespect your request but I do think it’s a discussion worth leaving up.
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Here's my two cents on this subject:
1. Recruitment
Applying to be a moderator may take place by submitting an official application. Users must be proficient in English, 16 years of age or older, and exhibit mature and responsible behaviour. Sample questions: "What languages do you speak and how fluent are you in each?", "What hours do you find yourself in-game most?", "What do you think sets you apart from the other potential applicants?", "Why do you want to join the staff team?", "Why would we not choose you?", etc.
2. Training & Observation
Before becoming a moderator, potential applicants must go through a training process to make sure they understand the tools at their disposal, and how/when to properly use them. During the MiT/Trial Moderator training process, the recruited users must stay anonymous and names kept private, will have the power to kick (and give bans up to a week in length?). An observation period of around two weeks (or more) happens along with the training. After the observation period is over, the recruited users become unanonymous MiTs/Trial Moderators and they must continue their training to make sure they understand all of the tools at their disposal, and how/when to properly use them.
3. Requirements
- Age 16+
- Proficiency in English
- Mature and responsible behaviour
- Active in-game and on the forum
- All-around good spirits
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Upon checking and seeing nobody even really is saying anything, this thread SHOULD be locked. I have no business in mod stuff. Not even suggesting. The staff team here are disgusted with me and i was already told by one of them that this thread was "aggressive" anyway. Of course with it being made by me, they're going to think that as they think I'm literally the worst person on this game.
So please, just lock the thread and delete it. It serves no purpose here.
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The staff team here are disgusted with me and i was already told by one of them that this thread was "aggressive" anyway.
Weird. Sura was nothing but supportive of the subject in this thread.
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Weird. Morgra found this aggressive. Don't know how the other staff reacted to it. I bet if anyone else would have made this post they'd be all over it. It's as I said. It was me that made it, so most of the staff are probably rolling their eyes and sighing and wishing I would delete my account and never return. Sura is about the only one that ever actually sort of listened to me and didn't see me as just an aggressive and power hungry lunatic like the others did.
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Weird. Morgra found this aggressive. Don't know how the other staff reacted to it. I bet if anyone else would have made this post they'd be all over it. It's as I said. It was me that made it, so most of the staff are probably rolling their eyes and sighing and wishing I would delete my account and never return. Sura is about the only one that ever actually sort of listened to me and didn't see me as just an aggressive and power hungry lunatic like the others did.
Why single out one staff member to make a statement like that about them though? I don’t see an “aggressive” response from Morgra on this thread so whatever you are referring to must perhaps be from a personal conversation you both had. In that case is disclosing that here really the proper thing to do? No one here was involved in that conversation enough to judge what was really said between both parties and such no one here really needs to be told about this for respect of privacy sake.
Nonetheless this just seems odd to me especially since when we all discussed it together the staff seemed pretty open and interested to exploring different ways of facilitating the idea. Never once did anyone of them seem aggressive or hesitant about the suggestion to me. I’m honestly sorry that you feel this way about the staff but perhaps it’s more of a matter of misinterpreting things. Staff doesn’t hate anyone, and if they did they most definitely wouldn’t be here still as a staff’s job is to care for the community.
I think it’s best we don’t make statements that would turn an otherwise innocent subject into a personal thing. Calling anyone out in general is something we frown upon on the forum as it gives the wrong impression. We want to try our best to keep things friendly here and I'm sure you understand that.
I think a lot of people really like the ideas that were suggested here and it’s good to leave it open to further discussion. The more feedback and suggestions made here, the better we can refine this idea and make it a possibility :) <3
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I apologize for my behavior on this thread. I admit I let my anger and bitterness get in the way. You're right, this thread should remain open for discussion as it is an interesting topic (I guess???) and may even provide some insight for the future of this game. And I apologize if the thread did start off aggressively. I did not mean to do so.
A few days ago, Moontwist made some very very good points. I love the thinking they have, and the very good additions on to my original idea.
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I apologize for my behavior on this thread. I admit I let my anger and bitterness get in the way. You're right, this thread should remain open for discussion as it is an interesting topic (I guess???) and may even provide some insight for the future of this game. And I apologize if the thread did start off aggressively. I did not mean to do so.
A few days ago, Moontwist made some very very good points. I love the thinking they have, and the very good additions on to my original idea.
Thank you, Vallow! I just thought that it’s a neat and simple idea worth suggesting.