Separate Staff Ranks

[Insoholic]

Separate Staff Ranks

As some of you may know, we used to have a staff rank called "Forum Moderator" (in the past). I wasn't part of the FeralHeart community back then, but according to past "News" threads it really was a thing. I don't know what happened but as you know, there's no two separated ranks "Forum Moderator" and "Game Moderator". A forum moderator is a game moderator, and a game moderator is a forum moderator. But why? I'm 100% sure that if the separated "Forum Moderator" rank is brought back, there will be less issues and problems with members complaining about the staff team being small and inactive. Moderators are people just like you and me that need sleep, food, and nuzzles. I get it. But this way both the forum and the game will be more often moderated.

- Suggestion 1. -

Moderators will no longer have any powers in-game and will be only Forum Moderators.
The "Global Moderator" rank will be granted to Forum Mods, trusted enough to become Game Mods.

Example:

Who are the Staff?

Administrators -
Razmirz (Game Admin / Server Master)
Lord Suragaha (Forum Administrator)

Global Moderators -
Warriorstrike

Forum Moderators -
PrettyReckless
Kikiorylandia
Kynvuu
Morgra

Moderators in Training -
No one for now

- Suggestion 2. -

Moderators have no longer powers on the forum and they become Game Moderators.
A new rank called "Sentinel" is added. They are the Forum Moderators.
When a Sentinel becomes a Moderator, they will be a Modsent/Global Moderator and will have powers both in the game and forum.

Example:

Who are the Staff?

Administrators -
Razmirz (Game Admin / Server Master)
Lord Suragaha (Forum Administrator)

Global Moderators -
Warriorstrike

Moderators -
PrettyReckless
Kikiorylandia

Sentinels -
Kynvuu
Morgra

Moderators in Training -
Redlinelies (Game)
WhiteLightHeart (Forum)



As for the Moderators in Training, they will be trained to moderate the game.
And in addition, there will be a new training rank for the forum called "Sentinel Aide".
Or it will be explained for what are they going to be trained, as shown above.

That's pretty much everything. Share your opinion below. Thanks for reading!

[Azurain]

Wow, I actually really like this idea. It would spread the moderators out more and not load everything onto one moderator,
especially the newer ones. Spreading everything out into separate things might actually be a very very very good thing. Things are looked after more doing that.

Whether the staff will actually think that's a good idea is a whole different thing. But maybe they will. I think they will! Great idea Moontwist!

[Insoholic]

I like these suggestions c: But we would need more staff members to reach that point where we always have minimum 1 staff online both in game and forum.

Wow, I actually really like this idea. It would spread the moderators out more and not load everything onto one moderator,
especially the newer ones. Spreading everything out into separate things might actually be a very very very good thing. Things are looked after more doing that.

Whether the staff will actually think that's a good idea is a whole different thing. But maybe they will. I think they will! Great idea Moontwist!

Thank you for the support, floofs! I completely agree with both of you. +floof

[G4RG0YLE]

Personally I'm quite happy with the Staff team's structure as it is- with timezones being different, it's a lot better to just appoint the Staff to looking after both the game and the forums. Rather than appointing one Staff member to take care of the game and another to take care of the forums- situations will certainly occur where a 'Game Moderator' will notice a problem with the forums and will not be capable of resolving it themselves, but will have to contact a 'Forum Moderator' who could be away, and things could get out of hand if it comes down to a rude user breaking the forum rules. Therefore I'm quite happy with the Staff Moderators to be able to look after both the forums and the game on behalf of others if they're away with work or college and whatnot.

With something like this, it will also confuse the members themselves should they wish to report a rule-breaker and end up sending an in-game report to a 'Forum Moderator'. Not to mention it'll also flag up topics where people like to talk about how 'limited' it is to have to wait for these 'Game Moderators' to come in-game, and then say how there should be "more of them". People already complain enough about it, and I believe that if this structure were to be put in place, the negative remarks would rise.

[Azurain]

Shurtle does make some good points but even now with things as it is, timezones are an issue. We still also kinda have the issue of being short on staff, and with less staff, the more loaded the current staff are. If we have more ranks, it can be more spread out. More mods from different timezones can be appointed and assigned to certain things. Game mods don't have to watch the forums as well, and forum mods don't have to watch the game as well. Global mods (which Moontwist mentioned would have both in-game AND forum powers) would just be mods that can handle the stress well, much like an admin.

[Insoholic]

Personally I'm quite happy with the Staff team's structure as it is- with timezones being different, it's a lot better to just appoint the Staff to looking after both the game and the forums. Rather than appointing one Staff member to take care of the game and another to take care of the forums- situations will certainly occur where a 'Game Moderator' will notice a problem with the forums and will not be capable of resolving it themselves, but will have to contact a 'Forum Moderator' who could be away, and things could get out of hand if it comes down to a rude user breaking the forum rules. Therefore I'm quite happy with the Staff Moderators to be able to look after both the forums and the game on behalf of others if they're away with work or college and whatnot.

With something like this, it will also confuse the members themselves should they wish to report a rule-breaker and end up sending an in-game report to a 'Forum Moderator'. Not to mention it'll also flag up topics where people like to talk about how 'limited' it is to have to wait for these 'Game Moderators' to come in-game, and then say how there should be "more of them". People already complain enough about it, and I believe that if this structure were to be put in place, the negative remarks would rise.

I bet things could get out of hand because the current Staff team we have is often monitoring and moderating the boards. And it's kinda rare to see someone insulting others on the forum. I don't really think it will be confusing because the Staff page will say who is a Forum Moderator and who is a Game Moderator. Also, we already have 5 Moderators who are trained to enforce the rules on the forum and in the game.
And why they would complain that the Game Moderators aren't coming in-game? Reports are being sent via the PM system, not in-game.

[Astraea]

I honestly love the first idea.
I think this would organize it a bit more, and I am sure certain staff will enjoy different duties rather than all of them I presume.

Great ideas, I hope they consider!
<3

[G4RG0YLE]

And why they would complain that the Game Moderators aren't coming in-game? Reports are being sent via the PM system, not in-game.[/color]

Sent via the PM system on the forums.
So doing so, will also only encourage 'Game Moderators' to take a look on the forums while browsing through their PMs to inform the 'Forum Moderators' what had been going on throughout the time they had been online, teamwork.
Reports being sent in in-game whispers won't exactly be helpful if they're not in-game, they'd require the forum PMs to help them with reports just as they do already, and that is why people would complain- they'd complain about how the 'Game Moderators' are never online at the "right time when people start to mouth off a little more often".

Shurtle does make some good points but even now with things as it is, timezones are an issue. We still also kinda have the issue of being short on staff, and with less staff, the more loaded the current staff are. If we have more ranks, it can be more spread out. More mods from different timezones can be appointed and assigned to certain things. Game mods don't have to watch the forums as well, and forum mods don't have to watch the game as well. Global mods (which Moontwist mentioned would have both in-game AND forum powers) would just be mods that can handle the stress well, much like an admin.

Being short on staff isn't a terrible thing, as being a Staff member in itself requires the responsibility to be able to deal with stress and additional pressure - which includes the amount of reports they would have to look through and consider the consequences of the users being reported. Having the Staff ranks more spread out wouldn't change the amount of Staff members altogether, and I believe that is what should be considered here; with little Staff there is no need for a broad structure of how things are run with 'Game/Forum Moderators'. If the Staff team was larger then yes, perhaps this is a very good idea, but at the moment I do not see quite so much possibility of it happening until there are a few more Staff members added and the positions given to the right people. I certainly agree that if more Staff are appointed, what should be considered is which timezone they're in- this being so that different Staff members can be online at different times to watch over the forum and the game. However, 'Global Moderators' shouldn't be given their position just because of their stress tolerance, as dealing with stress can also relate to the amount of maturity you have and how you can deal with multiple personalities- hyperactive people, rude/judgemental/rule-breaking people, and etcetera. The level of stress it brings should be dealt with by all of the FeralHeart Staff rather than someone who is of 'higher ranking than the rest'.

[Bawfle]

To tell you the truth, I'm not fond of these ideas at all. Let me contribute to this and tell you and others some things through my own experiences working on the Staff Team.

A Moderator's knowledge of both Forum and Game responsibilities is very important.


When you're a member of Staff, you're constantly working as a team. Everyone knows what's what in both Forum and Game matters, and it's an absolutely wonderful thing because when you're a member of staff there is always someone to turn to, and give you a second opinion wherever and whenever you may need it. There's also always someone for a regular user to go to as well. They don't have to rely on just a few specific people. They can rely on every staff member to help them for whatever reason. Why is this? This is because everyone is trained in both Forum and Game matters.

The current Staff positions/categories in place is flexible enough already and really functions well to benefit and make the works easier for BOTH user and Staff Member. There really doesn't need to be any more organization regarding this. If you try to organize and categorize things too much, it will be much more problematic and messy much more than it might seem beneficial. The way things are organized now is already perfectly and necessarily balanced and works incredibly well and has done for all these years. The only issue is whether or not a person can dedicate time to their position and responsibilities, and that issue would still be around even if Forum and Game labels were added to moderators. It would probably be more problematic, because the balance between Forum and Game moderators would need to be fairly equal. Not specifically in count, but in activity and how much time these moderators can dedicate, and that just leads to more work and efforts for the Staff Team than what already needs doing. There are more important things than categorizing moderators and monitoring activity constantly.

Since they were removed, there's no one you have to specifically wait for in order to get the information or help you require. This also goes for users in general. They can already currently contact literally any active member of staff, and hey don't have to contact a specific group of people. When you work as a whole for both Forum and Game, rarely any issues arise in the Staff Team as well, and it's so beneficial for the Staff Team in general. (The reasons to this is explained in detail below). There is always someone available to look after Feral Heart, no matter what area, being Forum or Game. Being taught how to Moderate the Forum and Game makes it a whole lot easier in terms of working together as well. When you're separated into unnecessary categories such as Forum or Game Moderator, you only know how to resolve issues in that specific area. If people feel activity is too heavy in one area, then they can easily address that and they will be questioned/nudged about it by an Administrator.

There are many different reasons why staff choose to step down from their position, but in the long run, it would probably be best that the members of staff are honest about the time they're able to lend lend and their priorities, rather than staying on the team

Froum and Game Moderator labels were removed for a reason.


These specific status' were moved a long time ago for a reason, and everything NOW is more connected and well run than it ever was before because Staff work as a whole. Things get done faster, Staff work closer together and I am completely positive that separating staff into specific categories will just ruin that. Trying to separate moderators into more categories just won't work. It isolates people, and being isolated and/or categorized (when you're clearly capable of more) makes you feel so limited. Speaking of limited, if these categories were to make a come back, it will only introduce the issue of limitation. Moderators will be and will feel limited to what they can and cannot do when it comes to contributing to the community. Eventually people will want to contribute to both Forum and Game responsibilities either way, and not just one. The way things are right now, there's always something someone could be doing, whether it's In-game or on the Forum. Trying to separate staff into categories as of now will just destroy everything that staff have even done in terms of working together as a whole, and it's a huge thing to take away from a team who work so well together in both Forum and Game areas.

If you're thinking that it might be easier in terms of hiring more moderators as well, I can tell you that it's really not. Reason being because it's not about whether or not someone will be good in a specific 'profession' and not both at once. Other than what is required on the Mod F.A.Q, it's all about the trust Staff have to give to a person, based on what they already know, and the judgement of character as well. With all these years of having them removed. I really do not see why they should return other than to make things 'seem' more organized and to make things look pretty and purposeful.


Moderator activity, both Forum and Game.


Back when these categories were around, (mainly) Administrators had to constantly monitor the activity of Moderators in the Forum and Game categories. They had to keep up on making sure Forum and Game Moderators were active enough on both ends, and that one area wasn't heavier than the other in terms of activity. Keep in mind that both Forum and Game do need a fairly equal amount attention. Though, if a Moderator could not contribute and fulfill their role, then they were asked to leave to avoid other issues. The way things are right now in terms of staff roles/categorization is fine and very flexible. The only thing that needs monitoring is a staff's member's ability to contribute their time to the efforts of the game and making sure they're doing what they 'signed up' for. If they didn't want to/couldn't give their time/enough time to keep users within boundaries and making sure they follow the rules/don't break them, then they should not have accepted the offer to be an MIT in the first place. But that's all that is necessary to look out for, other than attitude and behavior.

[Insoholic]

Thanks for clearing out things for me and sharing your opinion, Buffy! Thank you for your opinion too, Shurtle. I agree with you both, so... this thread can be locked now.