Read this if you guys have some minutes to spare since I don't want this being scanned through and read between the lines.
I'm not quite certain I like seeing how itemized things are made out to be here and how apparently a "friend" of staff is = very popular. I see it very different but of course, I'm not the majority myself. At the same time I understand that those who appear to be contact with those in a "higher" position will get more eyes their way, it's just how things work, but it's something I personally wish for being sought out slightly different. I also wish to just ask a theoretical question that is not about the answer. It's just something I wish for people to have in mind.
Are you a friend of staff, or is it more about them being polite and respect you as a user?
Of course I might see things slightly different, but a true friend is really a friend to me and just not someone I can sit next to in the game or say hi to and exchange a few words with. From my own point of view I have great value of people that I can feel wish to be around and talk with for who I am and not which title one might possess, this is something I believe is no way different in other online communities or places we have on the internet(some people can be exceptions of course). Throughout the time here people have misunderstood many things regarding staffing, one of which is really the whole "friend of staff" situation. I just want people to have a deep thinker about this. In all fairness anyone could be a so called "friend of staff" by just respecting them as they should to any other player they meet, or even just respecting the work that has to be done. Because if it comes down to being a true friend you'd have to think of the individuals IN the staff and what a friend is and means to each and everyone of them alone, not see staff as a bunch.
Though the OP of this thread didn't make a bad post at all and this is an interesting thread(hence my reply), I just feel what follows from the discussion is slightly misleading, so don't get this wrong. I'm not trying to discourage the thread or original thought of discussion, but rather throw in my two cents about the matter. I feel like if there was a corresponding image for how a staff might look on things it wouldn't really look the same since staffing is about the work that needs to be done to take care of the community and game and is therefore placed high. I cannot say that I see and respect every user I ever met the same because then I'd be lying, but what affects this is really how they act and what they do around FeralHeart. Some people just really sticks out as a role model in the sea of users while others go the opposite and cause issues for both themselves and everyone, this, something that certainly is noticed and taken into account in my personal view.
There's many ways you as a user can get popular in a game community like FeralHeart, and being seen as popular due to the so called friends you have rather than who you are, what you do, and what you've managed to get done or do, I'd say is not how it should be. If your friend in real life has another friend that they wish to introduce you to, of course you're not going to push them away and say no before you even met them and got to know them a bit, and just like you can meet a stranger on the street that says hello, of course you can't know for certain who they are as a person until something has been shown on their part.
Devilburgers posted earlier asking if Staff really should be a part here, which I think could be considered since it could be popular due to being helpful as a staff, rather than being popular as a staff that the chart makes it out to be. But as that is a good question, some of it was wrong as well since anyone can work their way up from being a newbie to become part of the staff, the majority that's on the staff today started out as a player just like many of you guys.
In the end I myself or anyone else cannot change how the world works and how things will be seen, but some of us can try, and I really do hope that this reply will help to get some insight if it wasn't there already.
