ER/Mod

[kthx]

Alright lately there have been some huge fucking problems with hosting in this zone, and I think it is time we took a step back and analyzed the current system of staff.

Why are Mods and ER's different levels of staff in the first place, I see SMOD as the first actual step up in power away from those two positions. But unfortunately we have people who are better suited to be ER's move up to MOD because it is supposed to be an "upgraded position in staff". Well personally I think its fucking stupid.

Some people are better suited for hosting events, they are personable, well liked, have a good understand of this game, the players, and arenas in this zone, and know all the commands for hosting.

Some people are better suited for being a mod, they don't have the time to fully devote to hosting, have a good understanding of the rules, and have a personality that I would say should be more business like since you are dealing with complaints.

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My suggestion to keep hosting in this zone above par would be to stop considering those two branches as being lower/higher than one another and consider ER's and Mods as equals on staff. That way there would be no more "promotions" for people who host a ton, and whom the playerbase loves into a position that takes a back seat to hosting and more towards answering help calls. This has been a problem that has plagued the current staff system for awhile now that we are running out of people who are good at hosting to recruit to staff.

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Honestly, just make it ER (Hoster) and Mod (Cheater Call Taker) and then a group thats slightly higher that would be Mod+ or Mod with Bang privvies, then SMOD and then Sysop. It would assure we had the right people in the right position until they moved up into a position whose first job wouldn't be hosting or taking help calls.

[Broly]

appreciated, and agreed.

[TagMor]

seems staff have their own game going on, somekind of gay hybrid of Railway Tycoon and The Sims... in space.

[Ara]

Staff has gone through several re-structuring plans in its years, one major one was in 2008 when ZHs were removed and four deans were introduced to take care of their own ER and MOD branches. After that in 2009 the number of deans were reduced to two, and training was forgotten partly because people quit at important positions and creativity in staff's highest levels decreased. Only now we've finally established a working Staff Training Team which still is under development. I believe there is always something to improve in a system and staff structure is always under discussion. I like to consider ERs and MODs as equals in every other aspect than ingame staff powers. The separation between the ERs and MODs is that the ERs don't have powers in Publics and MODs have BanG access.

In your staff time MODs weren't expected to host, but that has changed since. We've started giving MODs credits for hosting and I think you might've noticed MODs hosting more, especially leagues. Hosting skills aren't lost once a staffer is promoted to MOD anymore, MODs can decide how to make their monthly quota now. Now we could ask what is the difference between ERs and MODs, in my opinion MODs are senior staffers that enjoy the full trust of the rest of staff. I'm not saying our old ERs would be any less trusted though, they just haven't been trained with Ban Protocol and aren't expected to handle cheaters calls and rule breakers with the exception in their own events, thus letting them focus more on hosting and event creating. ERs are currently divided in to Junior ERs and Senior ERs, this has been working quite well so far, and now with our training team I hope it will become even better. The lenght of Junior ER status or difference between Senior and Junior ERs, and the usage of <ER> tag could be discussed on. But lets get back to the point of people being better suited to MOD or ER position. This is more of a personal opinion, rather than a fact that some personality would be better suited to a specific role. We need all kinds of MODs and all kinds of ERs wrking together so that there are as many different opinions and point of views that create constant discussion of staff and its purpose, functions, goals and responsibilities. There are more than just hosting for ERs and taking cheater calls for MODs, and wasting resources by binding personnel to just a few functions is a waste of resources. We do have higher mods with even wider job description, they are called TWD-Ops, these people host very rarely because TWD calls should keep them busy enough.

Currently we have several ERs gone AFK somewhere, something we have to work on once again. It's just that time of the year again when classes and hobbies start or people get jobs. I am actually also going into a job interview, wish me luck.

Sometimes it seems like staff could use more visibility. A mod tag could be a way to give a more visible presence of staff among the players and could have several positive impacts. The original reason MODs were tagless was because of Twister and other cheating programs people were trying out in Pubs when there were no visible staff looking. Continuum has become more resistant to cheating programs and we can see more info on cheaters now, but nothing more about that. Now I'm just writing random ideas and derailing. If someone comes up with a great plan to restructure staff once again he or she will be listened to of course. This is just my input, I'm not talking on behalf of SpaceHiker, PL, and M_M God, but I know we're pretty much on the same lines, but also working on to improve things.

[Vatican Assassin]

...and we can see more info on cheaters now, but nothing more about that.

more

[M_M God]

Well I think you just said everything for me Ara, not much more I'd like to add
Staff has been restructured several times in the past, and it's always seeking for the best way on how staff can work at their optimal level in the zone. Suggestions are always welcome, but I personally think this is working quite good for us at the moment, but ofcourse things can always change such like in the past when the playerbase dropped and positions like ZH's were no longer needed.

[Jones]

quicksand won't win anything, becos they are terrible

[Jason]

i hate hosting these days. it's too bot-centric. i have to learn 30 bot commands just to get a game started. i know that sounds like a lame excuse, but honestly, the sea of private ! commands is a little overwhelming to a guy who's used to the old days when all a bot did was spec at 10 deaths for you.

it's a little like trying to teach your mom how to use a modern browser like chrome when she's used to ie6.

even being a mod is more of a pain now. the system is riddled with protocols that require you to interact with 2 or 3 bots at a time.

but i do what i do, when i can do it. gotta keep giving back to a game that's offered so much for so long.

[kthx]

I know but I mean when I was staff ER's had the rightaway to host, and Mods had the rightaway to taking cheater calls. If there is a mod that wants to host, he should still get to be an ER and not be considered on a lower level than the mod.

The problem isn't mods hosting its ER's getting promoted to Mod that were great hosts and almost always never host the same amount again because they have other issues to deal with.

If you make Mod/ER equal you won't have the problem of having to coax mods to host because they would have been happier as an ER anyways.

[kthx]

Basically the step from "man this guy hosts a whole ton lets promote him to mod" should be more like "man this guy hosts alot he should be an ER until we move him to ER Training Smod"

[Major Crisis]

The problem isn't mods hosting its ER's getting promoted to Mod that were great hosts and almost always never host the same amount again because they have other issues to deal with.

I am so sorry
But sometimes its good to promote an active ER. So he can take care of other important stuff in staff. For example I got asked to take over TWHT. Thats basicly the reason why I am mod these days. I had more fun as ER so far though :P

[Barton]

Basically the step from "man this guy hosts a whole ton lets promote him to mod" should be more like "man this guy hosts alot he should be an ER until we move him to ER Training Smod"

if we don't do that then they will burnout and a burnout ER is a sucky mod.

[kthx]

Meh, I know there are sides to both arguments but surely some people on staff like Knex for instance actually wanted to be an ER longer or enjoyed being an ER but had to be promoted to a mod to run certain programs in the game.

[Barton]

Meh, I know there are sides to both arguments but surely some people on staff like Knex for instance actually wanted to be an ER longer or enjoyed being an ER but had to be promoted to a mod to run certain programs in the game.

ppl can always reject the promotion if they want or go back to ER if they want. look at major

[Turban]

one of the main issues that need to be fixed is this: people get promoted to other staff positions way too fast, even if they do not deserve it. for me, it took 18 months to go from ER to Moderator, and there another 4 months for TWD Operator. even that seems a bit too fast for me, and i can't even count how many times i've seen fast (within 4 months) promotions from ER to Moderator during my stay in staff.

not that it can really be called a promotion. just powers in public arena and bang, ERs already can do most of the stuff moderators can.

staff needs to train the ERs better, and i know they're working on that at this very moment. as i see it, there needs to be more interaction with the event players. at the moment most (note: not all) event referees are boring (not the events, just the way they're hosted) which makes me not to want to play the events that you offer.

gah. i need to start rereading stuff, another clusterfuck post. hope my point got through.