Lets talk about the staff application requirement

The requirements are far outdated, the problem with needing 50 reports is that was the requirement when the server was beyond booming and had literally thousands of players. We're in a time now where there's genuinely 75 active players online and the outdated requirement leaves almost zero room for players to get the forum report requirement. This requirement was also during a time in which the Skywars anticheat was beyond awful and there were blatant cheaters in every game, along with a bhopper on KitPvP every 5 minutes.

The server is an entirely different environment now and the current system doesn't match the current circumstance of the server. The requirements overall have needed to be redone for ages. There are countless requirements that make little to no sense and simply show "dedication" to applying, such as forum posts and player reports. Reporting chat offenses on the forums makes no sense when there is a built-in chatreport system (although there is a VERY small amount where other chat messages could provide useful context in terms of a punishment). This only makes things more difficult for the staff team, who has to deal with reports for players who are already punished because they were both forum reported and chat reported. The whole point is that these things contribute nothing to the server, but are required to become staff members, which makes no sense.

I think the direction staff requirements go should be towards accepting people that are knowledgeable about the server and considerably helpful. The "how are you helpful" portions of the application should be the most important parts. It would be far better to let more people on the team and get rid of the ones that are problematic, rather than ONLY accepting people that know the entire staff encyclopedia inside and out and grind the game for useless requirements.

TLDR - Requirements are outdated and (nearly) useless in MCC's current state + Allow more people onto the team and remove the problematic ones rather than being very selective and picky about who gets on in the first place.

 

I agree with you 100%, I had just put in an application a few weeks ago, and the only reason it got rejected was because of the reporting requirement, which I find unfair towards those like myself who find it hard to spot cheaters but have been playing for years.

Furthermore, I find it annoying that I get a report rejected for poor evidence when clearly I have a screenshot of the offence, and there is no clear reason as to why it got rejected other than "poor evidence".

 

You've probably seen my suggestion in the Discord and maybe also my older forum thread, but I'll repeat the key aspects here and comment on the posts above.

I agree with @Cxrtr that the 50 reports requirement is pretty useless (to an extent). While it is true that hackers are gone from the old gamemodes and there's significantly less players compared to 2 years ago, there are still chat offences to report. I do understand the concept of "dedication before you apply", as pointed out by @InsaneIsMyName in my thread about this, but if the requirement only serves that goal, 50 is way too much. As I mentioned before, it should be somewhere between 25 and 40. I wouldn't like to see the requirement removed altogether, since it's one of the ways for staff to test your knowledge of the rules.

In my opinion the main aspects that should be considered when dealing with applications are knowledge of the rules (basic understanding, the rules pages can serve as a reference), in-game activity (we don't need staff that plays only 2 hours per month) and, above all, maturity and the ability to deal with toxic situations.

 

Yeh, a lot has changed since we reduced the amount of accepted forum reports to 50. Back then it should have been pretty easy to reach that goal, and it still is somewhat easy nowadays too. But I agree that it's probably a bit too much.

1) Why is it so high?
It needs to be somewhat high because if it was very low (like 20), it could be reached in a short period of time. We of course want people who are dedicated and aren't applying just for the tag or just to figure out that MCC isn't for them after a month of being staff. By putting in the effort over a longer period of time, it's easier to see that the applicant is being serious about it.

2) Why not count chatreports towards the limit?
This is due to the limits of the chatreport system. We can only see the total amount of chatreports the player has done, and the amount they have done during the current month. If the applicant applies during the first days of the month, we have no way to know if the chatreports in their history are from years ago or more recent. We of course want that they are more recent, since that shows they know the current rules and have been active recently. Only checking the playtime doesn't tell the whole truth of activity, as players can AFK.

3) Changing requirements more towards evaluating the maturity and personality of the player?
I find it very difficult to evaluate someone based on a short application text and an interview. These are just short moments which show a small glimpse of what the applicant is actually like. Ideally the player would have played on MCC for a long time, becoming friends with current staff and interacting a lot with both the staff and players. That way there would be a chance of Apps Team members actually talking to the applicant over a longer period of time. By having some sort of long-term requirement (like 50 accepted forum reports), we can try to ensure that the player has been playing on MCC for a while and these interactions have been more likely to happen.

4) Accepting people with lower standards?
I see this as a big risk but also of course an opportunity. From the point of view of an Admin I want to point out that guiding new Helpers takes time and requires some resources. If the new Helpers are accepted with lower standards and experience, I fear they might not stay as staff. Then all the time and effort put into their guiding would have been wasted.

5) Checking the chat logs or how the player acts in-game
With fewer Application Team members it becomes more difficult to gather experiences of how the player acts in-game, so evaluating their maturity and emphasizing that part in the application process can be tricky. If we base the decision more on what we have experienced ourselves instead of also considering the numbers (playtime, reports, messages on Discord), it wouldn't necessarely reflect the reality. What I mean by this is that decisions would become more subjective and depend on chance (depend on if Apps Team has bumped into the player). Checking the chat logs doesn't sound like a good solution because they also save lots of commands and going through hundreds of chat lines doesn't sound appealing. xD

Overall I think we could reduce the required amount of accepted forum reports, maybe to somewhere between 30 and 40? I wouldn't start changing other things, since I'm not sure it would have the wanted result.

 

So, based on the reactions on this thread and my old one, it seems that most staff would agree on lowering the 50 report requirement by at least 10 reports. And the suggestion I made in the MCC Discord got 25 upvotes and only 2 downvotes, so I'd say now is a good time to consider changing this ;)

 

Ngl a way to get players to apply as staff, is that staffing could be more rewarding too. We all know what a tiny gift card they get as a small thank you, but I'd like to see it get at least doubled. As it can just be created, it wouldn't cause any financial troubles for the owners either. The amount of staff members currently is like 4 times less than year ago too. Right now with the current state of the server, I feel like being staff isn't quite rewarding - considering how much you all must handle with a small team too.

Another alternative, is increasing the reward based on your staff ranks. Decrease helper's reward, or remove it completely. Let mod's reward stay as the same, and add reward to those who are in CE, screenshare, reports teams etc. Increase the reward for seniors. Idk what admins get so won't go there. I know this is just moderating a video game server, but how do you keep employees interested working for you? You raise the salary based on their promotions and tasks. Could give a piece of motivation to stay on the team & work towards achieving higher & other staff ranks. I know there are already the additional rewards for the staff that achieves x and x, but owners could consider these too.

Or find other ways to make being a staffer more rewarding, as it does contain quite a work and having to deal with dumb and rude players. & also, a simple thank you every now and then for the literal kids working for free for your company, wouldn't hurt either.

 

Carter explained the requirements side of things perfectly. Forum reports have been an outdated way of judging an applicant for a while now, especially so since minigames + KitPvP were canned. The idea that they're the best way to "show dedication before you apply" doesn't work with a small player base. Even back when I was on the team, the reports requirement was arbitrary for the opposite reason. You couldn't play a Skywars game without running into a bot and people were reaching the requirements in days. Reaching the required number has never been something that accurately shows off a player's experience.

As someone who has sorted through helper apps, you know as soon as you see someone's username on an application ticket whether or not they have potential on the staff team. You don't need a reports number to tell you who's active around the sub servers, or who gets along well with the community. You know a players demeanor and experience because you see them around a lot online, in chat or on Discord. I imagine promising applicants are even easier to spot now, given there's less players and sub servers for the staff team to dedicate their time too.

I get having reports requirements for the application team's sake so not just anyone is submitting a helper app when they join the forums, just make it some low number like 10-15. You're not 'lowering standards' by reducing a now arbitrary requirement. People have always been promoted based more on the respect they have within the community/apps team anyway. If they're a good person and their punishment record is reasonable, let them apply!