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Staffing

Hey Star Army!

I'm scouting out potential new staff members and I want to get your feedback. Who do you think would make a good staff member or moderator, and why?

Qualities I'm looking for is they're unflappably positive and respectful under pressure, they know SARP like the back of their hand, and they're able to work with everyone else in SARP (people skills are huge). Responsibilities include helping GMs create RP and helping members resolve their conflicts swiftly.

-Wes
 
I went reading through this thread, and I'm going to do a sort of, "review" of the various nominees that I've seen so far - pointing out strengths and weaknesses and giving a summary. These are based not only on my experiences, but the experiences of other people I have talked to.


First, Jack Pine! His strengths:
-He's very active, running a significantly-sized faction.
-He is a very friendly person, especially to newcomers.
-He has done several submissions to the NTSE, and is familiar with the wiki.

Jack does have a few weaknesses:
-He sometimes is in a sad mood.
-On occasion, his wiki articles are rushed and can be troublesome for reviewers to handle.

SUMMARY: Jack would be an overall good choice for administrative/moderation positions, but sometimes his decisions may need to be "checked" by other staff in case his emotions are getting the better of him in decision-making.


Second: Club24; his strengths are as follows:
-Very friendly person who likes to help out people.
-Club runs a smaller faction.
-Club generally keeps a level head when things get rough.

Weaknesses:
-Club24 sometimes needs help with scales for size and damage ratings - he asks for help, though.
-He sometimes opts to simply avoid drama when it comes up.

SUMMARY: Club is a great choice if he sticks around and works through the drama.


Third nominated is Ethereal! His strengths:
-Willing to get his hands dirty a lot of the time.
-He has worked with the NTSE in the past to make his submissions work well.
-He can take pressure really well in a majority of cases.

He has weaknesses, too:
-When Eth snaps from rising pressure, he snaps hard.
-Ethereal can be a bit blunt when taking action sometimes, which can cause a situation to escalate.

SUMMARY: Ethereal is still a great choice for a staff position, but he needs an active team to help him out over any length of time when staffing to reduce the amount of stress on him.


Up next is Ametheliana! Her strengths:
-Extremely positive personality.
-She draws art.
-She runs what is probably the largest plot on the site.

She has weaknesses, as well:
-She handles pressure very poorly, usually disappearing or relying on Wes to do the administration/moderation job for her.
-She has been involved in quite a few conflicts with people in her past (including other staff members), which can be disadvantageous.

SUMMARY: Ame would make an excellent "PR Person", running an official social media account or similar - her positivity would help attract a lot of people to the site. She's not a very effective choice for moderaion/administration.


FrostJaeger is on the list, his strengths:
-Intense dedication to the setting, site, and wiki rules.
-He does a pretty good job of staying neutral most of the time when he's in an argument.
-Frost tends to be pretty positive!

Weaknesses:
-Frost can be a nitpicker over really specific things.
-Frost isn't very RP-active, and this is an RP community.

SUMMARY: Frost still makes for a good NTSE moderator, but his tendency to focus and nitpick tiny things makes him be a mediocre choice for proper moderation with the whole site, as it causes unnecessary conflict. His lack of active RP also can be an issue.


Syaoran is next up, and here are his strengths:
-Very little bias, even when pressure is put on him.
-He has been a part of the community for a long time, and run a plot for several years.
-Syaoran knows quite a bit about the setting and wiki.

His weaknesses:
-Syaoran tends to be a bit on the aggressive side, which can start conflicts despite him approaching from a neutral perspective.
-His activity is a little bit on the low side.

SUMMARY: Syaoran would be an alright choice for moderation, and possibly NTSE. Their aggression could use a bit of work, but their neutrality can be very helpful.


Lijosu - As a disclaimer, I've known Lijosu for a very long time. His strengths:
-He's an incredibly passionate person.
-Lij plays the "devil's advocate" a lot for the sake of balance in discussions.
-He has created and run his own RP setting in the past.

His weaknesses:
-Lijosu's mood can fluctuate, sometimes resulting in him being incredibly blunt when talking with people.
-Lij can overreact on occasion, which can result in conflicts.

SUMMARY: Lij is an alright choice for staff, but with a little bit of monitoring in case he does something important without actually intending for it.


The following nomination is HarperMadi! She has a few strengths:
-Active member in RP and on site stuff (like the NTSE).
-Madi's pretty neutral in arguments when she wants to be, even under pressure.
-She's not afraid to get her hands dirty, literally or figuratively.

She has a couple weaknesses:
-Madi has a heck of an attitude, which can get her in fights or make the community seem less pleasant if she were in a position of power.
-She often tries to make little pokes at existing systems for the balance of power, which can give the impression of staff being exempt from rules to someone who isn't devoting all of their attention to the context.

SUMMARY: HarperMadi would be an excellent choice for reviewing things on the NTSE, but her attitude can be a problem for full moderation/administrative actions.


IQ is the penultimate nominee (so far)! Her strengths:
-IQ is making and running a small faction!
-She's a super fun person to be around and talk to, and is pretty positive.
-IQ is capable of working on things under pressure really dang well. This can help in conflict resolution.

She has weaknesses, as does everyone:
-IQ isn't very active right now, since she's pretty busy with real life stuff.
-They sometimes surrender when they see a situation being pointless/hopeless.

SUMMARY: IQ would be a great addition to the site staff if they were more active. With a team to help out, she'd be a huge asset and very helpful.


The final person that's been nominated as of right now is Legix! He has strengths:
-Legix runs the faction Nepleslia, and has been working on plots and updates for it.
-He has been with the site for a long time, and knows quite a bit about the setting in general.
-Legix likes to make jokes and have fun a lot, promoting a friendly atmosphere when he's happy.

Legix, like the other nominees, does have weaknesses:
-Legix is busy with his child, meaning that he has little time to spend on SARP.
-When things go the "wrong way" for Legix (not necessarily not the "right way", but specifically the "wrong way") he tends to take the pressure poorly.

SUMMARY: I think that Legix would be an okay person for moderation if he had more time to spend on SARP. Having a team of people to back him up when things go poorly can help out a lot, as well.
 
Arbs is an excellent judge of people, I think her take is very elegant and I'm going to agree with everything she's said. By the way I'm supporting Jack and IQ too most out of the list. I support club as well but I know he has a lot on his plate hence why he's not in the Discord server.
 
The only reason I poke the systems is to show weaknesses. If I can exploit the loopholes and still make something balanced, it makes sure that the NTSE and other moderation staff keeps an eye out for that kind of thing, and no big breaches happen. Think of me as a healing agent of chaos.
 
I don't think it's a good idea to give Jack even more power, or make it even faster and easier for him to rush things through any sort of approval process.
 
That would almost seem like a good idea, because I have no real desire for sweeping change or more power or anything, but it wouldn't end well. I'd wind up banning 1/3 of the players for breaking rules or complaining about being punished for breaking rules, ban another 1/3 because they're just bad influences, and then the other 1/3 would either quit or get me banned/removed to bring the other 2/3 back. So we'd just be back where we started.
 
That would almost seem like a good idea, because I have no real desire for sweeping change or more power or anything, but it wouldn't end well. I'd wind up banning 1/3 of the players for breaking rules or complaining about being punished for breaking rules, ban another 1/3 because they're just bad influences, and then the other 1/3 would either quit or get me banned/removed to bring the other 2/3 back. So we'd just be back where we started.
At least you admit it's happen
 
I was a Builder on a MUD back in the day, did good enough to be promoted to Immortal/Admin/Mod/whatever. I was quickly demoted down to Head Builder, which did not have any punishment powers. I prettymuch know how things would go down.
 
I don’t mean to be a pest, @Wes - I know you’ve been extremely busy taking care of your (extremely cute <3) newborn child IRL - but have you had a chance to consider the recommendations that were posted earlier in this thread? I ask only because it’s been a week since the last post... >v<
 
The community will be made aware when Wes has come to his final conclusions about this issue.
 
I'm sure it's a bit late, but I would like to toss my hat in.

Granted I haven't been back but for so long, but I am generally neutral in conflicts, I handle pressure well when needed, and I am used to dealing with conflicts. I did run a faction for a while (Poorly I admit but I was an idiot back then.) and I feel like I can stay fairly well composed under pressure when dealing with the recent issues, and I am around fairly often as well.

Take it for what you will, I'm just offering myself as tribute.
 
I've been looking at this thread and it occurs to me that we need to define what we expect a staffer to do because it's going to be pointless if all that happens is a person gets a banner under their name.

What is it exactly, in terms of tasks that need to be done, that we need another staffer for, again?
 
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