Fix the Awful Jr.Mod situation (Mentor system)

Radical mentor role dude!​

In the past we've said that we need to improve the way we keep the mods that we accept. Far too many recently promoted Jr.Mods just lose interest and disappear off of the face of the earth, many of them don't even realize they've been promoted.

I'm proposing a mentor system, where more experienced players "mentor" newer Jr.Mods.

What would a mentor do?
Upon a player being added to the staff team. A jr mod is assigned a mentor, this person immediately adds them on steam as well as being the person to approve their staff application, by adding them on steam they personally congratulate the player on being accepted (Already an improvement), add them to the staff steam group, and explain the fact that they will be their mentor.

They should explain that they will be expected to play semi-regularly, and should also join our discord to keep up to date and check for any player mod requests.

They should also explain that as they may be new to moderating flood, they should join the mentor if possible to see how to moderate certain situations. Ideally try to keep the entire greeting as genuinely friendly as possible, it's a focus on keeping the Jr. Mods actively in contact more than anything.

Who would be a mentor?
Anybody that is a competent moderator+

Should a mentor get any more in-game commands etc?
No, they could be given a darker forum - mod colour or discord rank to specify that they are Mentors, but that should be entirely so that players know who to ask.




WARNING: Radical suggestion dude!!!!!!!
The biggest killers of flood mods at the moment is boredom, staff apps take too long, it's irregular, and flood for many people has a limited life span. We need a set rotor and a much better way for voting for staff because we really need to speed it up if we want to keep staff.

I suggest making a private discord text chat specifically for voting on staff. The second an application is up, staff should have one vote to cast with the form:
"Vote 4504 Yes" or "Vote 4504 No"
Where the number is the thread number.
Every Wednesday at a specific time, assuming the players staff application has been up for at least 5 days. An Admin counts the votes "Ctrl + F 4504" and Private messages a Superadmin+ to approve the voting.

 

"Looks like someone discovered America..."

tbh, noone should force people to play their game. If they're not interested in it - let them be. We're not holding slaves here, you know.

 

where does it say that again sorry

We're not holding them in we're trying to encourage them to come join us, devinity has a really bad "they should show all the initiative" stance, it's pretty much common courtesy to just send them a message telling them about how they have been accepted, especially given that most of the staff team dont even check the forums, why should we expect jr.mods to?

It's literally just encouragement for Jr Mods. It'd be much better to contact them and say "Oh hey you were accepted as staff blah blah blah" and for them to say "Oh yeah sorry not really interested anymore" than for them to clog up our staff list and make it look bad

if you have like a better idea on how to encourage jr mods without LITERAL HARASSMENT AND SLAVERY pls say

 

Very well thought out. I support the idea! Especially with schools letting out soon here in the USA.

 

We've kind of already been trying to do stuff like this all along, just not giving it an actual name or specifically assigning staff members because after all no staff member wants to be directly responsible for another staff member *cough* ahem *cough*.

Some of the more experienced moderators such as @Nyaaa~ ∑:3 and myself along with others have been attempting to try and take a leadership role to help out newer juniors and recently promoted mods; we just don't make a huge public ordeal about it because the whole "le I AM YoUR MENtoR FucKING LISTEN TO mE I kNoW BESt'' would grow to be quite annoying.

Another way we've been trying to keep juniors and mods alike informed is by creating new useful faqs and such in the mod chat which I know you cannot see so I don't really blame you for thinking we haven't been involved in trying to increase our juniors initiative, but believe me we have. In fact, i'd go as far as to say that the juniors in these past few months have been some of the most overall involved I've ever seen.

 

I like this idea

 

It's not a system to babysit the new mods, but rather to get them involved in the server a bit more by going out of their way to contact them, and giving them someone they can immediately contact if they need anything, but if you say you've been going out of your way to integrate them that's already an improvement since I was here.

Even if you guys dont want this system, we should certainly talk about ways of getting jrs more involved with the community so that they stick around, what do you guys think about the voting system at the bottom of the OP?

 

I can't speak for everyone but from what I've seen I think most of us have been reaching out and letting them know they can always come to us, but I do agree thee might be a bit more we could do. I think getting back into monthly gaming sessions (which we keep talking about but never do) could help keep them interested and involved.

 

Not sure how much this would really help, but I support the idea.

 

I think there needs to be a more strict set-up for mods. I think there should be a thread on the staff board that reads like "(NEW JR MODS READ)" that gives a really good in-depth explanation of how to be a staff member and even a good staff member at that. It will tell them all the opportunities they can partake in (Forum moderator, dealing with ban requests and ban appeals, teaching new players to the server how to play and not break rules. If the new jr mods don't post something like R&U (Read and Understood.) on the thread within a week, they would be demoted. Also I think all staff should be clearly informed on Steam that they have been promoted. Simply add them and just let them know, also let them know to read the thread on the staff board. At this moment when you tell them they are staff, most will probably say something like "oh i don't play that server anymore" or "no thanks".

This system would stop the spam of idiot jr mods who don't actually do anything and would also give the new jr mods a way to learn the ropes with a straightforward thread. I have a good write-up of a thread that would be a good way to introduce Jr mods to the job of moderating and teach them what to do and why to do it. Also this thread would list all opportunities they can partake in.