Mods with previous experience are a great asset to the community. They do not need to spend as much time gaining experience, which is a reason why they might advance the ranks much faster. In addition, as long as the moderators resign in a good light, I don't see why they should not be able to apply again.

 

Hmm.. I have no problem with Staff re-applying.
If for example they had some issues in real life that they HAD to resign, even if they wanted to stay on the team but had no choice. Maybe the issues are fixed, and they have free time on their hands.

And with their past experience, i think previous staff are great to have back on the team.

 

A lot of your 'bad' points revolve around the idea of giving people a chance ahead of people who have been staff before. Ultimately, this is not the aim of staff. The purpose of the staff team is to help run the server and keep the community friendly etc. It is not to give people a shot at staff etc.

Your points:

1) Mods who apply again usually rank up to their previous rank extremely quickly, giving other mods no chance of getting the next rank up in that specific round
- This shows that they were a good staff member and so in my opinion should be given more responsibility to help out with more of the Staff team's responsibilities. If they weren't capable of it, they wouldn't be promoted simply because they had been staff before.

2) They have had their time to shine, let someone else have a go at it
- See my point above. There is no element of ensuring people 'get a chance' to be a staff member when it comes to picks. People are voted in if the staff team feel they are capable of handling the responsibility that being staff demands.

3) They are sometimes chosen over others, even if their app isn't as good or is on par with another players
- Of course a good application is important, but staff aren't picked solely on it. A huge amount of weight goes on how applicants act in game. If they have been staff before (and haven't been demoted), they are likely to be friendly, helpful etc. The qualities which we look for in prospective staff.

4) They decided to resign, meaning they couldn't handle it, had real life problems (I have nothing against this) or felt they weren't prepared for it, so who's to say they won't go and resign again, meaning more pressure put on the other mods as they are a mod down?
- 'Who's to say they won't go and resign again'. I personally think that if someone has been mature enough to realise that they need to resign, it generally means that they understand the demands of staff. If they have applied again, they are the most likely person to know whether they are able to meet those demands, and if they know they can't they wouldn't be applying. Similarly, real life happens. No one should be prejudiced later in the future if they have resigned for real life reasons.


Ultimately, my opinion on this is that people who have resigned should 100% be allowed to re-apply. A lot of the best staff members have resigned and then re-applied when whatever issue led them to resign has been resolved. To prevent them from applying is a very bad idea.

 

Yes

 

I agree with Dewsy.

 

What about if you have to resign because of a thing that is happening at the moment

Ex. I had to resign bc of school and work plus health but that could change at any time, should I not be able to get on staff just bc I felt it was better for the community at the time?

just my opinion

 

I'm going to comment on this seeing as I have the perceptive of a resigned Staff Member. I personally feel there should be no hard limit on if former staff should re-apply or not, seeing as applying is the server's equivalent of sending in a résumé, and is up to the Staff Team to determine if they are going to allow the applying person to get the position.

First off, the Staff Team isn't meant to be a round robin type system in that everyone gets to become a Staff Member, it is a system where they are trying to find the best people to find what the current needs of the Staff Team are at that moment in time. Ex-staff have the advantage of already being trained on how the server runs, which is a great asset, as training new staff ties up some of the senior staff for at least 1-2 weeks as they learn the ropes. In addition, being on the Staff Team isn't your time to be popular, it is a place where you go to volunteer your time to do the back office work that generally ends up getting you angry messages from users. While some users may be friendly to the Staff Team, there are some that become a bit disgruntled when their complaint or ban appeal is handled in a way they do not approve of.

As for your point with the application, that is because the application is not everything in getting picked. The reason the application is used is that it allows a staff member that does not know who you are, or doesn't know you well, to figure out how you will handled a situation. For example, if I applied for Staff, my app would be less important in a judge of character for me than an average user, as every non-new staff knows exactly how I handle a situation, and what I can and can't do on the team. The application is best thought of as your first impression, and is weighted with how you are known to act while playing on the server and posting on the forums.

As for your point that they resigned, that is up for the applying former staff to answer that concern in the "Former Staff Question" block of the application. The active Staff Team then takes that point, and decides if they thing they will stay around for some time, or if they are just going to leave again. Most of the time, this requires the former staff to have fixed the problem before the application cycle starts, and it will be checked by the senior staff if that is true.

The point that I want to make is that there should be no hard limit on if former staff are allowed to reapply again, that is should just be up to the Staff Team if they will let them back in. I personally don't feel we need any more hard restrictions on who can apply, and leave it up to the Staff Team to set what ever soft restrictions they need for the exact pick.

 

Boom!

 

They don't "Take away the chances of other people"
Many ex-mods reapply and don't get accepted

 

Being previously on Staff, I would not want to be excluded from Staff picking if I ever chose to apply again. Staff is not a popularity contest (or, at least, should not be ...) nor is it a paying job. So in my opinion, people should be chosen based on how well they can do in the volunteer position. In this case, Staff who have resigned already have experience and understand the demands and the work. Stability with work, as a team, and emotionally in a stressful volunteer position is important in this kind of environment. The difference on ECC versus an animal shelter is that ECC's volunteer job acts as a paying job, whereas volunteer in many real life situations is just lending a hand on [usually] something simple.

That is not to say that I fully agree with every Staff member picked to come back on Staff. Some do have more experience and better understanding than others, but that does not mean they are ready again for the work. Because of that, less-experienced - but still prior - Staff get picked. As well, at least in the last year, I have seen quite a few new people be added to the Staff team... More than ever before. By "new," anyway, I am seeing unknown/not well-known people getting picked and fewer (slowly over time) previous Staff who had resigned over six months prior to applications.

 

So, you want staff and you're going to whine about how ex staff members get staff over you? Good luck with that!

 

Staff have many reasons for resigning. I understand why you think it's unfair for ex staff to rejoin the team and even be promoted quickly, but there's a method to the madness. Clearly we don't promote people for the fun of it, it's because we feel they're fit to be in the position they're given. That being said, there are plenty of staff who resign who are not picked a second time around. This is my opinion, however. :p

 

Yes. They've previously shown that they are more than capable of being a good moderator, so why not?

 

There is a section in the Staff App that has you put any other forum/servers you've moderated on there.

 

As a former Mod all I can say is this, Be prepared to have little or no time to actually play. If you enjoy doing whatever you want in game, instead of spending all your time on line playing referee, skip the Mod app. :)

 

Same thing goes for you bud.