Best Posts in Thread: Helper Application from Its_Madison

Madison, I apologise for the long message but I think this needs to be said: I know you're a great person and all but I think we as a server really need to ask : what will she do to change the server for the better? She obviously isn't going to be busy with modreqs (there's seldom more than 50 people online at a time), she isn't going to be coding (unless there's something she's hiding! mwahahah), and she hasn't displayed any groundbreaking ideas. This isn't anything personal, as I said, she's a really great person, but what's separating her from the current staff that are "great people" ? The current staff obviously isn't doing anything to help the server regain it's player base, which is the point of a minecraft server, to get tha moneyz.

I strongly believe that we do not need any more staff members who are just going to be average. I think if you were to be staff, Madison, you would have to really be adamant about things being changed and you would have to have very high goals for yourself and for the server and you would not give up on those goals. You have been staff before, and purely statistically, the player base did not improve while you were staff, the player base declined. I'm not saying that it's all your fault, but it is a team effort. I have seen staff members, mods, helpers even who really push for things to be accomplished. The hierarchy of staff does not need to be feared. If you demand it, then they will listen to you. An example, if you want something to be different, or if you don't agree with a policy, talk to other staff members and write a summary of what needs to be changed. If they don't listen the first time then send it again. Rinse and repeat. If you don't think anything needs to be different, you are in a strong state of denial or you just don't realise what is holding the server back.

I agree that Madison is an amazing community member, but I honestly don't see her adding anything really special to the staff team. I think if we want the server to improve, which is the whole point of becoming staff, we need staff members who are able to fix things and have strong intention, and we need community members who are kind and cool like Madison. If all the nice community members become staff, what's the point? It's really frustrating seeing these community members become staff then just kinda be a dead weight on the team. The standards really have to be higher especially with this declining player base.

I really, really hope that this message gets through in the voting process with the current staff and that the points are discussed thoroughly. The staff team's function as a whole needs to be defined further than doing modreqs for upwards of 60 people and putting a smile at the end of every sentence.

Thank you for reading.

 

Member Name Its_Madison

Additional In Game Names: _Peridonyx_

How old are you? 16

Location: California, USA

Do you have Discord? Yes

How many hours per day do you play MeepCraft? (weekdays) 1-5+ hours (as much as schoolwork allows)

How many hours per day do you play MeepCraft? (weekends) 4-8+ hours (as much as schoolwork allows)

Have you ever been staff on this or any other server? Yes

References: Please give IGN's Deljikho, GroovyGrevous, CluelessKlutz, MoonlitMadness, Niiicck

When did you join Meepcraft? June / July 2013

Introduction: Hello everyone, my name is Madison, and Its_Madison in-game. I am a reserved person, but I can also be very amiable. I am a 10th grade student currently enrolled in advanced courses at my high school. I have always had a substantial passion for academia, and I strive to learn as much as I can about the world around me. I am interested in pursuing a degree (and later, a career) in either chemical engineering or mathematics when the time comes.

Besides academics, I am heavily involved in Red Cross volunteering. Recently, I helped freshman students at my high school adapt to the rigors of high school through a freshman mentorship club. As a board member/mentor of the club, I worked with three other board members to provide all of the freshman members with biweekly presentations on various studying techniques, stress-reduction tips, extracurricular activities, etc, and provided face-to-face guidance to small groups of freshmen. Unfortunately, I recently had to resign my position due to changing schools in late-February.

When I am not busy with schoolwork and volunteering, I enjoy reading, swimming, listening to music, and browsing the internet. I am also a fan of comedy and science fiction anime.

I was a staff member on MeepCraft from early March to late May of 2016. I decided to resign in an effort to shift my focus to studies and personal issues that impeded with my activity at the time, and took an extended break. Nowadays, while I dedicate much of my time towards academic work and volunteering, I feel that I have enough time to dedicate towards being staff for the long run.

Why should you be Helper? Being on the staff team for nearly three months helped me discover some of my own strengths.
I believe that I could be a useful asset to the staff team by being a member who can be recognized by players of many time-zones as someone who is dedicated and will get their modreqs done in a timely fashion, actively participate in Trello projects, and contribute to the server overall.

-Work Ethic: I possess a strong motivation to get things done, which has enabled me to succeed in difficult AP courses at school, my work as a volunteer and board member of the mentorship club, as well as in my prior work as a staff member. Previously as a staff member, I could concentrate on completing several modreqs in a row, and 6-10+ modreqs in a day on average. While quantity is an important factor when it comes to modreqs, quality is even more important. I made it a priority to thoroughly complete all modreqs and make sure that players were satisfied with my service. In addition to my modreq work, I completed outlining for a few staff projects on Trello, most of which have since been sent to archive. Many of the higher staff at the time recognized me for my high modreq count.

-Professionalism: Aside from my forums title, I am professional when working with/assisting other people. I stay serious but make an effort to be friendly and welcoming enough, and know when it is the right time and place to joke around and be immature. I strive to be open-minded and work with ideas and opinions that may significantly differ from my own.

-Positivity: I can see the positive side to nearly any situation, and can put my own issues and feelings aside when helping people. Even when I was affected by personal issues throughout my prior time as staff, I was able to shrug all of that off and continue on. I believe that I can remain positive for people even when they are upset, and that anyone can count on me to be a positive and empathetic influence.

-Experience: I served on the team as a Helper for a month, and the rest of my term as a Moderator. I have a clear understanding of the amount of work and dedication that is expected from a staff member, and how to handle large amounts of stress and pressure effectively. Since it has been a year since my tenure as staff, I do feel that I would need a refresher on staff commands and Prism if I were to be accepted.

-Activity/Availability: I am sufficiently active on MeepCraft. I am available to pop in-game/on the forums/on Discord during the late afternoon and evening. Players are also always welcome to contact me through Skype (peridonyx_) at any time. I am always available for conversations on all MeepCraft platforms from 4-5 PM to 10 PM PST everyday, and at various times in the morning on days that I don’t have class. In addition, since I switched schools recently, I have had a lot more time to spend on MeepCraft on the weekdays and weekends in comparison to when I attended my previous school.

What are your weaknesses? My previous tenure on the staff team also gave me a great opportunity to reflect upon my own flaws; it allowed me to identify my shortcomings in effective communication with the players of MeepCraft, as well as various aspects of my own personality that affect my relationships with people in my life.

-Immaturity: Sometimes my positivity can go a little overboard. In the past, I have acted excessively immature and annoying, even as a staff member.I completely understand that my behavior in the past was over-the-top. Over the past year, I have made a great effort to tone down and control my immaturity.

-Shyness: During my previous tenure on the staff team, I found it difficult to speak up and express my opinions during meetings. Over the past year, I have made it a priority to push my limits and attempt to gain the confidence to voice my opinions while working on group projects in academic classes and (formerly) planning materials for the mentorship club. Nowadays, I find it easier for me to talk confidently to other players in-game and on Discord compared to when I was staff a year ago, even though I still do get a little shy from time to time. If I were to be accepted, I feel as though I would have a good deal more confidence to step up and not be as afraid to voice my thoughts as a staff member.

-Quietness: I tend to not say a whole lot, preferring to read into conversations and talking to people when prompted. However, I am currently working on this weakness of mine by taking opportunities to get myself out in chat once in a while.

-Naivety: At times, I can place too much trust in certain people, and place too little trust in others, especially with friends and colleagues. While this did not significantly interfere with my past work as staff, I still feel that this is an important flaw in my personality that has affected my relationships with people I know in real life, as well as the other players of MeepCraft. I feel that this weakness will lessen as I gain more experience in communication with other people.

Please give any other information you might think is useful for us to know: Thank you for reading my application! Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Firstly, thank you for bringing this topic up. It is something that I definitely consider when thinking about applications, and I agree with you on many points. You can do quite a lot without having the tag, and there are lots of opportunities to work with people on things. I fully agree the bar should be higher now with the current staff to player ratio. Being positive and handling modreqs are kind of the base of Helper, with the best going far above and beyond that.

Now, for this specific case, I can easily see where you are coming from with your general points. However, I also get to see a bit different side of things. For those of you who are unaware, Legend is run and operated in a way similar to the general staff team, and that includes the seven mayors. Each mayor contributes to the overall team in a slightly different way. If you notice, Legend has already been mentioned numerous times. This is not out of bias, but out of the work each one has seen her do in the last two months firsthand. Constantly, she is suggesting new ways to do things, and ideas for things. She is intelligent enough to come up with solutions to any issue we have faced in the past, and it's quite a useful skill to have in general. Even when ideas are not original, she has refined others' ideas into something that works even better than the original idea.

I also know what you mean by community members, but I have to disagree. You can still be a central part of of the community while staff. There is no way I'm going to let a tag keep me from talking to people, or only chatting with other staff, and this applies to Madison, as well. Sure, you can't talk about everything, but it doesn't hinder them from taking an active part in the community. Look at people in the past who have built their own bridges between people, and this is exactly what Madison does between people.

Even if we disagree on some of the details, I do appreciate the time and thought you put into these, and respect your ideas on the matter significantly.

 

Eh, you were an okay staff member last time. I didnt like you much, mostly because I didnt see you actually doing much.

I cant judge much on current but just on past experiences, and yknow all I ever saw done were modreqs sometimes
But what's one more really, you can be another helper @CluelessKlutz takes modreqs before you can get them ;]

 

Everything that you described is pretty much what she said and I don't see anything special in that (please understand that I'm not saying she's a bad person, I'm just saying that as a staff member I think the standards should be sososo much higher if the staff team expects to bring the server back to a constant, high player base that it once knew). --- Work ethic? As a helper, what are you gonna work on. There's no modreqs, the trello outlines you're talking about are not going to be completed unless we have someone to carry them through, all current helpers have a good attitude, and they're all capable of running prism commands and getting along with each other. None of the current staff members are rude to the players, so the positive atmosphere among the staff team is already there when it comes to talking to the playerbase. The actually community being nice to each other? That's a different story. Maybe if she was actively trying to get the community to come together and recruit people (you don't have to be staff to do that, being staff doesn't really help, in fact I could argue that it helps less because to the potential players, it seems less genuine when a staff member is asking people to join than when a regular player is asking them to join) or if she were talking to the admins about what needs to be changed, she would be a good candidate for the staff team.

 

Madison, you are an amazing person and friend. Constantly, I see you helping new players with literally every part of their journey. You know what you're doing, and what you're getting in to. You have all the experience and skills needed to do the job, and I know you'll do it well. Whenever there is an issue between residents, you can fix it so that both parties are satisfied, and take the initiative to do projects nobody has even asked of you. I literally cannot wait to work together more so than already, best of luck!