This was a great idea, the trophy points, in an attempt to recognize those that do a hell of a lot of work. However, I can agree that in terms of practicality it may not work the best. A good compromise is letting any and all staff receive cosmetic things
Perhaps a special "staff" pet you can get
All staff, even helpers get customization of their tags on forums
There are many other various cosmetic rewards that would most likely work better. But this sentiment that "Staff should be happy to be staff" is outdated, simplistic, and disrespectful to them. Some of you know exactly how much work it is, and at the end of the road, this server is a business that needs employees (or volunteers) to do the jobs that this server relies on. You outright lost an admin because the work that needed to be done, was not worth the effort needed to do all of it, on top of dealing with less than savory players, etc. I have to imagine PhoenixAngel left for much the same reasons, I apologize if I am off base. The work and effort a staff members puts in will never be worth what they get out of it.
"What they get out of it" does not signify a payment of any work, and can even mean the good feeling a person gets when helping out. But are you going to fight to help out? Are you going to deal with rude people to help out? Considering the server takes volunteers instead of employees, the threshold of what they are willing to do, and put up with is inherently smaller than a paid employee.
This avenue of rewarding your staff, hell, even giving them straight up meebles is a good idea, and it will bring benefits to this server, because people who put in the work gain something from that work, which in my opinion is a necessity.
Say what you will about this specific avenue of reward, but the statement that staff should be happy and grateful for their contributions to the community is akin to just slapping them in their face. This attitude was much more acceptable before at the earlier, this MeepCraft's relaunch, but the workload since then has exponentially expanded.
You have supermods fleshing out content of plugins, additions, their own projects, events on top of training and supervising the staff, all the while trying to still moderate the server, forums, and teamspeak.
They deserve something for this, not only deserve but it is the most practical option to add in a reward/payment system to staff, if only to stem the tide of staff deciding it's no longer worth it vs the talent they are getting currently. While to the players, this is only the game, the pressures that dictate any business to stay afloat similarly apply to this server. You need happy customers, and happy workers at the very least for success. Without one, you risk losing both.
