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.
~ @junelawnchaired
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.
~ @junelawnchaired
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.
