Having reviewed a number of recent helper applications it is evident that the current process of making both the application and members posts on the matter public is flawed for the following reasons.

I AM NOT SUGGESTING TO ABILITY TO COMMENT IS REMOVED

1. It is exposing somebody who is volunteering to unnecessary and all to often unjustified criticism.
2. The criticism is not always constructive
3. It is obvious some of the negative comments are of a personal nature rather than about the job. In game, staff would act on this.
4. Some of the comments are of a troll nature that if happened in game would also result in staff action yet this doesn't happen on the forum
5. For the above reasons, the current process is a deterrent to people applying for staff
6. The negativity and troll nature of some the responses give a terrible impression to new users
7. The publication of the negative responses are not conducive to a happy community and could easily result in hostile/negative actions and reactions in game
8. In the physical world I never heard of a staff application being made public and the criticisms would definitely not be allowed for fear of litigation

Solution

Firstly I would like to state that I do see the need for community feed back on any staff application, however this does not need to be public just like staff complaints aren't.

Notice of the persons application should be publicised and community comments invited however the responses should also be kept private. This may result in other information coming to staffs attention that might not happen if the information was public for fear of the poster being called a snitch or out embarrassment arising from what may of happened.

I suggest that the content of the application is also kept private. This should result in better information on the application. Some of the information is very personal in particular weaknesses, who wants to publicise this ?

For any application that subsequently gets refused, the applicant should be informed privately as to why and so give them the opportunity to address the weakness going forward. Hopefully this will result in improvements that will enable them to become staff at a later date.

I would hope that the suggested amendments would help foster a more friendly community environment and result in more people putting themselves forward to be staff.

The server is seeking volunteers to help. People who are volunteering, weather they are potential staff members or not, should be given better protection than the current process provides. I can see people leaving altogether over some of the responses and others getting very hurt, all because they have offered to help. That's wrong.