bostonthebear - Moderator Application

Staff Applications Moderator Applications
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Moderator Application - bostonthebear

What is your BYOND key?

bostonthebear

What is your Discord username?

hgoblin

What characters do you play on CM-SS13?

Allie “Son” Trovato (The best one), Chlorine Mallery, NZ

Are you 16 or older?

Yes

Timezone:

NZT (GST+12)

On average, how many hours are you available to moderate in an average week?

Depends, really. I get home pretty late most days. On the weekends, however, I can be extremely active however, so I’d say around 12~

Qualifications:

Do you have previous experience in game or community moderation?

Yes. I’d rather not talk about it, though.

Provide any links to any previous CM-SS13 whitelist, mentor or staff applications:

N/A

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on CM-SS13?

Yes. To be fair though, the note is really funny.

Can you actively engage and communicate with the team through Discord?

Yes. My notifications on my phone are off, and I refrain from using discord throughout the day, but I can do at home.

Final Details:

Why would you like to join the CM-SS13 staff team?

Lately, CM has become rather boring and stale. Many rounds I find myself observing, whether that be me dying or just clicking the observe button. And so, I’ve been thinking that I might as well put my platinum observer medal to use and become staff to labor in the ahelp mines. I am a very investigative person, and I find it extremely satisfying when I
examine cases and find new evidence, which carries over to ahelps in game. I enjoy working on ahelps and don’t find it a chore, since I find it easy to hyperfocus on them.

However, the main reason I want to be staff is to run events. I have messaged many admins and moderators about event ideas that I never expect to actually happen. However, if I became an admin, I’d just be allowed to run these events myself. I do understand the stigma about hating events on CM, and I have taken that into account when writing this. Despite this, I am still prepared to run them, and I would appreciate it if events were my main concern if I were on the staff team.
An example would be fax’s. Normally, fax’s and working joe requests go unanswered, at least in my time zone, and I would love to answer them myself if I were given the opportunity too.

Finally, I feel like becoming and admin would allow me to interact with the community in a new way. A colored name really does go far :slight_smile:

What makes you a great addition to Staff? (Experienced Tabletop DM, Aliens Lore Buff, Super Organized, etc.?)

First, my time zone is GST+12. Me being online would allow an American time zone staff to not be forced to be online for when I would be most active, allowing them to get much needed sleep.

Secondly, I feel like I’m pretty good at figuring things out. This not only extends to investigating ahelps, but also to picking things up quickly, like admin operating procedures and guides. I’m pretty good at picking out logs, and figuring out who did what.

Thirdly, I feel like I’m pretty creative. As stated above, I have dmed many an administrator and moderator with wacky event ideas, and my brain is specifically designed to think up more things to do.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality of a CM-SS13 staff member?

NOT BEING A PEDOPHILE!!!

Serious answer, I think being respected, respectful, and admirable in the community is the most important quality. It doesn’t matter how well an Admin or Moderator or Maintainer is at their job, if they are terrible at talking to people and make people hate them, then they are a bad member of staff. Some of my favorite members of staff are active in the community, treat everyone equally and are just generally nice to be around, and I strive to have those qualities myself.

Anything else you want to add?

Just a note, I do have ADHD, which compromises my ability to plan out things a bit. Anything else I’ll let biolock or whoever takes this over know in dms. <3

Admin notes: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/848810985233973280/1236227402590457886/image.png?ex=66373dfc&is=6635ec7c&hm=635f8feaf9acf12ca64c9d140379b13d6bade837800b560c50318847255ebd46&

Medals: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/848810985233973280/1236227472186671176/image.png?ex=66373e0d&is=6635ec8d&hm=9bb7efd1dfa36818feb2ed948f35adfbd84e81bfb221bce818e93e52b79e15a4&

Playtimes: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/848810985233973280/1236227553467961354/image.png?ex=66373e20&is=6635eca0&hm=aeca28280eedd6058d6966f0a17ef67553d647cc2ffac86b5fb56f03af75e8ad&

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I’m curious as to why you wouldn’t want to talk about previous moderation experience? If anything it would play in your favor, generally speaking.

Running events is a bonus perk that staff receive rather than it being their main duty and there is no expectation or require for staff to do events.

Yes, interacting with the community is rather important. However, you do not need a colored name to do it. It’s about leaving an impression, preferably a positive one rather than a negative one.

This is a rather tasteless joke, let alone inappropriate given the context of why you’re trying to apply and violates our Community Expectations (inappropriate conduct).

These staff members are at the end of the day humans too, they may get frustrated or upset. Moreso when they have to deal with a constant barrage of toxicity and hatred. Hell, some of them would ban their own friends if they break the rules just to ensure that they remain fair with the rest of the community. To state that they’re bad staff means that is a lack of depth in the understanding of the duties a staff member might have.

I cannot find it in good conscious to view this application in good light, this’ll be a massive -1 and I’d encourage you to consider applying for mentor before moderator. That might help you see things with more depth.

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TL;DR player is active, nice & experienced, but application is lacking and raises some flags. Staying neutral.

I’ve seen Boston play a lot, both in the past and present- They’re certainly very active in the game, and I have confidence in their ability to make level-headed, unbiased decisions. They’re good both at the game itself and RP, and I trust that they’ll make a good moderator.

In addition, during lowpop (where Boston tends to usually play), there is a chronic lack of staff available to handle ahelps, and other players have told me that a lot of them simply go unanswered. Indeed, it appears a minority of staff handle the majority of ahelps, and so adding a regular, experienced player to lessen the workload on existing staff seems like a good idea.

However, I think the application itself is rather… lacking? In terms of motivation, ‘running events’ shouldn’t be a primary goal. I doubt staff are looking for Warfan 2.0. It’s kind of like applying for the Synthetic WL just to play a Working Joe. I’d say I agree with most of Vyzo’s points regarding the app itself- If you’re unwilling to disclose previous moderation experience, I’m not really sure what the point of disclosing it is, and some of the jokes probably won’t sit well with upper management.

Reading through the admin notes you’ve linked, they seem pretty mild. However, I don’t actually see the 24hr+ ban. Apologies if I’m mistaken, but could you post it?

I agree with Vyzo in that you should probably apply for mentor before moderator- The mentor moderator pipeline is real (seriously, most moderators start out as mentors), and it’s an ideal stepping stone- It’ll let you respond to mhelps, help out newbies, and generally get a sense of what ‘staff’ actually entails (and you get a coloured name anyways).
Given you’re an experienced player, I think you’d probably have a pretty fearsome resume for mentor!

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Hello just wanted to drop by and say I recognize the name Allie “Son” Trovato as a combat marine and never had any issues with them. Reading some of your medals throws me for a loop because almost no one ever posts them and I actually recognize that I wrote some of those out in my early days of being a SO which is enjoyable for me to reflect on anyways.

About your application however I gotta say it’s not really impressive (putting it kindly here) and I highly agree with both Vyzo and Basil about the points they’ve raised. Even if your intentions are good and you’d be the best moderator the server has ever seen, the application you wrote out is honestly not going to give people confidence.

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Reading back my application, yeah, I understand where you’re coming from vyzo. I don’t really know where I was an hour ago, but I’m pretty sure I was kind of rushing to get this out, and didn’t really proof read or realize that the forums are supposed to be a professional place.
I think my final details was also wiped at least four or five times, because apparently it doesn’t save the last page on an application if you refresh or exit the tab, which probably frustrated me enough to stop trying as much as I should’ve, something I desperately need to work on. However, I don’t want to try and make excuses to absolve myself, since there isn’t any point to that. I just wanted to apologize for being stupid, and I’ll try and answer your comments as coherently as possible, and also (hopefully) show that I am able to actually be professional if I apply myself.

It’s just something I don’t want to talk about, and wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing. I would’ve simply just put “yes”, but my mindset was that I’d rather put it in the app to stop any conversations about it.

Yes, I understand that, and why I wanted to put it second instead of first to show that I am still prepared to do the normal duties of being staff. However, I was still hopeful that I would be able to run events with a bit more leniency, while not being expected to be as involved in inter-staff discussions. It would be like arguing for extra holidays for a lower salary on a job application, where instead it’s more creative control for less moderation control. It was more of a hopeful comment, and I personally don’t see the problem with me saying that a reason I want to become a staff member is to run mini events, or answer faxes.

These are the two things I regret putting in, and I’m honestly shocked I thought this was even a good idea, and I’ll try to explain them both in the same segment.

For the remark about coloured names, I think my point wasn’t that clear because I was trying to be funny. What I was trying to say is that I, myself, would like to be able to talk to people as an admin, rather then a normal member of the community, in a way where people are asking me for help, guidance or assistance as well as having normal conversations.
I wasn’t trying to go for “haha, funny yellow name, everyone love me”, moreso instead having the status of a type of mentor, which was probably in my subconscious at the time because I’ve always wanted to be a mentor.

For the second one, yeah, the joke was just plain stupid. As I said before, I don’t think I grasped the seriousness of forum applications, and because I was writing it in-between CM rounds, I messed up and didn’t really put as much effort into it as I probably should’ve.
I don’t really have anything to say about this, and I wish I could rewrite my application to get rid of it. Hell, if I could rewrite my application I’d change just about everything, but now it’s out there and I have to live with it. I think that’s all I have to say about it.

I find this reply interesting, since you yourself stated “its about leaving an impression, preferably a positive one rather then a negative one.”

I never stated anything about staff members needing to be absolutely perfect, as that’s impossible, neither did I ever say anything about some of them not being fair. Of course people will always mess up, and may make people angry or frustrated. I’m not talking about that, moreso how this admin would react under this pressure.
If a moderator double downs on their mistakes and doesn’t apologize until their authority is threatened, then they are a bad moderator. However, if this moderator apologizes and comes back with a clear mind to right their wrongs, like what I’m attempting to do with this reply here, then I feel like its safe to assume that they’re a good moderator.
To me, it feels like you’re arguing that “if everybody hates someone, then that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad,” because that was the opposite of the point I was trying to make. I just feel this is untrue, as I’m sure many admins have been booted for the reasoning that they had fallen into bad terms with the community, and doubled down instead of backing up and apologizing.

I do agree that starting off as a mentor would be preferable, since I do believe I am capable as a mentor, especially if it meant building trust after the application.

Ending off, I do regret how much I fucked up here. Again, I wish I could rewrite the application to not make myself look like a total dumbass, but what’s posted is posted, and I guess I’ll have to roll with it.
Its getting late now, but I’ll try to reply to anything else for the next hour or so.

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Hi Boston,
While I do like you in general there’s two main things on this application I don’t like.

This is just not an acceptable response and I wonder if you’re mature enough to be a moderator. After this poor taste joke why should I read your serious answer?

If this is the main reason you want to join staff then I would recommend not joining. Staff are there to enforce the rules and doing events are a side hustle. If you are joining to mainly run events you will quickly burn out since most of the time events are not well received.

I’d suggest withdrawing this and having a think before rewriting this in a more sensible way if you truly want to be staff.

-1

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Yeah, if mentor isn’t your cup of tea, I think Birdtalon raises a good idea- withdrawing, waiting a bit (whatever period of time there is between apps) to reflect on what you actually want to accomplish and contribute to the community by joining staff (if you still desire), and then writing a fresh application.

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Even from before birdtalon’s post I already decided to withdraw it and actually not fuck around in a month. Unsure if I’ll go for mentor in the mean time, though.

I shall wait until tomorrow to decide.

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Howdy Boston,

Knowing you personally, I think you have all the trappings of someone who would make a good staff member, but, as has been pointed out, this application does not really showcase that. As discussed, you have decided to withdraw this application, and may re-apply in 30 days.

There are plenty of places to be silly on the forums, and there are plenty of opportunities for staff members to be silly as well, but applications are probably not the best place for it. This application is denied, and you may re-apply in 30 days.

I think you should take this time to consider whether you would prefer to be a mentor or a moderator. There is a joke that mentor is a ‘pipeline’ to moderator, but that’s only true insofar as a mentor has gained trust and desires to contribute even more than they already are. I do not recommend using mentor as a ‘stepping-stone’ to mod, it’s not required nor desired, though it will give you some exposure to the task system we utilize. Apply for the role you want.

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Added mod:denied and removed mod:waiting