zzzmike - Moderator Application

Staff Applications Moderator Applications
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Moderator Application - zzzmike

What is your BYOND key?

zzzmike

What is your Discord username?

balthuzad

What characters do you play on CM-SS13?

Sam L Johnson

Are you 16 or older?

Yes

Timezone:

Pacific time, but I might log on at weird times, my sleep schedule was never really normal after working night shifts

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

Not sure, probably a couple rounds a day while I eat at the same time. If accepted I’m still planning on always deadminning if I’m going to be a living character at any point in the round.

Qualifications:

Do you have previous experience in game or community moderation?

Yes, currently a discord mod for a game called king of the castle. And I’m a seniormod at fulpstation - will probably have to resign there if I get accepted here due to conflict of interest.

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

No applications made.

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

no

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

Absolutely.

Final Details:

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

Honestly, I would mostly like to join as a ‘just in case’ mod - is a ban evader spamming comms/murderboning and other mods are inactive? Then I’m another person that could handle it.

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

I have a decent amount of experience with MP roles, and corpsman/doctor. So I’d be most comfortable dealing with ahelps that involve those kinds of situations. And since I’ve been a fulpstation mod since December of 2020, I have quite a lot of general experience with ahelp tickets (including but not limited to, people spamming slurs in the ahelp ticket, threatening staff, ban evaders, difficult situations where you have to spend a lot of time logdiving in-round and trying to resolve the ahelp before the round ends because it’s easier that way, etc.)

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

Honestly, probably just being a calm, down-to-earth, well-adjusted human being. Someone that isn’t a hothead. If someone isn’t all of those things, you can’t easily teach them that in mod training. Extensive knowledge of the rules is important as well of course, but more importantly, you should know what you don’t know. Have you heard the phrase ‘the missile knows where it is at all times, because it knows where it isn’t’ - basically that. If you’re a new mod and you aren’t confident in handling a certain ahelp, it’s fine to let someone else handle it - you can watch the ticket unfold and learn from it. Also player reports are a thing if somehow nobody responded to a ticket during the round.

Anything else you want to add?

There’s many valid reasons that you might that can be used to pass on this application. One is that I don’t have much experience at all outside of all MP roles, corpsman, doctor. So at least at first, I’d prefer other people handling ahelps that benefit from specific role experience outside of those roles. Also, I basically only applied because beagle asked me a couple times. I would be completely fine with no hard feelings if this application is declined - because I enjoy playing deadminned and moderating is not something that I look forward to - but as I said earlier, it’s useful to have the tools available in case you see someone spamming comms with gibberish, or a random private murderboning the almayer, or you see an insane ckey that needs action like ‘CMplayers_are_n******’ or something like that.

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Looking back on this line a couple days later, I wanted to elaborate. On fulpstation, after my mod app was accepted, I ended up becoming an observer main. I didn’t intend for it to happen, but looking back on the tracked hours (it tracks living hours, ghost hours, admin hours) - it happened. Perhaps because there’s no pressure being an observer - none of your coworkers are actually a secret antag with an objective to round-remove you for example. That’s not an issue with CM - there are no secret antags on non-event rounds (even hostile survivors are required to be consistently hostile, so they aren’t secret). All that is to say that I really like the gameplay loop here. I want to keep playing the game as I do currently, rather than become an observer main. If this app is accepted I will still moderate sometimes (especially while eating, as it’s easier to eat and moderate while observing, rather than eat and play) - but I’m not looking forward to it over playing the game while deadminned. Because playing while deadminned is really fun! :+1:

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I’m not gonna lie dude when I saw this go up I was like “oh I know Sam L Johnson, good roleplayer, MP main that knows what they’re doing” and then I read the actual application and it just made me say “what?” out loud in real life.

I’ve been staff and a admin manager in multiple communities/servers, you either want to commit to becoming a staff member for the server/community or you don’t. Doing some half way thing or “just in case” just doesn’t sit with me at all to be honest.

Anyone that is a mod/admin on any server is a staff member first, player second. Sounds like you have experience being a staff member, care about the server and have a level head on your shoulders. But it sounds like you kinda wanna remain a player and this is just a “eh lets throw this up for fun” I could be totally wrong but that’s the vibe I’m getting from this.

I think you’re qualified to be a mentor/moderator for the server but reading the application makes me feel like you don’t really wanna be one or you’ve almost posted this begrudgingly or something lol

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I’m honestly not sure exactly what this means. We are all the same people at the end of the day, whether we have moderation tools available or not. Whether this app is accepted or not, I’m not going to be playing my character differently, and I hope nobody would treat the character any differently.

If anything I said makes it sound like I’m not going to moderate with the same attention to detail that I’ve had for any other place that I’ve been a staff member at - it’s not the case. What I meant by the ‘just in case’ thing is that I still want to be playing deadminned a lot. (There will absolutely be admin log warnings, ahelps, etc. that expose where xenos/marines are at the time for example. I don’t think it’s really fair to be getting that info while I’m playing as marine/xeno.) If I see someone spamming comms with gibberish or the server is grinding to a halt and might need to be restarted etc., and nobody else seems to be dealing with it, of course I would readmin. Same goes if I see a round that has zero staff online - then it would be better to just observe and moderate because nobody else is doing it, and it’s not ideal if any potential ahelps go unanswered.

I smiled when reading this because I DID tell myself a long time ago that I was never going to apply as a mod, because I wanted to spend all my time playing instead of moderating - because it’s so consistently fun. And more importantly, consistently replayable. If anything, it can get even more fun as time goes on, because you learn the mechanics more and more. Part of me still does want the app to be declined in order to spend all of my time on CM playing - whereas if it’s accepted then I will spend a lot of time moderating. So that’s probably why I worded the application in the way that I did.

Also thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you think of me as a good roleplayer that knows what I’m doing.

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Sorry for the double post, but I’d rather post again than make an edit which isn’t easily visible. I didn’t intend for it to come off as a begrudging app. I’ll be very happy if this is accepted, because I’d enjoy helping the server in a different capacity. But I won’t mind if it’s declined, because it means more time to play. It’s all good, whatever the outcome.

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I’m sorry but reading this puts a vibe of “staffs are desperate people, they need me”. -1

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Apologies, I really didn’t think it could possibly be interpreted that way. So I’ll just say it plainly: Staff are not desperate, and they absolutely do not need me. The server is running fine the way it is right now, you basically never see any round where there are zero staff online. Even if it happened, player reports are getting processed. All is well!

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Mike has a good head on his shoulders. To top it off he is an honest man. I respect honest people. I see no red flags preventing this man from being a moderater.

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honestly, I beefed with him when I was a shitter and he never returned any ill will and he has been nothing but kind and professional in game and outside of it. Regularly gives advice in DMs on how to improve my standing in the community after I got Cbanned, and regularly reached out to check on me, despite my past actions dogging on him. Honestly top tier guy and I think he would make a great moderator.

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Mike is a solid player with sound judgement. MP’d with him on plenty of rounds and has helped me learn the role when I was new to it. +1

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[Personal Opinion]
I do not like the idea presented here of

[Professional Opinion]
However, I also believe that should not disqualify you from the chance at being accepted. While I do not agree with aforementioned statement and it does not per se send a positive/good message for your case.

I’d argue that this is and the other application are one of the better candidates we’ve had in quite a while and a chance to prove yourselves should be granted.

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Hey zzzmike,

Thank you for taking the time to apply. You have a clean record and the right temperament to be a moderator. I asked around about you and you got a lot of support elsewhere from people who’s opinions I weigh heavily as well. I think you have the trappings of a good moderator. That said, wanting to do the job is a big part of doing the job well.

I am not going to be accepting this application. In-spite of there not being many secret antagonists, you’ll likely still find yourself observing more and playing less; some of the mystery of CM is lost when you can see everything going on during a round. We are not in such dire need of staff that we are interested in taking on ‘minutemen,’ at least not at this time.

It’s great that you’re so invested in the server that you want to give back to it through moderating, even to the detriment of your own enjoyment, but that’s not something we need anyone to sacrifice. If you ever decide that you’d enjoy being a staff member, you’re welcome to re-apply.

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Added mod:denied and removed mod:waiting