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Staff Application Guide
Good day to all OPBlockers! As many of you may know, myself and Mochi have been judging staff applications in great detail to further help them get a better chance of achieving the rank. Though we may sometimes be rude in our replies (Me mainly), do try to understand it's from MY standpoint and not from everyone's. You do NOT have to take my advice as I have no right to control what you do or what you want to do. This thread is to help aspiring players who want to me staff but have no idea whatsoever how to make a good application. These are just general tips and mainly describe the problems people face in staff applications after reading many of them.
Disclaimer: This is in no way intended to copy the official Staff Application Guide made by Kish, this is just general tips coming from an Ex-Staff.
Before Making An Application
Now before making an application, as in Kish's thread has said. Think about whether you can handle being a staff. While being staff can be satisfying as in muting rule-breakers in chat, it is also very strenuous especially at times where there are many people on. Adding on, the current staff team isn't very big and most of them aren't very active because of school and personal life. Thus the reason why Tuxx encourages more people to make staff applications. Here are some of the qualities or skills you may want to need to become a staff member:
- One must be able to stay calm in any given situation. Most rookie staff who has never staffed on a server before fail to have this quality. Although it may sound simple, it is indeed not, especially if you have anger issues or low tolerance against other players. You may become really frustrated at players who ask really dumb questions but you have to always remember to reply in a very polite manner. This way your reputation as staff may increase and who knows you might earn yourself a fanbase (?)
- One must be actively consistent. Upon getting your staff permissions, people usually get to work immediately. However, after a few days, they disappear out of thin air. Which is why this quality is important because if you aren't active, who is going to punish the rule-breakers on the server? We can't necessarily rely on player report threads as it will just remove the purpose of being staff.
- One must be mature. Now this quality is in a way related to the first one. People have to understand the term "Age does not equal to Maturity" can only be applied to FEW people. While you think you are mature as a 12 year old, it does not mean people are not going to look down on you. The reason why I see the 14 year old requirement (although not really a requirement as it mostly depends on your maturity) a good thing is because 14 year olds make up most of the Minecraft community, and it's the age where you are turning into an adult. Maturity is indeed important because of the Minecraft community in general. Why? Have you ever joined a server where there isn't a toxic player? No, right? This is where you have to step in and deal with those people. Although everyone has an immature side, try to act mature even if the player is trying to annoy you.
General Advice on Certain Questions
~ What times are you most often online?
Although it isn't really taken into consideration, try to put a reasonable time slot where you are usually online.
~ Have you ever been banned on any other servers?
Be honest, because I will eventually find a server you have been banned on if you lie. Being honest is already a huge plus, and if you have been banned, state the reason in decent detail of your ban.
~ What previous experience do you have in server moderation and staffing?
As quoted from Kish's Staff Guide, "Although not necessary, this does boost your application. However many applications try to include the fact that they owned/were staff on a server with ~ 20 people, while this is credible experience, it's important to realise that OPBlocks peaks 400 players at times and hence handling situations on the two servers are very contrasting, even acknowledging this fact shows us that you understand what this position concerns." If possible, add proof of your acceptance as it further confirms that you are not lying. Generally what most people forget is to elaborate on what they have learnt on the server they have staffed on. You cannot just leave it as "I learnt that it is very hard and tough being a staff" because it is way too straight-forward. Elaborate on the point you are trying to portray. For example, taking in consideration of the quoted sentence, "I learnt that being a staff is very strenuous and frustrating, however my experience on the server has helped me through these hardships because of my fellow staff members." This is just the main point, you may want to further explain what you did on the server and how you will apply those techniques on OPBlocks.
~ SCENARIO: "You come home from school and have ton of homework to do, you think to yourself I'll just take a 5 minute break before I start and get on OPBlocks. The next thing you know 2 hours have passed and you've been on the server all that time." Does this scenario sound familiar to you? - How do you respond to this?
The most common response to this is a definite no. However, as stated before, this question helps the staff understand how you manage your time despite education and your other commitments irl. Although education and irl stuff are important, staff usually need to be on as much as they can, especially if there aren't any staff online at the given time. Homework is always first priority however, so saying "No" isn't a bad thing. Just remember to elaborate on the point. I can't really give a precise tip for this question, but it will be fine if you can just get the main point of the question right with some elaboration. A good example is from JustACookie's (Current Moderator) Application. As quoted from this application, "I find this scenario to be familiar but also mainly just telling me on how my timing on homework and Minecraft should be and how homework is the first priority than Minecraft. So I shoot for first thing when I get home is to get my homework done. If I act like I need a break when I get home then I will take one and then work on homework and once all homework is done I would get on and help out players. But if for some odd reason I tend to fall asleep or not end up getting homework done and it's the next morning then, I simply can get it done in the morning of class or in study hall." The reason I like this response is that he is being honest with himself, and I really admire that. He even elaborates on what he usually does during that time period.
~ Are you active on the OPBlocks teamspeak, and do you have a working microphone?
Most of the time if you are active on teamspeak, Tuxx, Kish or Luck (Mainly Kish or Tuxx) will contact you there if your application were to be accepted. The reason for this is they want to give you a quick introduction of being a staff and tell you what to do and not to do. I cannot really go into great detail what they do but I would highly recommend being active on teamspeak as this is usually the main way to contact staff members without the rank itself. You can also use this chance to get to know them better and their personality because the only problem with the current staff team right now is they lack teamwork and bonding. Even if you are shy and don't intend on using your mic often, just try to get on often as you can still type in chat. I myself never really talked at all when I first joined the teamspeak, but I started to talk more after I got more comfortable with the people I talk to often.
~ Are you able to record in viewable quality?
Although I believe I cannot disclose the current system used for hackers, this is highly needed because of hacker evidence in case if the accused player appeals his ban. If the video is in terrible quality it will be hard to judge whether the player is hacking or not.
~ Why do you want to be a staff member on OPBlocks?
This is where most applications fall apart because it's always the same response. It will always either be "I feel like I can be a good staff member." or "I want to help catch hackers and I feel like I can do a good job at it" or something among those lines. If I ever see that in any application, you have already earned my disapproval because of how plain it is unless you have good follow up detail. A good example is from Pathos' (Ex-Staff) Application and I quote, "My personal response is that I prefer being able to help the community instead of just being a member I'd rather have a voiced opinion which sounds very selfish but as coming from V1 pvp and to v2-v3 as a known player I feel I can voice my opinion as a OG.
Coming back to my first application now. I feel that there is not enough EU staff on equally throughout the day. During my time playing I do see EU staff coming on and even NA staff being on around EU time but at some point they have to go. Which is fine but there should be a staff on throughout the day all day. Not meaning the same person but an assortment of staff being on throughout the day. " Not only did he had a good introduction of the question, but he actually elaborate by saying that he wanted to have a voiced opinion for the sake of the server as a long time player. Although not many people are OGs, this is a good example to follow as it describes your desires to help the server. He also went on ahead saying the current problems of the staff team, which many people have stated in their respective applications. Adding on to his response, I suggest adding what you can do if you were accepted that most staff members fail or struggle to do. It may not help much but it displays your capabilities.
~ How would you respond to your application being denied, or a demotion as a staff member?
This I would mainly suggest separating the question into 2 sub-categories - "Denial" and "Demotion". Be honest and write how you would initially react and what you would do afterwards in great detail. Also say what you would do if you felt like the denial or demotion was unfair or wrong, this way we would know whether you would take the initiative to correct the higher staff's mistakes.
~ If you are called a useless helper/bullied by players, how do you react to this?
The type of response I hate seeing is "I would just ignore them and continue my work" I have said on countless applications that you should never ignore any player as a staff member. You either punish them accordingly or be mature and settle it in PMs. You may also want to write how you would feel as it gives us an insight on whether you are emotionally sensitive or not. This is mostly because during your time as staff, you will always encounter those types of people who blatantly calls you a "S*** helper" or insults that ISN'T constructive feedback of your style of staffing, so this question will mostly tell us how you can manage these types of people.
~ Is there anything else we should know?
A common but good thing people would put here is a Pros and Cons section. This section is where you can voice out your current problems and things you may want to say that isn't related to the other questions given. You can voice out what you may lack, what you are good at, your talents etc. Just don't go too personal and write a response that is eventually longer than the application itself.
Before Submitting
If you want, you may ask me when I am free to check out your application before you want to submit. Or you may want to put your application through a grammar check, although I don't really recommend it as it removes the purpose of YOU writing the application. Try to check for any grammar errors yourself, it's alright to leave mistakes because we know you are a human and not a machine. Do not rush yourself, take your time and keep checking until you are satisfied with your application and confident enough that you feel like you don't need to edit it anymore.
Player Feedback
There are bound to be countless feedback once you submit your application. Usually most people will respond with a "Add more detail" type of response if they feel like it's too short. However, I believe as long as you get the main point with good elaboration and explanation, you have a decent chance of getting the position. You yourself should know the limits of detail but remember there is always room for more detail, just don't add too much till the point you totally go out of point to the initial question. Always take note of constructive feedback as these are usually your guidelines to further enhance your application. For negative responses, if you feel like the player is spreading misleading information about you, RESPOND to it right away. Do not let other people ruin your chances of getting staff just because they spread false information. If the negative response is true, feel free to respond to it your side of the story so we know what happened and whether you have already settled it.
Conclusion
Hopefully this guide will help struggling players who are trying to make an application and players who are planning to apply for staff soon. If you have any further queries you are always welcomed to ask me on forum PMs, in-game PMs or TeamSpeak PMs. And be patient after submitting your application, staff will usually find the right time to accept and deny applications. Also take note that once you submit your application, people will pay close attention to your actions in-game so try to actually stay true to what you said in your application and actually apply it in-game. I will indeed be taking notes of your application and actions and edit my response to your individual applications accordingly. Happy writing!
~ KafuuChino
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<3 Ty for making it.
