Are You Trusted? Putting in a Mod Application? Read This!

[ViperZeroOne]

First, yes this is a suggestion so it belongs here.    It's a suggestion to those who are applying for the position of Moderator.  A suggestion to truly consider what it means to be a Moderator before you apply.

Having not been a mod, and having been a mod, I've got some perspective on both sides.  Yes, as a Trusted you see mods flying about and building amazing things with water and fire but as they say "The grass is always greener on the other side".  I feel before you put in an application you should get a bit of a wake-up call to the life of a mod.  I suggest you read through this carefully before you make your application.

First and foremost, you have to be there for the players.  It doesn't matter if you're working on the best minecraft build of your entire life.  If someone yells "Grief" or "Water" you need to go to their aid.  You have to be willing to drop whatever you're doing, and occasionally not even get a chance to do what you want to be doing.  There have been times when it's taken me weeks to do a project I could have had done in an evening.

Mods do NOT get unlimited building materials.  I don't know where this rumor started, so I'm gonna put an end to it right now.  Mods have to gather, and sell, and buy, and do everything else that regular players have to do.  Sure, we have fly, and that does help with building, but the materials (which is what counts) are still all gathered by solid hard work.  If you can't gather enough materials/money as a Trusted, you're gonna have HEAVY issues doing it as a Mod just due to the added workload of being a Mod.

Being a Mod isn't a free ticket to do what you want when you want.  If anything, you have to pay even more attention to the rules and ensure you're following them.  How can you ban or warn someone if you're doing the exact same thing they're doing?  You have to keep your language in check, your manners professional, and know how to diffuse an angry player.  Mods don't have the right to abuse the powers they're given, so consider that carefully.  Yes you have the ability to look inside other's chests for security purposes, but that doesn't give you the right to take/put anything in them.  Yes you have the right to teleport players, but that doesn't give you the right to teleport innocent players around without their permission.  Yes you have the ability to place lava, but that doesn't mean you can go build endless waterfalls of lava or grief abandoned buildings with that lava.  With great power comes great responsibility, and you should be able to handle that responsibility.

Expect at times to get more flack than praise.  Players will complain if you're taking too long to respond to them, they'll lie (occasionally) to you about griefing, they'll get upset with you for banning their friend/relative, they'll yell at you for "spying" on them, they'll mistake you for a griefer and tell you to get out of their house (even if they called you there).  It's not all fame and glory.  Sometimes you'll even get flack from other mods/admins over something you've done.  You have to be able to handle that and either accept the criticism or defend your actions.

You need to put in the hours it takes to be a mod.  If you can only be online once or twice a week, maybe being a mod isn't a good idea for you.  I, personally, try to get on every single day for at least a few hours.  That might not be a reality for others.  Everyone's life is different, but you can loose the mod rank for inactivity, so truly consider how much time you can devote to the server.

Personally, I love being a mod.  Sure, it means my projects take longer and there are days when nothing gets done on them at all, but in helping others I get to see what they're doing and basically get a good look at what's going on server-wide.  Yea, I have a few more enemies than I did before I became a mod, but I've gained a few more friends too so it kinda balances out.






EDIT:  Due to recent mod abuse, took SalasCraft's suggestion and added a section (paragraph 5) about that.

[SalasCraft]

I would like to suggest the advice of never EVER even think of power abuse. Even if you think they won't find out, you're wrong.




Strong Disclaimer: I am not speaking because of personal experience. (for those that might be wondering)

[bigbeno37]

This is such a good post Viper. I do agree with your statement, although I cannot view it with your eyes as I am not a Moderator. Whether or not this will ever apply to me will be decided in the future. However, for the present, some people REALLY need to think about this. If they are a hopeless speller, don't go on *that* often and don't contribute very much to the overall community of Opticraft, then really they should take it within themselves to decide upon what the Operators will decide. If a person like this does try to join the elite class of the Moderators, they would get rejected ON THE SPOT. Being a Moderator can almost be considered an IRL job. You need to attend 'work' (Opticraft) every day and you need to put in the hours.

The Moderator rank is a very high privelige to obtain, so those Moderators better work their asses off for this.

[Xeadin]

The only players that can "spawn" in anything are the Operators and above, but even then we cannot use that to our own personal gain. The chests in the Mod Lounge are what get refilled by us spawning in the items that the mods require for their duties.

Outside of that, do not expect us to provide anything else besides water/ fire/ lava, if all that is you're looking for (in fact, don't even ask us for anything else at all for free-- we're not vending machines)

[ViperZeroOne]

LOL is there a warp?

When you become a Mod it becomes your /spawn

[Wratkie]

Mod lounge?  

...It's not some elite Mod club or anything.  Heck, it's rare to even see a mod in it.  *LOL*

Or so your forced to tell them...
I've seen some pretty wild things take place inside, above, and around the Mod lounge. All of which is incredibly highly classified. I've probably said to much as is.

You did, now we have to kill everyone who reads this topic.

yup!

But yes as an Operator, who started as a guest just like you did, the change from trusted to moderator is nothing as it was from member to trusted. Before I was a Mod i had a mining team, projects goals and time to spend the way i wanted to spend it. As i was promoted all of that stopped, moderator isn't just the next rank up. Its a voluntary responsibility. If you can't handle it, it'll be taken away, or you can ask for it to be taken away if its not what you thought it would be like. Remember when your first promoted you are on trial, this is the most crucial time to prove your worthy of the rank, when your accepted you start helping out new mods figure things out and start handling bigger issues, but just because your accepted doesnt mean your outta the clear. It only means youve shown us your a good mod thats dedicated to what they are doing. Im not trying to make moderating sound like its not fun, because its all a matter of opinion. I personally, and i know my friends in the staff, love doing what we do. Especially if you have been around for awhile and have seen the whole community change over and over. Thats why you should make sure you are 100% positive you'd like to be a mod because it could be a nice long ride if your ready and can handle all we do.

Hope my views of the matter help you trusted players decide wether or not moderating is right for you.

[Chief149]

I'll add in my two cents I guess as well:

So for the past couple years I have been hosting game servers for Halo and Half Life 2, while at the same time being root admin on a couple other people's forums and servers. The worst part is people contact me both in-game and out of the game. People have complained to me, said bad stuff to me, and much more. You have to stay within the boundries of the rules, and it's not always fun, and on Half Life 2 RP servers it's sometimes hard to not admin abuse when you can smite, rocketeer, ****slap, slap, NULL gun, evilpimpslap, or plainly teleport a person to a funny spot (I didn't do that to players that didn't want me to, but there were times when players were all joking around with me and nobody cared about being in the serious roleplay mode so that's when admins like myself would mess with the players, and as soon as someone yelled STOP then we'd stop right there and then).

So yeah it's a lot of fun, but it takes a lot of time, and you don't often get to do anything you wanna do at all. Plus it can be hard when a good friend of yours breaks the rules and you have to ban them (You can't ever let friends not be banned because they are your friends. That sets a terrible example for the other players telling them that they won't get banned for breaking the rules).

Also some mods do become very popular. Others not so much, but I have always found the moderators and admins who are not as popular to have better control over things, and to have better skills at keeping the server from going completely mad.

Anyways like the OP said, if you have extra time on your hands, and you like to be somewhat in control of the server back-end (control to undo griefing, bans, kicks, etc), and you are someone who won't abuse powers and cause drama, AND most importantly can handle constant player complaints and help requests and drama, then being a admin or moderator is something for you to do.

Personally I doubt I would be considered to have enough time on my hands, and idk if I am done being a admin on gameservers now or not. Maybe in the future if I start to have that desire to help out the server backend then I might apply to be a moderator, but for me I had a lot of fun on other game servers, and on my own servers, but I'm most likely ready to be the player for once, and do other things like coding C#, Java, C++, VB, or learning assembly(oh god no O.o)

[butterflywolves]

I recently got trusted and I keep saying "woo u can put in a mod app"
But then I pull myself back to reality and say "shut up butter
Wait a few months" so I want to know when is the best time time
to put in an app? I know I feel kinda stupid, I've already started planning
my app out and I've been trusted for 2 days!!

[butterflywolves]

Your going have to help me! But I kinda want my friends to support me...
Wait when u put in a app did u get the promotion?

[Pensfan121]

Your going have to help me! But I kinda want my friends to support me...
Wait when u put in a app did u get the promotion?

Only if the admins accept your application. Also note that you can only apply when applications are open. As stated by the status of the topic.

[Xeadin]

Discussing about wanting to become a mod is NOT what this topic is about. This topic is primarily for giving you an idea about the tasks of a moderator BEFORE you decide to make an app.

I really don't want to lock this topic just to keep unwanted discussions out of here, but if that's what it's gonna come down to, then so be it.

[Morrison1996]

It all depends on your confidence and word choice of your app. I applied once and got (under the hutchinske account) but in my opinion if you feel you need to ask if your ready then your not. you have to want to be a mod and not really care what others think.
One of the main things about being a staff member is the respect. Most people respect you because your a staff member but you also have to be able to handle haters. So you have to know when to be blunt and when to use different actions.

[Afro_]

Yeah... I've been trusted for 3 days, and my friends and I have all been bitten by the "fill out a mod app form"bug. I've read it over, and decided to give it a few months cuz I doubt admins would accept my application. A few questions-
1 Could I try being mod for a few days when I'm ready?
2 How long would I have to keep my rank before I could resign?

[PokeyzRule]

Discussing about wanting to become a mod is NOT what this topic is about. This topic is primarily for giving you an idea about the tasks of a moderator BEFORE you decide to make an app.

I really don't want to lock this topic just to keep unwanted discussions out of here, but if that's what it's gonna come down to, then so be it.

Afro_Rick, I think that shouldn't go here and instead in the the Support board... IDK

[SalsaInABowl]

Regardless of that, the answer to that question is:

You may apply anytime you like AS LONG as applications are open at the time. Right now they have been closed for quite a while. Time does not open up applications, but moderator supply does.

While what I am about to type does not guarantee or determine anything 100% for sure, I notice a pattern. They start of with about 40 moderators, then a (usually: right now this is not the case)month and a half later they will open applications when they go down to about 30-32 moderators. Again, do not count on this paragraph here, only a pattern I noticed that is already proving some amount of inconsistency exists within it

Also, no resignation time limit. Resign any time you like.