Board Thread:Moderation Applications/@comment-99.137.148.148-20140802020914

Name: ToastedLobster

Age: 15

Country: Nice, Paris

Why you want to be moderator: I believe I am best suited for this position because of my level of maturity, my knowledge of how to moderate a forum efficiently and effectively, and my ability to enforce rules at all times. I am always willing to maintain a safe/fun environment for people on the forums. I am willing to help anyone, welcome new players, and maintain a levelheaded attitude to make good decisions. My goal is to better both the community and the server, and provide the best possible environment for all. I love to use the forums as a way of obtaining information and news, checking up on clan information, etc. I have bookmarked the R2D group on my iPhone, which allows me to check the wall 10-20 times a day. I've always had very strong feelings about honesty and integrity, from an information security standpoint, and from a general integrity standpoint. I even go so far as to pride myself. I like helping new users and would love the opportunity to help out at R2D. I have had a passing interest in volunteering for over a year now, but had no way of meeting the stringent requirements. Practically Any partner community out there required people to have several years experience in staffing with other partner communities in order to be accepted, so before Penguin's Mann Co University there was almost no way for someone outside the super-secret-club to get started. This appears to have not worked out for the various communities as a whole, as the more seasoned admins retire and few if any people can meet the strict reputation requirements for staffing servers and websites. The staff are becoming more and more thinly spread, with some becoming less active, and R2D is falling into disarray because of it. R2D is losing credibility for it. Unless R2D can meet their need for more staff they will become less relevant over the next few years as people give up reporting. I'm willing to contribute my time to helping R2D get above water. Mohandas Gandhi once said "You must be the change you wish to see in this world" so I intend on volunteering my time in fixing these issues with R2D. I know the task of moderating a game, especially one as such, or with this level of drama, is a thankless, unrewarding task often subjecting you to abuse from disgruntled visitors whether or not you're on duty. I've taken a fair share of abuse in my personal life, and I believe I'm thick-skinned and patient enough to take whatever they can dish out, but I'll leave it up to people who've seen me work at MCT to back up that claim. I fully understand that I am applying to such a position, without pay or compensation, and committing a significant portion of my day-to-day life. I am doing so only in the hope that I may do my part to alleviate the workload on R2D and preserve their reputation, the thing most crucial to their existence.

Earlier moderation experience: I've moderated a handful of Minecraft servers, some longer than others. I have also been an admin on two classic servers. Forum wise, I have moderated two for a long period of time, with access to both the Moderator Control Panel and the Administrator Control Panel. I am comfortable with a wide range of server software, including Xenforo, IPB, Enjin, and more. During this time, I maintained (often single-handedly) and developed for about a half dozen different clients and servers for various purposes, providing everything needed from infrastructure to end user support via the Admin queue or telephone. My role over the past 2-3 years was somewhat autonomous and dynamic, in that I would be working on a project, asked without notice to update an unrelated server, and then while updating be interrupted by a call from a user having trouble with their server client; but I consistently dealt with frontline MC server support on a daily basis. I believe these patience-building customer service skills are especially relevant to moderating websites with the hostile attitude characteristic to gaming communities - especially at a place like R2D where people's reputation and real-world money are at stake - more so even than technical experience from moderating a specific type of server. However, should technical experience in moderating a gaming community be a requirement, I am continuing to learn the technical and practical aspects to managing game servers at MCT.

References: A handful of friends from my MC Moderation days.

Extra Details [Optional]: I feel my two greatest assets to contribute are my integrity and my level-headedness. By the nature of trust, there is little I can say to back up my integrity. I am quite capable of dealing with hostile individuals or working under pressure, but I am always thinking ahead and making rational decisions. This may be a confrontational attendee at one of my conventions, this may be a trader who is angry over a tag/ban, or this may be someone in my personal life who is difficult to deal with. Losing your cool does not make the situation any better, and the only way to get rid of a problem stressing you out is to confront it rationally; if you lose your cool, it will only get worse. Hence, I've learned and drilled into my head over the years of my life to always think and act with a level head, and have a well-thought response and plan, even if only over the course of a few seconds, but never to act on impulse. TL;DR, don't panic if things look hectic or bleak, unless you want them to get worse.  