Staffing - What can we do better?

Wilkers

Director @ Atomic Networks
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DarkRP Staff Member
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Sep 14, 2020
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As Atomic continues to expand, staffing has started to become the main pain point for our growth. While I can blindly make assumptions about what would get more people to apply and what would get more people to stick around on the team, I want to ask you guys so that I can focus on what YOU want as a player from our staff team.

Questions for Staff Members
- When you were brought on to the team, what parts of the process did you find redundant or unnecessary?
- What can we do to make things easier for you guys moving forward?
- How do we encourage more people to join our team?

Questions for Non-Staff Members
- If you have the qualifications to join and you haven't decided to apply, what drove you away from applying?
- What can our staff team work on to improve your guys' experience on the server?
- Which type of staff team sounds more appealing? A staff team that is super responsive to every ticket, but overlooks things as a result of the speed; or a staff team that is slow on tickets, but handles each one with a lot of effort and detail?

These are just some questions to start a conversation, if there's anything else you want to mention, i'll be watching this thread very closely throughout the week!
 
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White Guy

Don of Rule 34
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Feb 19, 2022
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1) I find unnecessary the fact that you have to wait for a higher staff member to handle a report made for example by a T-Staff while there 2 other T-Staff on the server, same thing goes for Moderators that have to wait for Seniors and so on... I don't see any harm in handling reports made and handled by the same rank of staff members, if there's any type of abuse or unfairness there's always a Staff Complaint section on the forums.

2) The only thing that can make things easier for ME is to have the staff meeting a little bit earlier so instead of the current one maybe at 4-5 PM EST so its around 10-11 PM GMT for me.

3) That if they eventually do become staff members they are not alone and they will always be helped by other staff members no matter what.


PS: The number 2 is just a problem of mine that I have to cope with, it's just a suggestion that if possible could make things easier for me.
 

Potompatomp

Admin on Atomic Networks
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Aug 30, 2021
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1) Being staff just isn't fun. You have to watch out for what you say or do because everyone is out to get you, and the managment team normally sides with the player no matter what. I've had more fun in the few weeks I've been resigned than I have had the entire time I was staff. The server is so much more enjoyable when you are not staff because you don't have to watch your back for a bunch of people that hate you for no reason. Another thing that deters me from being staff is the inactivity when it comes to taking tickets. This has been such a big problem for a while. You will be the only one taking tickets when there are 5 staff members on. All these staff members are just doing their own things and will say they did their tickets earlier in the day. So in the end, you will be stuck taking tickets until someone else decides too. One other reason is the fact that tmods are basically left on their own. I've spoken to a decent amount of staff members who have said after the 1 hour or so of training, the tmods are just thrown in and end up doing the wrong thing. This leaves the active staff members, mostly tmods and mods, explaining and showing the new members how to staff properly and efficently. They also are telling me that none of them actually know the rules. One situation I was described was a kidnappee threw an EMP to get out and kill the kidnapper. A few mintues later, the kidnapper makes the ticket and the tmod was saying the kidnappee RDMed the kidnapper. Yet obviously, it wasn't actually RDM.

2) Train the Tmods for longer and montior them. This will for one, help weed out the incompetent members, as well as reinfore how to staff properly.

3) These are both the incorrect answeres, if you are able to find good staff members, they will be able to take tickets with haste as well as minimizing the missed details.
 

Wilkers

Director @ Atomic Networks
Forum Administrator
DarkRP Staff Member
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Sep 14, 2020
2,256
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United States
1) Being staff just isn't fun. You have to watch out for what you say or do because everyone is out to get you, and the managment team normally sides with the player no matter what. I've had more fun in the few weeks I've been resigned than I have had the entire time I was staff. The server is so much more enjoyable when you are not staff because you don't have to watch your back for a bunch of people that hate you for no reason. Another thing that deters me from being staff is the inactivity when it comes to taking tickets. This has been such a big problem for a while. You will be the only one taking tickets when there are 5 staff members on. All these staff members are just doing their own things and will say they did their tickets earlier in the day. So in the end, you will be stuck taking tickets until someone else decides too. One other reason is the fact that tmods are basically left on their own. I've spoken to a decent amount of staff members who have said after the 1 hour or so of training, the tmods are just thrown in and end up doing the wrong thing. This leaves the active staff members, mostly tmods and mods, explaining and showing the new members how to staff properly and efficently. They also are telling me that none of them actually know the rules. One situation I was described was a kidnappee threw an EMP to get out and kill the kidnapper. A few mintues later, the kidnapper makes the ticket and the tmod was saying the kidnappee RDMed the kidnapper. Yet obviously, it wasn't actually RDM.

2) Train the Tmods for longer and montior them. This will for one, help weed out the incompetent members, as well as reinfore how to staff properly.

3) These are both the incorrect answeres, if you are able to find good staff members, they will be able to take tickets with haste as well as minimizing the missed details.
I have a few questions to go off of your response.

1. Should we display positive bias towards staff? (should we assume that the staff member is right when a player makes a report on said staff member?)

2. Based off of your response, you are essentially proposing that we shift to a model where a new trainee is shadowed for 1-2 weeks and can only staff when a staff member is watching for a certain amount of time. Is that genuinely something that the majority of new trainees would require?

3. Finding good staff members isn't easy, especially considering the environment and stigma around staffing. While it's an issue that is improving I would like to know what you personally think needs to specifically change in our application and onboarding process.
 

Potompatomp

Admin on Atomic Networks
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DarkRP Staff Member
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Aug 30, 2021
2,307
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I have a few questions to go off of your response.

1. Should we display positive bias towards staff? (should we assume that the staff member is right when a player makes a report on said staff member?)

2. Based off of your response, you are essentially proposing that we shift to a model where a new trainee is shadowed for 1-2 weeks and can only staff when a staff member is watching for a certain amount of time. Is that genuinely something that the majority of new trainees would require?

3. Finding good staff members isn't easy, especially considering the environment and stigma around staffing. While it's an issue that is improving I would like to know what you personally think needs to specifically change in our application and onboarding process.
1. Not necessarily bias, but there seems to be zero faith in any of the staff members. These people are receiving permissions to ban people, kick people, warn people, and more. Therefore, they should be trusted more than the average player since you are trusting them with permissions to punish the average player. It always seems to be the "worst case" scenario when there are reports on the staff members. It also always seems you have to prove your own innocence, when it should be the player having to prove you are guilty. This also applies to bans. Requiring videos from the staff member to prove the person should be banned is a breach of trust between management and the staff members. Putting this policy in place just shows that the staff members can not be trusted to make the correct decision. Even though they were given permission to punish players in the first place.


2. I think it's a good idea to build off of. Not 1-2 weeks, but definitely longer than just an hour. Maybe giving the moderators chances to help with the trainings. This could include taking over and spectating the sits after the trainer has to leave, as well as pointing out any errors the new staff member is making along the way. This will give the moderators experience with working and explaining how to staff properly before beginning to help with the interview process as a senior moderator.


3. I think the current application process is fine. But when it comes to training, it needs to get more in depth. The training should explain how to respond to a ban appeal, explain what being active on the forums includes, show staff members how to use advanced search and deep storage for ban appeals, explain to them the difference between a permeant ban exploit and a one week ban exploit. All areas of weakness that include this stem from the lack of initial training given to the staff members. When it comes to having a lack of man power, this can be easily fixed. There are plenty of active and exceptional staff members that can fill this role. These members understand the guidelines that are inplace and have had plenty of experience already by showing new staff members how to do everything previously mentioned.