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Hello Tributes,
For anyone who is interested in applying for Moderator, this will be an important announcement for you folks. In an effort to make the Moderator Application Process more efficient, the Administration and the Senior Staff have reformed the Moderator Application process to be both faster and more effective. This has resulted in some drastic changes to the written Moderator Application and the Moderator Application Interview.
I'm Interested in Applying, but I Hate Reading. Give Me a Summary in Bulletpoints.
Old Template: the previous set of questions that users were asked to fill out for their Moderator Application. The Old Template was created near the beginning of the community, and will be accepted until March 14th.
New Template: the newly-created set of questions that users are now being asked to fill out for their Moderator Application. Is accepted from now until the next round of Moderator Application reforms are made.
Ideally, we'd like to make the New Template mandatory to use starting right now, and every new applicant would be using that. However, we realize that some moderator-hopefuls actually spend days writing on their applications, and it would not be fair to erase all of that effort by simply changing the format unexpectedly on them. As such, from now until March 14th (one week from today), users who are submit a new Moderator Application will have the choice of submitting their written application in either the old template or the new template.
Do you want to apply using the new template?
Awesome. Go onto the current moderator application template thread, grab the new template, and use it to submit your application.
Do you want to apply using the old template?
Good for you. So long as you submit your application before March 14th ends, it will be considered.
Have you already submitted a written application in the old template?
You've already submitted it prior to the March 14th deadline, so you're good to go.
Do you want to apply, but don't want to follow the template?
I hope you like denial letters, because ain't no one got time for that.
Have Any of the Standards or Requirements Changed?
Nope. We are still enforcing the same standards and requiring the same requirements as before. We might be changing how you apply, but you still need to be at least 14 years old and in good community standing in order to apply for a Moderator position.
What Has Changed? What Is the Staff Trying to Do?
First, we refocused our application towards learning about the applicant. What I learned from the Age Exception Process, and what research into corporate interviews illustrates, is that what the applicant's personality is like is often more important than what they know. With the revised Moderator Application Process, we are asking more general personal questions to get a better feel for a person's qualities to determine whether they would be a good fit within our team or not. We can eventually train new applicants on how to moderate, but we cannot train applicants on being a good person.
Second, we focused less on awareness of our policies and procedures. Everyone remember the question in the written application, "How would you punish rule breakers"? We've had people who have written research papers to answer that question. But we realized that such a question was useless, since we end up training new moderators about how they should be punishing rule breakers anyways; we don't need to require that moderator hopefuls know our policies beforehand, so why make them write 2000+ words on the topic? We'll let moderator training do its part.
Lastly, we got serious about keeping things short and sweet. Writing takes time, reading takes time, interviewing takes time. And time is something that none of us want to waste. But our old Moderator Application Procss had many time wastes, such as duplicate questions or questions with similar answers. In interviews, the number of questions asked were often inflated with the expressed intention of getting a better perspective of the person, but realistically resulted in no change of perspective at all; why ask 8 questions to get a read on someone when you can get the same read in 3? With that in mind, we've instituted some limits on questions, answers, and responses in order to make sure everyone's time is not wasted.
But Why?
Our Moderator Application Process has been nearly unchanged since the community was first created. It served its purpose for a long time, with things being added to it over time. But recently we realized that our Moderator Application process was rather bloated and unwieldy, like our families after Thanksgiving dinner. Applications could take weeks to process, and a single interview could eat up as much more than an hour of time. It dawned on us that many of the things were were doing held no practical purpose for the application, and that things could be much improved.
We may have a large number of staff, but we still need a lot more staff in order to keep up with a community of our size. And by making our application process more efficient, we hope to hire more moderators quicker without compromising our current standards of quality.
Do I Need To Do Anything?
Unless you are applying or plan to apply in the near future, not really.
If you are applying, and you have already submitted your application, you are fine. Just sit tight for your application to be processed.
If you plan to apply in the near future, you should just be aware that you can use either the old template or the new template between now and March 14th to apply. But after March 14th, you must use the new template.
What's that about the Developer Applications?
I talked it over with the Developers just now, and they agreed that Developer Applications were kind of useless, and mainly stuck around out of tradition. It took up half of the Help Wanted post, but only applied to .01% of applicants (most of whom were already unqualified).
If someone is interested in being a Developer, they should email one of the current Developers for information on how to apply. But that should already be obvious to any professional programmers.
What's that about Age Exceptions?
It has been decided that the Age Exception Process will be put on indefinite hiatus starting today. MCGamer is no longer accepting moderators who are under 14 years of age. Age Exception Applicants who have already submitted their application before today will be processed normally.
If the status of the AEP changes in the future, the community will be notified.
For anyone who is interested in applying for Moderator, this will be an important announcement for you folks. In an effort to make the Moderator Application Process more efficient, the Administration and the Senior Staff have reformed the Moderator Application process to be both faster and more effective. This has resulted in some drastic changes to the written Moderator Application and the Moderator Application Interview.
I'm Interested in Applying, but I Hate Reading. Give Me a Summary in Bulletpoints.
- The Written Moderator Application has been changed to a new format and set of questions.
- Players should be aware that there is an old template and a new template for the written application.
- The Moderator Application Interview has been changed to be more efficient.
- From now until March 14th, both the old template and the new template will be accepted for written applications.
- Developer applications will no longer be accepted via forum posting.
- The Age Exception Process has been suspended until further notice.
- Admitting to hating reading and demanding summaries in bullet points do not look good on Moderator Applications.
Old Template: the previous set of questions that users were asked to fill out for their Moderator Application. The Old Template was created near the beginning of the community, and will be accepted until March 14th.
New Template: the newly-created set of questions that users are now being asked to fill out for their Moderator Application. Is accepted from now until the next round of Moderator Application reforms are made.
Ideally, we'd like to make the New Template mandatory to use starting right now, and every new applicant would be using that. However, we realize that some moderator-hopefuls actually spend days writing on their applications, and it would not be fair to erase all of that effort by simply changing the format unexpectedly on them. As such, from now until March 14th (one week from today), users who are submit a new Moderator Application will have the choice of submitting their written application in either the old template or the new template.
Do you want to apply using the new template?
Awesome. Go onto the current moderator application template thread, grab the new template, and use it to submit your application.
Do you want to apply using the old template?
Good for you. So long as you submit your application before March 14th ends, it will be considered.
Have you already submitted a written application in the old template?
You've already submitted it prior to the March 14th deadline, so you're good to go.
Do you want to apply, but don't want to follow the template?
I hope you like denial letters, because ain't no one got time for that.
Have Any of the Standards or Requirements Changed?
Nope. We are still enforcing the same standards and requiring the same requirements as before. We might be changing how you apply, but you still need to be at least 14 years old and in good community standing in order to apply for a Moderator position.
What Has Changed? What Is the Staff Trying to Do?
First, we refocused our application towards learning about the applicant. What I learned from the Age Exception Process, and what research into corporate interviews illustrates, is that what the applicant's personality is like is often more important than what they know. With the revised Moderator Application Process, we are asking more general personal questions to get a better feel for a person's qualities to determine whether they would be a good fit within our team or not. We can eventually train new applicants on how to moderate, but we cannot train applicants on being a good person.
Second, we focused less on awareness of our policies and procedures. Everyone remember the question in the written application, "How would you punish rule breakers"? We've had people who have written research papers to answer that question. But we realized that such a question was useless, since we end up training new moderators about how they should be punishing rule breakers anyways; we don't need to require that moderator hopefuls know our policies beforehand, so why make them write 2000+ words on the topic? We'll let moderator training do its part.
Lastly, we got serious about keeping things short and sweet. Writing takes time, reading takes time, interviewing takes time. And time is something that none of us want to waste. But our old Moderator Application Procss had many time wastes, such as duplicate questions or questions with similar answers. In interviews, the number of questions asked were often inflated with the expressed intention of getting a better perspective of the person, but realistically resulted in no change of perspective at all; why ask 8 questions to get a read on someone when you can get the same read in 3? With that in mind, we've instituted some limits on questions, answers, and responses in order to make sure everyone's time is not wasted.
But Why?
Our Moderator Application Process has been nearly unchanged since the community was first created. It served its purpose for a long time, with things being added to it over time. But recently we realized that our Moderator Application process was rather bloated and unwieldy, like our families after Thanksgiving dinner. Applications could take weeks to process, and a single interview could eat up as much more than an hour of time. It dawned on us that many of the things were were doing held no practical purpose for the application, and that things could be much improved.
We may have a large number of staff, but we still need a lot more staff in order to keep up with a community of our size. And by making our application process more efficient, we hope to hire more moderators quicker without compromising our current standards of quality.
Do I Need To Do Anything?
Unless you are applying or plan to apply in the near future, not really.
If you are applying, and you have already submitted your application, you are fine. Just sit tight for your application to be processed.
If you plan to apply in the near future, you should just be aware that you can use either the old template or the new template between now and March 14th to apply. But after March 14th, you must use the new template.
What's that about the Developer Applications?
I talked it over with the Developers just now, and they agreed that Developer Applications were kind of useless, and mainly stuck around out of tradition. It took up half of the Help Wanted post, but only applied to .01% of applicants (most of whom were already unqualified).
If someone is interested in being a Developer, they should email one of the current Developers for information on how to apply. But that should already be obvious to any professional programmers.
What's that about Age Exceptions?
It has been decided that the Age Exception Process will be put on indefinite hiatus starting today. MCGamer is no longer accepting moderators who are under 14 years of age. Age Exception Applicants who have already submitted their application before today will be processed normally.
If the status of the AEP changes in the future, the community will be notified.
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