The MCM Support Team

[KyleSmiles]

Alright, so I was reading a quarrel in the chatbox between an unhappy user and a chat mod. I believe they both had interesting arguments. The user would make his claim as the mods don't work hard enough and they need to do a better job. I've seen everyone post this, but maybe we have to think the two sides of the story. A mcm mod has a life too. They go to sleep, eat, and go to work. We can't expect them to be on all the time unless they are getting a SOLID salary and this is a full time thing. I've had a bad experience of getting scammed due to scam reports being delayed, but can I even blame them? They're like 10 of them and a bunch of scammers. I think to solve this issue we need more mods from different timezones. There is no point of having all mods that are online at the same exact time as we need moderation throughout the day. Lastly, I'd like to thank the mcm staff team for volunteering to this and trying to do their best. Please be patient my fellow mcm users, and have a good day all.

 

[Justis]

We know we need more staff members. The problem is being a staff member here is a terrible job to have.
The pay is awful, the appreciation is worse.

People ask for more staff, we hire new excited new staff members, then everyone complains about those staff members, those staff members lose motivation and we're right back where we're started.

Anyone qualified for this position is spending their time at a real job with real pay that will actually mean something on their resume to further their career, because "Minecraft forum staff" is a complete and total waste of time as far as that's concerned.

We'll almost certainly be opening up applications again once our current staff have been trained enough to where we can afford to set aside time training those new staff members, and hopefully we'll be able to locate the rare number of people who are competent, cooperative, stout hearted as well as lacking in the good judgement to realize they should be working somewhere else.

But yes, I truly wish we had more competent mods with more time to spare.

 

[KyleSmiles]

We know we need more staff members. The problem is being a staff member here is a terrible job to have.
The pay is awful, the appreciation is worse.

People ask for more staff, we hire new excited new staff members, then everyone complains about those staff members, those staff members lose motivation and we're right back where we're started.

Anyone qualified for this position is spending their time at a real job with real pay that will actually mean something on their resume to further their career, because "Minecraft forum staff" is a complete and total waste of time as far as that's concerned.

We'll almost certainly be opening up applications again once our current staff have been trained enough to where we can afford to set aside time training those new staff members, and hopefully we'll be able to locate the rare number of people who are competent, cooperative, stout hearted as well as lacking in good judgement to realize they should work somewhere else.

Thanks for your input. I do agree we need more staff members. I don't think they have to be overqualified to help. I see some really active members that could be helping out the community if they choose to do so.

 

[YourPanda]

I can agree with this, I do feel that the lack of motivation tends to come from the poor feedback, and hate from members. Users are not used to this type of emotion from different types of users which plays a HUGE role in the enthusiasm aspect of things. A staff member can lose a lot of confidence, and hope after a single message telling they that "They are bad" or "You suck". It's hard for people to understand that the hate they are getting shouldn't bother you. Learn from it, and push onward. I feel that when being a staff member, taking the blame, hate, and dissatisfaction from users is the best thing you can do, and better yourself afterwards. You will not get better over night. People need to understand that being staff is not quite as easy as some thing it is. Yes, you have to deal with other peoples problems, and along with that your own but some people have a hard time understand both sides of things, especially with the unique, and diverse community we have. Some users are simply not used to this type of feedback, and pressure.

I feel that yes, some staff could do better, and need to be more active however as you said, we all do have person lives. The pay shouldn't be the main motivation behind wanting to be a staff. If there is no passion, then there is no drive nor motivation to want to what is needed to be done within the site. It's as simple as that, and simply comes down to is the passion for that individual staff member there.

 

[KyleSmiles]

I can agree with this, I do feel that the lack of motivation tends to come from the poor feedback, and hate from members. Users are not used to this type of emotion from different types of users which plays a HUGE role in the enthusiasm aspect of things. A staff member can lose a lot of confidence, and hope after a single message telling they that "They are bad" or "You suck". It's hard for people to understand that the hate they are getting shouldn't bother you. Learn from it, and push onward. I feel that when being a staff member, taking the blame, hate, and dissatisfaction from users is the best thing you can do, and better yourself afterwards. You will not get better over night. People need to understand that being staff is not quite as easy as some thing it is. Yes, you have to deal with other peoples problems, and along with that your own but some people have a hard time understand both sides of things, especially with the unique, and diverse community we have. Some users are simply not used to this type of feedback, and pressure.

I feel that yes, some staff could do better, and need to be more active however as you said, we all do have person lives. The pay shouldn't be the main motivation behind wanting to be a staff. If there is no passion, then there is no drive nor motivation to want to what is needed to be done within the site. It's as simple as that, and simply comes down to is the passion for that individual staff member there.

We have to be kinder to staff while understanding they are trying their best. I really agree with the pay part too. It isn't just a fancy tag next to your name, its something you should be proud to be a part of due to you helping users. So, mcm staff please hold your head high as you realize the amount of toxic members, scammers, or undercover sellers you have rid of. Us as users also have the acknowledge the amount of people you've helped.

 

[KyleSmiles]

Out of the staff members Mick promoted from member to Chat Moderator in the last 3 promotion waves, how many of them were active in the chat? How many were active in terms of posting?

Has Mick promoted those who were actually contributing to the forums? Has Mick promoted those who actually showed they cared about the community?

Justis+ will have to answer this, as they should have access to this type of stuff (to see chat history and if the staff were even active on MC-Market in terms of talking and posting)

In my opinion, it seems as if the people Mick promoted are those who are only active in terms of coming on the site. It seems as if those are the ones who aren't putting actual dedication toward the backlog and are only doing it to help out a little or to earn some extra money but aren't 100% about the community and the backlog.

Interesting input, maybe we won't know unless it is revealed.

 

[YourPanda]

Yes they are trying their best. Poor guys getting all this hate F in the chat.

I personally can not tell if you are being sarcastic or serious. I have always had a hard time telling with you xD

 

[YourPanda]

Out of the staff members Mick promoted from member to Chat Moderator in the last 3 promotion waves, how many of them were active in the chat? How many were active in terms of posting?

Has Mick promoted those who were actually contributing to the forums? Has Mick promoted those who actually showed they cared about the community?

Justis+ will have to answer this, as they should have access to this type of stuff (to see chat history and if the staff were even active on MC-Market in terms of talking and posting)

In my opinion, it seems as if the people Mick promoted are those who are only active in terms of coming on the site. It seems as if those are the ones who aren't putting actual dedication toward the backlog and are only doing it to help out a little or to earn some extra money but aren't 100% about the community and the backlog.

I can 100% say that I have NEVER talked in the shoutbox prior to being staff. But, I have my reasons behind it. I never felt the need to interact with people VIA the shoutbox to be interactive with other users. I only made threads, and as you can tell I made plenty. I was active in other ways. Every since I joined back in 2015, I was only inactive at most 5 months in total over the three, almost 4 years that I have been here. And the main reason was due to the military these past two years. Which I would hope users can understand. I personally never found the need (in my case) to talk in shoutbox for the things I was doing and or attempting to accomplish.

 

[blob]

I can 100% say that I have NEVER talked in the shoutbox prior to being staff. But, I have my reasons behind it. I never felt the need to interact with people VIA the shoutbox to be interactive with other users. I only made threads, and as you can tell I made plenty. I was active in other ways. Every since I joined back in 2015, I was only inactive at most 5 months in total over the three, almost 4 years that I have been here. And the main reason was due to the military these past two years. Which I would hope users can understand. I personally never found the need (in my case) to talk in shoutbox for the things I was doing and or attempting to accomplish.

I have a question for you. How did you go from protecting our freedoms and lives, to being a chat mod on a block game forum

 

[KyleSmiles]

I have a question for you. How did you go from protecting our freedoms and lives, to being a chat mod on a block game forum

Lmao XD

 

[KyleSmiles]

Well, Considering that my ex account is banned, I might as well post here, saying that is an good idea as some staff have an HEAVY BIAS, on any situation.

(response to my past)

I'm a bit confused by the text file. So you scammed and got banned, but some guy who did scam didn't?

 

[YourPanda]

I have a question for you. How did you go from protecting our freedoms and lives, to being a chat mod on a block game forum

I've always had a passion for the site and new people I've been able to meet. I've just never wanted to leave. Lol

 

[Lotus]

I agree to a certain extent that we need more moderators to effectively contain all the reports generated by this forum. Although we can’t consider hiring more staff until we get on top of training our newer chat mods and fully integrating them.

Moderators based on their timezones sound reasonable, but I think we can agree that we would prefer staff members who are actually competent over the difference in timezones. Most of the moderation team is based in the Eastern Time (US and Canada) zone, however we do have some staff members in UK timezones and a lonesome Mick in Australia. I’d say for a forum where its activity peak in those regions specifically, it’s a reasonable spread.

Timezones doesn’t quite make a difference when we have a backlog in reports over a day. It’s optimal to have a balanced set, but in terms of priority I’d rather hire someone who is more competent than someone less qualified with a better time zone.

Hiring staff is a months long process, and we’re still cycling through training our newest chat mods appropriately, but I personally believe this forum needs more mods when we can support another batch of new applicants. Although finding the people for such a task is quite a tedious and sometimes unfruitful venture.

 

[Dead4Now]

I think the previous wave of staff applications should of been open to everyone, aslong as they have been a member for a month let's say.

I get that this has it's cons, as it's more applications to read. But there are people like me, who always has a window open, and is always here. I may of not been here long (this is not saying I want staff though).

I also personally think chat mod should be somewhat easy to get (there should be lots of them), so that mick/justis can see peoples potentials. I am not saying there should be a button called add chat moderator group, but I hope you know what I mean. This is my personal opinion, please don't hate on it.

 

[YourPanda]

I think the previous wave of staff applications should of been open to everyone, aslong as they have been a member for a month let's say.

I get that this has it's cons, as it's more applications to read. But there are people like me, who always has a window open, and is always here. I may of not been here long (this is not saying I want staff though).

I also personally think chat mod should be somewhat easy to get (there should be lots of them), so that mick/justis can see peoples potentials. I am not saying there should be a button called add chat moderator group, but I hope you know what I mean. This is my personal opinion, please don't hate on it.

I think the intent is quality over quantity. We could hire tons of chat mods but will not e really get quality out of it all? It's not that it's hard to get new ones it's hard to get new ones that are capable. If that makes sense. But I hear ya.

 

[Lotus]

I think the previous wave of staff applications should of been open to everyone, aslong as they have been a member for a month let's say.

I get that this has it's cons, as it's more applications to read. But there are people like me, who always has a window open, and is always here. I may of not been here long (this is not saying I want staff though).

I also personally think chat mod should be somewhat easy to get (there should be lots of them), so that mick/justis can see peoples potentials. I am not saying there should be a button called add chat moderator group, but I hope you know what I mean. This is my personal opinion, please don't hate on it.

We choose chat mods based on their potential to be a reliable moderator for this site. No chat mod will be qualifiable for a moderator immediately. Factors such as how long you have been on the site should be much more than 1 month. You prove your mettle over time, no shortcuts, just dedication.

The concept of overstaffing the team also exists. The position shouldn’t be easy to acquire as staff members represent the site as a whole. We aren’t simply going to hand out roles to everyone (nor do I believe it is easy to find abundance in suitable people with potential to be a chat moderator in the first place, we wouldn’t have the luxury to do so). As Panda stated, quality over quantity.