Discord Discord #help

[Marieke2001]

Ya'll may have noticed that i'm super bored today. So I just came up with an idea.
Now I just checked the channel #staff-help on discord and I noticed that there was only one response from a staffmember in four hours, while there were nine questions and three replies by a member to another, which isn't allowed. I also feel like not everyone gets a response troughout the whole day by staff members as staff skips to the easiest ones. I easily could've answered most of these questions, but I don't have a staff rank (nor do I want one), but I do want to help out.

All of these questions are fairly easy to reply to, even if you aren't a member of staff but just an active forumer/discord member/player. Also telling someone not to reply to other members is fairly easy.

I feel like #staff-help it's goal is derailing and therefore #staff-help should be changed to #help.
Now let me explain the context of #help. Members can apply for a rank in this channel. It's basically a pre-helper test. There will be a survey on the forums which asks a bunch of questions and you'll have to reply in the correct way to it. The idea is that you'll answer correctly and be as friendly as possible, to help other members with their problems.

Now I hear some of you already replying with why we would need it, why not make these players helpers. Because helpers partly get accepted by the way they reply to people with their problems. Now we used to have an active forum, but now barely annoyone comes to the forums for their problems. There is right now no chance to test someones knowledge about the systems and rules if there aren't any players that need help. This makes players unqualified very quickly, while not even knowing their full capacity.

Now i'm not too sure about my suggestion as it could also lead to a lot of confusion about why some members can reply and some not and it would take some time to go trough the applications. Another option could be that Sr. Mods ask members to get this rank, instead of having to go trough tons of bad applications. It might makes the tasks for helpers and moderators easier to manage. Thus there is nothing more annoying than having to wait over four hours for a reply to your question, while there are tons of members online that do know the answer.

Edit: Thanks Rick for reminding me. There are indeed questions that only staff can answer, these should be left open. Some staff members have their DM's open and you can refer player to there, have a consult hour-ish thing where a member of staff will be online and answers as much as he can. That way he doesn't have to dig up.

 

[RickDeKlomp]

I like the idea but there are questions that only staff members can answer. Those people still need to wait. But this is atleast an improvement.

 

[Baba Yaga]

Balance to the force, we must achieve. By doing this, balance returning shall.

 

[ItzJqlmer]

If staff ignores a question, they dont have a answer. (I think, sounds logic to me) But about your suggestion, yes this should be added to the discord server!

 

[Marieke2001]

If staff ignores a question, they dont have a answer. (I think, sounds logic to me) But about your suggestion, yes this should be added to the discord server!

Yea and I admit that I also didn't reply to everything when I was a mod, but the attention that #staff-help gets right now is just very poorly.

 

[ItzJqlmer]

Yea and I admit that I also didn't reply to everything when I was a mod, but the attention that #staff-help gets right now is just very poorly.

Whats wrong with community help? Also there must be one rule, if you arent 100% sure that your answer is right, dont answer that question, I also think that players are pretty lazy. Because a lot of the questions are incuded in the offical. (Not everyone is using the forums, but a link to the faq in #welcome is a option)

Im in for this suggestion!

 

[Eli]

Staff-help is evidently insufficient. Especially in late hours for the America’s. When there’s barely no staff online. It’s also really odd how some staff members seemingly never answer staff questions, even if they’re the only ones online and are being tagged by multiple members, but I guess they’re busy.

I mean, I myself have found myself DM’ing people who only speak spanish, and need Capitan Gato for help. Cause I know no other staff member will help them, and they’ll probably just desist of finding help.

To me the idea seems kind of a risk, but if the people who get accepted for this special rank are carefully selected, I’m sure there wouldn’t be an issue. If they let people like Dubby and Dutudy participate of this #help channel, I’m sure it’ll be very much a success.

Edit: although I kind of don’t like how people hunt for inappropriate names/statuses, tag people in #english without even waiting a staff member to reply, or answer questions on a Staff Member’s profile. Idk when mini-modding stopped being a thing within the rules, but it needs some regulation.

 

[ItzJqlmer]

Staff-help is evidently insufficient. Especially in late hours for the America’s. When there’s barely no staff online. It’s also really odd how some staff members seemingly never answer staff questions, even if they’re the only ones online and are being tagged by multiple members, but I guess they’re busy.

I mean, I myself have found myself DM’ing people who only speak spanish, and need Capitan Gato for help. Cause I know no other staff member will help them, and they’ll probably just desist of finding help.

To me the idea seems kind of a risk, but if the people who get accepted for this special rank are carefully selected, I’m sure there wouldn’t be an issue. If they let people like Dubby and Dutudy participate of this #help channel, I’m sure it’ll be very much a success.

Edit: although I kind of don’t like how people hunt for inappropriate names/statuses, tag people in #english without even waiting a staff member to reply, or answer questions on a Staff Member’s profile. Idk when mini-modding stopped being a thing within the rules, but it needs some regulation.

Thats a really good idea! Probably, I would apply for this rank and this is also very useful for more experience. Maybe you can be promoted to Helper.

I hope staff will also give their opinion on this idea!

 

[Oreo♥️]

I voted for maybe.

I used to like the idea of a Jr.Helper rank, without any permissions, where some players that either don't meet the age requirement to become staff, or that are qualified as "unsure" would have the chance to test themselves to then have an interview with the staff manager and decide if they'd be promoted to actual helper or etiher keep the Jr.Helper or be demoted. I don't like the idea anymore at all, but, in this case I think it'd be pretty suiting as you said in the suggestion, although I still don't like it, since it would require the applications team to have extra work, and would have to deal with a lot more of applies, causing them to even take longer to respond to an application.

But I don't disagree at all with the idea, perhaps even a bot could be created so that some of this "easy" questions could also be answered without the requirement of a staff member to answer the question and to focus on some others that are harder.

 

[Shomita]

I answer messages, but not on that channel, but personally. Of course I also have to understand what he asks and help him correctly, with fundamentals. But sometimes I take the time to answer your question personally, since it is not answered in time.

 

[Aosm]

Ohoho that’s right, sometimes i want help people too, obviously if i can. +1 vote

 

[Marieke2001]

Bump

 

[Marieke2001]

@Elenahh could you explain why you voted no? :)

 

[Marieke2001]

Bump because there hasn’t been a single response from staff members in 5 hours

 

[Deleted member 59979]

Honestly, I'd rather prefer that normal members weren't allowed to talk in there because a lot of people are quite unpleasant as well as the spread of misinformation intentionally or not, however in it's current state then it would be a good stop-gap idea. In reality Cube should just be focusing on their staff issues which others have addressed and I'm not gonna get into, but this is a great solution for the time being until they get some other stuff done :)

 

[matcha]

Bump because there hasn’t been a single response from staff members in 5 hours

It's been longer than 5 hours, so I hope I'm not too late

~~~
This isn't a bad suggestion, but it's also not the best solution for the current dilemma with #staff-help. Giving specific players the permission and authority to reply and answer questions is by no means a bad thing. In fact, there are quite a few players out here in our community who would be perfectly capable of answering some of these questions. The only issue that arises is something that was already aforementioned earlier in this thread: that there is usually a clear split between questions only staff members are able to answer and those that the general populace is able to answer.

It's true that oftentimes most questions asked in #staff-help are something your average forum user is able to answer. They include things like:
> I got banned by Sentinel, what should I do?
> My appeal got rejected by the staff member who punished me, what should I do?
> Where can I report a user?
> I have an error code that starts with c, what do I do?
> Can you check my ban/mute appeal?
> etc...

But there are are also questions that are quite ambiguous and are something we prefer that moderators or helpers answered. This is because these types of questions are things that the moderation team are able to answer, and should be answered by members of the moderation team. There is a reason why Designers, who are part of the staff team, don't usually answer questions that are outside their fields of work. It is not because they can't answer a question, it's because the moderators are supposed to be able to answer the questions in a more clearer fashion. So before I continue, I thought it'd be a good idea to list out some of these types of questions:
> Is this punishable?
> Is this a known bug?
> Under what category should I report this player's infraction?
> Discord/forum reports
> etc...

However, aside from questions, #staff-help is generally also a place that players like to use to vent their frustrations about various topics.
> Why does your anticheat not work?
> I lost my stuff to a cheater in Assassination, why won't you give me my stuff back?
> WHY WON'T YOU UNBAN ME??
> Is this person bypassing?
> Drama
> *I'll leave the rest for you to imagine*

So, what's my point? While this would offer a great experience for those who are able to receive said role to answer questions and keep players from waiting hours for an answer, it also makes things a whole lot more complicated. One of the reasons why we preferred that players don't reply on that channel is because it quickly fills up the chat and makes it a whole lot harder to manage. We can answer questions a lot faster if we see it on the get-go, instead of scrolling through a discussion between two players arguing about the answer. This naturally also helps prevent misinformation. But why does this matter? What changes if there are members who are able to answer questions on the same channel? It's kinda simple, questions that are not something these specialized members can't answer will get lost easily. Sure, moderators should be able to scroll up and read the entire conversation, but this just makes the matter a whole more inconvenient then it has to be. It's a lot simpler if we just kept the channel as it is. If players wanted to demonstrate their ability to resolve issues, they aren't discouraged from doing so in other channels. Yes, the role will give you more of a say, as some players don't want their questions answered by non-staff members, but ultimately you're not a staff member.

TL;DR
The only solution that comes to mind for me is for staff members to actively start answering questions, instead of letting it stack up. There will be reasons why sometimes some moderators won't be able to answer questions, but I do agree that leaving questions unanswered for hours can be detrimental to the entire purpose of the channel. But going in a roundabout manner to deal with the issue won't help in the long run, in my opinion.

Also, help.cubecraft.net exists
~~~

I might've missed some things, key points, but it'll probably come back to me later.

 

[Dubby Plays]

Hey @IceScreams, on Discord there are many bots you can add to a server. There are bots that can help you with players questions and helping keeping them organized. But I don't know really how they works and I'm more of the idea of keeping do the stuff manually since is way more efficient.

So nevermind, I think for now #staff-help is ok. I have some suggestion for helping players that keep reporting hackers with screenshot and videos in that channel, but I will leave it for another thread.

 

[Marieke2001]

It's been longer than 5 hours, so I hope I'm not too late

~~~
This isn't a bad suggestion, but it's also not the best solution for the current dilemma with #staff-help. Giving specific players the permission and authority to reply and answer questions is by no means a bad thing. In fact, there are quite a few players out here in our community who would be perfectly capable of answering some of these questions. The only issue that arises is something that was already aforementioned earlier in this thread: that there is usually a clear split between questions only staff members are able to answer and those that the general populace is able to answer.

It's true that oftentimes most questions asked in #staff-help are something your average forum user is able to answer. They include things like:
> I got banned by Sentinel, what should I do?
> My appeal got rejected by the staff member who punished me, what should I do?
> Where can I report a user?
> I have an error code that starts with c, what do I do?
> Can you check my ban/mute appeal?
> etc...

But there are are also questions that are quite ambiguous and are something we prefer that moderators or helpers answered. This is because these types of questions are things that the moderation team are able to answer, and should be answered by members of the moderation team. There is a reason why Designers, who are part of the staff team, don't usually answer questions that are outside their fields of work. It is not because they can't answer a question, it's because the moderators are supposed to be able to answer the questions in a more clearer fashion. So before I continue, I thought it'd be a good idea to list out some of these types of questions:
> Is this punishable?
> Is this a known bug?
> Under what category should I report this player's infraction?
> Discord/forum reports
> etc...

However, aside from questions, #staff-help is generally also a place that players like to use to vent their frustrations about various topics.
> Why does your anticheat not work?
> I lost my stuff to a cheater in Assassination, why won't you give me my stuff back?
> WHY WON'T YOU UNBAN ME??
> Is this person bypassing?
> Drama
> *I'll leave the rest for you to imagine*

So, what's my point? While this would offer a great experience for those who are able to receive said role to answer questions and keep players from waiting hours for an answer, it also makes things a whole lot more complicated. One of the reasons why we preferred that players don't reply on that channel is because it quickly fills up the chat and makes it a whole lot harder to manage. We can answer questions a lot faster if we see it on the get-go, instead of scrolling through a discussion between two players arguing about the answer. This naturally also helps prevent misinformation. But why does this matter? What changes if there are members who are able to answer questions on the same channel? It's kinda simple, questions that are not something these specialized members can't answer will get lost easily. Sure, moderators should be able to scroll up and read the entire conversation, but this just makes the matter a whole more inconvenient then it has to be. It's a lot simpler if we just kept the channel as it is. If players wanted to demonstrate their ability to resolve issues, they aren't discouraged from doing so in other channels. Yes, the role will give you more of a say, as some players don't want their questions answered by non-staff members, but ultimately you're not a staff member.

TL;DR
The only solution that comes to mind for me is for staff members to actively start answering questions, instead of letting it stack up. There will be reasons why sometimes some moderators won't be able to answer questions, but I do agree that leaving questions unanswered for hours can be detrimental to the entire purpose of the channel. But going in a roundabout manner to deal with the issue won't help in the long run, in my opinion.

Also, help.cubecraft.net exists
~~~

I might've missed some things, key points, but it'll probably come back to me later.

I fully agree with you, but the problem is that this is CCG. Things don’t change itself, only after thousands of rants and it might not even change then. There has been told, multiple times, that helper isn’t a trail anymore, which it is supposed to be. Right now it’s almost an assurance for moderator. This resulted in a lack of moderators while this problem has been addressed for over two year, even when I was a staff member it was already a problem! And due to the lack there are gaps in the discord channel or staff replies to 3/5 questions because they don’t know the answers. Moderators aren’t obligated to be active on the discord server, so how can you prevent it from having gaps in between? By having a rank for member or by accepting more applications.

 

[matcha]

Hey @IceScreams, on Discord there are many bots you can add to a server. There are bots that can help you with players questions and helping keeping them organized. But I don't know really how they works and I'm more of the idea of keeping do the stuff manually since is way more efficient.

So nevermind, I think for now #staff-help is ok. I have some suggestion for helping players that keep reporting hackers with screenshot and videos in that channel, but I will leave it for another thread.

I'm of the same mind as you. I'm not too familiar with how bots actually work, just how practical they are. But for a matter like this, I don't think I'm qualified enough to actually make a comment about how reliable a bot might be, so I'll just leave it at that. :p

I fully agree with you, but the problem is that this is CCG. Things don’t change itself, only after thousands of rants and it might not even change then. There has been told, multiple times, that helper isn’t a trail anymore, which it is supposed to be. Right now it’s almost an assurance for moderator. This resulted in a lack of moderators while this problem has been addressed for over two year, even when I was a staff member it was already a problem! And due to the lack there are gaps in the discord channel or staff replies to 3/5 questions because they don’t know the answers. Moderators aren’t obligated to be active on the discord server, so how can you prevent it from having gaps in between? By having a rank for member or by accepting more applications.

I'm not exactly sure about what you mean by a trail in regards to the helper training process, but when I was a helper it was a mix of learning something new and demonstrating my abilities, to say the least. I'm not sure if that has changed or not for those who came after me, but I can't see any reason why it would. For that matter, I know some of the previous helpers learned a lot during their training. It'd be great to see more moderators on the team, so personally I'd like to see more helpers coming around soon than complicating the matter by having specialized members answer questions for us. So best of luck to the hopefuls!

 

[Capitan]

There has been told, multiple times, that helper isn’t a trail anymore, which it is supposed to be

when I was a helper it was a mix of learning something new and demonstrating my abilities, to say the least. I'm not sure if that has changed or not for those who came after me

This is a little offtopic, but I want to add something about this. The helper training has been improved A LOT last months, and keeps being improved and expanded every cycle. Is not what it used to be some years ago. The passive attitude mentors used to have a couple of years ago doesn't exists anymore, and helpers have now trainings with reports, punishment types with tons of examples, deadlines and even in-game cooperative spectating times.

On topic
I'm expecting some new helpers soon so this issue with the staffhelp channel will be decreased