Java Helper recruitment has to change.

[remio]

A while back I made a staff feedback thread about the lack of staff members and I thought it could add small things to your thread.

Spoiler: Staff feedback

Hey, I'm Sheep and I'm here to complain about the few members of staff that handle reports, help users in the Discord server, etc.
And this has everything to do with that you don't recruit any new staff members anymore. Right now, you are probably about to say that you can't make qualified applicants out of thin air, which is partially true, because there really are some qualified members that have applied a couple of times but didn't get accepted or didn't even get invited to an interview, despite all the effort and things they have done to the server. But take a look at #staff-help: Kloska and Warriors do their best to help everyone but sometimes people have to wait 1-2 hours to get a reply from a staff member, which is way too long. And when I report people in 1.8, I usually have to wait 12 hours-1 day until my report gets handled, while Sentinel bans hackers after 1-2 hours of continuous cheating. This is a link to a suggestion thread on how to fix a part of this problem. But still, you don't have enough staff and I'm here to recommend some members who fit in a staff position, but haven't been accepted yet.

(Recommendation of certain members)

Just a reminder: It's August and only 2 members have been recruited to become helper. That's just not enough for a server with an average playercount of 15000+ per day. Right now, there are 13 moderators (with some of them being pretty inactive), and in the peak hours there are about 18000 players online on all platforms. This means that 1 moderator has to watch 1385 players at the same time! That's ridiculous! And I'm not taking into account that most of the players play Bedrock, and only 5000 of them play Java. Only a couple of moderators actively play on the Bedrock server, so I've made a calculation. If 13000 players play on the Bedrock server in the peak hours, and if only 5 moderators actively play Bedrock, every moderator has to watch 2600(!) players in the peak hours! Conclusion: Bedrock is understaffed. And guess what? Player x and player y both play on the Bedrock server! What a solution!

* Thread was posted in August, meaning that it's a little outdated.

Anyways, I agree with your thread, because I think (like some others have said already) the recruitment team is focussing too much on quality, while the Helper stage is meant to be a process in which you could grow to an exemplary staff member. Although you can't recruit anyone, there definitely are some members around here who'd make a good staff member if recruited.

 

[comfyyy]

This is exactly what I am talking about.... If your reply adds nothing to the thread don't post it.

Bud, IDK why you are wanting to be negative, I was simply agreeing. I read through a lot of info and didn't have the time to write a paragraph. However, this doesn't negate the fact that I support their thread. In this situation, you really sound like the helper wannabe, not me.

 

[Deleted member 492126]

Bud, IDK why you are wanting to be negative, I was simply agreeing. I read through a lot of info and didn't have the time to write a paragraph. However, this doesn't negate the fact that I support their thread. In this situation, you really sound like the helper wannabe, not me.

If you agree with someone but don't have the time to write a paragraph, just like the post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Marieke2001]

Bud, IDK why you are wanting to be negative, I was simply agreeing. I read through a lot of info and didn't have the time to write a paragraph. However, this doesn't negate the fact that I support their thread. In this situation, you really sound like the helper wannabe, not me.

Pls don’t use to “no u” card. He is totally right. You also just could’ve voted for yes. You do not have to reply to a thread in which you do not contribute. Management will also probably look more at votes rather than reading every comment

 

[comfyyy]

You do not have to reply to a thread in which you do not contribute.

An open forum means you can contribute anything. You shouldn't give people hate if they don't want to spend loads on time on a MC server forum. You can disagree with it, but telling people to basically "Shut up" isn't exactly nice. Ex staff should know this...

 

[Keanu]

Can we get back on topic again?

 

[Eli]

Let people participate proportionally to what they want to say and have in mind. What's so harmful about a simple sentence of support?

 

[Smoothlyy]

Let people participate proportionally to what they want to say and have in mind. What's so harmful about a simple sentence of support?

Couldn't this person just voice their support in the form of a vote on the poll or a like on the thread? His response added nothing to the thread. I also noticed how somebody else in this thread regurgitated what @RickDeKlomp already said.

 

[Keanu]

Entirely agree with you Keanu.

you wrote a whole essay for everyone except me, im flattered

 

[RickDeKlomp]

you wrote a whole essay for everyone except me, im flattered

He didnt even mention Waterguy, Basketman and Ducky, but lets get back on topic

 

[Eli]

He didnt even mention Waterguy, Basketman and Ducky, but lets get back on topic

I didn’t because I didn’t consider they said anything important (that hadn’t been said before) to comment on.

I also wanted to add that it’s critical cubecraft starts looking for aspirants who play on the Bedrock edition. Because all mods currently mainly play java and tbh that’s fine they shouldn’t be forced to play on bedrock. But the bedrock server needs some active staff members.

 

[elchuii]

But the bedrock server needs some active staff members.

that's true, cubecraft bedrock edition has more people, but most of the staff cant join

 

[xBl1tzx]

​

I recently came across some discussions about Helper recruitment. Everyone had its own opinion, which is why I will share my opinion & others opinions. I know this thread might get some hate, but I think something has to change. I hope this thread will get some attention, and won't be ignored by people who have the power to change stuff.

​

According to a lot of people, something within the Helper recruitment has to change. There are a lot of members, who have potential to be a great Helper, but the staff recruitment team still denies them. People keep complaining to CubeCraft about the lack of Moderators, which causes a lack of moderation ingame. Cube's reply is most of the times: " It's hard to find members, who could become good Moderators". And that circle keeps repeating. The problem is that CubeCraft is too strict when it comes to accepting Helpers.

​

There's a (simple) solution to this problem. Making Helper a learning trial instead of considering a Helper a fully experienced staff member. Right now, only the best have a chance in becoming Helper. There isn't much wrong with that, aside the people who might not be the best - but certainly are good enough to be a Helper - , do not have a chance to become a Helper. This causes a lack of staff members. There are two ways to fix this (there are probably more, but these are the ones I came up with) :

1. Making Helper a learning trial instead of considering a Helper a fully experienced staff member. This includes hiring more Helpers. If it's a learning trial, it also means that mistakes will be made. There will be people among the hired Helpers, who aren't capable of being Helper. But there will mostly be people, who are ready to be trained for Moderator. These people might not be perfect Moderators yet, but that's 50% of the Helper rank imo. Finding out if the person is capable of being a Moderator. If they aren't, they could be demoted. If they are, they can be promoted to Moderator. This system would at least give more Helpers, which would cause more connection with the community, more moderation etc.
2. Making the Helper role a rank, instead of a trial. This might be the opposite of my first point, but this does help against the lack of staff members. Right now, the Helper role is a trial, to become Moderator (at least it's supposed to be). Like I said, CubeCraft considers a Helper a fully experienced staff member. But, there are currently only 3 Helpers. So I came up with an idea. What if we made the Helpers take over some tasks of Moderators. Moderators are quite busy overall, so Helpers could do some stuff for them. Like moderating Ingame, and in Discord. This would give more use to the Helper role. Ofcourse Helpers won't be able to answer all questions, which is why Moderators should assist & watch over them. Moderators would have more time for /report reports, which will reduce the amount of automatically closed reports.

Both these systems will cause more work for Animal. And I know she's a volunteer, and that she won't be able to handle more work like this. Which is why we should maybe have two Admins. I know that two staff managers won't work, which is why I think one Admin should be Staff Manager over the Moderators, and the other Admin should manage over the Helpers. This is so they can focus on one thing, and so that they will have more time for it. Since Admins are volunteers, I don't think this would harm CubeCraft.
If there are two Admins, one dedicated to Helpers (reviewing applications included), maybe that Staff Manager could also give feedback to applicants. I know this isn't possible right now, as it's too much work. But if the person who gives feedback doesn't have to do manage Moderators, it should be able to give feedback to applications. Ofcourse, reacting to every application won't work. But, reacting to the ones that stand above the others would be useful. These people didn't make it, but they were close. If they were told what they had to change, it would improve their next application.

I'm sure there are some flaws in these systems. But I think we can work that out as a community.

​

In my opinion something within the Helper recruitment has to change. I think we have a lack in staff members. So I also think that we need more Moderators. This can be done by hiring more Helpers. I think CubeCraft is way to strict when it comes to accepting applications. The Helper role is supposed to be a trial. Which means people shouldn't always be promoted from Helper to Moderator, it means that there will be people who won't be able to be a Moderator. But the majority of the hired people, will be able to become a Moderator. The people that become Helper nowadays, could be promoted to Moderator instantly, they won't have to learn anything (aside from some technical stuff). But I think that people who do have to learn some things, would become even better Moderators. They have to work with the Moderators in order to learn. Which means they improve themselves, which is really important in my opinion.

I've asked others for their opinions. Everyone has it's own opinion, but we basically all agreed on one thing: something within the Helper recruitment has to change. There were also people who did think it should stay like this, just saying. But, since this is a critical thread, I decided to only quote the ones who had some improvements for the Helper recruitment. Know that we all have respect for the current system, this is not hate or something like that, these are just some improvements (according to us):

Spoiler: Marieke2001

Helper recruitment has been made too difficult. Members basically have to be fit for moderator already, even before becoming a helper. When Tacos lowered the requirements about two years ago, I basically didn’t see the reason why. People with a couple forums messages (under 500) shouldn’t be accepted, but at the same time they shouldn’t be too harsh. Some people are very qualified for the Helper rank. It’s for a reason a trail before becoming Moderator. People that definitely should get a chance of becoming helper in my opinions are the ones with:
- Five months forums activity. The activity is important. Almost every day online.
- 300 reports at least.
- Properly speaking English
- Posts on the forums have to be mature. Having a childish discussion can happen, but constantly fighting with others is a no-go.
- According to the chat filter hasn’t been swearing for 4-6 months. Filtering out the ones that the chat filter registered but aren’t swearwords
- Last punishment more than 6 months ago. If there are more than 5 punishments it’ll have to be 1 year (not counting the warnings).

One thing that is also important. If these members do not apply for helper, helper recruitment-team or Animal should ask them personally to come join the team.

Spoiler: Keanu

Recruitment team has the wrong attitude. If I recall correctly, StorySays (or an other member of staff) said (somewhere, im not too sure where) that the recruitment team pretty much has the opinion literally every hired Helper must become mod otherwise they'd fail. In my opinion, this is sort of nonsense. Even if it takes 6 months before a Helper is Mod, a staffer is a staffer. Next to this, I think they're being to strict. Me and some other people could be a good staff member (and I'm sure some of us applied) yet we have not received anything. They should either become less strict or give feedback instead of ignoring the application; this could come over as demotivating; ''why would I waste my time on a server if they don't care about what I do".

Spoiler: Basketman13

I think they need to ask certain players if they would be interested in joining the staff team. Another possibility is recruiting more helpers to see if they would be a good staff member. Nobody is perfect and I think more players deserve the chance to prove that they are worthy the job. It is okey to make mistakes as a Helper. That's why we have this rank. I did make some mistakes and I learned from those. So I believe in the process of improvement and I hope that the recruitment team follows my idea.

Spoiler: Fisktratt

We all know that CubeCraft is understaffed. They lowered the requirements, but are still searching for too much quality. They should see helper as a testing period/role. If you are suitable, you should get promoted to moderator. If not, you get demoted to member. As it is now, they search for "perfect" members, which is really hard to find. Of course, it needs to be a reliable member. Basically, no one is perfect from the start. I'm pretty sure someone who's not "perfect" from the start, can reach the same level as someone who is. We all learn new things every day.

Spoiler: Waterguy_12

Yeah they could be less strict, as I have said in the forums already, helper doesn't have any real power, so giving more people helper wouldn't hurt much, and if they misbehave they can just be demoted

Spoiler: Ducky Jr

Yes, Cube is looking for too much quality right now, I think they shouldn't be doing that and be a bit more open. Choose people who fit the requirements and then they can learn the stuff from a Mod who do knows the stuff. Keeping the quality this high, will probably result in a longer period of a low amount of staffs. Let people learn from other people and the mistakes they make, that's the key to succes.

Spoiler: Anonymous1

I think that Cubecraft is a little bit too strict in recruiting new helpers Wit the current application form which is in my opinion only statistic-based, I think that you can't really see if someone is suited for the helper function or not. I think Cubecraft should invite almost every application that meets the minimum requirements, except if there is something that disqualifies them from becoming a helper so you can have a better look at the applicant's personality and their abilities to perform the function as a helper. I also think that if you are not sure about an applicant, you can ask them they would do in certain situations or give them a chance as a helper. I understand that you are mostly searching for helper/moderators that speak languages that or not currently in the staff team, but if you look at the Dutch moderators, we currently have 5 dutch moderators and 1 helper. If I submit a Dutch report, it takes 1-7 days to get these reports handled (Yes, it did happen that it took a week to get a Dutch report handled). If I'm playing on Cubecraft, at least 40% of the players seem to be Dutch so I think that Cubecraft should also recruit more helpers in the languages that play a lot on Cubecraft, this also applies to Spanish and Swedish I think.

There were some more people, who wanted to share their opinion, but I think this would be enough of a statement. Leave your opinion in the comments please.

Please do remember, this is anything but hate. The staff team of CubeCraft is doing an amazing job. Especially to AnimalTamer1, this is anything but hate to you. You're doing an amazing job, we couldn't have done it better.

I'll be tagging the people, who I think, are able to change stuff, and I'd like to hear the opinion of you guys. @AnimalTamer1 @Younisco @Camezonda @Capitan

Big thanks to @FranKEANUstein for helping me with some stuff, and a big thanks to @Marieke2001 , @SpookyMan13 , @Fisktratt , @Waterguy_12 , @Ducky Jr and Anonymous1 for sharing your opinion.

Let me know what your opinion about this subject is. Both negative and positive comments are appreciated!

A suggestion which has been suggested a thousand times before and has never been replied too or has been answered.
Guess this thread will not get any attention from the management aswell.

 

[RickDeKlomp]

A suggestion which has been suggested a thousand times before and has never been replied too or has been answered.
Guess this thread will not get any attention from the management aswell.

They do not neccessarily have to reply to this thread. I just hope they have read it, and I kinda know they have. So it's fine :)

 

[Lezappen]

Nice thread!

There's a (simple) solution to this problem. [...]

1. Making Helper a learning trial instead of considering a Helper a fully experienced staff member. This includes hiring more Helpers.
2. Making the Helper role a rank, instead of a trial. This might be the opposite of my first point, but this does help against the lack of staff members. Right now, the Helper role is a trial, to become Moderator (at least it's supposed to be). Like I said, CubeCraft considers a Helper a fully experienced staff member.

[...] I think one Admin should be Staff Manager over the Moderators, and the other Admin should manage over the Helpers.
I think that people who do have to learn some things, would become even better Moderators. They have to work with the Moderators in order to learn. Which means they improve themselves, which is really important in my opinion.

Spoiler: Marieke2001

Helper recruitment has been made too difficult. Members basically have to be fit for moderator already, even before becoming a helper. When Tacos lowered the requirements about two years ago, I basically didn’t see the reason why. People with a couple forums messages (under 500) shouldn’t be accepted, but at the same time they shouldn’t be too harsh. Some people are very qualified for the Helper rank. It’s for a reason a trail before becoming Moderator. People that definitely should get a chance of becoming helper in my opinions are the ones with:
- Five months forums activity. The activity is important. Almost every day online.
- 300 reports at least.
- Properly speaking English
- Posts on the forums have to be mature. Having a childish discussion can happen, but constantly fighting with others is a no-go.
- According to the chat filter hasn’t been swearing for 4-6 months. Filtering out the ones that the chat filter registered but aren’t swearwords
- Last punishment more than 6 months ago. If there are more than 5 punishments it’ll have to be 1 year (not counting the warnings).

One thing that is also important. If these members do not apply for helper, helper recruitment-team or Animal should ask them personally to come join the team.

Spoiler: Keanu

Recruitment team has the wrong attitude. If I recall correctly, StorySays (or an other member of staff) said (somewhere, im not too sure where) that the recruitment team pretty much has the opinion literally every hired Helper must become mod otherwise they'd fail. In my opinion, this is sort of nonsense. Even if it takes 6 months before a Helper is Mod, a staffer is a staffer. Next to this, I think they're being to strict. Me and some other people could be a good staff member (and I'm sure some of us applied) yet we have not received anything. They should either become less strict or give feedback instead of ignoring the application; this could come over as demotivating; ''why would I waste my time on a server if they don't care about what I do".

Spoiler: Basketman13

I think they need to ask certain players if they would be interested in joining the staff team. Another possibility is recruiting more helpers to see if they would be a good staff member. Nobody is perfect and I think more players deserve the chance to prove that they are worthy the job. It is okey to make mistakes as a Helper. That's why we have this rank. I did make some mistakes and I learned from those. So I believe in the process of improvement and I hope that the recruitment team follows my idea.

Spoiler: Fisktratt

We all know that CubeCraft is understaffed. They lowered the requirements, but are still searching for too much quality. They should see helper as a testing period/role. If you are suitable, you should get promoted to moderator. If not, you get demoted to member. As it is now, they search for "perfect" members, which is really hard to find. Of course, it needs to be a reliable member. Basically, no one is perfect from the start. I'm pretty sure someone who's not "perfect" from the start, can reach the same level as someone who is. We all learn new things every day.

Spoiler: Waterguy_12

Yeah they could be less strict, as I have said in the forums already, helper doesn't have any real power, so giving more people helper wouldn't hurt much, and if they misbehave they can just be demoted

Spoiler: Ducky Jr

Yes, Cube is looking for too much quality right now, I think they shouldn't be doing that and be a bit more open. Choose people who fit the requirements and then they can learn the stuff from a Mod who do knows the stuff. Keeping the quality this high, will probably result in a longer period of a low amount of staffs. Let people learn from other people and the mistakes they make, that's the key to succes.

Spoiler: Anonymous1

I think that Cubecraft is a little bit too strict in recruiting new helpers Wit the current application form which is in my opinion only statistic-based, I think that you can't really see if someone is suited for the helper function or not. I think Cubecraft should invite almost every application that meets the minimum requirements, except if there is something that disqualifies them from becoming a helper so you can have a better look at the applicant's personality and their abilities to perform the function as a helper. I also think that if you are not sure about an applicant, you can ask them they would do in certain situations or give them a chance as a helper. I understand that you are mostly searching for helper/moderators that speak languages that or not currently in the staff team, but if you look at the Dutch moderators, we currently have 5 dutch moderators and 1 helper. If I submit a Dutch report, it takes 1-7 days to get these reports handled (Yes, it did happen that it took a week to get a Dutch report handled). If I'm playing on Cubecraft, at least 40% of the players seem to be Dutch so I think that Cubecraft should also recruit more helpers in the languages that play a lot on Cubecraft, this also applies to Spanish and Swedish I think.

There were some more people, who wanted to share their opinion, but I think this would be enough of a statement. Leave your opinion in the comments please.

"the other Admin should manage over the Helpers" => Helpers are already managed by other moderators.

Making Helper a learning trial in my opinion isn't possible (it already kind of is), sure the moderators can teach them how the system works, what cheating looks like and various technical information, but they cannot teach maturity, independance and trust.
Maturity and trust are really important, the application requirements are already a trial to test your maturity and ability to communicate with others in the first place, the helper role is then a test of trust and in a way a trial.
I can't give you a tutorial on how to be mature and expect you to be mature in the next few days, that isn't how it works.

Now the comments that you quoted have very good points (points that I agree with):
Basketman13: "Another possibility is recruiting more helpers to see if they would be a good staff member.[...] It is okey to make mistakes as a Helper. That's why we have this rank. I did make some mistakes and I learned from those. So I believe in the process of improvement and I hope that the recruitment team follows my idea." => Although he may have made mistakes as a helper, he was mature enough to be able to handle them which is why maturity is important, recognising that you are wrong is a way better quality than for example denying having done anything wrong.

I agree with the fact that we need more helpers but the real question is that maybe cubecraft isn't getting enough applications. We are a server that is open to a very young audience, I would guess 90% of the playerbase is under 16 years old. Not the best pool of players if you are looking for mature moderators.

My opinion is that sure, we need more helpers, but we still need that level of maturity within the staff team.
If it was up to me, I would expand the /report function to all users, but change the way it works depending on the rank.
The way the current /report works is good for the ranks it works with since it requires a lot of maintenance (supposedly) from the moderators part.
The second way it would work for the stone ranks wouldn't change much from the way it works for the others but you wouldn't call a moderator, these reports would just get updated by "This user has been banned thanks to your report" whenever the user gets detected by the anti-cheat or a mod in game, the report in itself would do nothing to report but would serve as a status update to know if that user got banned and statistics of the use of this command (viewable by admins) could help find those players that are doing well at detecting cheaters in game and send them a message in game congratulating them on their reports and a link to the applications page.
We have a lot of mature players that only use the discord plateform and don't reach the amount of necessary forums posts.
The helper role, in itself doesn't need to change. If users are lacking in technical experience (like using the forums) this is the best role to get accustomed to it.
For me, the issue isn't in our requirements to get staff members but in the way that moderation as a whole is very reliant on staff members being present. Whenever their moderation is made easier with the implementation of new moderation tools their performance is increased and moderating becomes a lot more enjoyable as a whole.

 

[Marieke2001]

I agree with the fact that we need more helpers but the real question is that maybe cubecraft isn't getting enough applications.

I believe they used to get over 200 applies per round. That should be more than enough and still doesn’t give reasons for why Keanu and Elivat aren’t helpers yet

 

[Eli]

I believe they used to get over 200 applies per round. That should be more than enough and still doesn’t give reasons for why Keanu and Elivat aren’t helpers yet

To be fair I haven’t applied nor do I have the age.

 

[Marieke2001]

To be fair I haven’t applied nor do I have the age.

Still though, they should ask you at least. You’re suited and I definitely would’ve recommended you if I were still staff. Overall you behave more like you’re 16 than 14

 

[Story]

Still though, they should ask you at least. You’re suited and I definitely would’ve recommended you if I were still staff. Overall you behave more like you’re 16 than 14

Hiring anyone under the age limit would go against the whole point of having it.

There could be millions of reasons someone isnt being hired, but since we dont know recruitments response we cant just be like "this doesnt make sense!" They obviously have more specific criteria that isnt public.

 

[Marieke2001]

Hiring anyone under the age limit would go against the whole point of having it.

There could be millions of reasons someone isnt being hired, but since we dont know recruitments response we cant just be like "this doesnt make sense!" They obviously have more specific criteria that isnt public.

But that’s what Keanu suggested, give reasons as to why people are being rejected. I applied numerous times, Keanu did. I eventually got accepted but I didn’t knew why the first four times or so my application hadn’t been accepted. If the reason is that I must grow more in maturity, fine i’ll apply again after half a year.