Personally, I also think the applications should be submitted in a sub-forum rather than a google form. Here's why:
1. The applicants can organize the text in their answers better.
- There is a question on the application asking about your skills. Some applicants might decide to go into details and answer multiple questions - ''What skills do I have?'', ''What about my work on the server proves I have these skills?'', ''How will these skills help me become a good staff member?''. If they do, they might find it difficult to organize their text on a google form, since they cannot use any kind of text formatting (use spoilers, bold, italic, change font size, etc). They can only use different paragraphs.
2. The Helper recruitment team would be able to easily give feedback to
good applicants, instead of having to create conversations in order to do it.
- Don't get me wrong, thinking about where you have gone wrong and re-evaluating yourself is an important thing, and that part of the application process should definitely remain being a thing. BUT, I strongly support giving feedback to those applicants who meet the minimum requirements (some of them meet these requirements multiple times), have been applying for a long time and have obviously been trying to improve their work. Just like the staff team needs suggestions from members to improve their games, that's how your applicants may also run out of ideas at some point. and would like to hear some advice from other people. Now, what exactly is good about giving feedback to applicants?
- It shows respect and appreciation to the work of the applicant.
- It motivates the applicant to continue working and improving. It motivates them to not give up. Because, let's be real for a second - If your application gets denied over 10 times, you've spent tons of hours writing your application, thinking about where you might have gone wrong, tons of hours interacting with the community, creating quality messages/threads, creating reports, and then you don't even receive the shortest message as an answer to your application, how would you feel? What would you think? It's true that Helper is just a rank, and you do not need it to be a true Helper of the community, but it is a rank that gives you many opportunities. Opportunities to do even more for the server and the community. More than you can do as a normal member. That being said, if you are an applicant that truly loves the community and are passionate about the server, you would definitely think for yourself: ''Is there any point to continue trying? They obviously do not want me, I tried over 10 times. They showed me that after everything I have done and do, I do not deserve an opportunity.'' It is true that you probably won't give up on applying and doing good for the community even though you feel this way, but do you deserve to feel this way? Don't think so.
- It will show the Helper recruitment team how the applicant is able to handle feedback. Will the applicant accept the criticism and work on improving using the feedback that has been given to them? That is also important because as a staff member, one of your duties is to look through suggestions, receive and give feedback.
3. You will know who has submitted the application and when they have submitted it. That means no more fake, troll applications or if someone decides to submit loads of useless responses to the form, they would not be able to do that, because you will be able to see who is spamming applications and punish the forum user. Currently, literally everyone can access the application form, even if they do not have a forums account. What's the point in wasting time to review these applications?
4. You should be able to make it so only forum members that meet a certain Helper requirement would be able to access the sub-forum for submitting applications. That means no more applications from people who do not meet most, if not all of the minimum requirements. That's saving up a lot of time. Time that you can use to give feedback to good applicants instead.