Guides

[Diffuse]

First let me say that I understand that my view is limited and that I know that it is not really my place to criticize staff.

For as long as I can remember guides have been the second lowest staff position, their job being to assign petitions to the proper people, helping new players, using h chat to use their vast knowledge of herocraft for the bettering of the community, and answering PEs that are too low for mods or admins to do (at least this is what I think their jobs are).

I cannot say how much the guides do for the petition work as I have no access to that information, but from my observations a lot of guides are failing to answer questions constantly or help new players. Often I see questions go unanswered in h chat while many guides are online and I don't think I have ever seen a single thing said in /ch tour. A lot of guides, it seem to me, have been given the position because of their being a veteran and a trusted member of the community. While this does matter a lot for staff positions, the position of guide should require more.

A few suggestions:

-Remove guides that just are not doing their job. I've seen bankers, proctors, and admins all lose their position due to not doing their job or not representing the server well, yet I have never seen a guide be demoted.

-Recruit based on what you can see in h chat, not whether the person is a long standing member of the community.

-While I am not sure of how much knowledge is required to be a good guide, please make sure that the guides are all up to date with rules and other basic herocraft knowledge. It pains me to see when guides sometimes give conflicting answers to questions even if the question isn't one that should be left open to player interpretation.

-Recruit some more guides that are from different time zones. I have been online at really late times (PST) and I almost never see any guides on. Meanwhile when I am online during the day I see over 5 guides on at the same time. I've also noticed that at night there seems to be more newer players on.



I feel that guides are the most overlooked staff position that old players get and then just sit on comfortably without having to worry about their job. There are a good number of guides that do their job well, but there also seems to be a good number that don't. It is very disappointing when I see many questions go unanswered in h chat while guides are online or when non guides answer questions more than guides do.

I don't want this to seem like I am attacking all the guides. A lot of you do an excellent job and are a great addition to the community. I just want that reputation to stay constant with every guide and make it a position where excellence is rewarded and incompetence is punished.

 

[OrangeAngel]

Well. Isn't this an interesting post. I agree at some points, but removing too many Guides? Hell no, who would handle PE's? We would have to bust our asses on handling the PE's making sure everyone is correctly assigned. Were not the only ones able to help new players. IF you see a new player asking for help then help them. We cannot get to every new player we see. As for /ch tour... most people don't even know about the channel and there is no fast way for guides to check who is new. I agree that some may or may not be doing their jobs, but I am not as active as I used to be. Anyways help new players, help everyone that is a Guide's job. I would hope since every guide has then been in a position of trust and responsibility they would do such a job.

Suggestion for Kainzo
Give a command that allows guides to see player's ingame names if they have been whitelisted for under 3-4 days.

 

[Kainzo]

We've demoted several guides and any staff member that isn't put forth the effort.

 

[applelove]

The only thing I would suggest is to stop using a person's effort as a proctor to promote them to guide. Being a good proctor does not make a user a good guide. As it is, proctor has become a gateway position that people only 'suffer' because they want to move to guide, eventually. This makes for a lot of terrible proctors.
Beyond that, my opinion is extremely biased, so I will shut up.

 

[Kainzo]

The only thing I would suggest is to stop using a person's effort as a proctor to promote them to guide. Being a good proctor does not make a user a good guide. As it is, proctor has become a gateway position that people only 'suffer' because they want to move to guide, eventually. This makes for a lot of terrible proctors.
Beyond that, my opinion is extremely biased, so I will shut up.

I think you're right Apple. I think making a Proctor staff track would be a good idea.

Proctor -> Senior Proctor -> Mod
Guide -> Senior Guide -> Mod
Sound good?

 

[applelove]

As long as I can steal Brutal's job away from him, it's perfect <3
But yes, I like that much better than our current system. Not entirely sure of the Proctor -> Mod progression, though. Even in your example there, it seems like it's an honorary promotion.

 

[Kainzo]

As long as I can steal Brutal's job away from him, it's perfect <3
But yes, I like that much better than our current system. Not entirely sure of the Proctor -> Mod progression, though. Even in your example there, it seems like it's an honorary promotion.

You may be right - I'll look into refining our system to better serve us and our staff-like players

 

[Plasma78]

The only thing I would suggest is to stop using a person's effort as a proctor to promote them to guide. Being a good proctor does not make a user a good guide. As it is, proctor has become a gateway position that people only 'suffer' because they want to move to guide, eventually. This makes for a lot of terrible proctors.
Beyond that, my opinion is extremely biased, so I will shut up.

This is sooo true, many proctors simply whitelist, quanity over quality and hope to get guide then suffer thro that as well to get mod or etc. Two thumbs up @applelove !!

This is how we get a great community and grow, the proctors/guides go thro the applications and attempt to get the best to add to our awesomeness. To weed out the bad players or ones that will cause issues for players/staff.

( side note: I think that any applicant should have to come here to our forums to apply, its free to create an account, and it shows they want to be a part of Herocraft a bit more then copying a few lines on mcforums. Just my two bits..)

I think you're right Apple. I think making a Proctor staff track would be a good idea.

Proctor -> Senior Proctor -> Mod
Guide -> Senior Guide -> Mod
Sound good?

Maybe possibly:

NewbProctor -> Proctor ->Senior Proctor -> Mod
NewbGuide ->Guide-> Senior Guide -> Mod

With current new players coming in alot of them ask questions and for the most part you can see who is 'putting out the effort' staff wise.

Instead of a command like suggested above, perhaps change /ch tour to a new player channel which they are defaulted to.
Have a few line of auto greet etc, welcome to Herocraft, etc. We could join that channel and via /ch who see whose new etc. and guide/give advice from there, and along with /ch help.


In the end, its about helping our community to grow and stay number 1 across the board.

Wooot HeroCraft !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cybersword]

I agree with everything that's been said so far, except for the Proctor -> Mod progression. I do believe that mod should have experience with whitelisting, though proctor should not lead directly into mod under any circumstance. Proctor alone just doesn't give enough experience or grounds for a promotion to mod. (Including Plasma's idea)

 

[applelove]

Personally, I don't think that any positions should lead directly to mod. I'd like to see the mod position handled a bit more like admin is, offered to the staff members who are handpicked for their hard work and qualities.
Users should be applying for a particular position because THAT position suits them, and not just because it leads to moderator.

But, Professor Kain is on the case now, so we'll see something new pretty soon.

( side note: I think that any applicant should have to come here to our forums to apply, its free to create an account, and it shows they want to be a part of Herocraft a bit more then copying a few lines on mcforums. Just my two bits..)

Maybe possibly:
NewbProctor -> Proctor ->Senior Proctor -> Mod
NewbGuide ->Guide-> Senior Guide -> Mod

Side note: I don't think this is a wise idea. The benefits of having them apply here instead of on the MC forums are great, but it comes with a loss of traffic for our MC forum thread. Our applicants happily bump the thread daily. Unless you want to suggest that the proctor team be responsible for pimping our thread every day? I'm cool with that.

Maybe possibly:
I'm not so sure a detailed hierarchy is necessary. Your proposed system would allow us to track new staff and sort of "trial" them to see if they're cut out for the job, but beyond that I don't see how making the distinction will really benefit the system. It would be just as easy to have the senior/head proctor/guide be responsible for watching new staff in their field's progress, and taking care of the relevant tasks (promotions, demotions, etc.)

 

[Dazureus]

This was a little puzzling for me- why do I need to be Proctor before Guide? If this is changing, I'll breathe a little life into my old Guide app and give it another shot.

Although I think I would be a decent Proctor I feel much more suited to being a Guide. And I've been here too long to not give back. :<