Lately I've seen a lot of talk about a helper rank. A helper would, well, help the new players. They would greet guests, encourage them to join, and answer any questions newer members might have. This would increase the amount of new players and make the general attitude towards new players friendlier. The general consensus has been that Helpers would not get any perms or other benefits. This is where I dissagree. Be honest, this job includes a fair amount of work and patience. Would you want to do it if you knew there would be no reward of any kind? Probably not. I'm proposing that Helper be a kind of junior-mod, with more of a focus on helping new players. I feel that there are a few players on the server who genuinely want to help out, but are not quite mature enough to handle Mod powers. Helpers should get perms for chat muting, kicks, and perhaps temp bans lasting no longer then an hour. (I'm not entirely sure if the plugins we currently have can do this, so I apologize if the suggested perms are actually not possible.) This way they could only temporarily deal with misbehaving players, so the concequences of a bad decision or power abuse would be much smaller. It would be left up to the regular mods and admins to decide if a player should be banned longer. Helpers would be chosen if they are friendly and make an obvious effort to help new players, but are not deemed quite mature enough to be mods. In summary, a helper would mainly help with new players and have limited, temporary moderating abilities. If this idea has already been discussed and denied, then I must have overlooked the thread, and you can just ignore this post.
I feel like this is redundant because the mods basically do the same thing, while the admins do the higher tier work.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Maybe just give the ability to mute someone in chat. Also, perhaps the ability to approve applications. (Although I could see that backfiring with people being approved when they really shouldn't be.)
Or we could just have it as a tag, "This person is a helper". If that person truly does like helping, then they will be very pleased when he is bombarded with pms asking for help.
If they are not mature enough to handle MOD duties and perms, then they will not be getting any mute, kick, ban, or accepting app perms. You should be helpful for the sake of being helpful, not for power. If you are not mature enough to be mod, fix your ways and try again next time. The next best thing would be to just give a few helpful people a tag symbolizing they are helpful, so if people need help when there are no staff, or if the staff are busy, players have people they can go to. Maybe a channel where the helpers can talk so that they can discuss how to help people.
Wow, I just saw my entire argument fall apart before my eyes. That said, you guys are right. I understand now why people want a helper rank w/o perms. A superficial award for helping people like a [Helper] tag would be much more appropriate. I shouldn't really refer to it as a reward, but rather as a recognition. The main reason for my post was because I felt that people who are beneficial to the server, but not technically staff, should be acknowledged as such and given some kind of compensation. I'm inclined to just lock this thread now, as it has simply turned into a reiteration of the common consensus. However I think I will wait a bit because I would like to hear some final feedback from everyone.
My impression of the Helper rank was not so much that it would do anything for the Helper, but when a guest sees it they can think, "Oh, I can probably trust this person and they won't mind if I ask them questions." In that sense, Helpers should be every bit as mature as mods/admins, not seen as a stepping stone rank. I do like the idea of setting up a Help chat channel (that guests could use), so non-Helper members can exclude themselves if they want. Assuming the permissions wouldn't be too difficult or cause lag.
That's a good way to look at it. Having people that guest know they can turn to for help would probably increase the number of people who apply after joining for the first time. However, I don't think adding an extra channel specifically for guests' questions would be of much use. People barely use the Help Me channel anyways, so perhaps we could just change perms so that guests could talk in the Help Me channel. If regular members got annoyed by all the questions, they could simply do /ch leave h. I think a better way to implement a new channel would be to make a helper only channel, like sharq proposed. On it, helpers could discuss common questions and problems that guests have, as well as suggestions for how to properly respond to guests.
There already is a /ch help channel. We just need to give guests permission to use it. I would really like that Helper rank. I'm pretty sure the little midgets would bombard the helpers with questions. :3 I'm sure it'll help the server. Honestly, some players need to be recognized as more than just a regular one.
Guests don't know chat channels though. If they did, they'd have read the guide. The only reason they'd read that is if they applied. I don't really think there needs to be a rank, even if it's just a badge saying [HELPER]. If you're friendly and helpful, a guest will be able to tell you're a helper.
Kind of off topic, but I think applying for the server should be harder to prevent stupid people from griefing, but not too hard that people ragequit/leave.
Trust me, the current spawn is good enough to keep out a lot of the stupider guests that join Shadecrest. I can't tell you how many times I've watched a guest go back and forth between the signs and the wool room for literally ten minutes before spamming chat and ragequitting. The sad part is, these are the guest that I actually try to explain the process to. I think the spawn box is fairly idiot-resistant.
Ok, just wondering. Back on topic though, I think some kind of helper tag would be useful. I remember that when I used to join a new server I felt really awkward because I didn't know who to go to if I had a general question. I know a mod or admin is the obvious choice, but it can be a bit embarrassing if you are concerned about feeling like an idiot. If someone has the job to be proactive and approach guests first, I believe there would be less awkwardness in the situation for the guest. Also, a helper tag would denote them to the guest as someone who will probably respond in a friendly and helpful way.
xD I meant that helpers should approach guests and ask them if they need any help. I probably should have worded that more clearly
I know. My main point was about how guests feel when joining a new server. (or at least how I felt when I did) The bit about helpers approaching the guests was just an example of something they could do to make it less awkward