1. People responding to applications based upon assumptions with little to no evidence to back up their claims.
   
2. Individuals who have not been on the server in weeks at a time who suddenly reappear to comment on an application when they themselves have not seen how the individual behaves while online.
   
3. People responding to applications when they have only played with the applicant once within a timespan of a month.
   
4. People responding to applicants with information they have gathered solely from prior comments on the application.
   
5. People responding on applications based upon their personal feelings about an individual.
   
   

(11-03-2020, 09:08 PM)Starling Wrote: I am going to start this is by stating I am not the only one worked on this post. I am the one posting this thread since I was going to include my resignation alongside this post, but enjoy the community and the friends I have made here to leave just yet. I will discuss this topic within further details near the end of this post.

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First topic: Application responses.

 I've been here for a little bit over a year now, this is not a new issue that has suddenly sprung up but it is one that we have never seen get brought up. although responding to applications relies on a portion of your opinion, it has started to become glaringly obvious that some individuals are responding solely on their opinion usually to -1 the individual. Even if the individual in question shows promise at becoming a great addition to the team, individuals will hold grudges or minor incidents against said applicant to hinder their chances of becoming staff. It has also become noticeable that within the community, people are banding together to -1 an individual they all share mutual opinions on, even when only one individual in the group has ever directly interacted with said individual.

I don't read enough PH staff apps to know if this is factual. If the above is true, then we clearly haven't learned anything from this. No other comment is needed.

These are some of the problematic and biased responses we have noticed:

1. People responding to applications based upon assumptions with little to no evidence to back up their claims.
   
2. Individuals who have not been on the server in weeks at a time who suddenly reappear to comment on an application when they themselves have not seen how the individual behaves while online.
   
3. People responding to applications when they have only played with the applicant once within a timespan of a month.
   
4. People responding to applicants with information they have gathered solely from prior comments on the application.
   
5. People responding on applications based upon their personal feelings about an individual.
   
   

We are suggesting that the requirements for comments on applications be reworked in order to prevent comments such as above from hindering individuals who show promise while applying for staff. Sort of confused as to how a bad response to an application hinders the applicant as opposed to the person who posted said response.

1. This has been, and always will be, a problem. A lot of people here like to jump to conclusions because of hearsay and rumors without actually knowing/playing with the individual.
2. "I haven't been around enough recently to comment on your application, +0" These types of comments are about as useless as a toothbrush for whales.
3. No comment needed
4. See 1
5. Of course, people who are friends with an applicant should try their hardest to remain non-biased, but I also think being friends with that person gives you an insight to their true character that not everybody else gets to see.

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Second topic: Opinions.
Now this topic is something we wish to point to the members of the PH staff who have yet to notice this.

 It pertains to how the ways  a select few of PH staff members respond to a situation is negatively effecting the community. From responding with harsh criticism to an individual's opinion to becoming defensive when they discover that others have a different opinion than their own, It has reached a point where members of the community are unwilling to share their opinion for fear of how people will respond. Now it is no secret that certain members of the PH staff team can have a temper, but now it is effecting the community's willingness to share their suggestions for the server for fear that they will be met with harsh criticism and shut down outright.

This is something that is not exclusive to PH in any way, but it is sad to see that it's been allowed to reach this level. TTT is the same way, with people who's opinions differ from the hiveminds (hmmm) of the server being targeted. I'm extremely disappointed, but not surprised to hear that some of this is coming from the staff team.

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Third topic: Reputations.
This topic pertains more so towards the first topic, particularly "People responding to applications when they have only played with the applicant once within a timespan of a month." as well as developing an opinion of an individual based on the opinion of others.

Now I'll start this topic off based upon my personal experience with it. I myself know that specific members on the staff team do not like me, it is quite clear. But now it has reached a point where those who I rarely play on server with nor personally talked to have developed a negative image of me. This topic will be further addressed later on in this post. Because of this, I have started to limit my interactions with certain staff members outside of the server. Normally I do not care about how others perceive me, but now the slander has begun to effect my relationships within the community as well as my applications. I'll use this as an example, I am sorry if the image is a tad blurry.





This would not the first time someone forgot to copy and paste the results on the friend command into the staff chat when there are people not within the VC. It happens. What  should not be happening but is, is that people are taking instances like this, a simple request, and twisting it to create a negative image of an individual. Instead of coming to me to see if they misread the tone, people are making assumptions that I am typing in an aggressive manner and spreading an image of me that I am someone who always has an attitude. Now this would be a tad different if the individuals making these claims were around me enough to get to know me personally, but the ones who are making these claims are around me for less than 5 hours out of the 730 hours there are each month. And incase you are wondering, I have been keeping track of how long I've been around each staff member for the past three months  just for this post. stalker

Can someone please explain why replies from those who barely interact with the applicant carry more weight compared to those who interact and play with the individual on a daily basis?

That's just the way the cookie crumbles, bucko.

In all seriousness, I believe I have a legitimate answer for this. Assuming that the PH staff team runs like I know it used to, Fish is the only one accepting apps and really has no way of knowing who's been on with someone and who hasn't unless he's told these things. I don't know that anybody's reply carries more weight than someone else's, but I'm looking from the outside in, so...

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Fourth Topic: The incident.
With this topic, I am going to explain why I was considering resigning from the PH staff team. As the name implies, The PH staff is suppose to function as a team unit. While we all do manage to work together as a team while staffing on the server, the Ph staff team has begun to feel as if it is forming into a clique. After recent events pertaining myself and another PH staff member, Myself and other members have noticed that I am often excluded from the group and given the cold shoulder when I do try to include myself with the other staff members. Oh boy, is it PH's turn?

So let me explain my side since I've been hearing from multiple people now that they were told by said individual that they were only removed from my personal discord because I just hate them, which is far from the truth. About a month ago now, I was informed by an individual within Dink's community that a PH staff member had come to them once they had learned that said individual had a crush on me. They were told that the staff member had concerns about this and wanted to discuss the topic privately. Their "concerns" turned out to be telling the individual that I was ,in lighter terms than what was used, a guy hopper and that I only play games to chat with guys. Which if you personally knew me, you would know these accusations are far from the truth. 

No one ever came to get my side of the story, even the ones who I considered close friends and the upper staff who I did go to about these rumors did not seem to care enough to do anything about them. Nothing was ever done about this, and I've been left to deal with the aftermath of these rumors on my own. Dealing with this for the past two months has been having a negative impact on both my mental and emotional health, hence why I was considering just cutting myself out of this problem all together. Honestly, I care too much about the community to leave at this moment so I'll be sticking around for a bit longer.

Unfortunately, this is a common thing in the internet world. People stir up bullshit and cause drama just because they can, and because they can, they must. Once some mouth-breather spreads a rumor about you, true or not, nobody asks you for your side or anything like that, they just believe whatever is told to them. I've had the misfortune of being on both sides of that coin, and it's not fun. The upper staff not doing anything should come as no surprise to anyone who's been in the community longer than 5 minutes. There's a reason the upper staff are subject to ridicule every time somebody even thinks of them.

On the topic of people you considered close friends either not doing anything or leaving you, fuck them. If they were really your friends, they'd be there for you when you need it.

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 So yea, this covers the gist of everything. I'm honestly expecting quite a bit of backlash for this post, which is why I was debating on posting a resignation alongside this but ya'll are still stuck with me till I feel it is time to migrate. 

-A little bird

Backlash for telling the truth? Very plausible imo

1. People responding to applications based upon assumptions with little to no evidence to back up their claims. This has happened a lot honestly, not just in PH though. It's a sad reality and trying to get the whole truth is a major hassle to be straight about it. 
   
2. Individuals who have not been on the server in weeks at a time who suddenly reappear to comment on an application when they themselves have not seen how the individual behaves while online. I am somewhat guilty of this, due to occupation I can't always see players on server and go off of they're  behavior in community such as forums and discord. 
   
3. People responding to applications when they have only played with the applicant once within a timespan of a month. I don't see this as an issue considering it's someone's personal experience.
   
4. People responding to applicants with information they have gathered solely from prior comments on the application. That indeed is a bad habit circulating. 
   
5. People responding on applications based upon their personal feelings about an individual. One of the points for having community members comment is to get personal insight. Being someone's friend isn't a crime, nor is wanting them to get something. It takes more than a few +1 from friends to get staff, hell look at my original Tmod app, of the 8 responses only 2 were a +1 and It still got approved.  Could be a bad example but still.