11-04-2020, 07:43 AM
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.
These are some of the problematic and biased responses we have noticed:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- People responding to applicants with information they have gathered solely from prior comments on the application. That indeed is a bad habit circulating.
- 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.
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. I feel attacked.
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. Impressive.
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?
I believe this deals more with community presence or familiarity.
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 supposed 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. (I think part of this is due to continually interaction with each other, similar to going through rough times together builds a bond) 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.
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 is unavailable, he's off on some adventure with his band or something.
My comments may be useless or of no value. Just throwing 2cents in. I apologize for bad spelling stuff, I'm on my phone.