Hesphos - Moderator Application

[Hesphos]

Server Moderator Application

Basic Information

Byond Account: Hesphos

Character Name(s): Frank Pewter (Human), Jamal Griffin (Human), Tan Chuntao (Human) Old Whitelist Characters : Robert DeVasher (Human), Jakob Goldsniff (Human)

AI Name(s): Help Bot 5000 (Robot), Scrub Bot 2000 (Android)

Discord username + tag: Hesphos #2233

Age: 28

Timezone: GMT+1

When are you on Aurora?: Roughly from 10 in the morning to somewhere in the evening, pretty much the entire day when I feel like it. Sometimes deep into the night as well. This is mainly due to the outbreak of Covid-19 which effectively stopped my current job. When we don't have to think about a pandemic murdering us anymore I expect to work from roughly 9 to 5 for 4 days a week.

Experience:  Mobius Hl2rp Staff, Days Gone By HL2rp Co-founder, Falloutrp Staff member, Mobius ss13 Team Leader, D2K5 Admin, D20 Specmod, Lifeweb Assistant Staff.

How long have you played SS13?: Since December 5th, 2010

How long have you played on Aurora: Don't remember, years.

How much do you know about SS13 (Baystation build) game mechanics?: Almost everything, although I have not worked with real ss13 moderator tools for quite some time and the ones I did work with were not on Baystation 13 code.

Do you have any experience moderating for an SS13 server?: Yes.

Have you read through the criteria thread; https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4198 - and believe that you mark off all the criteria?: No, Some of the game modes I've not had a chance to play yet and don't know all that much about. 

Have you ever been banned, and if so, how long and why?: Yes, 24 hours, being rude to staff.

Personality

Why do you play SS13?: To waste time and have fun.

Why do you play on Aurora?: Because so far it's the most stable high RP server that in my opinion has even the slightest modicum of fun related to it. 

What do moderators do?: Stop blatant griefing, help new and old players with mechanical and lore questions/incidents and help organize rounds from Centrals perspective.

What does it mean to be a moderator for our server?: All of the above plus working more as a team. Even though from what I have observed organization can be a bit loose  on Aurora but staff usually works together to complete tickets and organize events too big for just one person to handle.

Why do you want to be a moderator?: I'm not not happy with the direction staff is taking, I left the community for a while after I felt I got shafted really hard. I've let some time pass for me to cool off and pick up Aurora anew. However the recent interactions I've had I felt were not up to the standard that is asked from unbiased hrp staff and instead of barking up the tree yet again I decided, after some careful thought, that the best way to help the community is to become a more integral part of it.

What qualities do you possess that would make you a good moderator?: I've been doing this for a long time in many different kind of communities. Some of which were bad fever dreams compared to Aurora. But I think my biggest quality is that I approach every ticket in the same stoic manner I do all the others. I don't behave differently when I handle an incident simply because I feel sad or happy. I treat them all with the same professional courtesy. And if there is a reason I feel I wont be able to complete a ticket I let this be known to other staff in a clear and concise manner so they can take it instead.

How well do you handle stress, anger, or insults?: The 24 hour ban on record was due to me getting baited into lashing out at a moderator, I won't go into details  but I feel like this isn't a thing that will happen again. Mainly due to me being more calm and collected when on the other side of the fence.

Anything Else You Want to Add:

Yes, I do. Very much so. I strongly feel that Aurora ''admining'' is slowly but surely in decline. To name a recent incident when I was contacted by a staff member that wanted to ask me something I felt extremely belittled. The staffer used sentences to finish a ticket, and this is verbatim, in such a way that made me feel like a child that was barely worth his time to speak a proper sentence to.

''ye, thanks for time friendo''

The same ticket being opened with, again, verbatim.

''i have  questiorino for you friendo''

Aside from being belittled, English is my 2nd language as it is for many others here. Now I have a firm grasp on it but others might not. Starting a ticket like this is in my opinion an extremely bad idea. I have a couple more of these but I don't want to turn this into a novel, you get my point.

Another thing I want to work on is to streamline the implementation of the server rules. They are, as it stands right now, a complete and utter mess. If you want to humor yourself go ahead and press the rules button on the ingame client. You will be greeted by a wall of text that will make any corporate EULA blush. Now don't get me wrong, going into detail isn't bad but right now its just something nobody will actually read and littered with links that by its own admission, are no longer properly maintained. 

I did a test with a friend of mine for fun and copy pasted the entire thing into a STEAM message window. It was just so much that it hit the character limit and one look at the scroll bar said it all, we weren't even a quarter in.

Any new player entering the server and looking at this will not bother to read this, I guarantee it, in fact they might even think it's ridiculous and they won't take the server seriously, which I can hardly blame them for. I want to work on taking every snippet of the rules currently listed like a novel and shorten it to less then a single clean page that barely takes two minutes to read through. Then at the bottom there can be a link to the old rules since... Well let's be honest here, it's more of an in depth and outdated guide with dead links then a quick ruleset at this point.

Please don't get me wrong though, I care for this community and I feel like this might be the only way for me to make a real difference.

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Hesphos

[Hesphos]

Great, amazing, I messed up the formatting, give me a second.

 

edit made

Edited July 19, 2021 by Hesphos

[Vulcenus]

I've known Hesphos for quite a while now, and also had the opportunity to play with him in the server as well as discuss things revolving around it. I'm confident that he fits all the bulletpoints outlined on the Trial Moderator criteria, and believe that he'll be able to contribute to the staff with his point of view as a long time player as well as his past moderation experience. I think he deserves a trial spin, assuming the application can be viewed without bias. +1

Edited July 19, 2021 by Vulcenus

[armrha]

I've played on multiple servers where Hesphos had moderator or admin roles and he was always a level-headed and fair administrator. I'm happy to see him putting time back into Aurora and think he'd be a great addition to the team, certainly at least worth a trial. I'm pretty biased as he's a good friend but for what it's worth currently he's been a moderator on a large gaming discord that I am also a moderator on and we've never had any issues with being heavy-handed or abusing power, just typically keeping a mind on things running smoothly. +1

 

[Garnascus]

I have some concerns regarding this application. As I understand it you recently came back from a break from the game? You seem to have some issues with how our staff team operates and want to change it for the better. It feels as if you're being pretty adversarial to what should be your team mates if you became a trial mod. I mean you quite literally say that certain staff are "not up to standard". How do you expect to be able to work with staff who you feel are so lacking? 

You also detail an interaction you had with a staff member in which you felt belittled. From the wording in the sentence you wrote I reckon it is @Pratepresidenten who said that. "That is just how he is" is an excuse used a lot to excuse abusive and horrible behavior but our very own pratepresidenten is anything but that. He is a living embodiment of OwO, occasionally it gets the better of him but I believe he was just trying to be friendly. 

[Pratepresidenten]

As Garn said, its just my demeanor and attempts to be friendly to make the general bwoink experience less overwhelming and scary as it can be for some people. Im sorry that it caused you discomfort or grief. Ill be sure to have you in mind and only put on my "Strictly business" mindset if we talk in ahelps again!

That being said, good luck on your application!

[Hesphos]

7 hours ago, Garnascus said:

I have some concerns regarding this application. As I understand it you recently came back from a break from the game? You seem to have some issues with how our staff team operates and want to change it for the better. It feels as if you're being pretty adversarial to what should be your team mates if you became a trial mod. I mean you quite literally say that certain staff are "not up to standard". How do you expect to be able to work with staff who you feel are so lacking? 

You also detail an interaction you had with a staff member in which you felt belittled. From the wording in the sentence you wrote I reckon it is @Pratepresidenten who said that. "That is just how he is" is an excuse used a lot to excuse abusive and horrible behavior but our very own pratepresidenten is anything but that. He is a living embodiment of OwO, occasionally it gets the better of him but I believe he was just trying to be friendly. 

Yes, I have a few issues, It's one of the main reasons I decided to try and help out. I've heard the sentiment I have being echoed by other players when I talk to them in and around the game client and instead of sitting on my laurels I decided to try and help steer things into a better direction. Does that mean that when I'm offered to sweep the deck with a mop I walk up to the first mate and throw him overboard so I can take control of the boats wheel? No, no no of course not. I want to work together with the Aurora staff in a constructive and pleasant environment so I can learn from you and you can learn from me.

Aside from that I also want to help out with the tools we use to convey the rules to players. To take the current client rules again as an example, likely written with the best of intentions but sadly they are simply not up to snuff. Does that mean I'm adversarial to the the ones that wrote it? Does that mean my opinion is lowered somehow of the people that invested their own free time to make something that they think will benefit the server? No, again of course not. In the end I simply want to do what you have  already done for a much longer time here. I want to help out to make Aurora a better place to be.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Hesphos

[Alberyk]

After talking with the applicant, we decided to deny this application this application for now. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me in the discord (Alberyk#7868).