[Accepted] ben10083's CCIA Application

Basic Information

Byond key: ben10083

Character names: Carl Smith, B.O.B (and B.O.B 2.0), S.A.M, I-AN, SE-B, and W.A.R.

Age: 16

Timezone: EST (Eastern Standard Time)

What times are you most available?: I am usually on between 9:30 am - 4:10 pm in the summer, otherwise, after summer vacation I am done usually after 3 pm. These times vary depending on my job's hours.

Experience

How long have you played SS13?: I have been playing SS13 for around 2-3 years, I do not know the exact time.

How long have you played on Aurora?: I have been playing on the Aurora almost as soon as I got in SS13.

How active on the forums, discord and/or server are you? I am usually on almost every day, however when it comes to forums I usually only check it daily, however, if I was given this position I will check forums more often. For discord, I am usually on every day.

Have you ever been banned, and if so, how long and why?:

Synthban #1 (week); Cause; Various small failures about follow borg and ai laws leading to a synthban. Synthban #2 (unknown) Cause; Banned via misunderstandings regarding a miner who died while I was treating him, was successfully repealed via staff complaint.

Have you ever volunteered as moderation staff for any other servers, SS13 or otherwise?: I have not.

Do you have any other experience that you believe would be relevant to a position in the CCIA?: Nothing comes into mind which may relate to any positions in the CCIA.

Personality

Why do you want to join the CCIA?: The CCIA staff role has the unique task to deal with problems that can not/should not be solved in ooc ways, they are responsible to be one of the most important people in the game, now don't get me wrong this is not why I decided to apply for the CCIA. I applied for the CCIA because I feel that I will be better suited for the CCIA than for other staff roles, and I feel that CCIA will be more enjoyable for me than other staff roles. When I failed my 2nd moderator app I decided to wonder if I truly wanted to continue trying to become a moderator, as such I decided to look into other staff roles and more deeply into the moderator role to decide if I will truly enjoy being a moderator, after thinking about it I decided that perhaps I should not be a moderator since I will have to know whatever is going on at any time instead of focusing on enjoying the game, and when I realised that I knew that the role was not for me at this time. I feel that if I join the CCIA I will be able to strike the perfect balance between being able to help contribute more to this community and to also be able to continue enjoying this game.

What do you think are the most important qualities for a CCIA Agent to possess?: A CCIA Agent has many qualities they need to have in order to truly succeed as a CCIA Agent. A CCIA Agent must be able to be unbiased in their decision making, they must excel with their RP skills when it comes to investigating IRs (Incident Reports) and responding to Centcom faxes. A CCIA Agent must also be able to remain calm and maintain healthy levels of stress, they must also be able to work usually completely by themselves and must be very knowledgeable with station directives and regulations and how they affect the game.

What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is in an ongoing round?: A CCIA Agent is responsible during rounds to send out Centcom notices regarding directives and other information to ensure the crew is knowledgeable of applicable directives. They are also tasked with the very important duty as acting as Centcom in terms of when reports come to the Odin from Aurora regarding station events, and they must ensure they respond in a realistic and appropriate manner, they remain in the sidelines for rounds and usually only have impact in the round in very specific cases and/or when they are interviewing people regarding IRs.

What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is outside of the server?: CCIA Agents are responsible to be active on the forums and help make policy suggestions into the game if they have enough merit, they are also tasked with the massive task of dealing with IRs on the forums. When it comes to IRs they must first ensure it is not an OOC problem typically by contacting their liaison to ensure an antag is not a target of the IR, they will then investigate the IR as ICly as possible by scheduling an interview and using information almost exclusively from the IR and interviews to make a decision that is fair and unbiased.

How do you handle stress?: When it comes to stress as long as I do not give myself too much work I should be fine, however if I make mistakes I may get a little stressed, if I feel my stress will what I am doing I will usually take a breather and possibly ask others for assistance, however given that the CCIA usually works autonomously I will simply just cool myself off (figuratively of course) and then get back to work.

How well do you work autonomously?: When it comes to working by myself I usually will be fine as long as I am aware of what to do and how I should handle certain situations, if there is anything that I feel I have insufficient knowledge on I will likely contact a fellow CCIA member to assist me if I need to, however that is only a last resort if I honestly feel I cannot correctly handle a situation. I will almost certainly ask many questions if I was accepted to ensure I do everything right and minimize mistakes.

Additional Notes: I am aware my previous two denied mod applications make likely cause a negative impact on this app so I will address it here. Regarding the 1st one, that was a long time ago and I have changed a lot since then, and my 2nd one also led to me improving myself, even if this application ends up being denied I will use this feedback to improve myself even more.

Edit; I have made many mistakes regarding my first draft and I apologise profusely, I had work soon at the time of the first draft which made me type insufficient answers, I was worried if I put it off until after work that I would forget what I was doing and end up making more mistakes than I would have otherwise. What I did was unwise and I implore anyone who has read this already to go over it again as it has been greatly revised. I understand that the first draft will likely still have an impact of the decision of this application and I will understand if I am thought to be unfit to become a CCIA Agent. I will likely respond to any feedback I have if I feel like it needs to be addressed, so feedback is greatly requested.

First off, I do not want to be that guy, but I'd like to point out the responses you've received to your moderator application, which you made on the 27th of May. The link can be found here:

https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=11244

It'd be wise to give this a gander before continuing on.

I am aware my previous two denied mod applications make likely cause a negative impact on this app so I will address it here. Regarding the 1st one, that was a long time ago and I have changed alot since then, and my 2nd one also led to me improving myself, even if this applications ends up being denied I will use this feedback to improve myself even more.

I am willing to disregard most of your first application, as it was older than the second, but the second one was made on the May 27th, that's about a month and 12 days from the date I'm typing this. I do not believe too much that you can pull the "I've learned a lot from it" card, considering that the responses you received were about the bwoinks you've had. If you'd "learn from it", you'd have learned from it at the times of your confrontations/bwoinks.

The second thing that I see in your application is an abundance of grammatical errors, as well as typos. As the entire job of CCIA is communication, both IC and OOC, this is a lot less than acceptable, really. You should pay more attention to them, it's one of the major problems in your application.

Apart from that, I find the "If this application ends up being denied, I will use this feedback to improve myself even more." part rather cute, but your mod application being denied, and your second mod application being somewhat lacking like this one gives me a sort of vibe that's telling me that you're applying to become a CCIA because you've been denied by the moderator team, and that you're trying out the other option.

Hey, I might be wrong, but CCIA and Moderation teams have a lot more to them than pretty Discord/in-game colours and verbs. CCIAA are not really lite-moderators. Some might argue that we are just that, but I digress. They're two entirely different branches of staff.

Apart from that, RP is pretty crucial to being CCIA. Incident Reports and whatnot must be conducted seriously. I don't really believe that in your current state, you can carry out a successful interview, or type a fax in return to something obscene, akin to:

Either way, in its current state, and in yours, I cannot really support this application. I suggest that you take a short break from applying to staff positions for a short while, and change the views about you in-game. Sorry if I am being a bit too blunt. Have a nice one.

-1

This is a rushed application and rushed papers tells people that this person is not interested or lazy to do the job. Could you tell us more about your application in details. Feel free to read the "secret" over at ToasterRoboto's application. I know you can type up paragraphs, but for some reason you didn't. Once you've done this, we can talk.

I will address criticism one person at a time to maintain organization.

[mention]Eve[/mention],

I am willing to disregard most of your first application, as it was older than the second, but the second one was made on the May 27th, that's about a month and 12 days from the date I'm typing this. I do not believe too much that you can pull the "I've learned a lot from it" card, considering that the responses you received were about the bwoinks you've had. If you'd "learn from it", you'd have learned from it at the times of your confrontations/bwoinks.

Regarding this first point, I was referring to the feedback of one of the members of the community, who said that my characters were over the top and unmemorable. I would be foolish to attempt to say I learned from my bwoinks only when I was confronted with them, I am aware that the notes I have put me in a negative light but I assure you they do not make me unable to perform the duties of a CCIA Agent and I do not ignore the rules.

The second thing that I see in your application is an abundance of grammatical errors, as well as typos. As the entire job of CCIA is communication, both IC and OOC, this is a lot less than acceptable, really. You should pay more attention to them, it's one of the major problems in your application.

Regarding this second point, I am aware that I have a serious problem when it comes to typing too fast and proofreading, as such at the time of writing this I am utilizing a system to assist me with grammar and spelling mistakes. I have also correct hopefully all of the grammar and spelling mistakes of the application, but if I have not I apologize and will correct them.

Apart from that, I find the "If this application ends up being denied, I will use this feedback to improve myself even more." part rather cute, but your mod application being denied, and your second mod application being somewhat lacking like this one gives me a sort of vibe that's telling me that you're applying to become a CCIA because you've been denied by the moderator team, and that you're trying out the other option.

I understand that I am giving the impression that I am only trying to be a CCIA because I may think that it is easier to get in than applying for moderator, but I assure you that that is not the reason I applied for CCIA and if you would reread my application you will see that I have more clearly stated my reasons for applying.

Apart from that, RP is pretty crucial to being CCIA. Incident Reports and whatnot must be conducted seriously. I don't really believe that in your current state, you can carry out a successful interview, or type a fax in return to something obscene, akin to; The station security has been overwhelmed by sexual cultists

I understand your concerns, and I assure you that I think I am able to carry out the tasks required to perform my duties as a CCIA Agent. If you would like, I can DM you or reply on this application what my response would be to such a fax if you would like.

[mention]UnknownMurder[/mention], regarding your complaints as will be stated below;

This is a rushed application and rushed papers tells people that this person is not interested or lazy to do the job. Could you tell us more about your application in details. Feel free to read the "secret" over at ToasterRoboto's application. I know you can type up paragraphs, but for some reason you didn't. Once you've done this, we can talk.

Overall, I implore both UnknownMurder and Eve to reread my application as I have greatly improved it and I implore you to give me second chance.

I'm going to skip over basic information. That's not my concern. I'm more concerned more toward to "how well can you work in a team". Oh, by the way. That wasn't a complaint, that was a second chance for you. Now that I've given you a second chance, I'm not going to let you off that easy instead I'm going to play devil's advocate to see if you know basic foundation of CCIAA. I just now noticed one glaring mistake on your thread title shining out to all of us, Re: ben10083's CCIA Moderator. We are not moderators, just keep that in mind.

Why do you want to join the CCIA?: The CCIA staff role has the unique task to deal with problems that can not/should not be solved in ooc ways, they are responsible to be one of the most important people in the game, now don't get me wrong this is not why I decided to apply for the CCIA. I applied for the CCIA because I feel that I will be better suited for the CCIA than for other staff roles, and I feel that CCIA will be more enjoyable for me than other staff roles. When I failed my 2nd moderator app I decided to wonder if I truly wanted to continue trying to become a moderator, as such I decided to look into other staff roles and more deeply into the moderator role to decide if I will truly enjoy being a moderator, after thinking about it I decided that perhaps I should not be a moderator since I will have to know whatever is going on at any time instead of focusing on enjoying the game, and when I realised that I knew that the role was not for me at this time. I feel that if I join the CCIA I will be able to strike the perfect balance between being able to help contribute more to this community and to also be able to continue enjoying this game.

From what I understand from this, you want to find ways of how you want to be involved in assisting the community. I applaud you for making reasonable efforts to find different ways to contribute to the community. Though, Central Command Internal Affairs Agent means that you are becoming a staff member. However, Eve brought up something interesting and understand that it wouldn't make sense for a staff member to hold tons of notes and were banned recently. Many players were prevented from becoming a staff due to this. What are your thoughts on that? What would you do if we decide to reject this application due to this reason?

What do you think are the most important qualities for a CCIA Agent to possess?: A CCIA Agent has many qualities they need to have in order to truly succeed as a CCIA Agent. A CCIA Agent must be able to be unbiased in their decision making, they must excel with their RP skills when it comes to investigating IRs (Incident Reports) and responding to Centcom faxes. A CCIA Agent must also be able to remain calm and maintain healthy levels of stress, they must also be able to work usually completely by themselves and must be very knowledgeable with station directives and regulations and how they affect the game.

You are not required to have high RP skills to investigate Incident Report. You are right, there are many qualities for CCIA to truly succeed. I feel as this is becoming common keywords (be unbiased, calm, not be stressed, be independent, know regulation/directives) for important qualities for a CCIA to possess across many applications. Do you think you can come up more unique ones from your mind that are not on applications?

What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is in an ongoing round?: A CCIA Agent is responsible during rounds to send out Centcom notices regarding directives and other information to ensure the crew is knowledgeable of applicable directives. They are also tasked with the very important duty as acting as Centcom in terms of when reports come to the Odin from Aurora regarding station events, and they must ensure they respond in a realistic and appropriate manner, they remain in the sidelines for rounds and usually only have impact in the round in very specific cases and/or when they are interviewing people regarding IRs.

We have a fancy machine to send out Centcom notices regarding directives and another information. You are correct, CCIAA are tasked with making a response in a realistic and appropriate manner, but not all responses are required. CCIAAs are indeed required to sit in the sidelines and arrive when they are interviewing other people. I want to quiz you on this, what are possible situations is a CCIAA allowed to board the station?

What do you think the purpose of a CCIA Agent is outside of the server?: CCIA Agents are responsible to be active on the forums and help make policy suggestions into the game if they have enough merit, they are also tasked with the massive task of dealing with IRs on the forums. When it comes to IRs they must first ensure it is not an OOC problem typically by contacting their liaison to ensure an antag is not a target of the IR, they will then investigate the IR as ICly as possible by scheduling an interview and using information almost exclusively from the IR and interviews to make a decision that is fair and unbiased.

When you say "CCIA Agents are responsible to be active on the forums and help make policy suggestions into the game if they have enough merit", what did you mean by this? Yes, the basic process of an incident report is correct. There are little more details between the cracks but I don't need to quiz you on this because it's a bureaucracy red tapes thing. Putting aside the work load, I noticed that you tried to avoid social interactions in your answer. Suppose if we hire you, how would you behave yourself in general? You can start off with explaining how you think you behave in discord with other players and how you hope to learn and overcome the behavior? I know basic sociology that it is hard to change habits and the way you are not implying you're a malicious/ill-mannered person.

How do you handle stress?: When it comes to stress as long as I do not give myself too much work I should be fine, however if I make mistakes I may get a little stressed, if I feel my stress will what I am doing I will usually take a breather and possibly ask others for assistance, however given that the CCIA usually works autonomously I will simply just cool myself off (figuratively of course) and then get back to work.

Taking a breather and asking people for assistance is a bonus point from me but your next sentence fragment is an eyebrow raising for me. How will you cool off? Will you abandon the task, push the task on others, seek for advice, wait for the right timing, seek for more assistance, etc.?

How well do you work autonomously?: When it comes to working by myself I usually will be fine as long as I am aware of what to do and how I should handle certain situations, if there is anything that I feel I have insufficient knowledge on I will likely contact a fellow CCIA member to assist me if I need to, however that is only a last resort if I honestly feel I cannot correctly handle a situation. I will almost certainly ask many questions if I was accepted to ensure I do everything right and minimize mistakes.

When you work alone as a CCIAA, you start having the hook of the habit and come to an realization of how you will do your job. The job is very repetitive and many CCIAAs that resigns usually gets bored of it, not wanting to do more of their job, or just stressed with real life business. Though, you will be trained and have the same respect as any other CCIAAs even at a trial status. How long do you think you can stay on? Contact me on discord once you've done so and in time, I will read it over, take it to CCIAA members, and discuss it.

Hello, I will be responding to [mention]UnknownMurder[/mention]'s questions.

Many players were prevented from becoming a staff due to this. What are your thoughts on that? What would you do if we decide to reject this application due to this reason?

Regarding the 'tons' of notes; from what I was able to gather in terms of what my notes were the most recent warning I have gotten was 2 months regarding a semi-major mistake I made in a slow round leading me to say ic in ooc when an antag who was doing very well was killed, and at that moment I wanted to be a good sport and congratulate him on what he did (I felt like an idiot afterwards and totally deserved the warning).

The 'recent' ban you refer to was one that was shown to be a complete misunderstanding by the person who ahelped and the staff member involved, I will leave a link to it if you wish to look over it. I have changed since then and I believe that due to the notes being mostly cyborg law mistakes I made that it should have no effect on my ability to perform my duties as a CCIA Agent. If this application was denied due to this reason I will likely wait a month and try again when the notes are older and less relevant.

I feel as this is becoming common keywords (be unbiased, calm, not be stressed, be independent, know regulation/directives) for important qualities for a CCIA to possess across many applications. Do you think you can come up more unique ones from your mind that are not on applications?

If I were to use one word/quality to describe a good CCIA Agent, it would be diligent. In my opinion no one can truly do the best they can in a job and/or task without having diligence. If a CCIA Agent cares about its duties, then it will truly try their best in making sure the task is done right.

I want to quiz you on this, what are possible situations is a CCIAA allowed to board the station?

From what I can tell, CCIAA can board the station in the following events; A CCIA Audit, an IR investigation, and when command is acting out of line but not at the point where an ERT is needed. I will not lie if what I just said was incorrect I apologize, have I do not have much information on this.

When you say "CCIA Agents are responsible to be active on the forums and help make policy suggestions into the game if they have enough merit", what did you mean by this? Yes, the basic process of an incident report is correct. There are little more details between the cracks but I don't need to quiz you on this because it's a bureaucracy red tapes thing. Putting aside the workload, I noticed that you tried to avoid social interactions in your answer. Suppose if we hire you, how would you behave yourself in general? You can start off with explaining how you think you behave in discord with other players and how you hope to learn and overcome the behavior?

In regards to your first point, I was talking about how CCIAA are shown to help refine suggestions such at this https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=11367&start=20 and allow it to be implemented in a matter that is realistic and clean. Regarding my social interactions, if I was a CCIA Agent I would be mature and (more) polite on forums and on discord. I am aware that looking through what I said in discord I may seem very immature, but I assure you if I was accepted as a CCIA agent I would correct such behavior immediately but not doing as many jokes or messing around with emotes as I currently do.

Taking a breather and asking people for assistance is a bonus point from me but your next sentence fragment is an eyebrow raising for me. How will you cool off? Will you abandon the task, push the task on others, seek for advice, wait for the right timing, seek for more assistance, etc.?

When I meant cool off I meant simply taking a breather and maybe doing some anti-stress things such as taking deep breaths. I may also seek more assistance and/or advice on the situation if I feel it is needed.

I have answered these questions to the best of my ability, if you have any further questions please reply to this application or DM me on discord.

Interview with the applicant:

Before the interview I was kind of on the fence about the application, but now I think that Ben would make a decent addition to our ranks. I don't think he'd be a super-CCIA like the Whiterabit, SierraKomodo, and Synnono's of old (and new), but I think there's potential. The only interview question I objectively took issue with was the contexts where Ben felt it was appropriate for a CCIA to board the station, but as far as things I subjectively took issue with, I was given the impression that he might be more inclined to handle antagonist related faxes in a black or white manner. It's a situation open for any agent's discretion, I just prefer to leave everything grey and ambiguous to the crew so that neither the antagonist nor the crew are given free license to enforce their wills. I see you're worried about trashposting being a problem, and I have to agree that I'm not the model PR agent because of the sheer amount of trashposting that I do, but I think it's not as much of an issue as you believe it to be so long as you keep it out of official staff channels and also don't go over the top in public. I say we give it a whirl.

Before the interview I was kind of on the fence about the application, but now I think that Ben would make a decent addition to our ranks. I don't think he'd be a super-CCIA like the Whiterabit, SierraKomodo, and Synnono's of old (and new), but I think there's potential. The only interview question I objectively took issue with was the contexts where Ben felt it was appropriate for a CCIA to board the station, but as far as things I subjectively took issue with, I was given the impression that he might be more inclined to handle antagonist related faxes in a black or white manner. It's a situation open for any agent's discretion, I just prefer to leave everything grey and ambiguous to the crew so that neither the antagonist nor the crew are given free license to enforce their wills. I see you're worried about trashposting being a problem, and I have to agree that I'm not the model PR agent because of the sheer amount of trashposting that I do, but I think it's not as much of an issue as you believe it to be so long as you keep it out of official staff channels and also don't go over the top in public. I say we give it a whirl.

Essentially this. Ben has consistently applied for staff positions, asking for feedback and engaged people. I think it is worth a trial.

Trial started as of 7/23.

Application accepted. Welcome to the team!