[Tedgp908]

Back in 2015 we did staff elections, this failed though. The admins and Dinkleberg would specify how many Trusted, Test Mod, and Mods we needed at that time. Then the staff trusted - admin would vote on which of the applications they wanted to approve. They would have a 24 hour period of time to vote which all votes could be seen by fellow staff members. However, Dinkleberg and Admins would veto the staff's votes on occasion this would create some outrage but honestly the vetos of required. The majority doesn't always know what's best they don't see the whole picture. This system fell apart for many reasons.

1. Long turnaround from the application to decision. We voted every 2 weeks, and you had to apply by a specific date to go into the upcoming election. This created a possible 3 - 4 response on applications. This is far too slow and was also an issue with committees 
   
2. Less deserving staff members would get promoted. This was caused by two things. Having a vote for promotions made it a popularity competition. You could have one clique have a majority that would vote in their friends increasing their majority even if they would not be good staff members. The second reason is that in one election cycle we could have a bunch of shitty applicants, however, staff would vote in the least worse of the group who still was not worthy of staff. Then some weeks we would have multiple good applicants but because there is such thing as to many staff which creates its own problems this results in good candidates getting left out because they aren't popular enough.
   
3. Staff vote in more of the same people, and reject those with differing opinions. The staff will vote in people who are like themselves, instead of people who want to make changes even if those changes are beneficial and are needed. They see these as threats. 
   
4. Outrage when Dinkleberg/Admin's veto an election. This server is owned by one sole person, Dinkleberg. He has sole authority to make decisions about his server, if he doesn't want someone as staff that's a decision he can make. People don't respect that.
   
   

Ultimately, this system fell apart and we went back to what was done before and what lasted a very long time, and what I consider to be the best way to select staff. 

Admins select staff. As Nicol said Dinkleberg has entrusted the admins to run the day-to-day operations of the server. This is something that an owner should not be involved in. It's not how it works in the real world and isn't how it works here. Ultimately the admins have the knowledge and experience to make these decisions, and it doesn't work out so an applicant gets a lot of -1's and they get promoted if you have good admins, which we do. This system does not work if community member's from guests to staff don't give their thoughts on the forums, and don't relay what they see and hear. Everyone's opinion is valuable. This is the system we used when I was admin and almost the entirety of the decision on who got promoted was based on the comments on the application. It is critical to reply to the applications and tell the truth and provide insightful information if a community member feels for some reason that they cannot post their thoughts on the application please tell the admins about it. They do listen to all feedback on applications and read all of it.

Now I don't think having a single admin, is the best solution, a group of two or maybe three decide. Honestly being a single admin puts you in a shitty situation, and is not great. It's not my place to suggest admins, so I will not do that. However presently we have a single admin, and he is good, we have had bad admins, and co-owners in this community; Nicol is not one of them. Now that we have established we have a single admin what the community needs to do is what I outlined above, give good quality feedback and if you have any doubts about an applicant tell the admins. Informing and explaining your thoughts to the admins is the best way because if there are serious issues with an applicant they aren't going to get promoted. 

Now with that, I think an element of transparency is needed, staff applications, controversial ban requests, unban requests needs to dealt with in a timely mannor. This is something that has been lacking. When a staff application is denied especially if it's a popular candidate, there needs to be a decently sized explanation as to why, what the admin's concerns are, and how they can improve. It needs to be really clear, and not just a "you're not ready yet" and people need to respect these decisions. Overtime the respect between the players, and staff has decreased. This is not the cause of one group but is both a problem with staff and players. However this is a much longer conversation that I'm not going to have as part of this thread, nor might ever post. I might not play a lot on the server but I observe, learning more information. I have been doing this for the past 7 years, you learn a lot being around this long. The community is like a circle, the same issues, similar situations with staff, and players occur over and over again. Learn from the past.

-Ted