Feedback on staff interactions

[nathan1e]

READER WARNING: This is a LOOOOONG thread and there’s no TL;DR, so if you’re not in the mood for reading a LOOOOONG thread, I invite you to come back at a later time

I’ve noticed that the staff team wants to “bridge the gap between players and staff” - that’s at least the words they are using themselves. However, I feel like there are some serious steps that can be made in the direction of “bridging the gap” that haven’t yet been made while they are, in my opinion, vital in the process. This is why I decided to write up this feedback. It involves a multitude of ideas and changes that I have split up in several parts.

Authenticity
During numerous occasions I find that there isn’t much authenticity in the way that staff converses with players. I will be focussing mainly on feedback & suggestions and classes. I will refer back to these after I’ve explained what I think is the problem in these cases.

In such occasions, it feels too much like a staff member is simply using a certain “format” for the relevant communication. This format offers very little alternative, which means that experienced players will have seen the format dozens if not hundreds of times, which I think has a somewhat negative effect on those players, causing them to be tired of the same type of messages. In feedback & suggestion for instance, I think it demotivates players from actively sending in new suggestions.

Now for some concrete examples, and how I think these could be improved upon. Note that I am merely looking at the messages themselves, not the person who sent them; they could be any random staff member for all I care.

Example 1
Example 2

These are just 2 random suggestions I clicked in the list, but it immediately struck me that the messages sent by the relevant Poltergeist are extremely similar; too similar in my opinion. Both start with “Hello and thank you for your suggestion [name]!”, both have a second sentence fitting exactly in the format “I will [give your idea to] the other Poltergeists and [tell you the outcome].” and both end in “Have a [great] day!”, where everything between [] represents text that differs somewhat. This is extremely limited authenticity. There are countless ways the message could start, such as:
Good day, [name]!
Hello there, [name]!
Greetings, [name]!
And that’s just 3 possibilities. I could go on to mention so many more ways to have a different way of sending such messages, but I think the baseline is clear. I think these messages look far too similar, and could do with more authenticity. This does not only go for messages to indicate that a suggestion or feedback is being looked at, but also for messages to tell the person who made the suggestion or feedback that it is accepted, declined, on-hold or a duplicate.

And then for classes. The format for classes has always been pretty similar:
[Professor greets class]
[Professor tells rules]
[Professor introduces the class helper]
[Further practicalities are mentioned]
[In case of theory class: notes]
[Assignment]
I’m not going to argue with this format, it works and does its job well. The thing I find it lacking in is authenticity, and in particular interactions between players and prof/class helpers throughout the class. There’s a few things I think are relevant here:
- In notes class, I think it would help if, every now and then, the professor asks something to the class in order to provoke a response and to ensure that the class is still actively participating. I’ve seen this in some classes but I find it does not always happen while I think it is vital to keep notes classes interesting to attend.
- During WizPE, I think it would help to ease the pain (I have no reason to complain and I know that, but I know that there are a lot of people who really suffer with parkour) if the professor and class helpers had a bit more small talk with them, so the class is not just all about suffering. Trivia questions really help with interaction I think, but I feel like it could be a bit more interesting on a smaller scale with small talk. I wanted to include this type of class as it’s a unique format and keeps happening more and more these last few months.
- During potions, I feel like this type of interaction is not really needed, as it is usually a very short class and already does its own job of keeping people to actively participate.
- Flying and dueling however is an entirely different story. I should mention that I haven’t been to a dueling class since the revelius update, but from what I’ve heard it contains a lot of waiting around, just like flying when you happen to be in the house that goes last. I feel like it would be very valuable for the professors and class helpers to do some small talk with the students - this doesn’t have to be too much, but at least showing some sign of life while they’re doing their job is something I think that would very much help in “bridging the gap”.

Emptyness
I will again use a forum suggestion as an example since they are handled by Poltergeists, who are supposed to be the bridge I’ve referenced several times now.

Example

This specific suggestion was declined recently with the given reasoning that the relevant room was only built for the event and the staff team does not want it to be accessible very often. But to me, this is a very empty reasoning. The entire suggestion is built around making an event feature part of the permanent gameplay, so I felt it was a bit odd to mention that the room was only built for the event; one of the responders even mentioned that it could involve a new room that didn’t have much to do with the event, but would still allow for this feature to be added to the game.
The point is that I feel like the given reasoning for declining this suggestion is very lacking, it leaves me with a bunch of questions and, in my opinion, doesn’t do a good job of really explaining why this suggestion was declined. I don’t think such an explanation would have to be very big, just a simple sentence like “we feel like this wouldn’t fit” or “we have bigger priorities to be focussing on” as long as some sort of actual explanation was actually offered, which I feel like was not the case here.
Personally I feel like this isn’t properly done in numerous cases. I’ve seen reasonings such as “it just makes sense” or so but every time it just leaves me with more questions than I originally had and I think that’s a big improvement point for not just the Poltergeist team, but pretty much any team that is responsible for communicating with players about decisions that have been made.

Small talk
Personally I think the biggest issue in not “bridging the gap” is the absence of small talk; for the majority of the staff team, that is. I think a lot of players would be a lot more familiar and confident with staff members if those staff members actually took part in conversations in global chats, not just between themselves or with familiar names but with new players as well. I see a number of staff members who, before they were staff, would actively engage in conversation but as soon as they become staff they suddenly stop being active in global chat. While this may be understandable under the current system and is in no way supposed to discredit those staff members, I do not believe this to be very effective when it comes to “bridging the gap”. Especially when it comes to Poltergeists, which is something I want to talk about a bit more now.

As far as I’ve gathered, the aim of the Poltergeist team is to handle forum suggestions by replying to them and by discussing them privately, but also to be in frequent contact with both staff and players (“bridging the gap”). This last thing is something I rarely see.
From memory, I could give 2, maybe 3 names of Poltergeists? I am friends with one of them, and sometimes have contact with another because they are also a prefect at the same time. The point I wish to make here is that it would be a lot more beneficial for the team if the players actually knew them, while I think that the most efficient way for the playerbase to get to know the team is for the team to actively participate in small talk. This way, I think players will be more tempted to come to Poltergeists with opinions or feedback, which is what Poltergeists are supposed to gather.
I would like to stress that this is in no way meant to discredit any Poltergeist, but rather a way to criticise the system they are working in.

If you’ve come this far, I thank you for reading all of it (unless you’ve just skipped to the end hoping that I would break my promise and still write a TL;DR, sorry to disappoint) and look forward to reading your opinion on this matter.

 

[luckiestblock]

100% agree. I think they should take a lot of steps to make staff sound less like bots and more like the actual humans they are.

This may seem harsh but if they continue to act like bots I think they should just add more bots. I would prefer if there was a under review bot that messaged your post instantly and then randomly assigned it to a poltergeist making it so there is not a strange random waiting period before staff see your post. I also would like to see bot run non assignment classes as an addition to the current non bot ran ones (Wiz PE, dancing, potions, dueling, etc.) Obviously there should be someone supervising to make sure no rules are broken but for non assignment classes I think a single person could manage. This would mean they could add more classes (especially for non American time zones). I know a post like this was made a while ago but that was more generally for all of them while I think it should only be done with the non assignment ones.

 

[Llama]

I completely agree with this. When everything is scripted/follows a format, it feels fake. It’s like the person is a robot. If staff is were to just act like normal players, while fulfilling their responsibilities, it would feel more real.

 

[Zadanthalion]

Couldn't agree more. And then when there are things that massive amounts of people ask for and they decline, but instead of knowing WHY they just give us the generic answer which tells us they probably didn't read it to begin with.

 

[Salmandingo]

I feel like it would be very valuable for the professors and class helpers to do some small talk with the students -

100% agree. As a student during classes, I find it kind of frustrating when i'm waiting for my turn to fly or duel but chat is muted the whole time. As a helper attending classes, I find it so fun when class chat is mainly un-muted, so I get to talk to the students and engage with them. The small talk that you mentioned is very important to establishing a connection between the students and the professors and I would love to see more open class chats especially in classes like dueling and flying where it is quite inconsistent. (As in some professors open chat in dueling and flying, and others keep it muted the whole time)

Moving on...

There's a reason why I LOVE going to WizPE classes, even though I dislike doing parkour for 45 minutes. It's because class chat is un-muted the entire time and the helpers & prof are actively engaging with chat. I find myself enjoying these classes the most because I feel like i'm enjoying my time with 60 other players and not just rushing to get my AC.

I'd also like to note that all the professors work hard to make sure their classes are engaging and enjoyable! And I believe that with feedback like this, classes can become a lot better


I agree with a lot of other things mentioned in this post. But I felt like commenting on classes since I agreed the most with this particular quote at the start of my response.

 

[Sticktrees]

Some staff after they become just don't interact with other players anymore they just become part of the "staff subcommunity" and don't do anything to "bridge the gap between staff and players".

 

[Nik_Blazius]

And then for classes. The format for classes has always been pretty similar:
[Professor greets class]
[Professor tells rules]
[Professor introduces the class helper]
[Further practicalities are mentioned]
[In case of theory class: notes]
[Assignment]
I’m not going to argue with this format, it works and does its job well. The thing I find it lacking in is authenticity, and in particular interactions between players and prof/class helpers throughout the class. There’s a few things I think are relevant here:
- In notes class, I think it would help if, every now and then, the professor asks something to the class in order to provoke a response and to ensure that the class is still actively participating. I’ve seen this in some classes but I find it does not always happen while I think it is vital to keep notes classes interesting to attend.
- During WizPE, I think it would help to ease the pain (I have no reason to complain and I know that, but I know that there are a lot of people who really suffer with parkour) if the professor and class helpers had a bit more small talk with them, so the class is not just all about suffering. Trivia questions really help with interaction I think, but I feel like it could be a bit more interesting on a smaller scale with small talk. I wanted to include this type of class as it’s a unique format and keeps happening more and more these last few months.
- During potions, I feel like this type of interaction is not really needed, as it is usually a very short class and already does its own job of keeping people to actively participate.
- Flying and dueling however is an entirely different story. I should mention that I haven’t been to a dueling class since the revelius update, but from what I’ve heard it contains a lot of waiting around, just like flying when you happen to be in the house that goes last. I feel like it would be very valuable for the professors and class helpers to do some small talk with the students - this doesn’t have to be too much, but at least showing some sign of life while they’re doing their job is something I think that would very much help in “bridging the gap”.

I mentioned almost all of this to a Professor and I also told my exact suggestions about better communication personally to Aria and Zach. It's great to see that I'm not alone in this matter.

just a simple sentence like “we feel like this wouldn’t fit” or “we have bigger priorities to be focussing on”

I feel like it's funny and also incredible to suggest normal communication. Something is completely wrong server-wide; are the staff members trained to use formal speech and not to mention too much information about anything? From my letter to a Prof.: "I believe staff members in Hungarian servers are maybe more strict, but also more easy-going. There are exact rules, but also empathy and the motivation to make a fun time for everyone. It might help if you talk more to players." I'm sure being a staff can be a party, it's amazing to talk with a lot of people and help them. However I feel for most of the staff members in PW it's a duty or a burden. In another thread I was about to suggest an acceptable answer to a staff member, but I rather sent it to the Head of that department because it wouldn't be appropriate to say it in public at all...

This may seem harsh but if they continue to act like bots I think they should just add more bots.

Sadly, I have to agree with this. If they continue their artificial lifestyle, it would be more acceptable to know that bots send the messages. However, what makes being a staff member amazing is talking to players and having fun. Moreover, the players would also like to talk normally with staff members. Behaving like a normal person is highly beneficial for both staff members and players.
McKenzie was the first Prof. who remembered what I said earlier and she implemented this in her answer. (It was a personal information.) whereas most of the older Profs are usually unreachable and they send back something like "Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate every feedback I get from students." or another template message. I'm not surprised that a new Prof still has the communication skills they had. McKenzie will be also taught in the future how to avoid students' messages?
Aurora was the only staff member who sent me messages in an informal style.
If I were a Prof who immediately leaves the server after the class ended or it took me a week to answer a simple question as a staff or I had struggle/didn't want to talk with students, I would really consider why I'm a staff member and I would resign.

I feel like it would be very valuable for the professors and class helpers to do some small talk with the students

Yeah, I somewhat agree with the idea, but it could also go wrong. You can have small talk like a bot, I believe it wouldn't make the communication better. There was a class when the Prof. asked how we are, 1/3 of the students answered and there were answers like "bad", "nah", etc. The Prof's reaction was "I'm glad to see everyone feels good." For me it was very irritating.
I believe it would be more beneficial if they could give a normal information at the first question I ask. Sometimes I have to struggle a lot to know an information about something. Sometimes I feel that for the staff member answering me is a burden. I feel also like my Feedback doesn't matter at all. I get an opinion about something, I disagree with most of it, then I get the same opinion with other words and no reaction to my arguments. It's very frustrating and now when I'm about to give feedback I consider if it's worth the struggle and wasting my time.

“bridging the gap”

I was a staff member in a Hungarian server and reading this is very hilarious. Even if the server is terrible, communication is what helps a lot and this is what unites the community, the players and the staff members. As I remember there was never any form or hierarchy, etc. or any difference in the communication. We were very active in the chat and we were glad to get messages from the players. We also had fun, played together and I remember visiting their plot and houses. The server is closed now, the only thing I miss is the communication and having fun, nothing else I had to do as a Head of Admins.
I don't know how it works now, but instead of the "congrats on ___" messages (which I think are also very funny, it sounds like "congrats on being a boy" or "congrats on clicking with your mouse"; personally for me it was a "what the f" moment when they congratulated me for resorting) it would be better to say welcome to the server/community and also I hope staff members send new players a personal PM.

Couldn't agree more. And then when there are things that massive amounts of people ask for and they decline, but instead of knowing WHY they just give us the generic answer which tells us they probably didn't read it to begin with.

To tell the truth, I feel often that staff members don't like to listen to players and improve the server. All I get is template messages and promises about processes that everyone is unable to see. All I can do is ask questions, a lot of questions about everything. Otherwise I wouldn't know anything... I sent a staff member in Discord: "Nvm, I don't feel I could make any changes with my feedback." 10 days ago and there wasn't any disagreement to that.

 

[Nyn]

100% agree.

When people become staff, they can seems somewhat "fake". Obviously when you become staff you need to act professional (like with an irl job, if you work somewhere you need to be professional), however the majority of potterworld staff just seem hard to talk to like their a human too. People seem to change when they become staff.

There are some staff members who act professional but I can talk to normally if I ever need to, such as Caro and Cate (CateCate_). Their both very nice people and although they act professional they still seem humane.

 

[Mallaidh]

This is something incredibly important to me, actually.

Although I have no interest in being a professor I imagine doing it just so I can add some flavour to it.
Not acting like a perfect professor, because a perfect professor is scripted, fake, robotic. More of a bot than anything else.

So many staff on Potterworld seem to live by a script. When a poltergeist shows interest in your idea, or when it's declined, accepted, or when you're attending a class, when you get warned by a prefect, when you have a ticket it just doesn't feel genuine because you have heard some form of those words from a thousand other people.

There needs to be more originality rather than just using staff as bots to spout off scripts, and then wonder why ordinary people can't feel a connection to staff and often don't see them as anything other than bots who are there to help and do their jobs.

That is why I love Flash and Spock as teachers so much - they always talk with you, and their connection seems genuine. They sway from the script, and each of their classes is slightly different and they make you feel very involved. Because of that, we and others, especially new players, can see them as something other than bots here to share their scripts and do their staff roles.

This is very important - not just for relationships between staff and student. This is very important so that staff can have some sort of originality, and they don't feel like they're forced to repeat themselves to do their job on PW.
It's important so that students see staff as people.

That is why this is so important, and I hope that the poltergeists are able to see that.

 

[HektorTM]

I totally agree with this. The Professors could be replaced through bots and it would change a thing except the fact that bots would be available all the time.
I think it would be way better if the Professors would actually talk to the students in and also out of class.
As for the Poltergeists: Sometimes I notice that the reasons arent really well chosen for declining an idea sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
I'm not going to write a super long text but I hope the Poltergeists and also the Professors see this and maybe think about changing the way they're doing their Job here.

~ Hektor

 

[Ashh]

Hey Nathan (and everyone who commented on this thread)

Thank you for bringing this feedback to us. I’d like to take some time to address some of the points that you’ve brought up relating to the Poltergeists, as well as the steps that we will be taking in response to your feedback.

Regarding your point on authenticity, I completely understand where you are coming from and I am aware that the Poltergeist’s initial responses can seem very similar to each other. I do want to point out that we deal with new threads every day and have dealt with many in the past. We will also continue to deal with many in future. Taking this into account, It can get a bit difficult to make initial response messages to every feedback and suggestion different. There are a limited number of formats and words that you can use to give a reply that has the same meaning. There is also a certain way that we need to do things in order to remain professional and we do have a rough format that we follow, as the forums are official, so it is difficult for us to act like "normal players." We have recently been brainstorming some ways that we can make these messages unique and have already sent out a helpful spreadsheet to the Poltergeists as a guide to use when responding to threads. Following on from this, we will be paying careful attention to the way that we send initial responses out.

It is mentioned that it seems like we “do not read suggestions to begin with.” I can assure you that this is not the case. Every thread that is placed under review is first discussed by the Poltergeists and then the suggestion and the Poltergeist's thoughts are brought up to the relevant leadership team so that they can make a decision. Threads are considered carefully and once the relevant leadership team has a decision, we are given the decision and reasoning on what the decision is.

Occasionally, we see that a suggestion is well-liked by players and on the thread, but it is something that does not fit with the overall vision and direction of the server or there are valid reasons for declining the suggestion. This does not mean that we are not listening to players or that all suggestions will be declined if many players like it. We have valid reasons for declining suggestions when we do so.

With regards to your point about emptiness, I understand that we more often than not provide limited information when passing on a decision made by the leadership team. We can narrow down this cause to two potential causes. Firstly, when a leadership team passes on their decision, their explanation is sometimes vague, consists of a few words, and is not much to go on from. Our mistake here was simply taking this vague explanation and passing it on, instead of attempting to understand more and ask questions. This is something we’ll try to do better, and we actually asked the Leadership to be better at giving out responses at our weekly meeting. Secondly, not all of us can explain technical reasons to a certain degree like some others can, and want. Again, this is a mistake on our end, because instead of trying to find ways to make this easier and better, we simply went with it, and provided, like you say, empty responses.

Moving forward, we’ll do our best to communicate more with the leadership teams, and get a proper detailed reasoning for why they don’t want something.

I recognise that engaging with players in game is not something that we do enough and it is something that we definitely need to do more. Poltergeists should be seen more in game for sure. Therefore, I will be taking steps to change this. I have begun brainstorming ideas for ways to get the Poltergeists more engaged with the playerbase in game and encouraging them to do so, so that this can be rectified.

Once again, thank you very much for making this post, as it has allowed us to hear what you have to say and has also given us specific points to work on and we shall be doing so to the best of our ability.

 

[Sticktrees]

You are only reading this from the about of traction this is getting. If no one liked this or comment you wouldn't have acknowledged it. You would've given the same copy-paste response. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[NotDetroit]

Yeah I agree with this whole thread.

I think the main thing that I took away from this is even more of a realization that the staff seem fake. Sure take this in a negative way I couldn't really care less. I think there are a select few amazing staff members who truly care about the well being of the server and the players on it and those are the ones who appear to be authentic and caring.
However what I have noticed in the few weeks of me coming back to PW is that there are a lot more staff roles now and which means a lot more staff members. Most I honestly have no idea who they are however there are some I have met who just seem power hungry and only in it for what the role can offer. (Most of the time being the monthly potter points)
I think it's also easy for a lot of staff to not care about being authentic as they don't understand. I personally believe the age requirement for staff is too young as there are just so many young people on the staff team that just don't understand life. Sure im not your dad and I shouldn't be telling people how they should act but if you're young. I personally just believe you just don't understand or care as much when you are younger which shows in quite a lot of staff I have had interactions with.
I also think that a persona has been made around the "Perfect Staff Member" Which is someone who replies to every person with all the correct answers and seem friendly. Well sure this is true most people just copy and paste answers to questions and it makes you look like a robot.
Also going back to my point about being young, when you are young and brought into a team of older people I guess it's easier to be persuaded (idk if its fair to use this word but yknow) to be this perfect staff member that everyone wants you to be.
Oh also I think it's easy for them to appear like robots and not bother being authentic because a lot of staff (especially the younger staff) play potterworld all day which yes I have been doing recently however I am not a staff member and have a responsibility to fill. I say this because when you play all day you probably get bored of helping in chat all day and you just don't want to anymore but idk if it gets you more credits or potterpoints but if thats the reason then thats why they stay online all day or they just having nothing else to do :shrug:

(Also a TLDR) Well as a whole I just think most staff are fake, don't get me wrong there are some amazing staff on Potterworldmc and I loves those ones but like I said and I still stand by it that most staff are fake.

- I also just want to add that the whole "Staff groups" are so dumb, staff create their own groups the exclude others staff from these groups then chat behind their back. So yeah a bunch of fake staff and a pinch of snakes x

 

[Lizzie]

However what I have noticed in the few weeks of me coming back to PW is that there are a lot more staff roles now and which means a lot more staff members. Most I honestly have no idea who they are however there are some I have met who just seem power hungry and only in it for what the role can offer. (Most of the time being the monthly potter points)

I understand that it sometimes seems like this. However, from what I've seen, most staff members aren't like this. Keep in mind this statement is due to my personal experiences with staffing, but the potter point pay for staff members isn't radically high. Many current staff members that I know didn't even know potter points were payment for staff.
That being said, many staff I know applied for the role they currently have because they either wanted more things to do on the server or absolutely love what they do. A lot of the more 'obscure' staff roles have been added in the past while because the server is growing, but if you need a brief summary of them, let me know! However, if you see a staff member abusing their perms for personal gain or something along those lines, I advise you to report them to the head of their department.

I think it's also easy for a lot of staff to not care about being authentic as they don't understand. I personally believe the age requirement for staff is too young as there are just so many young people on the staff team that just don't understand life. Sure im not your dad and I shouldn't be telling people how they should act but if you're young. I personally just believe you just don't understand or care as much when you are younger which shows in quite a lot of staff I have had interactions with.

While your concern about staff being 'too young' is understandable, the staff team isn't comprised of mainly 13-year-olds. Most staff range from 16-24, and should be mature enough to have an understanding of their actions and potential consequences. While I might be biased, since I'm on the younger side of the team, I also have experience with my doubts and concerns about what I do on the server.
It's difficult to try to find a balance between friendly and sociable with acting as a role model for other players, and I doubt staff are intending to seem fake, or lack authenticity. Some people's idea of 'professional' lines more with going by the book than others, and it's a way that staff avoid showing favoritism, or to avoid coming off as a friend more than an actual staff member. While it might seem cold and distant, it prevents favoritism from occurring. That being said, there is certainly staff who favor friendliness and openness over other forms of communication.

I also think that a persona has been made around the "Perfect Staff Member" Which is someone who replies to every person with all the correct answers and seem friendly. Well sure this is true most people just copy and paste answers to questions and it makes you look like a robot.

Staff aren't copying and pasting answers, but replies to players asking questions do seem relatively formulaic. But what do you propose as an alternate solution? The answers I see often are detailed and precise, instructive enough to guide players, however robotic they might are. If there is a solution that both made it seem less robotic, but maintain that helpfulness, then propose it! Keep in mind, even if there is a way for staff to follow the same formula of "friendly but helpful", then wouldn't it seem robotic at some point or another?

Also going back to my point about being young, when you are young and brought into a team of older people I guess it's easier to be persuaded (idk if its fair to use this word but yknow) to be this perfect staff member that everyone wants you to be.

This is not a mindset I'd support. Younger staff are fully capable of noticing errors in other's thinking, and I'd say are even more independent compared to older staff members. Age isn't something that should be factored into this argument, as it's something so complicated and diverse, and it feels degrading for younger staff members. I barely know the specific ages of any of my fellow staff, other than my close friends, and I doubt a seventeen-year-old will blindly obey a twenty-year-old because they were born three years apart. However, there can be pressure to change some of the ways you act, but it's mainly for good reasons. Staff members are supposed to be role models for the rest of the player base and acting erratically or out of line can cause issues, as other staff might deem a certain behavior 'ok', escalating into worse behavior.

Oh also I think it's easy for them to appear like robots and not bother being authentic because a lot of staff (especially the younger staff) play potterworld all day which yes I have been doing recently however I am not a staff member and have a responsibility to fill. I say this because when you play all day you probably get bored of helping in chat all day and you just don't want to anymore but idk if it gets you more credits or potterpoints but if thats the reason then thats why they stay online all day or they just having nothing else to do :shrug:

You don't get more potterpoints if you stay on. The staff just play because this is a server they love to play on, and I doubt they've spent 50+ hours each week on the server just because they want to be staff on a random, obscure Minecraft server. They have nothing to gain if that was the case. What they do is exclusively to help out on the server, and spend time with their friends.

(Also a TLDR) Well as a whole I just think most staff are fake, don't get me wrong there are some amazing staff on Potterworldmc and I loves those ones but like I said and I still stand by it that most staff are fake.

Keep in mind that many staff are more closed off, an many that might seem 'fake' prefer to act that way. Is acting impartial and overly friendly something we should really stop encouraging? If players act a certain way, should we just deem them as fake because we view those actions as 'too good' to be true?

- I also just want to add that the whole "Staff groups" are so dumb, staff create their own groups the exclude others staff from these groups then chat behind their back. So yeah a bunch of fake staff and a pinch of snakes x

If you see any staff chatting behind another's back, or starting unneeded drama, report it to their head of department immediately. Toxicity is not something the staff team supports or should have on it. Alternatively, if a staff member comes to you to badmouth another, please try to encourage them not to!

 

[nathan1e]

I haven't said much on this thread since I posted this, since I originally thought I pretty much mentioned everything I needed to say. I didn't agree with everything said since my original post but the majority of it seemed to be in line with the intention behind this thread. However, recent replies have, in my opinion, steered too much away from what this thread was intended to be, and I therefore feel the need for an additional statement.

Everything I mentioned in my original post, I do not believe this to be any indication whatsoever that poltergeists don't actually read or consider ideas. The intention of pointing out empty responses was to see if improvements could be found in that area, so that communication between staff and players would be better.

I also simply will not believe that the only reason this thread is being taken as serious as it is, is because of the attention it has received since I originally posted this. Since the rise of player suggestion with the introduction of uservoice, I have witnessed loads of suggestions, ideas and feedback that received an overwhelming amount of support from the playerbase while they were declined for a multitude of reasons. To me, this is a clear indication that overwhelming amounts of support do not influence the decision to act upon feedback or not.

In regards to the reply that @NotDetroit wrote: While I will not deny the existence of abusive staff members, as I've had a fair amount of experience with them in the past, I simply do not believe it constructive to mention that most staff members seem fake to you. I personally believe that it would be more helpful to specifically mention what parts of their attitude seem fake to you, and how you would like to see this improved; this increases the chances of such changes actually being implemented.

Lastly, there are a few parts of the reply from @Lizzie that I would like to directly respond to:

Many current staff members that I know didn't even know potter points were payment for staff.

I agree with this. As far as I've seen, the PP payment isn't very commonly known across players and is therefore, in my opinion, usually not the main reason for someone applying.

But what do you propose as an alternate solution? The answers I see often are detailed and precise, instructive enough to guide players, however robotic they might are. If there is a solution that both made it seem less robotic, but maintain that helpfulness, then propose it! Keep in mind, even if there is a way for staff to follow the same formula of "friendly but helpful", then wouldn't it seem robotic at some point or another?

(I know this passage isn't aimed at me, but I still wanted to reply to it.)
I personally do not believe interactions like these to be too robotic. Quite the contrary, I think if anything, these interactions are actually the sort of authenticity that I think is good for the server: a staff member telling a player what they want to hear, and being delighted at the sight of the player being helped to their satisfaction.

Keep in mind that many staff are more closed off, an many that might seem 'fake' prefer to act that way. Is acting impartial and overly friendly something we should really stop encouraging? If players act a certain way, should we just deem them as fake because we view those actions as 'too good' to be true?

This is quite an interesting topic - perhaps the most interesting topic of everything you've mentioned so far in your reply - hence why I would love to spend some time to reply to this.
You mention staff members that are closed off, but are those the type of staff members that have frequent interaction with players or not? If you look in chat, the type of staff members that are most frequently talking are jr. prefects, poltergeists and class helpers (these statistics are not supported but rather based on my own gut feeling) whose job it is to be interacting with the community. I don't think it would be justified for a staff member in this position to be "closed off" to the playerbase. So to answer your question: Is acting impartial and overly friendly something that we should really stop encouraging? In the case of these positions, or any position whatsoever that is designed to be interacting with the playerbase, my answer would be a definite YES. Discouraging behaviour like that creates more authenticity in the way that players and staff interact, which, as I've mentioned in my original post, is something that I believe to be efficient for bridging the gap between staff and players. I say this, not because I want to sound too robotic myself, but because these are words I have seen staff members use themselves quite a lot of times over the last few months; I think it's safe to assume that this has become somewhat of a motivation for the staff team.

There is, of course, a different side of the staff team. Positions that are designed to work behind the scenes. It's not very common that you see a builder talk in general chat (unless you think "hmm what's that weird smell" and it turns out to be RainTM), and for those roles, my opinion is somewhat different. If a staff member like that is "closed off", I think this is fully justified. They do work on the server and simply do not wish to be distracted by any of the players, so they simply choose not to engage in any conversation that's ongoing at the time of their work. This is very reasonable, seeing as interactions with the playerbase are simply not part of their job. Going back to the original question again: Is acting impartial and overly friendly something that we should really stop encouraging? For these type of staff members I would say that not interacting at all would be better than acting overly friendly or impartial. If the intention of the staff team is to bridge the gap between players and staff, I think builders (just to name a random role) coming in chat and acting all impartial or overly friendly (or telling me I smell, looking at you RAINTM) doesn't really help with achieving that intention, in my opinion.

Personally, I believe that it is physically possible for staff members to be authentic in their interactions, while keeping a professional distance between themselves and the players they interact with. I don't think this point will be reached any time soon as it's quite a distance away from the way that interactions are currently organised, but I merely hope that this thread has served as somewhat of an inspiration to start the process of moving towards this point.

Now, the last sentence of this passage: "If players act a certain way, should we just deem them as fake because we view those actions as 'too good' to be true?"
This really depends. It depends on what "a certain way" is. If they act all robotic and without any authenticity to their messages, yes, I would say so. But it really depends on the situation.
But then, does this really matter? This thread as it is looks at the way staff interact with players and concludes that more authenticity is required in order to help bridge the gap between players and staff. I think that bridging this gap mostly involves staff members coming to the level of players, and not necessarily players coming to the level of staff.
One could argue that this is important to consider when looking at someone's application, but I've been assured that the people who look at applications are of the highest standards, able to see through bias, lies and all other types of tricks that could or could not be used as a way to get through the application process. (Please don't think these are my words.) With that in mind, surely these people could see through robotic behaviour?

 

[NotDetroit]

Spoiler: Lizzie

I understand that it sometimes seems like this. However, from what I've seen, most staff members aren't like this. Keep in mind this statement is due to my personal experiences with staffing, but the potter point pay for staff members isn't radically high. Many current staff members that I know didn't even know potter points were payment for staff.
That being said, many staff I know applied for the role they currently have because they either wanted more things to do on the server or absolutely love what they do. A lot of the more 'obscure' staff roles have been added in the past while because the server is growing, but if you need a brief summary of them, let me know! However, if you see a staff member abusing their perms for personal gain or something along those lines, I advise you to report them to the head of their department.


While your concern about staff being 'too young' is understandable, the staff team isn't comprised of mainly 13-year-olds. Most staff range from 16-24, and should be mature enough to have an understanding of their actions and potential consequences. While I might be biased, since I'm on the younger side of the team, I also have experience with my doubts and concerns about what I do on the server.
It's difficult to try to find a balance between friendly and sociable with acting as a role model for other players, and I doubt staff are intending to seem fake, or lack authenticity. Some people's idea of 'professional' lines more with going by the book than others, and it's a way that staff avoid showing favoritism, or to avoid coming off as a friend more than an actual staff member. While it might seem cold and distant, it prevents favoritism from occurring. That being said, there is certainly staff who favor friendliness and openness over other forms of communication.


Staff aren't copying and pasting answers, but replies to players asking questions do seem relatively formulaic. But what do you propose as an alternate solution? The answers I see often are detailed and precise, instructive enough to guide players, however robotic they might are. If there is a solution that both made it seem less robotic, but maintain that helpfulness, then propose it! Keep in mind, even if there is a way for staff to follow the same formula of "friendly but helpful", then wouldn't it seem robotic at some point or another?


This is not a mindset I'd support. Younger staff are fully capable of noticing errors in other's thinking, and I'd say are even more independent compared to older staff members. Age isn't something that should be factored into this argument, as it's something so complicated and diverse, and it feels degrading for younger staff members. I barely know the specific ages of any of my fellow staff, other than my close friends, and I doubt a seventeen-year-old will blindly obey a twenty-year-old because they were born three years apart. However, there can be pressure to change some of the ways you act, but it's mainly for good reasons. Staff members are supposed to be role models for the rest of the player base and acting erratically or out of line can cause issues, as other staff might deem a certain behavior 'ok', escalating into worse behavior.


You don't get more potterpoints if you stay on. The staff just play because this is a server they love to play on, and I doubt they've spent 50+ hours each week on the server just because they want to be staff on a random, obscure Minecraft server. They have nothing to gain if that was the case. What they do is exclusively to help out on the server, and spend time with their friends.


Keep in mind that many staff are more closed off, an many that might seem 'fake' prefer to act that way. Is acting impartial and overly friendly something we should really stop encouraging? If players act a certain way, should we just deem them as fake because we view those actions as 'too good' to be true?


If you see any staff chatting behind another's back, or starting unneeded drama, report it to their head of department immediately. Toxicity is not something the staff team supports or should have on it. Alternatively, if a staff member comes to you to badmouth another, please try to encourage them not to!

I guess reading this reply has made me open minded and realize I was being very biased to my own personal experiences with staff on Potterworld.

There are only really a few things id like to readdress which are,
Well first in the first paragraph near to the end I understand that there are a lot of new staff roles which are necessary and needed. With this I still believe this introduces the opportunity for those who just want the awards of being staff and I have a pretty clear idea for some people who ive talked to with in the few weeks ive came back to potterworld thats is the reason they want to be staff. I think something I missed out on my first reply is that I believe this is something that almost develops, I believe people apply because they want to help out the server however I believe people stay for self beneficial gain of virtual items etc. (I understand this isn't everyone infact it's probably only a small minority however it shouldn't be any)
With this you say if you see an example of this report to their head of house, well one I believe nothing would happen expect from maybe a warning? Yeah sure a warning may be a lot however if caught for only being staff for personal gain surly thats a demotion.
I just don't have much faith I guess in higher staff, there are some great higher staff like amazing ones. Infact some helped me get unbanned so some do their job amazingly however I have had experiences with staff where it seems like they do something but really nothing happens. Yes this may of been years ago however it still stays with someone.

Next point, you say the staff team isnt compromised with 13 year olds which I know it's not and I know that most staff are older but what I am trying to say that most staff who are 14, 15 or 16 idk are the age gap that I know are in it for personal gain.
With this that I forgot to mention before it's hard to get evidence because they know how people can check if they have said something so they do this in 3rd part discords or in voice chat where unless you're recording there is no evidence and it just seems like silly speculation.

Oh with the whole you get potterpoints if you stay on I didn't realize that you dont and for that I am sorry for accusing staff for doing that. And I therefore believe you that people just stay on for fun!
Or it could be a bit of brown nose for a higher position for them to use that more power they have to their advantage especially those who DO spend 50+ hours on the server. But thats just a theory

Jumping back up I guess it's hard to change something that is straight forward and easy to follow in this case being answers that help players. As robot as it seems I can't really think of an alternative, I think that just comes from they saying that one message then leaving that convo idk

then the last thing is what you said about staff being closed off.
Ok I dont really care about the staff being closed off but what do you mean we should encourage being overly friendly? I understand this server is PG 13 however encouraging everyone to be overly happy very dumb imo. You shouldn't force the players to be happy, sure you can force the server to be happy but that doesnt mean the staff should be so overly happy it comes across patronizing at times and its just weird seeing overly happy people all time. And I mean yeah sure maybe I am deeming them as being fake because it seems "to good to be true" as too much comes too much and it just isn't human nature to be overly happy all the time nor to see it every single second you are on the server.

Actually I lied, one more thing.
What do you mean age isn't a thing that should be fractured? Psychology it should lmao, your brain fully matures in our mid twentys therefore yes, it is quite possible for a 17 year old to blindly follow 20 year old because they are older. It's just how the human brain works. There are exceptions and there are some young people on the server who are quite mature and we have seen that in the past but there are also a lot of staff now that I can comfortably say they could easily blindly follow someone older, for the pure reason that they are older than them.

 

[Callie]

A few things I want to comment on as someone who hasn't been staff for a super long time, and still feels a very strong connection with the playerbase. First off the comments about how staff responses are fake, while I do agree they can come off that way, and I know this wasn't specifically about moderation, I know for us we have to send generally the same message, because if we treat one player different than another people can get mad and say it's unfair. I'm also on the younger end of the staff team (15) and I don't think I "blindly follow" anyone, regardless of age. Do I listen to my Leads and my Head of Department? Yes, but I don't think that's blindly following so much as following the rules. I will say I'm also one of the people that spend 50 hours on the server, and it's not because I want a higher position. I don't know how promotions work, but I'm pretty sure it's more about what you do while you're online rather than just being online. I do really enjoy the server, I always have. I enjoy the players, the games, the map, everything. I will say however that if you think any staff are only in it for personal gain/not acting professional, report them to a Head Staff member, preferably their Head of Department. Something I encourage everyone to take into consideration is that staff members are human beings as well, and we do have feelings. While I do believe a lot of the points made here were correct and should be addressed with that importance, when you say "most staff," specifically most staff within a certain age group are only out for power, it diminishes your point because we are less likely to listen after that. If you want any clarification on what I said or want to chat I'm definitely open to it, as I know what I said may have been a little confusing, and my apologies for that . My Discord is Callie#5458 and my IGN is ProbsAMistake.

Side Note: I didn't mean to sound mean at all during this and I apologize if it came off that way

 

[Sticktrees]

You are a good staff member, but the staff subcommunity aka the academics team is kinda wack.

 

[Callie]

When you say that it begs the question is there a reason for the claim? Or any feedback you have so they can improve?

 

[NotDetroit]

Sure it begs the question, and for the most part it just seems as if what we say are claims. And I say we as the non staff community of PW. Only a select few has a bad experiences with staff and I get that however should we have bad experiences especially those that we didn't create for ourselves?

I think it's also harder for the claims to be taken into account as higher staff will most likely take the "opposing" side. (I am bad at explaining thing so this may seem like ramble)

With the feedback, I personally have tried to talk to a select few staff on the problems I have had with them however they either ignore me or tell me I am wrong so what really am I meant to do there?