I am curious what the server’s members consensus is on helpers.
( NOTE: I do not speak for the staff team as a whole, and am only looking to sate my own curiosity)
I mean this in regards to:
Utility on server
Perception on the availability of the role
General thoughts on the current helpers (please keep this respectful if you dislike them)
The powers available to helpers
Ideas on what changes you might make to the helper role
As such please share!
Also no shit posting please (Looking at you ccx <3).
I want this to be a productive conversation, although I doubt much will come from it.
Helpers = trial staff. I think that for now it’s fine but yes the system isn’t perfect. Lmao I don’t even like some of the current ones but they seem to do a good job. Again, people should be doing a pm to the ttt-staff group on here if you have an issue with someone’s behaviour as trial staff/staff/cm WITH EVIDENCE TO BACK UP WHAT YOU SAYING!
Think it’s a solid system tbf. But then from experience I think it could do with more of a mentor feel to it if you get what I mean. Basically that’s how it operates on a discord server I’m a moderator for. Granted it is bigger standing at just under 100k members and they have a shit tonne of commands to learn. But I think the same principle could be used here. It just guides the recruit/helper to doing the right thing 100% of the time which statistically would be good. Just an idea tho.
Been seeing this on discord and i think to it’s how our system was drawn out on paper. In execution though hours have been weird as staff and helpers often will be on at different times.
That said I have been trying to embody a mentor ( A shitty crude and all around evil one, but a mentor nonetheless). My system for doing so is when a helper is on is letting them handle all reports and watching what they do as they go. At times this has been slow to get things resolved so I have continued to handle reports sometimes. Any feedback on how I could improve this would go a ways, Thanks!
Although I don’t know many of the new ones or the new staff that were helpers I think they’re an important part of the staff team but I believe their job should be more of educational one rather than slaying. Because we got a lot of staff, having the helpers help the low levels to know the community and the weapons and guide them through the forums and shit should be more of a priority imo.
The helpers could focus also on finding new ways to promote the server or new ways to handle the new guys.
This way if there’s staff members who would like to focus on that part more could become a “senior helper” instead, still capable of slaying and handling reports but will be in charge of everything I said, if there’s no staff to handle reports he’ll do it.
Helpers are essentially trying to becomes staff (they are trial staff). I do agree though that helping lower levels should be a bigger priority. I think however that responsibility should fall more on staff then helpers as they are trying to learn how to be Staff. (On that note I would say most staff try to be helpful to lower levels, I think at times we miss a few who are struggling with what to do, whether it be identify important weapon stats or understanding how to get verified on discord. So finding ways to help those who fall through the cracks should be a potential priority)
The idea of a senior helper seems intriguing. I would still give them staff powers. I think it could be a way to give players who struggle to find information a way to identify who to talk to.
The role of helper is outdated and no longer relevant for a number of reasons.
First of all, the title of “helper” hasn’t been in place officially for 16 weeks, as outlined in this announcement by @RhysRaptor. Instead, those who have the role should be referred to as “trial staff”. If that was the only fix needed then it wouldn’t be an issue, but of course there are a number of other issues that cause this particular role/title to cause problems.
Issue
Detailed Analysis
Separate roles enable players to question the legitimacy of any action by a helper/trial staff member
It goes without saying that whenever a role that holds a level of authority within any given gaming community is found to be “lesser” than the base rank of administration, players who have broken rules and been sanctioned by those in that particular group will immediately target that fact, which often leads to banal, often routine actions (1 slay for RDM etc) being drawn out and exaggerated for no other reason than a little bit of one-upsmanship from players. Alas, if you are going to have trial staff members, they should still be in the same in-game group as that of regular staff. There is no reason for non-staff members to know that a trial staff member is on “trial” or “probation”. It doesn’t benefit that trial staff member in any way beyond putting public pressure on them as well as the internal pressure of being assessed by Community Managers.
Inability to conduct same duties as normal staff members
I touched on this in my previous point, but it is still an important aspect that merits it’s own little section. Trial staff in the “helper” role do not have the ability to fulfill all of the duties that normal staff members can do on account of the fact that the role permissions are different. This in turn means that they cannot practice certain tasks, which by extension means they aren’t being fully assessed before being thrown into the deep end. This also applies to an inability to conduct basic forum moderation, which isn’t granted to someone until they have passed their trial stage. Given that sometimes the forum can get out of hand, I would argue this is a crucial aspect of being a trial member. Alas, A trial staff member should have full access to all in-game commands and all forum moderation powers. If they are abused at the trial stage, then that member can be removed. To suggest that the risk is greater is a non-argument because anybody who truly wishes to abuse powers only available to “full staff” will simply wait until they reach that milestone and do it anyway.
Gmod servers really don’t need a rank hierarchy of authority lol
I think that this is a self-explanitory point. This is a TTT community. The gamemode is round based, typically not overly-serious gameplay and the notion that a rank hierarchy is in place for a game of this style is unnecessary. If you look at DM servers or most other Gmod gamemodes (or even other TTT communities that have any level of merit to them) the concept of a police-style rank system isn’t present and for good reason. It becomes cluttered, overly convoluted and altogether farcical not only for players within the particular community but also those who find themselves caught up in that very hierarchy. Community managers are different because there are much fewer of them and they make community-changing decisions. Basic moderators? No. It’s not something that is needed.
Alas, all current trial mods should be given full access and not a silly helper role, allowing for proper assessment and topics like this one don’t even come up.
A lot of the time we’re not taken seriously, as we don’t have the “staff” rank. (The fact that it is still labelled as “helper” in-game rather than “trial staff” doesn’t help). This leads to new players, or even just cocky players, pushing their luck with what they can get away with, which can quickly get out of hand.
Also the restriction on command access is just that, restricting. For example, not being able to give out bans lasting more than 30 minutes, unless it’s a request for a perma, is very limiting in terms of available punishments. (Although, I do appreciate the addition of !aslayid)
As there are actually so few Trial Staff compared to Staff, I don’t think it’s worth having the rank at all. Like Paddy says, Trial Staff should be given the rank of Staff, with the conditions of a probationary period, made aware to Staff only. (and honestly I’m not just saying this because I want a promotion already).
Also, I’m glad I wasn’t mentioned in the shit ones ^^
Tbf I am agreed that the name ‘helper’ is a bit shitty trial staff or recruit would be a bit more suitable. And tbh the commands and logs and shit are easy to learn. The only real lesson you need is learning to be completely neutral which has definitely been a problem in the past. Tbf if you rebranded the helper role as a trial staff role then giving them more access to commands does actually sound more logical but still highlights the fact that they can be overruled by an admin if a decision they made was genuinely that bad. Having been involved in quite a variety of staff teams, I personally think that allowing trial staff to have similar access to commands etc. but keeping a close eye on their actions proves to be the most efficient way of teaching the newbies the role.
