intothepines | ( ! ) moderator applications

Hey there, Pinecones!

As the start of the first metaplot arc begins to wind to a close, the work required to keep the game running quickly and smoothly has finally reached a level that we, as a team, are beginning to struggle to keep up with. We anticipate that this will only get worse as the second arc kicks in, the in-game world opens up, and adventure and discovery become everyday facets of in-game life.

Because of this, we'd like to open our mod team up for one more volunteer.

MODERATOR APPLICATIONS

POSITION: Public Relations Mod

ROLE:
Essentially, this new mod will be a friendly source of information and acceptance for the playerbase at large. They will be a buffer between the mod team and a few of our more intensive and individualized tasks, to decrease the workload of the team as a whole and allow us to extend ourselves more thoroughly to make the gameplay and metaplot the best that it can possibly be.

DUTIES:
Response to player inquiries. This will be our new mod's primary job. Between the FAQ, Mod Contact, mod plurk, and PMs, we currently receive an average of 4 questions a day that require full-team discussion, and a scattering of further questions which can be answered from the FAQ or other infopages. This seems like a small number, but amidst modposts and more time-sensitive maintenance tasks, this can fall by the wayside and pile up rather quickly.

We have a Discord channel specifically for discussion of player inquiries. You will be responsible for turning our discussion of each question into a finalized response, which you will then deliver to the player. You will also be expected to verse yourself in our infopages, because ideally you'll reach a point where questions that have already been clearly stated in the FAQ or elsewhere in our pages can be answered without team discussion at all.

Ensuring player inquiries are received as quickly as possible. As stated, the mod team has multiple tasks to cover on a daily basis, many of which are time-sensitive. Because of this, our response time to player inquiries tends to get noticeably longer in times of heavy workload, the end of the month especially. This is not because we don't want to prioritize player inquires, but because we're human and often get so busy with everything else that the presence of outstanding inquiries tends to fall by the wayside for a couple of days.

As a mod, it will be your job to keep us on top of discussing player inquiries so that you have the info you need in order to get back to our players. If you see us online and there are questions waiting for response, we need you to be proactive and actively prompt us for discussion on the inquiries outstanding. We, as a team, very much want to be pestered by you. We want to get these answers back to our players, and we want them to get those answers as soon as they can.

Application review & response. Currently, we have four mods that review applications over the course of each round. We require three of those to weigh in on an application before it's accepted, asked for revisions, or declined. This leaves essentially the entire team tied up for huge chunks of the application round, and as the game gets larger, we find we leave each application round a little bit more fatigued.

You will be responsible for being one set of eyes on most if not all of the applications we receive in each round, freeing up an additional mod to work on all of the other end-of-the-month tasks and hopefully make everything less hectic for the team at large. Additionally, you will be responsible for delivering all acceptance notices to players who aren't receiving revisions requests or having their applications unfortunately declined. This is largely copypasta with a few per-character adjustments, but this too is enough of a load off to free the team up for a less hectic month turnover.

REQUIREMENTS:
Good people skills. You will be the face of most venues of mod contact, and we want someone who is friendly, well-spoken, and diplomatic to help ensure positive player-mod relations.

Writing skills. The responses you'll send to player inquiries need to be as clear and concise as possible. We want our players to understand fully the details we're giving them, and you need to have the skills necessary to do this.

Confidence speaking up. You will on multiple occasions need to prompt us to discuss some of the current player inquiries. This will often be out of the blue, and sometimes will come when we're also working on other tasks. We absolutely understand being shy, but we need to count on you to be willing to "pester us" for these answers, even in less-than-ideal circumstances.

AN IMPORTANT WARNING:
If chosen as our newest mod, you will be privy to game spoilers, regarding both the present and the future of The Pines. This will affect you as a player as well as a mod, as we generally prefer to 'fall back' and let the players themselves take primary metaplot roles. (Put differently: If you already know how a mystery unfolds, it's not entirely fair for your character to be the one who solves it, is it?)

INTERESTED?

Fill out the copypasta in a comment to this post!
Who are you?: Your name, who you play, and your plurk or some other means to get in touch. Why do you want to join our team?: We want to hear about what exactly makes you passionate enough about The Pines to become someone who puts hours of unpaid work into running it. Why do you think you're the right person for this job?: You don't need to have previous experience. You just need to convince us you're the best candidate for the job.

( ! ) Mod applications will close on Friday, May 19th at 12:01 AM.
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