Changes to Helper

[Efan]

Hey everyone,

Following a large amount of discussion with members of Administration and the Staff Team, we have decided to put the following changes to the Helper role forward effective later today:

• The Helper rank including all people holding it has been transferred to the community team under the jurisdiction of the Community Manager. The Administration Team will still have involvement in decisions regarding the role, but these will be spearheaded by myself.​
• The rank will be stripped of its blacklist permissions, and users holding the rank are no longer expected to perform basic moderation. Its remaining permissions are for support purpose only.​
• Helper applications will now be handled by the Community Manager and two Administrators.​
• Helpers will maintain their access to the staff TeamSpeak channels, in-game staff chat and Slack in order to co-operate with staff.​
• Helpers can be removed from their position by the Community Manager and two Administrators or Senior Administration.​
• Helpers are subject to staff complaints when being reported for abusing their permissions or breaking the rules.​
• Helper will no longer be performing basic moderation.​

These changes have been made in an attempt to further distance Helper from the staff team and place it in its respective, more appropriate place. Moving the role to the community team allows us to amend the role more freely, and makes the role more enticing to users who do not wish to join the staff team but instead simply wish to continue helping with more resources to assist them in doing so. This also supports our statement of "You don't become Helper so that you can become Enforcer".

Our expectations for Helpers remain the same. We want someone who is familiar with the server rules and laws to an extent that they are able to pass on their knowledge to others and confidently answer difficult questions about them, and someone experienced enough to have a detailed understanding of the gamemode with which they are able to teach that to others. We expect our Helpers to follow the rules at all times, as we do normal players, so the requirements for the rank will remain the same. This being said, the rank should be easier to obtain following these changes; which is our goal. The requirements are subject to change.

Making these changes also allows for the rank to be far more dynamic, meaning a user can hold the rank of Helper for as long as we feel they are genuinely contributing and performing well as a Helper, and if that confidence no longer remains then they can more smoothly be removed from their role, then possibly get another shot at it in the future. This is a major pro because Helper is an incredibly useful rank and this change makes it easier to manage.

Please keep replies to this thread serious and/or constructive, or similar threads in the future will be locked.

Thanks @flugs for suggesting and helping to implement these changes.

Regards,

Efan and the Administration Team.

 

[Bojing]

so what can helps do besides answer questions?

 

[flugs]

• Answer help and support reports/help chat messages like you said
• Assist players in-game with limited permissions to use (e.g. fix a friend or new player’s base with their physgun)
• Assist with forum tasks (move threads, lock threads etc)
• Utilise slack and staff chat to have better communication with staff. Yields benefits such as being able to get sweater boxes spawned much faster
• Hold vanity (yellow phys+name) that makes them more approachable, especially to new players whom they are expected to be assisting
• Have an opportunity to engage more with staff allowing them to do things such as help out in events, suggest minimal ideas and such

The rank, whilst not holding many “perks”, should still appeal to the right people for it, even after these changes.

 

[Standish]

Your keyboard needs a child lock.

 

[Exnem]

Helpers can't move threads, we can delete them and lock them lol.

 

[nutrient10]

@Exnem You have more perms in the Support forum but nowhere else lol