The Cidprentice - ROUND 3 FINAL

[Bahamut2000X]

Congrats to all those that made it.

[Takara]

I don't care if Psy hates me because I voted against candidate 4, I'm still prettier than him.

Congrats everyone who made it to Round 4, especially my fellow Team Awesome members (even if you wanted to kick me out during the joke ;P).

[Heath]

Thanks you, guys.

ps. rubah smells.

[smittenkitten]

Welldone Team Fruity!

[Loony BoB]

I said I'd do this (I can't remember where) after the round was over, so here I go. Remember, this is my opinion, so it means little in the long run as often my opinions are shot down by the rest of staff in dramatic fashion. xD But sometimes I do okay.

Candidate 1 -

• Longtime member who has been around for many years.
• Well known and respected by most of the veterans, but has not had much interaction with most of the the newer members.
• Posts mainly in the general categories and Feedback.
• Has a smart unique personality and outlook that not many others have.
• Forum activity is currently moderate.

I really like this member for one big reason: They have an outlook that not many others have. If there's one thing I personally enjoy, it's diversity and unique perspective. I love it when I read something from someone in the staff forum and go "You know what, I never thought of it that way, but they're right." Well, they aren't always right, but the more different perspectives you can get the more likely you are to have more interesting discussions and also the more likely you are to cover more bases, get a better representation of the membership, etc. Now, the big flaw - as a lot of people pointed out - is that they don't interact much with msot of the newer members. I don't see this as a huge problem, more of a "lack of bonus" if you get what I mean. You shouldn't lose points for this, but you don't gain them either. There are some members of EoFF who don't really interact with anyone in particular at all, but they're still great.

Candidate 2

• Joined within the last year but has become one of the top posters during that time.
• Well received and like by most of the newer members, but some of the oldbies will probably claim they've never heard of this person.
• Active poster in all forums, but mainly in General Chat.
• Friendly poster but has the tendency to spam and be immature at times.
• Forum activity level is very high

This guy, as some pointed out, is the future Candidate 4 in some ways. I would question how valuable an oldbie's opinion is if they haven't heard of someone who is a top poster over the past year! Unfortunately they are immature, and maturity is an important feature of a moderator in general. This is probably the only person I would avoid out of the five candidates, purely on that reason alone. Give them time to mature and see how things flow.

Candidate 3

• Has been an active member for 3 years.
• Posts a lot in the gaming forums but not much in the general forums.
• Is well known and well respected in the gaming forums for their helpfulness and advice.
• Calm and low-key demeanor. Hardly ever participates in forum 'events'.
• Forum activity level is very high in the Gaming forums, much less so in the General forums.

This member is great when you're after a better presence and also better representation of the gamers, which is valuable considering deep down inside our index page, we are a gaming forum. The more gamers on staff, the more respected we are by other gamers, the more likely gamers are to stick around, the more likely we are to get new members due to the general nature of a newbie being to join up because of the gaming forums... or something. I think that got messy. Either way, they have a low-key demeanor which is again not a bad thing but won't help push their case, either. I like that they're helpful. Mods should be.

Candidate 4

• One of the top posters in General Chat for a number of years.
• Everyone's buddy. Has won numerous Ciddies in many different categories.
• Generally well liked by the community, but has had run-ins with the staff due to their non-serious, jokster nature.
• At one point claimed to be "anti-staff" but that position has since changed.
• Forum activity level is high in the General forums. Never visits the gaming forums.

The run-ins don't matter so long as it's not happening recently, and so long as they aren't too bad. Not a good thing, but not really a bad thing depending on the situations. Everyone's buddy means nothing until you know how they react when their buddy is in trouble. It's helpful for good Public Relations, though! Ciddies obviously don't mean much. Being liked by the community is good so long as they respect him when he's serious, which he would need to show he can be. If he can, and they respect him, this is a good thing. This member has a lot of "blanks" for me because it's hard to know if the points made are good or bad. It's very hard to say where I stand because of that. I'll give this one a "Don't Know".

Candidate 5

• Since joining EoFF two years ago, this person has dived right into the community and become an active poster throughout the forum.
• Is constantly posting ideas for new events and making interesting, interactive threads.
• Well liked by the community for their upbeat personality.
• Sensitive in nature, this poster shies away from confrontation and prefers to go with the flow.
• Activity level is not always constant. Periods of intense activity are sometimes followed by very low levels of posting.

This one I like. I would be very interested in this "shies away from confrontation and prefers to go with the flow" thing when it comes to staff debates, as I prefer getting a lot of input from people and I would hope that they could at least put their thoughts down and state their reasons when doing things such as electing a Cid's Knight etc. The other downside is the intense activity vs. low levels of posting... well, to me that depends on just how low. I mean, are we talking 10 posts a day for half a year and then 1 post a day for half a year? I'm okay with that. But one post a month for half a year? Er, no thanks! But the massive boost is the upbeat personality which I personally think helps the rest of the staff and community also become upbeat, and also the ideas and ways to make EoFF interesting. Some people might not think that this is important, but when no regular members are making competitions we can't exactly demand it of them, so we have to demand it of ourselves. Every now and then you just need someone who can say "EoFF is getting a bit lifeless and we don't want to lose members. We need more activity, more fun! Let's do this... [blah blah blah]" Those kind of members are what make EoFF, and if we can encourage and promote that kind of person then I'm all for it.

Really, it all comes down to what you think EoFF needs at the time. There used to be a real problem with moderating of the gaming forums, and some maybe say there still is (I'm not sure, I haven't heard that recently so I'm hoping that's not the case!). Some might say that we need more events and things to keep people interested. Sometimes people are looking for more deep discussion, while others might just say we need someone who can get us on the good side of the members. Sometimes you even need some young (but mature!) blood so you can ensure your staff are keeping up with the new members and not just living in the past.

There are a lot of things to consider, but if I had to make a choice right now, I'd go for five for the ideas or one for the perspective. If two wasn't so immature, I'd snap him up first though. We're an aging staff!

[oddler]

You and me, BoB, we are one and the same! Scary, actually. Maybe that means the staff doesn't agree with me.

And I'm sure you meant if two wasn't so immature.

[Loony BoB]

That's what I said.

[Rye]

Candidate 4 was pretty obvious, and I think I know Candidate 3, but I wonder who the other ones were.

[Loony BoB]

Candidate 5 is a wussy version of eestlinc or theundeadhero.

Candidate 1 is Del Murder, maybe.

[Peegee]

Candidate 5 is a wussy version of eestlinc or theundeadhero.

Candidate 1 is Del Murder, maybe.

Which one were you?

[Loony BoB]

Closer to Candidate 1 than any of them, probably.

[Yamaneko]

I'm Candidate Six. I decided not to show up.

[Del Murder]

You guys may not remember, but I was a #4 once!

#2 was based on The Man.

[Miriel]

It's funny how people are asking me who these profiles were based on. None of these profiles were based on any ONE specific person. We took traits from various people and mish-mashed them together to get a group of candidates who each had a certain viewpoint and pros/cons. There was a Gamer candidate, but we didn't base it off a specific gamer. And so on and so forth.

There were certain people I had in mind when thinking of certain characteristics, but each profile isn't a specific person.

[edczxcvbnm]

You guys may not remember, but I was a #4 once!

#2 was based on The Man.

No way XD He totally fits #4 or something...okay...he became totally anti-staff and went and created his own forum instead XP