Aegean

I feel like even if community +/-1s on staff applications were taken into account on whether or not someone were to be accepted as a staff member (read: someone that got all -1s on an app was rejected whether the higher-ups wanted it or not), I would still be trusting of them to promote staff without the community's input. I trust Lithium (and bleed?*) to accept staff that will do good for the server, even if there is someone that disapproves of them being promoted. He's been around long enough that he knows whether or not someone will be a good staff member and actively improve the servers, or vice versa.
 
*idk if bleed is still sectioned off into strictly CS promotions or not

You can get dressed while on candy duty fam

Yeah you're unbanned now, just don't do it again, or it'll probably be a true perm then etc etc.
Also, try not to be so unnecessarily hostile towards danny (or anyone else, for that matter) like you did before you got banned, that kind of shit will probably get you banned again too (although not necessarily a perm).
 
being honest about what he did in the first place isn't a bad thing

We have decided to unban him.
Please don't be an edgelord Brian, don't try to provoke the TF2 community or anyone just for some laughs, it's okay when it's with people you know since they don't take your jabs seriously, but when you are disrespectful to people who don't know you, they take it to heart. 
~Closed

Personally I'm in the boat that silent member to staff promotions are a bad thing. It opens the doors for favoritism and  closes the door for people to say why said people shouldn't be staff. While I can understand the ease of process(as my first time getting staff was silent and when I came back from my break was also silent) It does prevent the discussion from being had of why someone is not optimal for their position. I'm all for reducing personal bias in the application process. It's too easy for someone to be chummy with higher ups and ask for staff i m o. I am also not looking to shit on current staff who have been silent promoted or the higherups who have employed it. I do think that having the opportunity to dispute the promotion with a -1  is a good thing. At the end of the day a -1 can be dismissed if the reasoning isn't clear or accurate but someone who already gets promoted is just going to stir more internal drama from the people who did want them in. All in all though higherups do have the final say.
Overall I think that promotions should be handled clearly and well defined so people aren't suddenly surprised that someone else got staff just because they chill in a discord with a higherup. In my opinion the times that silent promotions end up being abused are few and far between. The potential for the worst is still present. ideally bad staff should eventually be siphoned out before they're a problem. However, there are times that moderators who have been silent promoted have gone untouched because either favoritism or not enough evidence of poor performance were provided.
I say silent promotions shouldn't be a thing even in the case of returning staff. While it's easy to point out what staff were good previously and they SHOULD be good again it doesn't mean their circumstance hasn't changed. The time away from being staff does affect how the community perceives them. It should be a matter of consistency as essentially they're trying to be staff from member again. Case by case can be more extreme from silent leaving to toxicity or whatnot. Opening a window to air the shit so to speak is a good way to get certain distrusts out of the way. If there are no problems then it shouldn't affect the staff returning negatively. The most that'd be asked of them is just to sum up why they want to be staff again.
I'm all for keeping things out from closed doors so to speak. Openness and clarity should be what the community deserves. I think the application process is a good way to provide that outlet. I'm not exactly the most passionate about the subject but I want to throw my two cents in since this ended up getting thrown on my "Hello again." thread in regards to me. That told me a couple things. 1 is that not everyone is happy about how I left and they want to make it clear and 2 It's easy to pass favoritism when you're on the receiving end. I don't care much to stir bad blood, however I don't think they should be denied voicing their complaints (as long as it's within the community guidelines.)
Tl;dr
That's a no from me.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

+1, RNG crits are shitty for both sides involved.

+1, RNG crits are shitty for both sides involved.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

To put a little perspective on how these "silent promotions" work, here's how the promotion / demotion process works for higher ups. It varies a bit from division to division, but it's in general the same.
A thread/discussion is created for promotions and demotions All prospective (Both members that have applied and not applied) staff are discussed thoroughly All higher ups of the division get input All community managers/Aegean can see all discussion Feedback must be valid, and is under scrutiny of all higher ups, including CMs/CLs (CSGO exclusive?) Goes through chat logs to see how they interact when staff is not available Use GameME to see activity on servers Higher ups come to a unanimous decision After discussion, approval goes to CMs We almost never disagree upon decisions, I honestly cant remember the last time we rejected someone If the prospective staff hasn't applied, they should be contacted to see if they would accept the position To my knowledge, this hasn't always been followed, but we will certainly follow up with higher ups to ensure that this happens In addition, +1/-1 on a staff application is not entirely representative of if someone will be promoted. We appreciate your feedback, but someone who receives all +1s is not guaranteed to get staff, just as someone who receives majority -1s is not guaranteed to not get staff. Everything is always taken on a case by case basis. Getting "Chummy" with higher ups is not necessarily a way to get staff (see @Jaydow CSGO Division Manager position). I can safely say that there's nothing more annoying than someone asking for staff, and they almost never get promoted any time soon. Obviously, getting to know higher ups is going to get you promoted quicker, as they'll know you better. Honestly, that's life, anyone who's been working before knows that the better relationship you have with your boss, you're probably going to get promoted quicker. This also assumes that you deserve to be promoted, as I've gotten to know people better and realized "Wow, I'll never promote that guy" before, even when I like them as a person.
As for bad staff, staff are held to a high standard. Of course, you learn through mistakes, and our staff are people too. But for example, toxicity and abuse will never be tolerated, and its quiet easy to remove staff that don't deserve powers. Anyone can post a staff abuse thread, and demotions can occur without a staff abuse thread. I've found that many times that people don't want another person to be staff hasn't actually been due to if the person does or doesn't deserve staff, but more personal vendettas against one another.
Edit: I'll also be moving this to General, as this applies to all divisions
 

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

I'll give you guys my reasoning for "invisible promotions".
People don't need to apply to be a good candidate for being a staff member. You guys have to remember that higher-ups are the position that they are because we have a lot of trust in them. We believe in their judgement, and they have experienced through a ton of good and bad staff throughout their time in xG. They take time to discuss if a member who hasn't applied deserves to be staff, and they always reach a consensus before doing so. Of course, we have changed it so we ask the individual if they want staff or not before the promotion takes place. The higher-ups also talk to their fellow staff / friends to get more input, so it's not 1 person who single handedly promotes a member to staff.
People can easily get demoted if they don't deserve staff. Please do not confuse member protests with admin abuse threads. Staff do get a few chances as human error is bound to happen, but people can make mistakes even if they had everyone +1 them. There are also multiple instances where admin abuse threads popped up on people that only had one side of the story, where the accusers were hiding the information to make the staff look bad. If someone is caught Slay All or other abusing instances, they can get demoted if it's a problem. 
People under 14 can still get staff. This is rare, but is always on a case-by-case basis. You can think of it in the real world as someone who gets a job offer without filling the requirements. That is also why (at least in CS:GO) we sometimes allow people to post a mod app without getting 50 posts on the forums. If we feel like we need more input on if someone should get staff, letting them apply doesn't hurt. 
These discussions never hurt, and I'm happy to improve a system if you guys feel it is broken. From the staff we have promoted that haven't applied themselves so far in recent memory, at least to the best of my knowledge, none of them have had a negative impact on our community. After a while, you  get a good idea if someone would be a good staff member or not just from interacting with them.
If anyone has anything that they feel contradicts any of my statements, I'm happy to read it so I'll keep this thread open.

It doesn't matter that much imo, staff submissions only serve as big bright lights saying "I want to be staff" to higherups.

You can get dressed while on candy duty fam

You can get dressed while on candy duty fam

Agreed with @Chrono especially with how American politics are nowadays and our age demographic, it's better to just keep politics out of xG for the time being.

Politics is something that should be encouraged as healthy discussion and or debate. with that in mind however look at your audience and tell me honestly that there would be healthy discussion and or debate instead of "no you're fucking stupid you libtard cuck" "i bet you suck trumps dick too". While I am all for discussing politics in a proper way, I don't see that in really any gaming community save for oddly specific communities I used to play in. (=]H[= back in the Project Reality for BF2 Days where members had to be verified as 21 and above and go through heavy in game and ventrillo scrutiny is one that comes to mind)
 
for proof why politics is not a thing that should ever happen in xG, read the above posts from brady frosty and lan

Welcome back! Please don't hesitate to talk to a higher-up including myself if you have any concerns in the future so we can address them or clear up any misconceptions.

Welcome back! Please don't hesitate to talk to a higher-up including myself if you have any concerns in the future so we can address them or clear up any misconceptions.

Welcome back! Please don't hesitate to talk to a higher-up including myself if you have any concerns in the future so we can address them or clear up any misconceptions.

Welcome back! Please don't hesitate to talk to a higher-up including myself if you have any concerns in the future so we can address them or clear up any misconceptions.