Krampus

+1 There's no one more sandy than him that could do the job 

As some of you may know, I had my wedding today! I got married to the local surfer in our tf2 surf server, Blaster! We are married and as a wedding gift I want nutella and anime from everyone. 
 
I expect it by tomorrow morning.

+1 There's no one more sandy than him that could do the job 

Exactly lol, we literally never go on it unless like uncle dang comes on and trolls and tells everybody to go on it to get randoms to click it and then we spend an hour on it doing nothing. The high advantage here is literally cancer to fight with

I know the feeling

From my understanding, people vouching on member or staff threads is meant to just inform the higher ups that there are people who are willing to vouch (or do the opposite) for you being possibly good enough for the position and give them a heads up on how you are seen in the community. But in the end the decision is almost entirely up to the the higher ups and the vouch is just suggestion which is why it may not seem like it does much.

Now while this thread seems to have left the impression on some of you guys that it's not much more than a rant for not being promoted, I strongly disagree for the fact that she actually provided what she thought was wrong within this community in detail, which I genuinely find to be admirable, and while there are certain points I respectfully disagree with, there are some I actually actually agree with as opposed to some people here, which I'll now leave my response to, without getting into too much detail, from not any up-to-date experiences but rather experiences I've had when i was active in the TF2 division.
 

I think this is what is needed to be accomplished, I've always felt like there is something that just doesnt work with our current system of staff ranking, one major problem imo which creates a lot of bitter feelings (as shown in the quote below) in especially mods and pmods is HOW the pmod/mod/admin system is being used.
 

One solution i've always had in mind for this and still support is that pmod and mod should be used as what they were intended initially to be used as, which is where the Mod and in this case Probationary Mod ranks are purely to observe someone's qualifications for being a staff member before making them an admin.
Which would mean that there should be more admins than mods, and while I feel like long-time mods really have no reason to stay as mods, I'm still uncertain as to whether or not this would possibly cause problems, and how so.
 
And another solution which could be deemed a bit too excessive would be to have official sub-divisions as in having a DL for a certain server for example, and while this may sound like it'd be unnecessary, I feel like it could show some real positive outcomes. As people have already mentioned in this thread, one problem with the TF2 division is that there are higher ups who don't get on each and every server and know everyone in those servers, or at least nowhere nearly as well as they do on the servers they actually are regulars on. But of course this is just an idea, and I think it'd be both fun to implement this and it could potentially solve a bunch of core problems some people face within our community.
 

Also, this I completely agree with in every aspect, and feel that more people in the staff rankings need to have a better understanding of.
 

I personally don't consider this a punishment role, but rather another rank in the system that is once again imo counter-productive, im talking about the sort of "Staff Class" usage of the ranks pmod, mod and admin, which once again should be replaced with a much more productive way of using the ranks, as I stated in the previous paragraph.
 

This I strongly disagree with, for the simple fact that from all my experience in the TF2 community I've seen again and again how most people don't know what they really want when they demand something, it's just a fact that whenever something that majority wants is implemented, the new majority becomes the people who complain about said implementation.
 

I mostly agree with this, although along with the point bello brought up, it has become apparent that this issue just isnt that simple as to how it can be resolved, and at the end of the day what it boils down to is the quality of staff members and higher ups. Other than that my personal opinion is that staff should indeed be treated as witnesses themselves, and a staff member should always have more credibility than a witness and shouldnt always require proof when they take action against something.
 
And the rest of the topics seem a bit more subjective and more case-by-case scenarios as to what they apply to and what they imply, and since I havent been in touch with the TF2 Division as of late, I won't touch on those subjects.
 
 

This last part I will assume you didn't write with a clear piece of mind, I feel a debate about things like this is the most important thing to have. And regardless of what you say here you still will be welcomed back if you do change your mind, either way, take care & peace.

Alright then, how about this? DM/DL ____ says "I don't see you on servers very often", so the appropriate response is "Oh, well then screw it, I quit"?
How about instead you find that higher up in a game on our servers and join it and maybe play with them a bit? You know, show them you're alive? Do this a few times and "I don't see you" becomes "Hey, you're pretty active!"
 
Standing out doesn't mean wearing a lime green Scout set and hitting people with a pan, it means showing a lot of initiative and potential with being staff. When the time comes for promo/demo, staff would be able to say "Hey, you know Mod ____? They do a really good job, they're active, and they're super mature, we should promote them"
 

 
Ok, I feel I need to squash this attitude, because people keep thinking this is how it works. If one person -1'd her, that doesn't mean she was barred forever from being promoted. That person had a reason to -1 her. Even if all the others +1'd, if the one who -1'd gave a really valid reason why they shouldn't be promoted, then obviously that reason was good enough for the other higher ups to agree or even change their mind. As @Bello said, "majority rules" is fairly flawed. If we had 15 higher ups +1 a guy, but one person -1'd them because they constantly abused, then that -1'er had a good reason for doing so. Hell, the others may not have known that, and that one guys -1 could turn the 15 +1s into -1s.
 
However, one person -1'ing doesn't automatically mean a "no" either. I've seen instances where one higher up would -1, but all the others would +1. If they have a good reason to strongly suggest that player, they could still be promoted.
 
You getting a +1, a -1, and a neutral does not seem like a yes to me. That means only 1 of 3 dentists approve, and don't think you're ready. Like I said before, Probationary Mod is for making sure someone is ready for staff, not to go "Hey, let's throw powers at this guy and see what happens!". They still have to feel you'd be responsible with those powers, as limited as they may be.
 
Final Note: While I don't condone bias against a player, the higher up(s) who -1'd Spooks had a good reason for it. They genuinely thought they weren't ready for the position (again). And from the way she stepped down, they may have been right to do so the whole time. Spooky, huh?

From my understanding, people vouching on member or staff threads is meant to just inform the higher ups that there are people who are willing to vouch (or do the opposite) for you being possibly good enough for the position and give them a heads up on how you are seen in the community. But in the end the decision is almost entirely up to the the higher ups and the vouch is just suggestion which is why it may not seem like it does much.

From my understanding, people vouching on member or staff threads is meant to just inform the higher ups that there are people who are willing to vouch (or do the opposite) for you being possibly good enough for the position and give them a heads up on how you are seen in the community. But in the end the decision is almost entirely up to the the higher ups and the vouch is just suggestion which is why it may not seem like it does much.

I never really got the chance to know you well, but I am sad to see you go, and I hope you're happy wherever life takes you in the future, and I truly believe you did a great job as a staff member if that means anything at all coming from me.
 
I'm gonna touch on just a few points made here:

 
With some of the decisions made there isn't actually an announcement made and it's only spread through rumors and that's the only way people figure out about certain changes in the servers, whether that be a slight rule change or where certain boundaries are for spawnkilling in surf.. one person can say one thing, then another person says another thing and then everybody gets confused. Or at least from what I've seen as of late.
 
 
 

 
It's always been a fact that some staff have their niche servers that they play on, and then they rarely play on anything else. But as of late the servers have honestly never felt more divided amongst the staff team or players in general, I've been trying to space myself out from more than just surf lately but even at that there's some staff that I've never even met whether that be from the different times we play, inactivity or whatever it may be. I think a big thing that needs to be worked on is this in specific, so that not only higher ups but the staff team in general gets to know who they're working with better so disagreements don't happen so often, and so it doesn't seem like bias when one person gets a staff position over another person.

You have been declined from becoming a member, but you may reapply in a month!
 
Note: Multiclanning, don't bother reapplying until you have left the clans you are in currently
 
~Closed

I'm leaving xg for good. This is my only and last formal goodbye. In case you didn't know what happened I'll sum it up. 7 months ago now I took a break from being staff for personal reasons that I chose to keep to myself. Tf2 wasn't fun for me at the time. The drama in xg was unbearable at that point. There were several decisions being made that in my opinion weren't in the best interest of the clan. No I'm not going to go into detail about them because I can't be bothered.
I came back roughly a month later 2 weeks after pyro update dropped and it took a lot of time an mulling over to forgive tf2. At this point I was hearing a lot from community members that missed me being staff(not just other staff) and eventually I was convinced to come back to staff. Now since I stepped down quietly I was expecting the process to be easy. It was not. Instead of resuming my position as staff I'm put unfairly into a probationary role solely because of 1 higher up's bias against me. I was being punished for no good reason.
I was assured that it's no big deal I'll most likely get admin back as long as I keep staffing well. I got mod quickly and ended up staying mod for the last 5 months. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. In fact multiple times I even considered just giving up entirely, but I decided to stay for the people in the community who actually appreciate what I do. I stayed because the servers liked having me.
I don't know what the accused hold up is now and quiet frankly I'm over hearing lies and excuses like I have since I first got staff. From the beginning it was "who the fuck is ms. spooks?" "You need to be more established with the community" "you need to do more." "I never see her online so I can't make a good opinion on her" etc. Now keep in mind since I was considerably new staff at the time it wasn't a big deal. However time started passing by and I've watch many staff (you know who you are) go from member to admin before me, and now they're dms before I've even gotten admin back. I kept asking what am I doing wrong and keep getting the same run around. "Nothing, why?" just to be followed up later with some half attempted accuse "Oh you just need to do more." As time went on that clearly didn't end up being the full truth getting comments like "If you did more you'd already be admin" "You're not entitled to admin" "You're too passive" etc. It's not fair that I do the same amount of work as an admin, spend more time than a majority of the mods, and have been an established community member for 2 years without even a blemish.
Now some of you will take this as an outcry because I didn't get a rank that's just slightly better than mod, however my problems run deeper than that. It's not fair that I had to harder than other staff the entirety of my time of being staff. It's not fair that I keep getting pushed aside for other staff who are better at sucking off the higher ups than I am. I'm done playing the charade of "work a little harder" "Do a little more" Because even with the backing of multiple staff and plenty of recommends it clearly doesn't mean jack to you. It's incredibly disrespectful not only to me but other people who have gotten this treatment to string us along like a grunt. I'm not your lackey. I didn't become staff to do your job, and I most certainly don't see anywhere that says I'm supposed to suck you guys off in order to even get looked at. It's beyond hurtful to continue to be punished for things out of my control and more importantly I didn't do.
This is my only request of all of you staff. If you're not my friend and you're only friends with me soley because I'm staff. Get the F U C K off my friends list. Get out of my servers. Get out of my life. I have enough garbage I have to deal with in my life and I don't need more fake people around who don't care about my feelings. Stop pretending to care about what I have to say then just doing the same garbage I'm complaining about. I have rooted for and defended most if not a majority of you even if we haven't been the best of friends. I've stood up for you and I tried to be there when you're down. It's funny to me how people forget the people who rooted for them when they get power.
I have been mulling over for the last couple days what all I'm going to say when inevitably I say goodbye after being shafted again for no good reason. So I'm going to finish this with a list of what xG should improve on.
 
1. Staff are volunteers not lackeys
This "do more" mentality and backwards logic of having more mods than admins is part of a huge issue that doesn't respect your staff equally. despite all staff volunteering their time and efforts to improve the servers and the community. Treating admin as some mystical, magical, special role that's Juuust out of reach feels really really shitty for all the mods who have to work harder than other staff to prove themselves.
 
2. Stop using probationary for no reason.
This is a punishment role. It's used for staff who don't deserve a full demotion but still want to make things right as staff. Likewise It's used for people who have a dirty history. Stop slinging it around for every person who you don't feel like fits the personality mold even when they've done nothing to deserve it. Stop using it as a compromise because 1 higher up doesn't like the person. It should be used to establish wrong doings not "We just trust you a little less."
 
3. Majority matters.
It's been a huge problem for a while where higher ups have to make unanimous decisions. What this means for all the other staff is that if 1 higher up disagrees despite everyone else agreeing on said thing. It won't go through. The voice of one is too strong in this community specially for higher ups who don't go on servers enough to see what is going on or that just choose to disregard the intent of the community and more importantly the other staff. To fix this, it should be that majority rules. It should be that the community or staff vote count for 1 higher up in of themselves, because giving the people no say is what's going to kill the community.
 
4. Be transparent.
All decisions should be clear, concise, and have good *valid* reasons. It should be your goal to be as unbiased, well informed, and clear as possible. This under the table garbage that's been going on is just sleazy. You don't want your real opinions out there and you don't want to be held accountable which quite frankly is an embarrassment to your role. Be open and honest with your staff and not just string them along with excuses everyone knows are lies. If you make a decision you're accountable to that decision. Don't just keep letting everyone else have to figure it out.
 
5. Stop only caring about people in your respective group.
This is a big clan with large divisions and even in tf2 large sub divisions. Its been an issue for a while that surf staff only favor surf staff and tgh staff only like tgh staff. Unfortunately it has even gone as high as the higherups. Just because you haven't played on the servers (which isn't a good idea anyways) doesn't mean you should give only people in your respective server the special treatment. If you want to be taken seriously you have to take others seriously as well. It's ok to get more information to form your own opinion, but it's not ok to say it's not your problem because it's not your server.
 
6. Witnesses matter.
I'm all for innocent until proven guilty, but some of you take this as an opportunity to ignore issues all together because no tangible evidence. Staff witnesses have just as much say as a normal witness, none. It doesn't matter how many people say a person did an action because without proof you're never going to confront the issue. You make no effort to gather more information. It doesn't help when you expect people to be recording EVERYTHING that goes on, and to be honest if you are wanting people who record everything just to nail one person it's a pretty sucky, bandwagony mentality.
 
7. Stop treating other staff like dirt.
This is to all staff. Stop staffing over each other when someone else has it handled. I'm not talking about you both get on at the same time or accidentally warn at the same time. I'm talking that another staff handled the call, they're already trying to resolve the issue, and you jump in gung hoe and start shafting them. It's not acceptable. Trust the staff members to do their job. Unless you have to make a decision that involves perms only you have as staff it should not be happening that staff are stepping on each others toes. Likewise, Mods are volunteers. Means they donate their time and energy into the servers just like you. Stop talking down to staff who are a lower rank and stop kicking them around because you can. Stop rubbing your rank in their face. They get it. It's not acceptable to disregard another staff as a whole just because they're a lower rank.
 
 
8. Share the interest of the community not just yourself.
There has been many times where higher ups have made decisions under the table that are looked at negatively by the community or ultimately effected them negatively. Yes we get you like this one plugin idea and the other higher ups are all for it, but when you implement it out of nowhere and it effects the players to the point of complaining about it that's not in the interests of them. Part of making the community a better place is by making it unified, and when you keep making decisions that effect a mass in the community you create division.
 
With all of that in mind I want nothing to do with this community anymore. If you're really my friend you'll accept that. I'm not going to keep getting a run around, doing your jobs, and investing time and energy into a clan who doesn't care about me back. I'm not looking for a debate here. I'm not justifying any of my points. I'm not going to bother responding so don't bother baiting for a response. No I'm not changing my mind. I don't know if I'll ever come back to xg after all that it's put me through. I don't want your excuses so don't bother sending them to me. I may still come on the servers once in a while but you're not going to get much out of me here. Goodbye xg.

It's not Sunday but I'll forget if I don't do it today. I'm bad at taking pictures

+1 Shoulda been member already smh, also great person and it'd be great to finally have him be apart of the community; plus he has a good butt
A: 10
M: 9

I can't recommend you become a member based on what happened yesterday on the Pokemon Trade Center server where you got really upset and started spamming in the chat because nobody would tell you how to play the music.
 
Steam Community :: Screenshot
Steam Community :: Screenshot
 
You need to improve on your maturity a lot before I could recommend you. -1
A: 7
M: 4

Caleb y u so stinky smh

I'm really sorry guys, I just have not been doing a good job and I'm not enjoying the game anymore :(
I just wish I could have done more to help you all out in the servers, but I just.. couldn't bring myself to it, I let other things get in the way of my true goal, which was to turn the server into a marxist countr-, I mean create a safe and caring environment for all.
So I from this point announce my resignation after many hours of hard work I've put into the server, I hope you find some happiness in what I've done.
Again, this is me stepping down,

from minecraft ;)

+1 while I do enjoy this map, the linear section is just too easy and the end reward isnt great either. There is almost nothing to this map except the 2 secrets (3 if you are counting the actual surf part). There are always complaints when we go there and we almost always rtv off of it.

Except for the fact that like no one ever really uses them unless a staff member/uber donator purposefully goes through the effort of starting them up since only they can do it

Except for the fact that like no one ever really uses them unless a staff member/uber donator purposefully goes through the effort of starting them up since only they can do it

Except for the fact that like no one ever really uses them unless a staff member/uber donator purposefully goes through the effort of starting them up since only they can do it

Except for the fact that like no one ever really uses them unless a staff member/uber donator purposefully goes through the effort of starting them up since only they can do it

Except for the fact that like no one ever really uses them unless a staff member/uber donator purposefully goes through the effort of starting them up since only they can do it

Also bois I got a solution for this that is better than removing the map, I pm'd the map creator and talked to him about the problem and he said that'd he create a version of the map with better spawn locations for our server since we don't have spawn protection and the spawns are the only thing really wrong with the map