Moderator Applications

As @Wonderland stated in his "What would you change if you were in charge?" thread, He would like to do away with Moderator Applications. I like @King take on the situation, where if you remove apps you have to handpick, and what if the handpicked person doesn't want to be a mod? I personally think that although choosing mods is a team effort, now and possibly after, perhaps if a certain moderator (doesn't matter which) feels very comfortable with someone being a mod then they can give the user an application. So you go from an open system to a narrow system based on ANY moderator's/admin's decision. I think this would work better as, now if I were to apply for Mod, and be denied, I might be discouraged to ever apply again. But, if you are selected by a mod you are likely a contender in the first place IMO. So why not let the moderator team hand out some applications personally, and see where it goes. Again my idea here is that open applications can be discouraging, having someone on the current staff commend a user by giving them an app would make it more comforting, although they may still not want to be a mod. And honestly, the idea of handpicking is what the moderator team already does, you all still have to vote to get someone approved or denied anyways, so you handpick the staff that is approved. Fight me on this one, I really think this idea is good, show me why it is good or bad if you can.

 

nah bad idea because wannabe moderators start kissing staff member ass in hopes of staff giving them an application. at least now anybody can submit an app and you don't have to endlessly kiss ass until you receive an app, you just have to kiss ass until they reject you

 

We used to handpick moderators until people complained we should have applications instead of Global Mods nominating whom we thought would make a good Sectional Mod. Staff are still encouraged to push members who we think deserve and would make a good staff member to make an application. With that being said, handpicking staff is a thing of the past and I don't think we will be reverting back to that anytime in the near future.