Ridiculous 3-Year Anniversary AMA
by
TheTNTPotato
November 14, 2016 at 2:11 AM UTC
Although I've retired at least 8 times now, the first time I became staff here was November 10th, 2013 in Avicus' first official Junior Mod batch. The other staff in my batch are no longer junior mod/mod/senior staff, and most of them are no longer active players. I was silly and forgot to post this when it was actually my anniversary, but I guess now is better than later.
Sorry folks, nothin' too special here. Feel free to AMA, though!
EDIT - Bit of a fun fact, but I'm pretty sure this is my 5th AMA, which is always a fun time. EDIT 2 - My answers to questions have all ended up being fairly long, so expect some text-walls, lol.
What was/is your favourite server to moderate on? I hate to say this, but this is actually quite difficult to answer. I've moderated numerous servers now, and many of them, including Avicus, each have a special place in my heart. Since I've been able to stay here for over 3 years now, and don't plan on leaving any time soon, I can definitely say that Avicus is one of my favourite servers to moderate on. I'm currently mod on 3 servers including Avicus, so I'd say that those 3 servers are my favourites. I won't name the other 2, although most people do know at least 1 if not both. Opinion? I'm always biased towards fellow Canadians !! In all seriousness, you're a very amiable person whom I hold a decent amount of respect for. I haven't talked to you a huge amount, although I do always appreciate fellow OCN staff (although in your case, ex-staff :<<). I do hope we'll talk again some time in TS, since those were some fun times. :^)
Opinion of me as a staff member (when I was one)? When it comes to giving people feedback/opinions on their performance as a staff member, I'm usually very harsh on my opinions so that people know how to improve. However, I never noticed any major issues with you as a staff member. I do not remember your performance as staff on here, and I was not active enough on OCN to really notice, but you never did anything to (un)intentionally piss me off, so I have no complaints.
Opinion on Avicus over the last 3 years? Mixed feelings, although there must be a reason for me sticking around for so long! I'll admit that over the years, I've been apart of some notable drama that had circulated in the old ages of Avicus back in 2013-2014, as well as some issues in recent days, and yet I always return. Why is that? To this day, I still have no idea. For some reason, I always come back when I want to or feel the need to leave, and I can never figure out why. I guess something in me feels pain whenever I do truly try to leave, and makes me return so that I do not have to continue feeling that pain. It's a strange thing, but it shows that even though I have my ups and downs here, I'll never dislike Avicus and it's community, nor will I ever truly leave unless I have to. Do pardon my long answers, I tend to ramble a lot. ;p Also, thanks for the congratz! :)
What is the biggest thing Avicus needs to work on? Favorite Subject in school? Favorite map? If you could travel to a place where you already haven't. Where would it be? Opinions?
What is the biggest thing Avicus needs to work on? Favorite Subject in school? Favorite map? If you could travel to a place where you already haven't. Where would it be? Opinions?
What is the biggest thing Avicus needs to work on? To be perfectly honest, I'm not certain of this myself. I'm sure there are many things that do need to be improved, and maybe I'm just having a brainfart as of making this post, but to actually say things that need to be improved is actually a very difficult thing for me. I bet right now, there are many things that fellow moderators as well as the senior staff have planned to make improvements, but I have never been someone to actually come up with those things. I'm more of someone that's told to make the improvements so that I can ensure that those improvements are indeed made.
Favorite Subject in school? My next semester is the semester I am hyped for currently, since it has all of the subjects that I actually have a strong interest in. These subjects in mind are World/Ancient History, Accounting, and Cooking. I have only touched upon 2 of these 3 subjects in school as of now, so it is hard to say that any of them are my favourites. However, out of these 3 courses, World/Ancient History intrigues me the most due to how much there is to learn about history, and how much more I will learn in, say, 30 years due to the constant changes in our history.
Favorite map? Quintus 2 will always have a special place in my heart. Oh wait, it was never finished! I've never been super interested in choosing favourite maps or gamemodes, since I myself do not "play" often, but rather observe. If I were to pick a favourite map to observe that's been in the Avicus rotations, I would choose Quintus. Many would say that it was a bad map, but I was always intrigued by the matches played on it for some odd reason. I also have many great memories of it from years ago, so it will always hold a special place in my heart.
If you could travel to a place where you already haven't. Where would it be? Ireland, since a very special person in my life lives there that I wish to visit. Apart from that, I just believe that it's a very cute and small country that would make for a very relaxing vacation.
Opinions? I've actually always held very high respect for you. Your moderation skills are well above par, and I find that your interactions with the community, especially concerning tournaments, is great. I don't recall ever actually speaking to you in Slack, TS, etc., so I'm not really able to elaborate further since I don't actually know too much about you beyond staff/moderation.
Opinions on me? I remember when I first talked to you, I could tell that you were a very friendly person. I ended up being right! We haven't talked a ton, but from the few conversations I've had with you in TS and the several that we've had in Slack, you're a very friendly and approachable person that I hold a lot of respect for. As far as I remember, you have never done anything to annoy me, and usually we do get along very well, which is always a great thing. I need to start replying to you messages a bit quicker, though. Sorry about that! xD
Opinions on me as a Mod? Whenever I check Slack, you're usually the first name I see in it. I have no idea how you manage to be so active, but that's something I will always hold high appreciation for since I myself will never be able to do the same. When I first came back and saw your performance, I never noticed anything too special. As I started to check up on people more, I noticed how active you were and how much you've grown as a staff member in the last little while, and I will say that I'm impressed. I hope to see more great things from you, since I do see a great amount of potential in you, especially with how active you are!
Favorite animal? Dogs are pretty cute, so I'll have to go with them. This is a slightly biased opinion since I do love cats, but haven't owned one in over 10 years due to everyone in my family having allergies, but I won't deny that dogs are pretty neato.
Favorite minigame? Nebula was the first minigame/gamemode I ever played on Avicus, and will always hold a special place in my heart. Specifically, I will always be a big fan of DTM, since most of the maps I enjoy playing are of that specific gamemode.
Favourite Mod? Least Favourite Mod? Favourite Senior Mod? Least Favourite Senior Mod? Favourite Admin? Least favourite staff rank? Favourite staff rank? Most helpful staff member? Sassiest? Opinions?
Oooh this is a great series of questions.
Favourite Mod? Least Favourite Mod? I hate to be a party-pooper, but I'm really not a huge fan of picking specific favourites. I will hold high respect for anyone who does their job well with little to no complaints, and who will address any complaints they may have in a way that actually contributes to growth within the team. Any staff who either don't do their job properly without a good reason, or staff that complain about things without either coming up with ideas to improve the situations or explaining things in a concise and reasonable manner will always grind my gears. The thing I value most within a staff team is constant improvement and growth, as well as strong teamwork. You may allow this description to decide if you fall under a favourite mod of mine, or least favourite. ;p
Favourite Senior Mod? Least Favourite Senior Mod? Similar to Moderators, as long as you perform your assigned duties without any major hassle or unreasonable complaints, I will respect you. If you exceed your duties, I will hold high amounts of respect for you. If you slack off for a poor (or no) reason, then that's when that respect starts to go down a bit. Senior staff do work very closely with admins, which I know from personal experience, so it's very important that Senior Moderators go above and beyond whenever possible so that they can be good examples to Moderators, and show that they also want the team to grow and improve. The senior staff that have this in mind will always have my utmost respect.
Favourite Admin? If we're talking about current admins, then all I can say is that all 4 are great. I can't even choose a favourite or least favourite, since all 4 admins have very specific tasks and responsibilities that they all carry out to the best of their abilities. I have spoken to all 4 in the past, and not once have I ever had any major, or even minor issues with any of them. All 4 of them perform their necessary tasks, and do so in a considerable fashion. Sure, all 4 of them have made mistakes in the past, just like every moderator and senior moderator has, but I still hold high respects for all 4 of them due to the high amounts of effort they have put into keeping things alive here.
Least favourite staff rank? Every staff rank has a purpose, whether that purpose be to create the maps that we play on, develop the necessary plugins needed for the server to function properly, or to ban rulebreakers so that the innocent players can enjoy their time on the server. Since every rank we have does indeed have some important purpose, I do not particularly have a favourite or least favourite, since they are all necessary for the server to keep going.
Favourite staff rank? Refer to the question before.
Most helpful staff member? Sassiest? Well, the sassiest one is easy: I'm definitely the sassiest!! In all seriousness, this is fairly similar to the favourite staff. There have been many current staff members, as well as staff in the past who have shown that they're capable of providing a great deal of help to non-staff, as well as fellow staff members. It's very difficult to choose just one staff member, since every staff member has their own method of helping others that cater to different types of people. I could say "oh this staff member and that staff member are the most helpful because they teach me the most", but are they really the most helpful? To me, they definitely could be, but to others, they could be the least helpful because that person learns differently than I do.
Opinions? I'll admit, even now, you just provided me with some questions that made me really think about the current staff, as well as the current state of the staff team. A lot of the information I provided above was information I thought of in the past, but a lot of it was also material that I just thought of in the past little while that I was typing all of this out. After typing out all of those answers, I've actually gotten a different understanding of my true opinions of the staff team, as well as the community as a whole, which really intrigues me. Because of this, I'm definitely quite impressed in your questions' ability to cause this. Apart from that, we have actually talked in TeamSpeak quite a few times, and I can definitely say that I've very much enjoyed those times. You are a very amiable and approachable person, and I admire the fact that you're always looking to socialize and interact more with people, especially fellow staff. Even in Slack, I always see you giving suggestions and gaining feedback from fellow staff on your own performances, which is something that I'm very much impressed by. As a moderator, you've always had great performances, and I always know that you'll only improve more and more.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, I probably could've elaborated more on a couple answers, lol. If ya ever want me to elaborate more on specific questions, I'll happily do so in Slack ;p
Wow your answers are detailed... I respond with like 1-2 sentence answers on AMA's LOL.
Opinions?
Favorite color?
Favorite food?
Favorite sport? (If any.)
What's something I can improve on? (This can be anything, personal or as a moderator, idc lol)
What is your favorite memory? (On or off Avicus)
Cutest Avicus ship?
I like people learning from my answers. :^)
Opinions? Whenever I see you ingame or on Slack, I know to expect some fun conversations to happen. We don't talk a ton, but when we do, the conversations for the most part are fairly pleasant. I also haven't known you for a long time, since we met when you became staff, but I do respect your love for walls, since I also quite enjoyed the gamemode back when it was popular. ;^) Apart from that, there isn't a ton that I can say. which may be because it's 11:30pm and I'm exhausted, but I do respect you both as a person, and as a staff member.
Favorite color? Blue! There's really no particular reason as to why, but I always thought of it as a colour that provokes a lot of different moods, so I quite like it.
Favorite food? There's so many to choose! Some of my favourites are a classic caesar salad w/chicken and garlic croutons, cheese pierogis, as well as apples. I also love any type of chocolate, as well as most pastries!
Favorite sport? I'm a true fan of e-sports, man. I've never been a huge fan of actual sports, which may be because I've been playing video games for 14 years now, so I don't really have a favourite, haha. I've watched tennis matches in the past and quite enjoyed them, so I could consider that my favourite if anything.
What's something I can improve on? Again, I'm actually quite bad at giving suggestions for ways to improve one's performance, despite me being so critical about things. Everyone has something they can improve on, whether that may be their activity, the way they help people and learning how to cater to different learning types, or even their general knowledge of the network as a whole, but I unfortunately cannot think of a way to be more specific than that, since I'm simply unable to actually provide people with specific areas to improve on unless it's a very general area such as Hack Detection. When it comes to general areas, you do fairly well in all those areas, so it's mainly the very specifics improvements that you have to make now, which I do not have the ability to point out.
What is your favorite memory? One of my favourite Avicus memories is a time where an old friend of mine, w2damax, first played on Avicus with me. We were playing Quintus back in 2013-2014, and we just had a blast together. He's actually the reason as to why Quintus will always hold a special place in my heart!
Cutest Avicus ship? The S.S. Deboat. :>>>> I actually do not keep up with these "ships" as these young folk call 'em, so I can't say I really have any sort of opinion on them due to lack of knowledge. I'm not updated with the new times, man!
Any plans on rejoining the Senior Staff team? Opinions on me?
You've been apart of Avicus for so long and have seen the server go through many changes, what changes do you see in Avicus' future as the server continues to adapt and evolve?
Any plans on rejoining the Senior Staff team? Opinions on me?
You've been apart of Avicus for so long and have seen the server go through many changes, what changes do you see in Avicus' future as the server continues to adapt and evolve?
Thank you! :)
Any plans on rejoining the Senior Staff team? While I feel that I would very much enjoy being a Senior Mod again if given the opportunity, I'm simply unable to be active enough to perform those duties as well as I used to. If I could pick up my activity again and keep the activity going for a while, then I would most definitely work towards that again. However, I do not want to disappoint people like I did back when I had the inactivity issues before, since that would then completely contradict my beliefs. We'll see what happens in the future with that!
Opinions on me? This is an interesting one, for a couple different reasons. As far as I remember, I was still staff (maybe senior mod?) when you were demoted, and I don't actually remember why that happened, or what my opinion was on the matter. To this day, I still do not 100% understand where those negative opinions come from, nor do I fully understand my opinions, since I simply do not know what my past opinions were of you as a staff member. As a person, I do hold a decent amount of respect for you, and I especially look back to when I was having poor sleep schedules and would be in TS with you and Peter during AU hours (funny enough, it's currently 11:47pm, which is 2 hours after I usually sleep). You're actually a very friendly person from what I remember, and your performance as staff from what I remember was fairly decent. If I ever get on those AU sleep schedules again, maybe we'll talk in TS again! :0
You've been apart of Avicus for so long and have seen the server go through many changes, what changes do you see in Avicus' future as the server continues to adapt and evolve? Avicus has gone through an incredible amount of changes, good and bad, since it was first opened on November 2nd. I have seen it go from several thousand players to a few hundred, down to what it's currently at. I have taken note of the slight increase in player count, but I also have taken note in the fact that Avicus' newest update did not have the desired effect that many of us expected. I do feel that Avicus still has great potential when it comes to it evolving and getting it's old player counts back, but that will not happen in the blink of an eye. It will take many updates, additions, as well as upgrades for it to get to what it used to be. Nonetheless, I know the admins, devs, as well as the rest of the staff are committed to seeing Avicus adapt and evolve in a positive way, so that one day, it may potentially get back to where it used to be. What specific changes do I see? Unfortunately, I'm not actually certain of that. I'm unable to think of specific additions that can be made, nor am I able to accurately predict Avicus' future, but I do know that it's future could potentially be bright. Only time will tell!
Opinions? Since we're in different timezones, I'm not really able to see a ton of you. However, I know you put a lot of effort into trying to recruit AU players onto the staff team, which does a great deal in making significant improvements, regardless of it's success. You've helped make it apparent that we need more people to cover AU times, and you yourself also put a great amount of time and effort to cover the timezone as much as possible, which I will always appreciate. I only wish I could help you more! Apart from that, I actually haven't talked to you that much, so I don't really know a ton about you.
Opinions on Australia? Considering I am half Australian and have family living there, I definitely can't say that my opinion of it is a bad one. However, the climate of Australia is very different from that of Canada, therefore it would certainly be an interesting change. I would eventually like to go over there and visit family to see what it's like, but I do not plan on doing that any time soon.
Opinions? Highlight of being a mod? How does Avicus' staff team compare to other ones?
Congrats on reaching 3 years!
Thanks! :)
Opinions? You're probably one of the most amiable and fun-loving Avicus player I know. You help brighten things up in the Staff chats, and even on the Survival server. In terms of moderation, you also do fairly well, although I myself haven't quite seen enough in recent weeks to give an accurate, up-to-date opinion on that. When I first came back, I didn't 100% understand your personality, however I mainly found it quite amusing. Now, I understand it a bit more, and can appreciate it since we just do not see enough personalities of your type here.
Highlight of being a mod? When I first became staff in 2013, the highlight of it was helping large amounts of people in short amounts of time, mainly because Avicus was the first server I ever became staff on. It really helped build essential skills that are vital to my work and moderation life to this day. Now, I'd say the highlight is being able to build relations with fellow staff as well as players in the community, so that I can create lasting friendships that will go on for longer than a couple weeks like they used to. This isn't quite a highlight of a mod, but rather the highlight of being a player here. If I were to specifically choose a highlight of moderation that isn't that, I would definitely say that seeing people happy with the work we put towards making the network a positive environment would be a great highlight. Although I do not moderate for the sole purpose of receiving appreciation back, it is always nice to know that the appreciation is there, and that what we do is actually having it's desired effect.
How does Avicus' staff team compare to other ones? This is interesting, since it's actually quite difficult to compare staff teams. Staff teams cater to the gamemodes and overall structure of the server itself, hence ranks such as "Builder", "Map Developer", as of course, specific Moderation subteams if applicable. Since Avicus is a smaller server that does not need those subteams, it's hard to compare it to larger servers I've been staff on such as Mineplex, due to how different the two are. Nonetheless, I find that the state of Avicus' staff team currently is actually decent, considering it isn't too unorganized from what I've observed, and it isn't too large or too small. It doesn't have unnecessary subteams or ranks, and each rank/position we have currently serve their own purpose that all relate to keeping the server going. There are many servers that are very different from this, some of which I have been staff on. While some of those servers do in fact have great staff, most of them do have flaws of their own, much life the Avicus staff team does have flaws here and there that make it imperfect. Every staff team has flaws, but I'm easily able to tolerate Avicus' flaws. I can also easily tolerate the flaws within the other 2 staff teams I'm in, hence why I'm staff on 3 servers and haven't ditched the other 2 for Avicus.
My fellow weeb, opinions on me? I will always be biased towards fellow weebs! I'll definitely say that I enjoy our conversations about anime, especially since we do have semi-similar tastes. I remember you being one of the best, if not the best junior mod out of your batch back in 2013. I think you were in the batch after mine? Don't quite remember. Nonetheless, you were always great at the job, which eventually proved itself when you eventually made it to admin. You were a decent admin from what I remember, although my exact memory on that is a bit fuzzy. You're very dedicated to the team, and I like that even though you have retired in the past, most notably from admin, you still end up coming back. You're similar to me with that, which I find interesting. :^)
On a scale of 1-eZ how eZ are you? "Austin's snaps"
Opinions!? Great lad here. By now we've talked in, or have at least been in TS together on numerous occasions, and can definitely say that I have a great time when we do. I vaguely remember you from OCN too, back when we used to chat occasionally there, and even then you were also quite fun to talk with. I don't recall ever actually having a full conversation with you, so that should totally happen some time. :^)^)
Oh, and you're eZer :))))))00
Opinions on dev team? I find that you guys are doing a great job. I personally do not have high interest in development, and I'm not very knowledgeable about how developing works, so I can't really give a detailed opinion on the team. I do not know what happens in the background when it comes to development, so I don't feel too comfortable commenting too much on the early days of the Atlas update, which we all know had some questionable moments. The initial flop there left me with a couple questions regarding the planning that went into the update, but it's not something that I wish to hold against the team, since I myself do not know the full story. Apart from those flops that you guys may or may not have full control over, you guys do still push out bug fixes, updates, as well as little additions to the forums, and ingame (guess TS devs are technically a subteam of the Developer team, so can always include them here as well^^), so I do like that very much. Can't add too much since I myself don't know the limitations of the plugins, the website, or TS, so I can't exactly say "well you should focus on this and that instead of this!!!"
Opinions on me? I don't recall ever actually talking to you in TS or Slack, so I don't really know too much about you. In terms of moderation, I've yet to see you do anything bad, and I know that you're decently active, which I appreciate in a staff member. I cannot exactly think of anything outstanding that you've done recently, although that may just be due to my recent inactivity. Nonetheless, you seem to be a capable staff member, as well as a fairly friendly person judging by your forum posts and messages that you've sent ingame/in slack.
Sorry the opinion is a little short. I don't know too much about you, so I cannot make a detailed opinion, or else I'd risk saying inaccurate things about you. :P
how many servers have you moderated on? At this point, I've actually lost count. I've been mod on 2 large servers, as well as a few small servers including Avicus and OCN. If I were to make a guess, I'd say around 7-8 servers in the last 4-5 years.
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