We are always accepting applications, but we are currently actively looking for new team members. If you are interested, send an application to myself, GobO_Althalus, and GobO_Fire detailing any experience you think might be relevant. Participation in any online community is a plus, as is moderation experience, but list anything you feel might be useful. We are especially interested in anyone with a background in writing and game design, but there is no one make or break quality we are looking for, so anyone who is interested and able to regularly log on and keep an eye on the forum is a potential candidate.

Thanks,

Sarah

Someone asked for a little more detail on what being a moderator entails, so I'd like to elaborate a bit.

The main duty of a moderator is to monitor threads, especially in their area, and make sure that everyone is getting along. This entails everything from reading reports, messaging a user telling them that they are drifting off topic, a polite message in a thread if multiple people are involved, or moving threads to a more appropriate section of the boards, all the way up to issuing official warnings, editing/removing posts, and locking threads.

We spend most of our time monitoring and discussing, rather than actually doing anything that is visible, because most potential issues sort themselves out before they even get going, and we want to give the community a chance to resolve things on their own. Somewhere between 10% are solely in the moderator discussion area, so we definitely spend a good amount of time working things out behind the scenes. Our goal is to stop things before they start, however, so the importance of taking an active role can't be understated. We just don't want to micromanage, either.

The secondary role of a moderator is to be a community leader. This means being active in your out of uniform account as well, contributing constructively to conversations, starting topics that interest you that might also be of value to the community, and especially helping new users find their way around the forum. By contributing constructively and encouraging others to do so as well, we can ensure that new users are always coming in. The best advertisement is always a word of mouth referral.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Me. I won't let any Goblins in. Or out. . .

And here's some more info, answers to things I've seen asked/mentioned a couple times in PMs. You might even call it a FAQ, if you wanted to...

Do I need Experience?

No, it's not a requirement. If you think you would be interested but are hesitant to ask because you've never actually moderated, go ahead and send us a PM anyway. Experience helps but it doesn't automatically disqualify you if you don't have any yet. Everybody on staff right now had different levels of experience back at go-live in September, ranging from "Oh, you're that guy from WotC before the ORC invasion" up to, "I've never done this before..." Regardless of your experience level, we'll give you training and make clear our expectations.

I've been issued a warning; does that rule me out?

No, but it's something we'll talk about for sure. We'll figure out what happened, and we'll also check how things have been since the warning. We all have bad days, or even just bad moments. Unless your name is Dahlia Lama, we all lose our temper from time to time. Even multiple warnings doesn't automatically exclude you, but it would cause us to dig deeper, ask more questions, etc.

Why do I need writing or game design experience?

You don't. It's just another factor we're going to look at, because we're looking for coverage of the new Creative Corner, both moderation and somebody to run the community. So just like experience, if you don't have it that's OK; we still want to hear from you if you have interest.

I can't be online 24/7/365. Is that gonna hurt my chances?

Whoa, slow down. Nobody can be online 24/7/365. Unless you're a sentient robot from Skynet...

Less snarky, we don't expect anybody to spend every waking moment on here. If your job doesn't allow you internet access, that's OK. If you have child custody arrangements that bring your child to your home every other weekend, by all means log off and enjoy that time. Whatever. This is a volunteer gig; you don't have set hours to work, nor do you have minimum hours to work. Further, we know folks have plans, vacations, jobs, and so forth. And we know crap comes up and you have to drop everything and go deal with it. As long as you're invested in trying to do a good job, if you can only spend - on average - an hour a day online but otherwise have great ideas, good background, etc then we'll be interested. Maybe you're not suited for a moderator position, but we could add you to the "admin" staff in a community building role. Or maybe we can hire you and another strong applicant to work the same area and help cover each other.

Whatever. We're more interested in having strong individuals who will improve NGA than we are in making sure you're part of skynet.

When do I start?

I would expect, overall, for things to move slow from our end. On purpose. We clearly need to expand in some areas, but when we do we want to make sure we can give the new hire time and attention.

Right now, we don't have any hard and fast timelines set. But here's generally what's going to happen. When you send your application, one of us will send you a reply to acknowledge we've received it. Admin, Alth, and I will discuss your PM. We'll each share what - if anything - we know about you. Somebody will do a quick look at your account to see if you have a warning, and if so what for. After that initial discussion, we'll start to put together a more detailed application. Some of the questions we'll send are pretty standard, but others (we hope) will be more tailored toward you, your experiences, and your expressed interests. We'll also invite you to ask us questions - interviews are two-way streets, not one-way.

Then we'll discuss it all some more. At this point, as long as there was nothing in your answers that would throw your application into the "Hell, no!" category we would then bring your name up to the rest of the staff and invite them to share their opinions, if any, about you - your posting habits, if they've seen you on other sites, etc. This could generate more follow-up questions from us, or it could be a matter of something we'll sit on for a while before doing anything. Or we could say, "Whoa! We gotta hire this gal now!"

So at least so far, that's the process. Each step has no timeline or deadline. We tackle each application separately, and we expect some will move a lot slower than others. We're also going to do our best to only have one brand-new mod at a time, to make training easier for our side and minimize the impact that has on the community.

So that's answers to what I've seen so far. If other questions begin to pop up, I'll add another post with those answers, because if a couple folks are asking it's likely that others wonder the same thing but are afraid to ask.

Cheers!

-Fire

How much would I get paid?

The same as the rest of the staff.

I should probably apply for this, but then this would be like work, and if my consistency in posting reveals anything, it's that I don't always do work.

Can I be a mod?

I could throw my name in if you'd like

I nominate thedevilwuster for the DotP section. ^_^

I'd like to thank everyone for the great response we've receive so far. We will continue to accept applications, so please feel free to message us if you are interested, or if you have any questions, but over the last few days I think we have gotten all of the applications we need for the current hiring cycle. We do have plans in the future, so if you haven't applied yet and would like to, or if you applied and don't end up being selected, don't get discouraged; there's just only so much time we can devote to training, and we don't want to hire ten new people and then take a year to train all of them.

Thanks again!