Limelight Teacher Team has been there since the inception of the community. Guiding the players old & new alike. Informing them of the rules, in-game systems and assisting them on the forums.
In time, their duties increased with the implementation of newer systems and also with access to new abilities. For example, assisting in the Public Discord by answering questions or assisting in the Team Discord by collecting information, giving opinions and helping test new features.
While their primary objective is to assist players in-game, Teachers also do a lot of work on the forums, discord and other areas for the community. We especially value the assistance of Teachers who are experienced, meaning who have been a Teacher for a long time as their experience can guide newer Teachers and help them ease into the team faster.
Teacher Activity
Teacher Activity has been raised as a discussion point recently, and we are working on resolving the issue by bringing new guidelines to how the team works. With the new guidelines, we wanted to ensure that Activity is not only in-game, but also on the forums. We also wanted to encourage Teachers to host more events and mini-events by bringing a new event requirement.
In-Game Hours
Teachers are required to have at least 10 hours a month, which might increase in the future however we did not want to make the requirement high, forcing Teachers on the server as that would take the fun away and if you are volunteering, the payment is the fun you get from assisting the community and enjoying the server.
We wanted to ensure, while we still had Teachers go in-game, their experience wasn't forced, and they were having fun.
Forum Activity
We could view forum assistance of Teachers as one of the secondary objectives of sorts. They assist in the Help & Support section of the forums, with moderation abilities. They keep the forum section organized, and provide support to questions raised. Teachers also have a Teacher Lounge in which they can suggest new Teacher systems, organize events, give opinions in matters.
Hosting Events
Encouraging roleplay is another secondary objective of the Teachers, this can be done by them hosting mini-events on the live server, hosting events on the event server or rewarding a roleplay they believe deserves recognition with REPs.
To improve on this front, we wanted to bring a new requirement, in which Teachers are required to host at least 1 event in 3 months. These events could be a mini-event on live or an event on the event server. We know that hosting an event is difficult, that's why we encourage Teachers to work together and for mini-events provide a list of ideas they can use.
Strike System
Alright, this is not as evil as it sounds.
To keep track of Teacher mis-steps, the previous liaisons Night & Daley introduced the strike system for the teachers.
In this system if an incident was deemed strike worthy, the Teacher in question would receive one. If a teacher received 3-strikes, their position would be taken from them.
Strikes do expire, however they stay on record.
Thankfully, no one received 3-strikes since the implementation of the system.
This system currently ties into the activity requirements.
If a Teacher doesn't fulfill the activity requirement of that month without a valid reason of absence (exams, real life occurences) they will receive a strike.
This way, we provide the Teachers with a chance.
Meetings
We want to be informed about our Teachers, and ask how they are doing, what can be improved and their opinions on subjects regularly.
That is why, we decided to have interviews with every Teacher individually every month. We also decided to have bi-monthly Teacher Team meetings to get an overall discussion going, addressing general Teacher Team concerns.
Application Process
The application process has not changed much in foundation for years, some elements of the application forms have changed but in general, it is the same. However, we did have concerns to address and issues to resolve regarding the procedure.
For example, while voting for a player internally, we can't be sure about some elements brought up, which can be minor and/or resolved via a trial run.
That is why we decided to introduce a brief trial period to new Teachers. This would ensure the team gave a chance to players with minor concerns, and we would try to resolve those concerns during the trial run.
This was mainly introduced so we made sure we keep getting new blood into the team.
With the Trial Period, we also introduced an application interview in which we talked with the applicant, asking questions brought up internally or just to get their opinion. This is so we can get to know the applicant better and address concerns raised on their thread.
In short, we are working to improve the Teacher Team, the procedures and better the experience of the Teachers and the community.
