Manacube’s Staff Team works like a machine, each individual person plays a part to keep it all running. Each member is valuable and has different expectations and responsibilities. Wooly, as you have acknowledged, staffing is volunteer based, which means that each staff member takes time out of their day, and out of playing recreationally to cultivate and maintain a positive environment for all the other players, whether that means keeping chats appropriate, game-modes fair, events and game modes functional and updated, etc. The logical conclusion of that is those with higher ranks have more responsibilities to attend to, which can explain why admins seem more distant. Without the work of the staff team— but especially the admins— none of what happens would be possible. It is understandable that your relationships with admins may seem less personal, but I assure you that they are all incredible individuals, and after getting to know many of them, I have lots of respect for them all.
The metric staff use to punish players is extremely fair. It’s not as if it is perfect, because no human system is, but it functions in a way that toxic individuals who are constantly ruining the experience for others are punished harsher than good people who make a mistake. They do not tolerate illegal or blatantly malicious behavior, so people who do go out of their way to put another person in danger do not get the benefit of the doubt. For other offenses, however, staff leverage enough evidence to show intention or behavioral pattern without a reasonable doubt. If punishments and investigations used unsubstantiated claims or subjective methods as a foundation, there would undoubtedly be public outcry.
It is completely unreasonable to assume that staff should list every single specific detail or instance that would be impermissible. It would be far too long and no one would read it. The general statement does not exist for staff to punish players subjectively, and it is not used that way. Even in cases where it seems that there is a violation of common decency, staff try to give the benefit of the doubt. For example: there was a recent event in which players had to decorate snow globes. The top 3 players would be awarded with a title. However, the player who won first place had copied their build from a YouTube tutorial. There was no rule against this action, but stuff recognized it was unfair, and gave the 4th place player a tag as well. They gave the benefit of the doubt because there was no rule, even though common sense would say that is cheating. They accommodated the 4th place player to make the event more fair anyway. It is not a perfect system, but even when examples like this are glaringly obvious, staff tend to be lenient and understanding.
I understand there can be some frustration when you don’t seem to feel like you were communicated with properly, but you haven’t really provided specific criticisms or examples, or ways to fix it (other than ‘get better’) so your conversation is going to be unproductive.
Now to address specific ”criticisms.”
”Staff aren’t extensively trained”
If staff were immediately made to be mods or higher upon applying, this might be a genuine concern, but they aren‘t. Helpers get months of experience and grow to understand how the staffing system works before being promoted to mod or having more responsibilities. You watch and learn from others, and grow over time. Most staff are not promoted quickly, unless they clearly demonstrate experience and understanding with their responsibilities.
“Staff aren’t paid“
There is a reason that staff are not compensated outside of staff of the month. Players would obviously complain about it being unfair, as Purpz had mentioned, and more players with more selfish and questionable motives might apply. The idea is that being a staff member is something you choose to do because you love the server and community, and you show that by sacrificing some of your own time and recreation to improve it for the majority of others. Of course there would also come the legal issues of wages. Child labor laws differ in different countries, and that may cause problems for staff members under 18. You could suggest that staff should be 18 or older, but then many capable and extraordinary people would be denied or deterred.
I can understand your frustration, but your criticisms seem to be more about the people you don’t personally know more than the actual staffing method. It once again leads to an extremely unproductive discussion.