This is just my opinion

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I know there's been posts by other staff members (both current and former) on this same subject, here's mine.

All of the things I am going to touch on are extensions of what's listed on the application itself, or are things that someone can expect to encounter while trial. 

If you are currently staff  and haven't satisfied some of these points, it's likely that there's players in the community who have negative criticism of you. I am not commenting on the staff team individually or as a whole, some of this feedback is broadly generalizable to other communities as well, while other parts of it are specific to this community.

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1. Be self aware and disclose your faults, then work on them

This has been missed on every PSA/informative post. This community has shown time and again that it despises people who aren't self-aware. If you aren't aware about how you come across to others and how your behavior may impact peoples overall impressions of you, then this will be held against you and can hold you back considerably. Being aware of your faults is the first step to improving peoples overall opinion of you as it shows you are willing to admit to them, which means you can change that quality. 

Some specific examples:

• Poor microphone quality and unwillingness to type- Honestly, this sometimes gets mistaken for having a bad accent. So long as we can understand what you're trying to say, having a bad accent doesn't matter! But if you are using a built-in microphone on your laptop, we are going to hear the audio from your speakers, which means we will be able to hear ourselves talk as you key up. We can't have this from staff, as they are here to guide people on this server that relies on social interactions.
  
• You making people uncomfortable. you may be either (1)intimidating, (2)come across as a hornball who always has someone attached to you who you flirt with or (3) perhaps you're a rule nazi. If (2) or (3) then you have to understand that these behaviors have been seen from people in the past who are no longer staff, failed trial, or worse- have been cbanned. These behaviors are red flags that instantly associate your behaviors to being like one of those people, and are impossible to look past. 
  
• Being unaware of your Clique/people you listen to and hang out with and how that mob's mentality may impact what you say- as this is a small to mid-sized community, cliques unfortunately have power, and people in them wield it carelessly and to instigate drama sometimes. Learn how to have your own voice and to speak up apart from your clique, and learn when you don't have the information needed to make a decision and when to be silent, otherwise no matter what you do or how small a mistake you eventually make, it will be blown out of proportion. If your responses are always predictable based on who you hang out with, this is ultimately a negative. 
  
• Being too pushy- Maybe you got feedback and want to know who said it. This is also a negative, because even if you learned who said it, it would be held against you because that knowledge is supposed to be secure. Don't be pushy, and if you happen to have heard whoever said that thing, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. Do not make the mistake others have and confront people on server over secure staff criticism where the identity of the person who gave it is supposed to be unknown. Criticism is meant to help you, but it can also be seen as an obstacle to test you so the person giving it can see how you respond to it. 
  

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2. Be active and engage
You may be thinking to yourself, "Duh." But it's not really that simple. You need to be actively engaging both staff and the community, because you could have dozens of solid reports under your belt, but if no one knows who you are then you won't get your shot. This is an issue of trust. 
Specifically for applicant, here are some things to make sure you do when staff are online these days:

1. Host great halls and make them engaging (do not force others to do them or put people on the spot)
   
2. Ask to host prefect meetings (snatcher meetings are great too)
   
3. Teach and make it engaging
   
4. Prefect sometimes, and when you prefect do it well.
   
5. Make sure you know what you're doing, and ask questions when you can't find the answer in the compendium. 
   

Please note: do NOT tell us in @ chat when you are teaching or hosting great hall, and make sure your name matches your name on your application. We aren't evaluating your lore knowledge and need to see that you can change your name to the names of professors, we need to be aware of who you are without you telling us who you are. 
Regardless of if staff are online:

1. Attempt to maintain order without being a stooge.
   
2. Have fun while engaging other members of the community. Do not force it.
   
3. Show that you don't need special powers to have and create fun. Be an active CONTENT CREATOR, not a passive CONTENT CONSUMER/audience member/critic.
   
4. To reiterate these points- don't be an oppressive and unbearable cloud that looms over the actions and spectates everyone and everything. Move on and create your own thing. Your presence will turn into something that suffocates players into leaving the server or no longer RPing a scenario out. 
   
5. Give everyone a chance. If you have a higher standard of RP, keep your opinion on what some player is doing or how well they are RPing to yourself. 
   

Activity for applicants- at the minimum, you should be online for at least 2 hours a day during your app period. This doesn't mean play 14 hours on Saturday then don't play the rest of the week. Each time you log in, log in with the intent of doing something positive and impactful and creating RP. If you are a boring person and are incapable of this, it won't disqualify you from ever being staff but it may be a factor that holds you back and makes you less noticable. 

If you know you can't make the mentioned time commitment during any week in your app period, make sure to close your app (you can always re-open it). We will skip over your app if you are not active. 

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3. Be knowledgeable of basic rules 
This is baseline knowledge you need to have. I have seen people fail trial in part for not knowing these rules by their second week. If current staff don't know these rules, it may ultimately get held against them and players will criticize them. 
For applicants- regardless of if staff are online or not, you need to know some basic things. Here are those things: 

• How to prefect at the basic levels
  
• Rogues
  1.) You fit into this category if you work undercover as a Light Force and are the following jobs: Snatcher, Snatcher Leader, Head Snatcher, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Werewolves (in human form), or other specific custom jobs.
  2.) If you do something considered dark, you are revealed. This includes using Dark Apparition, snatching, assisting other revealed Dark Forces, stupefying outside of the school's outer walls, being within the Dark Forest, being within the Quidditch Pitch/Hagrid's Hut (see grey areas), being in specific animagus forms, or casting an unforgivable curse.
  3.) If you are revealed, you must retreat to the Dark Forest--this should always be your number one priority.
  4.) You may kill anyone threatening your escape, but keep in mind you must be outside the school to use Avada Kedavra.
  5.) You must leave the school once a Lock Down ends and may not return until the following class reaches 550 seconds. You may choose to hide either in an animagus form or within an empty room. If a Light Force sees you before 550, they may still kill you.
  
  
• Snatchers | Head Snatcher | Snatcher Leader
  1.) You may not capture if the number of Snatchers is outnumbered to the number of Ministry or student jobs in the area, including the target (animals do not count towards the witness total unless they are a revealed animagus; light force or wild). If the numbers are equal to or more then snatching is allowed. You may not capture if a professor is present when the Snatchers outnumber the witnesses. You must use Fumos to mask your actions to capture in a group setting where snatchers are outnumbered or in the area of a professor. (Example)
  2.) You may not capture anyone that is not a student, Auror, and other Ministry related job.
  3.) You may snatch anywhere on the grounds with the exception to the house dorms, boathouse, stairs leading to the boathouse, active classrooms, Astronomy, Room of Requirement, or Dumbledore's office.
  4.) You may not enter the school courtyard if you are the Head Snatcher or Snatcher Leader unless a Lock Down is in progress.
  5.) You must see if your roleplay leader wants a victim first before you sell them. They are required to give you 50% of your asking price if they want them.
  6.) You are revealed as a snatcher if you pull out your cuffs, you cast damaging spells at others, or Stupefy outside of the castle walls.
  7.) You are always revealed during Lock Down, at the Quidditch Pitch when Quidditch is not in session, and at Hagrid's Hut when Quidditch is in session.
  8.) You may only snatch one person at a time.
  9.) You may not intentionally reveal yourself for the sole purpose of starting fights.
  10.) You may not hang people inside the school or outer courtyard. Anywhere else is fine.
  11.) You may not start rope trains (snatching someone with a snatched person attached).
  12.) If you choose to abandon a snatch in an isolated location (such as the forest, underwater, etc.) such as to torture them, you must stay in the area of your snatch.
  13.) You may break rule 7 to an extent when torturing your snatches as long as you're not playing music, using a soundboard, violating any other rule, and are not audible to other players.
  
  
• Prefects | Head Prefects | Head Boy | Head Girl
  1.) You may only send students to detention.
  2.) You must make sure that students around you are where they need to be and are behaving.
  3.) You must give a warning first before you arrest someone unless your roleplay leader is ordering you to.
  4.) You may only release someone from detention that you originally sent.
  5.) You may not release yourself from detention if a higher ranking Prefect gave it to you.
  Head Prefects+ 6.) You may arrest troublesome Prefects below you in the hierarchy.
  
  
• Aurors | Elite Aurors | Order of the Phoenix | Animagus
  1.) You may not run into the Graveyard with the sole intent to attack Dark Forces.
  2.) You can free kidnapped students by paying a ransom to a seller or by sneaking into the Graveyard alone. (See Grey Areas)
  3.) You may purchase up to two people at once from the Dark Forces.
  
  
• Aurors with Cuffs
  1.) You may apprehend all Dark Forces except for Voldemort, Trolls, and Giants. You may not apprehend within the Graveyard.
  2.) You cannot apprehend Wild Neutrals but may apprehend Allied Neutrals and the Azkaban Escapee.
  3.) You may not apprehend someone that has a snatch attached to them, this is to prevent trains.
  4.) You may only apprehend rogues, allied neutrals or the Escapee that are revealed.
  5.) You must take all the targets to the toilet located in the castle wall tower. It is your goal as an Auror to take targets there and flush them.
  Dark Forces 6.) You may not cross your normal boundaries to attempt and rescue a fellow Dark Force. If you are a rogue and witness an apprehension, you may choose to either reveal yourself and attempt to rescue the Dark Force member or remain disguised. If you attempt to rescue and whether you succeed or not, you are still revealed.
  
  
  
• Professors
  1.) You must stay on the topic of the class's main subject and should actually attempt to teach something before handing out XP books.
  2.) You must make a legitimate effort to explain a spell before handing it out.
  3.) You may award or remove 5 house points by typing !points. This can be done every 15 minutes and you must Owlpost an appropriate roleplay reason.
  4.) You may not spawn books outside of your active classroom.
  5.) You may not take your class on a field trip without approval of a staff member. If you are on a field trip, all active class rules apply to your group.
  6.) You must stay in the classroom until the bell rings in the event someone shows up late.
  7.) You may purchase up to two people at once from the Dark Forces.
  
• The top 10 server rules and NLR/KOS rules at the bottom
  

That's right! You don't need to be a PVP legend like @@Pierre thought he needed to become (and achieved) in order to become staff
But in all seriousness, even if you manage to get your chance without knowing these rules, you will be tested on them during your trial and it can be one of the reasons you fail trial if you don't know these easy to understand rules.

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4. Have a sense of humor and don't overrespond to minges
If you aren't going to be tested on this by new players who only join and try to get a rise out of you, you will for sure be tested on this by the more active/veteran players who care about the server. 
Remember, you are representing SBS, and the worst sit you do will be the one you are remembered for. If someone is trying to get a reaction out of you, just understand that it's part of being a staff member and accept it. If you find that you are not having fun or can't put the energy in to react, then it's time to log out or do something else. You don't have to punish people for every infraction that you perceive, understand that there may be reasons to why someone got killed in front of you that you aren't aware of. You don't always need to break the 4th wall and jump to creating a sit out of thin air when the possibility exists that nothing actually happened.

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5. Avoid drama, but stand your ground

The community doesn't want people who actively participate in drama on or off server on the staff team. 
Sometimes, though rarely, you will find that drama is unavoidable. It is how you respond to the drama that will either be held against you or in support of you. If you're unable to bury the hatchet anywhere but into someone's back, then this will get held against you. 

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6. Don't report for petty things and try to handle things in RP 

Don't light up @ chat with the fact that someone has the RP name "The Hamburglar." If someone has hatespeech in their name, it's fine to report it. Do not expect staff to take action on simple reports without evidence, even if the offense is continuing after the report (ex. someone talked about sniffing cocaine or smoking pot during herbology). 

You should attempt to steer someone away from breaking rules without being a stooge before attempting to get staff involved unless the offense is severe/continuous. 

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7. Show that you care about the server

Believe it or not, there have been staff who loathe the server and hate getting on it. 
You would think to yourself, why bother being staff then? 
Possible answers include: 

• There are people who try to go for staff to satisfy their own carnal ambitions for power. 
  
• There are others who try to get staff to satisfy their friend group and to fit in better. 
  
• To prove to themselves that they can get it if they apply themselves
  
• Habit. They liked the server at one point, and don't anymore, but they made a commitment.
  

If you're one of these aforementioned people, you contribute to a specific type of detriment and should not bother to apply, no matter how good of a person you may be. What's really needed are people who like the server and want to see the community thrive in it. 
here are some quick DOs and DON'Ts
DO: 

• Check out applications and ban appeals and contribute your feedback when necessary
  
• Report serious offenses that cannot be resolved through a simple conversation
  
• Have some sort of presence on our alternative media platforms so people can reach out to you (Discord, Teamspeak, etc)
  
• Engage others and invite them into RP scenarios
  
• Exercise common sense
  
• Report bugs and inquire about new additions
  
• Make event and server suggestions
  
• Find your own creative way to show you care about the community
  

DON'T: 

• Start or contribute to unnecessary drama (this includes defaming others)
  
• Try to seduce a staff or community member for votes. For some people this is just in their nature as they are naturally seductive. This happens more frequently than you think, and memory is elephantine on people who have done this. You will be remembered forever if you have done this. 
  
• Be unnecessarily negative or toxic
  
• Hold grudges
  
• Loophole rules/continuously test staff or players
  

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Thanks for reading/getting this far, I hope this post is helpful for someone.

Here is Tyrone's post https://starbystargaming.com/showthread?tid=14934