It was a dark and stormy night, and on MSN I was asked to be staff Page 2

Started by Alexander Nicholi March 16th, 2015 8:17 AM
  • 2807 views
  • 53 replies
Age 36
Seen 45 Minutes Ago
Posted 46 Minutes Ago
10,149 posts
17.1 Years
When I was promoted to moderator, I came home from work one night to find that Careful With That Axe, Pichu had sent me a message on MSN saying that he had something to tell me. He said that PC's staff weren't happy with what I was doing as a member in Pokemon Fanfiction. I was nervous because I thought that staff had received complaints about me being too "tough" in my reviews. Instead, he said that I was going to become the moderator of that section. It took a while for me to calm down and realize that my name was indeed blue.

My promotion to super moderator happened in the early hours of the morning for my time zone. I was checking PC one last time before I went to bed (at four in the morning!) bobandbill sent me a VM asking me if I was going to be around for a while because he had something to tell me. So I told him that I would stick around a bit and just idled on the "Who's Online" list until I received the notification that he VM'd me. I checked out the VM, saw it was a Pastebin link, and checked it out with confusion. What it was was a story about me getting promoted to smod in a dream. It was a weird story but I loved it.

Sooo, all you have to do is be friends with hstaff in order to become one of them? Makes sense, actually.
If you're talking about becoming a moderator, then you don't have to be friends with anyone on staff. We'll notice you no matter who you are. If you're talking about becoming smod or higher, it's just because PC's staff becomes a group of friends, so we all just know each other.

Avatar credit: Fairy

Megan

She/Her, It/Its
Seen 8 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
17,811 posts
10.3 Years
Well, promoted is probably not the right word, because I never was promoted to anything.

There was this forum I was pretty active on, that hosted a couple of websites, all of them gaming related. One was mostly dedicated to RPG-Maker games and in order for them to put more emphasis on organization and being up-to-date said website created a special user group (or website semi-staff or whatever you wanna call it) to help them achieve this.

Back then, while I was hanging out on one of their TS servers, someone mentioned that they were still looking for people to help, so after exchanging a couple of PMs I became a member of said user group. It was actually pretty cool, I basically managed the whole RPG-Maker game database all by myself, looked if someone wanted his game to be included, while also browsing the forum for other games that could be added to the database as well and tested those for a while, before adding them.
Back when I started, the database actually lagged behind about half a year and I managed to update it in, like, a weekend {XD}

Sadly that only lasted about 2-2.5 years, because all the other people in that user group where just lazy slackers (and those who weren't had already left), which resulted in it getting disbanded. I was the only one who got to keep his privilege to change his usertitle at will, because I was the one who did all the work, though.
Moderator of Previous Generations, Forum Games and VPP
You got a thing!

Dragon

lover of milotics

Age 30
Male
Viridian City
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted October 24th, 2022
11,170 posts
9.7 Years
If I remember correctly, I believe someone was infracted for not being a moderator, and that's how they were asked, haha.
You're almost right; back from my old Miss Doronjo account I got the lovely infraction:

Originally Posted by Abnegation
Miss Doronjo, you've received an infraction here at the PokéCommunity Forums. This infraction isn't specific to a post, but may be the result of a signature/avatar/profile violation, something you posted in a social group or profile, or an image you've uploaded to PC. The exact reason for this infraction is shown below:

Reason: Contributing to a section

The staff member who issued the infraction has included the following message:

It has come to our attention that you have been quite active in the Video Games section. You have been contributing with a lot of posts and threads within it also, we seen that you were hosting events in tandem with this. This is something in which is likely to continue. Your punishment is as follows:

This infraction subjects you to moderate the Video Games section. You must maintain such activity and contribution to the section if you hope to remain on the PC staff. Further information about the staff boards can be found once you accept this plight and are officially subjected to the torment of being a PC moderator.

It's important that you read and understand the rules for posting here at PokéCommunity. A complete set of rules can be found in this thread, be sure to read and review them until you're clear on their meaning. If you have any questions, you're more than welcome to ask them in the Community Questions & Feedback forum.

Abnegation


"Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess...
DRAGON SLAVE!"

Candy

Age 26
Female
In OJ Land
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted August 22nd, 2020
3,813 posts
14.3 Years
All your responses are amazing haha.

Anyway, from my experience as a Terraria trading server admin... The admin folks probably have considered me as part of the staff ever since day 2 of the server opening haha.

So yeah, it was open server day, but when I entered it was supposed to be closed. However, for some odd reason I could enter without needing any passwords. I was like, "Hey, are you sure this server is closed 'cause I don't need any password to enter." There was another visitor lurking around after the server closed so we kinda chat first.

But then one of the admins whispered to me, telling me to tp to him. Because of that, I'm able to enter the bunker (where most of the items are kept), and I got to explore in it a bit. I learnt about the private vaults that serves as each of the admin's private rooms on the server as well, and then noticed the top-most room was kinda empty since the owner (aka one of the admins) never came back. I was just staring at it while the other admins strike up a conversation, and then the next thing I knew, the vault became mine and I got an [Admin] tag next to my name.

And then I proceed to do the same to the other 2 new admins haha.

I haven't been on that trading server lately though, nor over on Steam. Terrible internet connection got in the way.
_
Zhuang Zi
Crash Fever

Foxrally

ya boi
a Torterra's back
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted 4 Days Ago
2,784 posts
10.1 Years
The closest I ever got to being promoted online was becoming second-in-command at a Wakfu guild back when the game was full-French and in beta. It was pretty fun, me and the guld leader were the first two people in the guild and became big bosses as it grew rapidly :D I still keep in touch with him, 4 years later.

I've held plenty of responsibility positions offline though, even though I know I'm not a very good leader I'm a good organizer.
Ex-mod of RPT - Pairs: Gligar & gimmepie
Friend Code
SW-5146-5893-7210
I make memes and other carcinogens

Alexander Nicholi

work hard, play hard

Age 25
Male
Research Triangle / Jakarta
Seen February 15th, 2023
Posted March 5th, 2021
5,498 posts
13.5 Years
I think I got Other Clubs first, I think, I got OC right after if so. A super mod I'd been friends with who isn't here anymore MSNed me:

"Wanna be a mod? XD"
"K XD"

Majestic. I know. Then someone else left and I got OC/Treepsyduck, then Graphic Design cuz someone left that too. Then a couple of years went by and I got high and wondered off. You guys have better stories.
And this is PC

YOU GUYS
TAKE NOTES
THIS IS DANK MUK
the beat goes on (ノ^o^;)ノ
ヽ(;^o^ヽ) the beat goes on
the beat goes on (ノ^o^;)ノ
ヽ(;^o^ヽ) the beat goes on
( don’t stop the groovin’ )

gimmepie

Age 27
Male
Australia
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 13 Hours Ago
24,970 posts
11.1 Years
You're almost right; back from my old Miss Doronjo account I got the lovely infraction:
That is brilliant. Easily one of the funniest things I have seen recently.
RPWLA&MVGGaming Journal

Percy

Male
Asia
Seen December 24th, 2021
Posted June 19th, 2021
3,045 posts
8.7 Years
Regarding my promotion to mod for FF&W, Astinus had PM'd me asking for my feedback for an idea. Well, at least that's what the title suggested. I thought it was cool since a super moderator actually wanted my feedback for a section I was a regular of. The message started off talking about how this is an idea to boost activity in the section and whatnot. I opened the spoiler tag expecting to see details, but instead, I saw my name in bold blue. I started freaking out. After seeing the section go a few months without a moderator, I couldn't believe that they had picked me to run it.

My promotion to super-moderator was a bit more terrifying interesting. Morkula texted me to get on Skype immediately after work, as there was something we needed to discuss. I logged on to Skype and asked if there was something wrong. He said to look at PC and see if there was anything different. I logged on, saw my bold blue name like usual, and scrolled to the bottom of the page to start looking at the users. I saw Klippy's orange name, and said Klippy was orange. Morkula responded all excited like and said that I was a close candidate as well. I said that it was a well deserved promotion and we eventually got to a discussion on why I wasn't picked. He made me feel like I was getting fired, haha:
Spoiler:
[3/12/2015 9:43:27 PM] Morkula: The h-staff just didn’t think you had enough experience as a mod
[3/12/2015 9:43:42 PM] Morkula: And some of them just didn’t really like the way FF&W is going D:
[3/12/2015 9:43:51 PM] Nolafus S.: How so?
[3/12/2015 9:44:12 PM] Nolafus S.: Because it's become more lax since I took over.
[3/12/2015 9:44:16 PM] Morkula: I know it’s a tough forum.
[3/12/2015 9:44:42 PM] Nolafus S.: But what are some of the issues people are having?
[3/12/2015 9:46:01 PM] Morkula: They noticed you’d been frustrated with it before. They also wondered if you’re maybe losing some of your drive.
[3/12/2015 9:47:19 PM] Morkula: I don’t know. I think a lot of them just don’t see you being a mod for much longer.
[3/12/2015 9:47:32 PM] Nolafus S.: Well, I'll have to change a few minds about that, haha.
[3/12/2015 9:47:37 PM] Nolafus S.: I don't plan on going anywhere.
[3/12/2015 9:47:52 PM] Nolafus S.: FF&W is a tough section, but it's my section.
[3/12/2015 9:47:59 PM] Morkula: Unfortunately some people have other plans. FF&W isn’t your section anymore, Nicholas.
[3/12/2015 9:48:17 PM] Nolafus S.: Oh my gosh
[3/12/2015 9:48:19 PM] Nolafus S.: What is this?
[3/12/2015 9:48:21 PM] Nolafus S.: ISDJPISDJVNISJBPQIUBPDOSKG
[3/12/2015 9:48:27 PM] Nolafus S.: I'm orange!
[3/12/2015 9:48:33 PM] Nolafus S.: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Haha, yours is the most funniest I've seen lol.
i don't want to have a signature

Sylphiel

Between your fantasy and my reality
Seen March 28th, 2023
Posted January 9th, 2023
13,114 posts
18.5 Years
Pretty much all mine have been foisted on me, with the exception of my modship. That right there was boring compared to some stories. The gist of it through PMs:

"Hey, wanna mod this forum?"
"Yeah sure."

And boom. There was a bit more to it I'm sure, but I ended up deleting older PMs at one point a few years ago and I can't be bothered to go look through the text file I saved of them all.

When I say everything else was foisted on me...well. If only you had seen my reaction to originally getting s-mod, because that one did come to me entirely out of the blue. Was just doing some mod stuff like normal (I think it was locking a thread), looked down at the bottom of the page at my name after I was done, and...it took a moment to realize that my name had changed color and wait I'm orange now omfg what hyperventilate ahhhh. No forewarning beforehand, let's just give her a heart attack haha.

Hiatus

Seen 6 Days Ago
Posted July 24th, 2021
12,283 posts
10.8 Years
After getting home from a grocery store one day, if memory serves right, I had turned on my computer and loaded PC, and noticed around five to six messages left on my profile (considering how much this seemed to have been at the time, it was kind of a surprise), with one of them being this:

hopefully you actually wanted to be a mod hahaha

I just modded you thinking they already asked you, but apparently they didn't

so

congrats? 8) if you don't want the position just let me know and I'll take it off hahah
Haha.

Kura

twitter.com/puccarts

Age 33
Female
London, UK (orig. Toronto, Canada)
Seen August 30th, 2021
Posted August 24th, 2021
10,993 posts
18.7 Years
I honestly don't even remember the series of events of my moddness.. I think the Admins told me to check something on PC and I did and I was like "Awesome! Bold name! Yay!"
Vague memories ;o;
~Yuugiou Fan~
~Kamen Rider Fan~
♡(´・ω・`)LOVE! ☆

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
When I was modded, Went VMed me and then randomly asked if we could take our conversation to private message. I got kind of scared, cause I thought I might be in trouble for something or whatever. Anyway, he asked me how my Labor Day was and I said it was good, but I was bored. Then he said, "Okay, well you can go mod Pokemon Gaming Central, Metal/Color Generation, Advance Generation, and Spin Offs so you're not bored. :)" And theeeeen...I went outside to run around my house.

For my promotion to smod, I was just chilling out a year ago tonight...probably around this very time, and some fool called Abnegation facetimed me and said, "notice anything?" and I refreshed PC to find my green name had been replaced with orange. I started crying because I am a loser. I'm pretty sure he laughed at me.
BURY ME SIX FEET DEEP COVER ME IN CONCRETE
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Altairis

take me ☆ take you

Female
database database
Seen December 29th, 2022
Posted October 5th, 2018
5,170 posts
11 Years
I had been in the car with my friend for almost half a day and I was browsing PC on my phone when I noticed I had a PM from Sheep titled "you. hey you halp" and I was like ??? what could she need my help for?? and I read the message which was basically something like "Hey do you want to mod ORAS? Have a nice day" and I was still really confused like.. me?? Are you talking to me Sheep?? Then I think I responded in all caps. After that I went to iHop, as it was one of the only roadside places still open at the time, had some pancakes, came back to find out I was actually a mod.

For the battle server I came on one day and Nica/Forever promoted me to mod and I think a couple staff members were like "Nica what??" because she accidentally skipped a rank; the battle server ranks used to go (now we don't have drivers) user -> voice (helpful user, not a staff rank) -> driver (staff without banning powers) -> mod -> leader -> admin. On another server one of the higher staff members PM'd me and said "Hi, the higher staff decided to demote you for being incredibly average" which also confused me because I was being demoted with no warning? then he actually demoted me but then promoted me from driver -> mod one second later. It seems theres a theme of confusion in my promotions.

ORAS/XYBW

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire

Age 32
He/him
Madrid, Europe
Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted April 5th, 2023
21,076 posts
16.2 Years
When I was modded, Went VMed me and then randomly asked if we could take our conversation to private message. I got kind of scared, cause I thought I might be in trouble for something or whatever. Anyway, he asked me how my Labor Day was and I said it was good, but I was bored. Then he said, "Okay, well you can go mod Pokemon Gaming Central, Metal/Color Generation, Advance Generation, and Spin Offs so you're not bored. :)" And theeeeen...I went outside to run around my house.

For my promotion to smod, I was just chilling out a year ago tonight...probably around this very time, and some fool called Abnegation facetimed me and said, "notice anything?" and I refreshed PC to find my green name had been replaced with orange. I started crying because I am a loser. I'm pretty sure he laughed at me.
I'll never forgive Gavin for doing your promotion without waiting for me :( I wanted to send you the continuation of that PM from 2010.

moon

they/them
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
I was tricked into all of this okay.

Back in 2011, some obscure account with no posts PM'd me:

I have seen you posting a lot in the RP forums and I'd like to offer you a mod position in my pokemon forum :D

I'm this guy there: www.pokeworlduniverselandcityforums.com/user=1238467. Send me a PM if you are interested ;)
The link went to Went and I had noooo idea what was going on. I was afraid that I had been caught in some kind of program that tracked people trying to advertise other forums and redirected them to admins to get their attention or something, ahahaha. So I just ignored it. The next day, Went had apparently rolled his eyes enough at my oblivious soul, because he sent a more serious PM wondering what my thoughts on being a RP mod were. I guess I must have been bubbling of excitement but I don't really remember, and my PM response was very well behaved and I wasn't really sure that I would make a great mod since I kept disappearing for months at a time back then. So basically they modded me to chain me to the site? xD

When I was modded in 2013, Gav told me I should come on Skype because he needed to talk to me about something. He reassured me it was not about PC for some reason, and then he linked me to a post... in the staff forums:



Terrible, what a liar. And we're not even married yet. I just keep modding on.
paired with Ivysaur

Sheep

She/Her
Australia
Seen 12 Hours Ago
Posted 15 Hours Ago
39,266 posts
16.6 Years
Mine were awesome.

Went kept me up almost all night in anticipation for my moderator promotion. He added me to MSN where we started talking about the welcomes forum and how there were some changes happening there soon, including adding a new moderator. I figured he was just casually telling me since I was a regular there (half obliviousness, half in denial).. so we chatted about it for some hours before I had to head off for bed. Next day Went mentions that the promotion should've happened last night but apparently Jake/Hiroshi Sotomura fell asleep lmao and couldn't do it on time, then breaks the news to me. Through a YouTube video where he recorded himself typing a message in Notepad and humming a tune from Touhou since my username was Cirno at the time nonetheless. Right after I was promoted and proceeded to freak out, trying to hold my excitement in so I didn't send 50 messages littered with "asdjgksjd." Followed by a message from Zorua saying, "I told you it'd be you!"

I still have that video favorited. ♥

As for super mod, it wasn't something I expected at all haha. Abnegation started casually talking with me over Skype asking if I could listen and help out with some things going on in his life. I said sure, I'm willing to listen, and sat there waiting. He linked me to my super mod promotion thread in Celebrations. Pretty sure I was freaking out more than my moderator promotion, even. Had to go downstairs right after for a while to let it sink in.

The admin promotion was really simple but wonderful. Víctor is Went!

Spoiler:
[3/13/15, 6:20:29 PM] Víctor: if I told you what's going on you'd go wtf
[3/13/15, 6:20:35 PM] Janna: whats up?
[3/13/15, 6:20:42 PM] Janna: @[email protected]
[3/13/15, 6:21:02 PM] Víctor: you are getting admin
[3/13/15, 6:21:04 PM] Janna: what
[3/13/15, 6:21:05 PM] Janna: WHAT
[3/13/15, 6:21:07 PM] Janna: WHAT
[3/13/15, 6:21:07 PM] Víctor: in 10 seconds
[3/13/15, 6:21:08 PM] Janna: WHAT
[3/13/15, 6:21:14 PM] Janna: YOURE LYING
[3/13/15, 6:21:19 PM] Víctor: imma going edit your usergroup
[3/13/15, 6:21:23 PM] Janna: im shaking please dont joke
[3/13/15, 6:21:24 PM] Janna: with me
[3/13/15, 6:21:59 PM] Víctor: why would I joke
[3/13/15, 6:23:07 PM] Víctor: tut tut
[3/13/15, 6:23:13 PM] Víctor: saved user successfully


Straight and to-the-point. I had to go to kickboxing 20 minutes later and couldn't stop myself from wanting to smile the entire time/run back home to check everything. Those were some of the hardest few hours of waiting. 8D

Final step: take over Rukario's post and become ruler of PC. So close.

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
I'll never forgive Gavin for doing your promotion without waiting for me :( I wanted to send you the continuation of that PM from 2010.
maybe he didn't wait on you cause you just got my mod year wrong :P 2009 bby. also you should have sent it yesterday anyway because that was my year anniversary for smod and it would have been a cute way to celebrate
BURY ME SIX FEET DEEP COVER ME IN CONCRETE
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seeker

Ireland
Seen November 1st, 2019
Posted May 20th, 2018
10,593 posts
14.1 Years
I'll never forgive Gavin for doing your promotion without waiting for me :( I wanted to send you the continuation of that PM from 2010.
Yeah so ah don't blame me, I pulled the trigger, but it was all of the online higher staff who joined in.
Plus I was an S-mod I couldn't have promoted her!!

Pepperton

Male
Texas
Seen February 1st, 2023
Posted February 3rd, 2021
3,397 posts
9.6 Years
Mine was pretty bland. A few days before it actually happened, on the battle server Matt and a few others were talking about how I had been a great contributor in ORAS etc, it was all very flattering, didn't think much of it. Then, shenanigans added me on Skype, which was a touch out of the blue even though we had VMed before, we weren't that close friends or anything. The first day, he simply had a conversation about life, interests, nothing spectacular or PC related, just chit chat. I woke up the next morning feeling really sick, so I stayed in bed and watched Netflix for like four hours lmao. When I finally got up and turned on my computer, I got a message from shenanigans and Sheep telling me to go on PC, as well as a bunch of staff members adding me on Skype. At this point I hadn't even realized that I was added to a chat full of staff members welcoming me to the team, so I just logged on to PC and I saw a box next to the welcome message that read 7 Reports. That's when it hit me! Took me like five more minutes to see that I was in a group chat, haha. I was so happy, honestly couldn't believe my eyes. n__n;

Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted April 6th, 2023
8,567 posts
13.5 Years
I still think I had the most exciting PM telling me that I got promoted in the history of ever:

Spoiler:
hey man. so we wanted to know if you wanted to be Rika's mod partner for the pokemon general board.

yes?
Seriously... he didn't even give me the option to say no. Now I'm stuck here. halp.

moon

they/them
Seen 10 Hours Ago
Posted 6 Days Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
I still think I had the most exciting PM telling me that I got promoted in the history of ever:

Spoiler:
Seriously... he didn't even give me the option to say no. Now I'm stuck here. halp.
One of us
One of us
paired with Ivysaur

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 4 Hours Ago
Posted 13 Hours Ago
27,327 posts
13.2 Years
My promotion wasn't really anything too exciting, if you ask me. It was sudden, and there was barely any evidence that I was being looked at to be a mod. When the promotion process began for me, I had just finished a Skype call with a friend I knew back in high school, and then when I got back onto PC I saw I had a private message. At the time, I thought it was just a member I had welcomed into the community. Then when I went to go see the message, it was just a PM titled "So." and in the body it was asking me if I wanted to become moderator of the then Technology & Internet section. It literally took me a full minute to grasp on the decision before I replied back with a "yes" and get promoted.

After that, I got a response back, still as [supporter]ZachLMedia[/supporter] that was welcoming me to the team. Then seconds before I saw my name become bold blue, I was added to a large Skype chat with 45+ other people, and everyone kept going like "yay new mod hi :D" and then from there I just kept refreshing PC until I saw ZachLMedia. I didn't want to get off of PC for the rest of the evening, went to bed later than usual, and then woke up earlier than usual the next day to begin my time as a mod.