What is your IGN?

Connoly

How old are you?

14

What country are you currently living in?

US

What languages can you speak?

English

Do you own a microphone?

I don't own one but I have easy access to one.

What is your Skype username?

Hexcit

What is the link to your last submitted Trainee application, if any?

http://www.mineplex.com/dashboard/applications/application?app_id=7551161

How long have you been playing on Mineplex for?

Judging by when the Legend rank was released, I started playing Minecraft in around September of 2014 for a while then just occasionally hopped on for all of 2015 then started being more active in 2016.  I have been playing Minecraft since mid 2011.
What has motivated you to apply for a staff position at Mineplex?

I love to help out.  I do it all the time in-game.  If you look at my profile I try to report every hacker I come across. I also would never turn down a person with a question.  On top of that I generally don't get angry and flame at other players when they kill me or annoy me in some way.  I do also understand that being a staff on Mineplex isn't all about punish rulebreakers and essentially being the police of the game, staff members should also be able to answer questions and help players in need.  The community is what makes a server.  I could have found the most amazingly fun server ever and absolutely love each minigame, but if the community is full of flamers and sadistic hackers, it's not fun.  Yes, I do realize that Mineplex does have flamers and sadistic hackers, but when a server is as large as Mineplex is, you can't expect to not see them.  You can't expect to not see them on any server.  Though this may be the case, Mineplex still has so many players that simply want to enjoy this game and are pretty friendly and fun to be around.  I always love just messaging people in my friends list to go play some Team SG and enjoy the game.  I believe that part of the role as a staff member is to make that as available as possible to everyone.

In my previous app, I mention myself as "not much of a forums guy", but since then I've put lots of time into looking at all the threads around and trying to incorporate myself into the forum life.  The Forums are like media of Mineplex.  You see these popular "Mineplex is dying" threads, which are completely untrue, but you get to know a lot of what the general public thinks.  On top of that you can also see a bunch of cool threads where people post their own videos, or start competitions on games.  The Forums are a useful tool.  I really enjoy being part of this community and seeing all the problems such as late report responses or hackers sort of give me a craving to become a Trainee.  If I do happen to go through the Trainee 2 month trial I would love to join the reports team as it is very useful and what I see as one of the most important teams on the Mineplex Staff time. As I said in the beginning of the report, I like to make myself a positive addition to Mineplex by helping out, reporting people, and not flaming, but I feel like I would be able to do so much more if I become staff on Mineplex.



What interactions have you had with our staff team in the past?

Up until just recently, I haven't had much happen with the staff team.  In this past month, though, I have gotten a few mods in my friends list and I have messaged them if there is someone doing something disruptive in a lobby I'm in.  Other then that I haven't had any interactions but two I will explain in the next question.

Have you received any punishments at Mineplex, or any other server?

I have gotten two warnings in-game on Mineplex, one in a game of SSM where I had called a player a pinger, this was probably about a year ago.  The other was more recently, in which a player was speeding around and shift derping with killaura.  When I heard I quickly opened up my fraps and got recording.  After I got my evidence I made the mistake of saying that he had hacks.  Fortunately, a mod was in the lobby which gave me the warning and banned the hacker.  I now have him as one of the staff members in my friends list and will tell him if anything is happening.  As for other servers,  back in around 2013 I had gotten into a hacking/griefing phase.  I 100% regret ever getting into that and would take it back any day.  Since then I have not done anything like that.  I believe I have gotten banned 4 for griefing or hacking.  I believe that hackers either need to feel powerful, or be sadistic in order to enjoy hacking.  Back then I was probably just doing it for the power and thankfully I got bored of it and those activities didn't follow me to where I am now.

Why should we choose you to become a Trainee?

I believe that I am right for Trainee because I am pretty mature.  I realize that I am only 14 and I haven't even started High School yet, but I do consider myself mature and ready for the position as I am mature in school by getting good grades and giving projects my all.  On top of that a server as large as Mineplex needs a lot of moderation.  I have good communication skills and I'm generally very diligent in whatever I do.  When it comes to handling stress I believe that I am very good at it considering that I grew up under some pretty rough circumstances and came through them strong.  I am very dedicated to being the best person I can be which is a very important thing to be able to do.  I also believe that I have some leadership skills and consider myself very kind.  I hate to bring up church and charity because it sounds like I'd be saying just what you guys want to hear but it's the truth.  I spent around 4 months this year going to work at my local food pantry on weekends and I am often giving a lot of the money I earn through chores around the house or from my landscaping to charities.

 My mother is the pastor of a Methodist Church yet is what I believe what a Christian should be.  Even though she is my mom she never forces religion on me, she doesn't say you have to believe in all this and that.  She only wants me to attend church and learn what I can so I can make the final choice during conformation.  As of right now I am agnostic.  If you don't know agnostic is like spiritual but not religious.  I believe it is possible that there is a god watching us and has influence of what happens in our world, but don't see a reason to follow a book that has been changed throughout centuries.  I may not believe everything that is said in church but I completely agree in what it teaches.  A lot of the stories in the bible show how to be a good person and live life to the fullest.  That there is a very strong quality to have is definitely a contributor to why I believe I would be right for the staff position.  As I said earlier I am pretty successful in school and get good grades.  I do realize that I am only in 8th grade and it is not as big as an achievement to do well as it would be in High School, but doing well in school is a good indicator of maturity and a good work ethic.

Additionally, I have a drive to help out.  I get a lot of satisfaction when I know I've helped someone in need.  I do realize that helping someone disable stacking or something isn't that significant but little things like those naturally make me feel good.  In my previous app, I mention a program my church does every year called ASP(Appalachia Service Project) which is an organization that brings a couple different churches together to go on a 2 week long trip along Appalachia and help rebuild or repair homes of people who are very poor.  Although 2 weeks of working on homes may sound terrible, it's an amazing experience that is really nice to have!  On top of that, you're working on the project with friends and you really get an idea of how hard it is for people who live in poverty.  Having had that experience and maybe having it again, I would definitely say that it is beneficial to not only the people who helped, but you as well.  I understand that talking about charities, food kitchens, and this ASP may sound corny, or something that I'd just think you'd want to hear, but it is true and I'm glad to be of help whenever possible.  That's why I should be chosen as a Trainee.

I also think that I have a unique quality in me that makes me find hobbies that I like and strive with them.  I find these hobbies very fun and enjoyable.  For example, I have gotten into java coding.  I made a couple Mario like games and even Minecraft plugins.  I have stopped working on these recently as I will be starting Computer Science 1 in High School which I believe uses C# and I'd really like to try and keep a clear mind so that I can easily go through the course as if it's new and having Java in the back of my head may make things more difficult to grasp as C# is a different language.  I know that this isn't related to Mineplex but something like that can really show my dedication and diligence in whatever I get in to.  If I do happen to get accepted for Trainee I know that I will work extremely hard to pass the exam for mod and work hard towards becoming a help to this community and a good staff member.

In what ways could you positively contribute to the community?

Being a positive influence in whatever game I join and being friendly is something that I can easily do which can contribute to the community.  Being a positive presence can easily make others follow which can ultimately be an addition to the staff force making the Mineplex community as good as possible!  If I do happen to get accepted and make it past the 2 month Trainee trial I would definitely like to join the Reports Patrol as I feel it is a very valuable team which can ultimately make Mineplex a better place on a large scale.  I would have absolutely no issue with spending a lot of my free time straight going through reports to help the community.  Or even just spend my time on Lobby-1 just answering questions.  On top of simply being friendly and answering questions from players I can also contribute to the cleaning of the server by punishing chat rulebreakers or banning hackers so that the other players have a chance to win hacker free.  That would give me lots of satisfaction and would also help the community greatly.  Am I saying that I will singlehandedly remove 20% of the rulebreakers here?  Of course not, but being part of the staff team and simply contributing to that force that pushes away the toxicity will make me feel fulfilled.

What experiences do you have with moderating a community or game?

Unfortunately I do not have a plethora of experience moderating a community, but I do have some.  When I first started playing this game the first server I'd ever went on was a server called DerkaKraft.  It was really fun and had a nice community.  I eventually became staff on it and after a while Co-Owner.  At the time, though, I was probably about 9 or 10 and the server wasn't that large, so I consider it some experience but nothing too large.  On top of that, I have had some experience working on my own server.  Unfortunately they never got more of an average player base then 10, but having done that I believe can show some experience in creating a staff team and making sure that no one was breaking any rules.  I have also become a staff member on a server called MiragePvP about a year ago.  At the time I was very liked by the community, which was uncommon for the majority of staff on the server.  I did my job by handled chat or accepted reports yet still was generally liked by the majority of the server.  I am also part of a clan called TDB(The Dark Brotherhood) which is currently hanging out on a sever called RenMX and we just have fun with the town and do whatever.  I do, however, consider myself like the chat mod of the group  chat on Skype.  I've helped someone who  was having issues with starting Minecraft recently.  I realize that this isn't that significant but as I have stated, I am not extremely experienced in moderating communities.

Is there anything else which you would like to add?

In my last report I understand that I acted immaturely by uploading the application before I hit my 1 month forum time.  I was hoping that my IG time would indicate that I had an account on the forums for 1 month but anyone can lie about that and it wasn't smart for me to expect that in lieu of simply waiting a month.  I hope that decision won't carry on to my chances on this app.   I would like to thank ForeverElite for his Trainee Application Guide and How the Mineplex Staff Team Works guide as they have helped me very much.  I put a lot of work into this application and I'm crossing my fingers!

If you are denied, do you agree not to argue with the decision of the Recruiter, and instead take on the responsibility of improving in that area? Explain why this is important.

Yes, I do agree to not argue if I am denied, and I will take on the responsibility of improving in where I need to improve.  This is important because first off, arguing with a recruiter is pretty dumb.  You won't get anywhere because if you got denied your application simply wasn't good enough, and will most likely make your chances of ever getting accepted in another app disappear.  On top of that, depending on what you do you could get punished on the forums or IG.  Nothing will come of it.  As for improving, it can't be as detrimental as arguing.  You can better yourself depending on what you are improving on, and showing that you can take being declined and come out positively is a very clear sign of maturity and will most likely make the chances of you getting accepted higher.  Being able to take a loss and work harder to try again is something that can be applied to everyday life in lots of situations.

Do you understand that if you ask a staff member to look at your application, it will be instantly declined? Explain why this is important.

Yes, I do understand that asking a staff member to look at my application will result in an instant declining of my application.  This is important because staff already have a lot of their plate, and on top of that they still need to be able to enjoy games on Mineplex.  Every single report that is submitted is looked at thoroughly and that should be enough for you to just wait.  Impatience is a sign of a immaturity and will show staff right off the bat that you are not ready for the position.

Do you agree to help any and all players who request your assistance, even if you are not accepted? Explain why this is important.

Yes I do agree to help any and all players who request my assistance even if I am not accepted.  This is very important because a rank is not a warrant to help the community.  I realize that this is something I said in my previous application but it is very powerful to me and I think it's very significant.  Even when I was declined, I would always try to help a player in need in whatever way I can.  If you are unwilling to help because you are not a staff member, but willing to if you are, you are not right for the team.  You should also not be helping out while your application is up just to look good.  It isn't real and it isn't sincere.  Therefor it makes you someone the staff team doesn't need.