Conquest of the Horde

Just a couple of ideas related to the new Forum Helper category to be assigned.
No idea how feasible they are, but here goes.

1. Before assignement: There really are a lot of applications. Over thirty, I saw. And I was recently watching a lot of old The Apprentice seasons. People love OOC community events.

What if, after an initial selection, every X days, a question or subject or sample profile to comment would be posted for the applicants to respond to. The judges would comment, and every round, Y people would get cut, and the remainig Z people remaining in the end after a few rounds become Forum Helpers?

I can giddily visualise a lot of GMs humorously playing the mean judge, community GMs being the judge that tries to be constructive and encouraging even in the face of utter fail, and so on. It's the kind of thing that, I feel, would make everyone a lot more at home. Not least, this will entertainingly test participants' ability to deal with feedback, communication and surprising issues.

2. After assignement: Seeing as we'll esentially have grunts charged with looking at profiles, I think it would adress a lot of frustration if profile comments from grunts would be PM-only in the actual profiles section. There's been loads of talk about this in the past, and I think it'll be time once a forum helper team is assigned.

We'd get called out for favoritism. "Why was his answer picked over mine!? Mine was good!"

... I cannot speak for the others. But personally, I would rather that not happen.

Plus it would kinda suck to get your hopes up then be let down.

No matter the level of favoritism existent in any competition, typically transparency>closed selection.

But then again, I well see that individuals might be personally targeted. Still, sucks when the main problem of a (good?) idea is the reaction "bad" people will have to it.

As for hopes up, myeh. It would be something that everyone should join in good humour and for the fun of it. Or recall their application if they feel they're not mature enough to. And there's always next season! But myeh.

Edit: I think that if the respect and maturity rules were truly respected and understood, drama and issues wouldn't spawn from this.

You say that the Forum GMs should PM their problems to the player. But then how would other Forum GM's know if one GM has talked to him? XD

Sorry if that was mis-expressed. I meant that when (Non-Forum Helper) Grunts want to give feedback, it should be a rule once Forum Helpers become a reality that they do it via PM. So you only get bumped by GM or Forum Helper feedback.

Oh, yea. Unless in Workshop, of course.

People can lock their own threads if they don't want feedback from anyone but GMs or forum helpers.

There is already the worry of favouritism, all we can do is trust to our GM team to not be biased in their decision, and choose who they think will help the community as a whole. Making the whole thing public in my eyes though would not be a good move, might cause unnecessary drama and hurt over the role.

But the very nature of this contest involves judging someone on their ability to give an opinion that elicits a favourable response.
I daresay it's paradoxically inherent of bias. Not that I'm either for or against the idea, as such.

Ability is something that one person can interpret entirely different from another, as there is no "right" or "wrong" answer on opinion. So its still equally effected by bias, sadly.