"staff change"

I know that there is this huge discussion that annoys staff to no end.
It is that when you become a helper/staff member, your attitude changes. There have been multiple threads opposing this idea, but this thread is to explain my view of it. Yes, I think people change when they become staff.
It just so happens that I'm studying psychology this year, and it made me think about this.

Okay, so. why do staff change? Because of the quick change of power. The person goes from being a random player to someone that can stop players from even joining the server (in extreme cases).

A very good demonstration of this "power change" would be the Zimbardo prison experiment.

Quite a graphic experiment, but it is worth seeing.

If you don't want to watch that video, here's a summary.
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The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was an attempt to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and Prison officers. It was conducted at Stanford University between August 14–20, 1971, by a research group led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo using college students. It was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research as an investigation into the causes of difficulties between guards and prisoners in the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The experiment is a topic covered in most introductory psychology textbooks.

Guards and prisoners had been chosen randomly from the volunteering college students. Some participants developed their roles as the officers and enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, by the officers' request, actively harassed other prisoners who tried to stop it. Zimbardo, in his role as the superintendent, allowed abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners left mid-experiment, and the whole exercise was abandoned after six days following the objections of graduate student Christina Maslach, whom Zimbardo was dating (and later married). Certain portions of the experiment were filmed, and excerpts of footage are publicly available.
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Yes. Quite a graphic experiment indeed. But I feel it was necessary to understand the ideology of this matter.

So random college students were selected to become prison officers, and they harassed and mentally tortured the prisoners.
Now this can be related back to IJAH in a much MUCH less serious manner.
random players (kinda) get selected to become staff members, and they adjust to that power.

Still not convinced? Okay.
Another experiment that can be related to power would be the Milgram Experiment.


I'm not going to summarize this one. I highly suggest you watch it.
It's not graphic at all.
This experiment was done to understand how the Nazis took orders from Hitler. How far they would go because of their power.

To conclude, the human brain does change as a result of power. You don't notice it, and there is nothing you can do about it. It's just how our brains work.


This thread was made for educational purposes only.

Thank you.

 

I don't think it is the "power", but the popularity. Members who are not very known in the community sometimes get staff and suddenly a ton of people know you. It can be the effect of both maybe, but thats just my look on it.

 

That's actually a fucking smart answer and true in my perspective.
A person's attitude or how they think changes when becoming staff is because of the position which has the power that others don't have, which will lead to improving your maturity in handling staff-related problems in the server. Whether it is shown in how staff act or how staff thinks, new staff have to change into a more mature and responsible personality in the future due to the power given to them which most people don't have in the server.

In that experiments shown, that's pretty much abuse shown because the power given, but the staff are obviously handled by higher ups and probably have protocols to follow like an officer would have.

Pretty much everyone who gets promoted will change unless for specific reasons.

Popularity doesn't really affect one staff member to change unless they applied for attention, its a 50/50 in my point of view. Popularity can change you if you are a greedy person or take pleasure in being well known to others.

In a simple statement, staff changes.

If my answer ain't related to the main topic, sorry I'm stupid.

 

Very much related.

Well, popularity does cause people to try to act more sophisticated in front of others. Maybe this contributes to the change. What I'm saying is, maybe that's why some friendships fall apart when one becomes staff.

 

Depends on what you look at. If you're looking at how players behave publicly in the server before and after they were promoted to staff, you can obviously see a difference.

But is that really surprising? Is that even a negative change? No. It's obvious that when players expect you to be there and help or when you know you can get into arguments with players (i.e ban appeals), you will start behaving cautiously, "maturely" and professionally. It's not easy to be a fun and loose person in one place and immediately be fully serious in another.
Moreover, I would personally expect staff members to act seriously and professionally in public areas instead of behaving immaturely or stupid and claiming that "that's how they are".

However, many staff members behave differently when they're only around friends. They don't have to be super professional and they usually behave similarly to how they did before they became staff (I can give that to @OlleSwedish). Sometimes it's hard for their friends to look at them in the same way now that they're staff, but it doesn't necessarily mean they changed that much.
There are exceptions, of course.

I think that when you use an example that is so far off from the original topic it becomes kind of irrelevant. Comparing the server to a prison is kind of absurd in my opinion. The kind of ego and authority that staff get from being staff is way different from those that prison guards get.
Yes, they are still placed in a power role, but it's so far off from being a guard that it doesn't necessarily mean that staff change that much, or even at all.

I do think that staff change though. I definitely became more self aware after being staff. It taught me how to mediate between people and how to work with a team.

I'm not trying to suck up to staff (in fact I don't really like how the team looks nowdays), but I genuinely think that the staff experience is very valuable, and I took a lot of great things from it.

So... Yeah, they do change.

 

Everything is person to person. Dest took it right out of my mouth.

Response to the rest of the things you said? You're very much right. Comparing the staff team to a prison is absurd. But there is nothing else to compare it to. You cant ask other staff teams if they've changed, no.

 

You could compare someone's behavior before they were staff and after they were staff. It's not easy, but it's the best way to see if someone or something changes.

 

Okay. I dont have any 'friends' that became staff. I'm not going to argue over the fact that i compared it to a prison. It doesn't matter.

 

I don’t think any staff members have replied to spark flame wars, but I guess I’ll be the first.

As my first month and a half of staff, I’ve never changed, yet I have been able to do my job without causing problems.

You're also not considering that everyone is different, there are over 40 staff members, not everyone is going to change.

It kind of just annoys me that you suddenly think you know why staff change because you’re assuming 2 things:
A) Staff do change
B) We change because of power given to us

I’m sorry for any people that want to apply for staff or already applied, if you had to see this it’s a shame, it really is. Don’t let this change your mind on applying, keep your heart open.

 

Ok peeps. Hear me out, cuz Imma say it once.

Why. The fuck. Does everyone think. That change is bad?

This is a serious question. I want an answer. It's clear that this thread and all the replies have gone under the falsity that change is bad, that it's scary. If you can't see that, you're really blind.

In all honesty, you have to be niche on whether change is good or bad. I see the change staff members undergo as good. Many of them treat their position of power as a job and keep themselves upright. That is a very important step in maturing. Being staff also helps people grow thicker skins, become more friendly to people and tolerant of their shit. It helps them become more patient and willing to help.

The change staff experience is positive. It's maturing at it's finest.

 

When people come into power, they change because their thinking is more to either what the group wants, what they wants, how to be a good role model, etc.. I think that this can either be for the better or for worse. If the person wants power because they want power, then it's bad. But if the person wants power to make a change or be a good role model, then it's good change.

 

Personally, I don't see it as change, I see it as maturing and gaining some professionalism.

If you see a staff member "change" after they get staff, it's presumably because they became more mature and/or they want to act more professional with the general public. You kind of have to be somewhat of a professional in order to hold the rank.

Hell, even I wouldn't even consider myself that much a professional when interacting with a large group of people. I make a lot of (self-depricating) jokes, I swear quite a bit, etc. However, when staff members change, it's typically the actual job of helping players out and the enforcing of rules that helps our staff gain some maturity.

 

Being more mature overall still constitutes as change. It's a good change but still change nonetheless.

 

i meant the negative connotation of change

 

I think being staff/leader of a server/group is good for the mind. It matures people's thoughts and makes people think for the group rather for themselves. Otherwise, they're not well liked and shouldn't have their job. How is that negative?

 

no when i said change, i meant the negative connotation of change ahahahahahhaha

like "i don't see it as someone changing for the worse"

 

I've made a thread about this before. I've got to admit, the comparison to a prison is a pretty poor choice, yet it kind of fits in to your conspiracy. It's a smart way of describing the so called staff change. I won't lie and say I've matured a bit in my time as staff, and I'm almost completely different to what I was a year ago, and I think some of the staff who were there a year ago can agree with me. #

I'm not lying, there's a form of change needed, especially for the younger staff like me. You kind of need to realise to step up to the goals required, as much as it is fun on the staff team, there are some very frustrating times.

Everyone is very different, no shame in saying that some people that you meet you won't like. You have players who were previously toxic, and have massively changed, and some who stay the same as before.

 

My staff rank has definitely changed me, and not in a good way.

Being a staff member is fun and all, but I've dealt with more drama on a daily basis, and because I'm at a higher rank, people are closely monitoring me a lot more, making it very hard not to mess up.

On top of that, there are some people that intentionally try to upset staff by borderlining rules. The stress is what has changed my character.

I had my positive days at the beginning of 2016, and I would love to return to them, but I lack motivation to return to who I was formerly for now.