Application: TSAdmin

[TSAdmin]

I tried to keep this thing short and sweet, so I hope it doesn't appear as a wall of text you'd rather avoid reading I, myself, have been known to open a post that is just a wall of text, and instantly closed the window.

1) Introduce yourself. Who are you? What do you do? Where are you known? Why do you play Graal?
TSAdmin, currently the Manager of Era. I'm not sure of every place I'm known, but for as long as I've been here, I've seen people come and go from server to server as they find new interests in Graal, and when I go to see them, I tend to make a name for myself there, also.

2) Experience with "online-only" staff teams, including playerworld work here on Graal.
Classic Servers:

Era - just about all jobs up until Manager. (current)
Zodiac - Scripter/LAT, then handled ban issues for them when I got Manager of Era and couldn't devote myself to them any longer.

Hosted Servers:

None under my belt.

UC Servers:

Countless "dev accountName" servers, one I remember being renamed to Xion or Zion ... something (not sure if it got deleted), and got hired on Arca by Tom, however, then I got manager of Era and couldn't put my time in there, either.

3) Assuming you have piqued our interest with your qualifications, what makes you stand out as an applicant?
My knack for resolving and advising staff/customers of graal in difficult situations, in a swift and efficient manner, even if they tend to trail off a little into areas I've not been fully briefed on.
HoudiniMan, you've seen this one first hand if I remember certain situations correctly xD :P

Most of all, I'm pretty good at making a quick, accurate and unbiased analysis of a situation having just walked into it without any information, and providing a helpful way of aiding people past it.

Finally - I am also in an Australian Time Zone (GMT+10 - Queensland), providing my hours of availability to become increasingly helpful for fielding the sometimes sadly shafted playerworld issues because those with the problem at hand are, themselves, otherwise unavailable.

4) What is your education level? Are you employed? What amount of time can you dedicate to Graal-related duties each day?
Year 12 Graduate, un-employed (hopefully not for much longer). I've recently found something that offers a couple of days per week, which is all I really need, as I own my own car and only require payment on insurance policies, thus I can offer just about any amount of my free time.

5) What do you see that needs changing in Graal's playerworld policies?
Graal's Playerworld policies have developed acceptably over the years as new and - at times - troublesome issues have come and gone, and don't require a huge strain of attention drawn to them, other than (not trying to take from other applications) what Twinny said - Making them more accessible to those who probably don't even TRY looking for them, because in my experience, they end up asking just about any random person "Is this allowed?" "Can we do this legally?" and so forth, in turn probably asking the wrong person and end up being punished while dragging Graal's name through the mud for unfairly treating them in the matter.

6) Show us some examples of your good judgement in certain situations.
In all honesty, just think about most problems any Manager/Server Administrator would face. Chances are, I've faced them, and overcome them in somewhat my own way, as described above.

[Twinny]

TSAdmin has definitely proven himself worthy over time.

[cbk1994]

I think TSA would be a great PWA, but I think that he should stay on Era, he does way too much work to just quit Era -- and even if he did not quit, he would have to cut back on work.

[Switch]

Originally Posted by cbkbud

I think TSA would be a great PWA, but I think that he should stay on Era, he does way too much work to just quit Era -- and even if he did not quit, he would have to cut back on work.

"Arrows of truth" as Huwajux (I think?) said.

[pooper200000]

Originally Posted by Switch

"Arrows of truth" as Huwajux (I think?) said.

No failure. Unknownmastermind said that.
Oh and since this is an open forum why don't you post some examples of your managing abilities so that the we can decide whether or not we like you?

[Switch]

Originally Posted by pooper200000

No failure. Unknownmastermind said that.
Oh and since this is an open forum why don't you post some examples of your managing abilities so that the we can decide whether or not we like you?

Cheater

[xXziroXx]

I approve of TSA.

He worked on Zodiac while I managed it, and he did an excellent work. He never got into arguments with staff, nor players, and handled thing's very professionally. And he even makes lame attempts at jokes from time to time!

[PaperMario]

Wooo! TSA for PWA.

[HoudiniMan]

TSA, how would you address the inevitable "Era vs. PWA" time constraint?

If you chose to leave Era, in what state would you leave it?

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by HoudiniMan

TSA, how would you address the inevitable "Era vs. PWA" time constraint?

If you chose to leave Era, in what state would you leave it?

I don't think there will be any massive conflict between time for PWA and time for Era. Never-the-less, should it come to having difficulty juggling the two, of course I would leave it to my 2IC, should he accept it. Even if he doesn't, things have progressed since the last time you were there, Houdini, and he is no longer the sole, 'experienced enough' successor.

In the event that I left Era, I would in no way leave it without making sure it's in a state of stability and control. There is a pending reset, systems have pretty much been completely prepared for it, and new levels and a GMAP are just about done. Once all of that is out of the way, other than damage control over minor glitches that may/may not arise with new systems, new levels or whatever after the reset, and after the server is reopened to the public, the right people in the right departments are capable of looking after their jobs without absolutely requiring my child-minding skills.

I don't know the if's or when's of your need for PWA(s), but if it were any time before the above is sorted out, and I "piqued your interests", as you ask in the application, I doubt that I would completely leave Era until I am sure that it's in the state I mentioned.

[Deas_Voice]

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

UC Servers:
Countless "dev accountName" servers, one I remember being renamed to Xion or Zion ... something (not sure if it got deleted)

Hey TSAdmin,
the name was Xion and it ran out of server time this week'


other wise great application'
-Neo

[DesirableDreams]

I think TSA would make a great PWA

[UnknownMasterMind]

I would vote TSAdmin for PWA.

[Frankie]

Since I used to be an administrator on Era, I always had to discuss things with TSA. He has never had trouble making a solid decision over a certain subject and always took professionalism seriously. I support TSA 100%

[HoudiniMan]

Tell us how you see the transition going from Era manager to PWA in detail

[moondeath]

TSAdmin hardly has the credentials to be a PWA. Two classic servers? One of which is just jumped up to management from being a FAQ/LAT. He hasn't even been manager long enough to prove his worth yet. It seems as if the only reason Houdiniman is taking any interest in him is because he likes him, not because of his application and qualifications. It is absolutely absurd to think that hiring TSAdmin is a good idea, he doesn't have any experience at all with dealing with problems, only Era -- for a short while, which he hasn't even done a great job managing. He just helped out on Zodiac for a little while, but that's no experience gained either. At least hire someone who is good for the job.

[Pimmeh]

Originally Posted by moondeath

TSAdmin hardly has the credentials to be a PWA. Two classic servers? One of which is just jumped up to management from being a FAQ/LAT. He hasn't even been manager long enough to prove his worth yet. It seems as if the only reason Houdiniman is taking any interest in him is because he likes him, not because of his application and qualifications. It is absolutely absurd to think that hiring TSAdmin is a good idea, he doesn't have any experience at all with dealing with problems, only Era -- for a short while, which he hasn't even done a great job managing. He just helped out on Zodiac for a little while, but that's no experience gained either. At least hire someone who is good for the job.

Ok.
Who are you?
How does being a manager of a classic server not give you any credentials?
And if he did his job great or not thats YOUR opinion, the staff can form their own opinion.

[Twinny]

Originally Posted by moondeath

Blah

Well...as soon as someone shows up with management experience in 50 servers, I'm sure they will shine. Until then, we'll give it our best

[moondeath]

Originally Posted by Pimmeh

Ok.
Who are you?
How does being a manager of a classic server not give you any credentials?
And if he did his job great or not thats YOUR opinion, the staff can form their own opinion.

Who am I? No one, what does it matter?

The fact I don't see how he got bumped from FAQ to manager without even having any type of experence managing or anything of the sort, and it is not only mine but half of the servers opinion I'm more then certain.

Originally Posted by Twinny

Well...as soon as someone shows up with management experience in 50 servers, I'm sure they will shine. Until then, we'll give it our best

What does what have to do with anything? Stop posting just to post please.

[Horrified]

Originally Posted by moondeath

TSAdmin hardly has the credentials to be a PWA. Two classic servers? One of which is just jumped up to management from being a FAQ/LAT. He hasn't even been manager long enough to prove his worth yet. It seems as if the only reason Houdiniman is taking any interest in him is because he likes him, not because of his application and qualifications. It is absolutely absurd to think that hiring TSAdmin is a good idea, he doesn't have any experience at all with dealing with problems, only Era -- for a short while, which he hasn't even done a great job managing. He just helped out on Zodiac for a little while, but that's no experience gained either. At least hire someone who is good for the job.

If he's been around since he was a FAQ...that proves a lot of dedication which is spot-on for the job.

[BigBear3]

I have all the respect in the world for TSAdmin but he wouldn't make a good PWA.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by BigBear3

I have all the respect in the world for TSAdmin but he wouldn't make a good PWA.

This is quite an opposite tune to which you were playing the last time we spoke directly via the Graal Client o.o May I ask what has brought you to change your mind?

[BigBear3]

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

This is quite an opposite tune to which you were playing the last time we spoke directly via the Graal Client o.o May I ask what has brought you to change your mind?

I said I hoped you would get it. I think you're better off managing Era.

[Switch]

Originally Posted by moondeath

TSAdmin hardly has the credentials to be a PWA. Two classic servers? One of which is just jumped up to management from being a FAQ/LAT. He hasn't even been manager long enough to prove his worth yet. It seems as if the only reason Houdiniman is taking any interest in him is because he likes him, not because of his application and qualifications. It is absolutely absurd to think that hiring TSAdmin is a good idea, he doesn't have any experience at all with dealing with problems, only Era -- for a short while, which he hasn't even done a great job managing. He just helped out on Zodiac for a little while, but that's no experience gained either. At least hire someone who is good for the job.

And you are?

[BigBear3]

Originally Posted by Switch

And you are?

And you?

[TheFisherman]

Originally Posted by BigBear3

And you?

You?

[Tigairius]

Originally Posted by Switch

And you are?

Who says you need to be qualified to be a PWA to post your thoughts and opinions about someone else being PWA? If he understands what the PWA team is and what it does, then he's more than qualified to enter his opinion.

[MysticX2X]

I don't really know this guy but i don't think someone can bare being PWA and a manager of a classic server at the same time.

But all in all your application was very nice.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by moondeath

Stuff about going from FAQ to Manager

It took me a year and a half - 2 years of going from job to job to get to Manager, it wasn't a giant bound from a Non-RC FAQ up to Manager o.O and that's how it's sounding. And even if you think a year and a half is a short time, then I really would have to say in my defence that I am pretty decent at picking up experience in your eyes and using it to my credit and full potential.

As far as HoudiniMan goes by way of the comment "just because he likes him", in my honest opinion, I don't really think I've given him any reason at all to like me, so whether he likes me or not, I doubt it'd cloud his judgement about me.

I do have to thank you, though. It's about time my thread had some action. A lot of the other ones are full to the brim of flames, derailments, and unusual posts.

Originally Posted by HoudiniMan

Tell us how you see the transition going from Era manager to PWA in detail

Well, to be honest "how you see the transition" is a very general question. It could be ease/difficulty, what I'll do about Era if I got PWA, how I'd handle dividing my attention between the two at first before leaving Era officially as a member, so I'll assume all and answer as best I can:

I have been thinking about it, over time, and come up with the following-

Let's assume that Era's reset hadn't happened yet. To start out, I'd assess the situation currently at hand. From that, one of two things could happen:

1. It's not ready, not as simple as initiating that 'flick of the switch'.

   I stick around Era, juggle responsibilities for a week or so, sort out my successor while trying to double time the development that I'd feel better knowing I was involved in, even if it meant doing the bulk of it myself, then leave it in my successor's hands to reset as they see fit - undivided attention for PWA duties, no question. In all honesty, provided there was someone competent to replace me, there'd be no actual need for me to remain there any longer than a week, if that.

2. It's ready, hardly an issue at hand.

   - Second half of point 1 -

On further notes, if in some other regard you mean "What do I expect in change of responsibility and role", going from Manager to PWA certainly would take some settling into and wouldn't be a simple walk in the park routine, but I expect I'd handle the transition fairly well. I'm self motivated, and I never get bored of something after 5 minutes of being a part of it. I also understand that I would be faced with issues whereupon a fairly large number of others will rely on me at any given time for things not as simple as "Can you check logs of this...", and I can take that on.

If this isn't what you meant at all, let me know. I'm not 100(percent sign) sure if I confused what you meant with how I read into the question.

[MrAnonymous_P2P]

I think the best way for the transition to be able to go slowly would be let TSA know that he is going to be getting the job about 3-6 months in advance. Then he can prepare Era for the change, whether that be getting updates in to stabilize it, or finding a good replacement manager.

It takes a long time to do both of those. Atleast in my opinion it should take longer than 1 week.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by MrAnonymous_P2P

I think the best way for the transition to be able to go slowly would be let TSA know that he is going to be getting the job about 3-6 months in advance. Then he can prepare Era for the change, whether that be getting updates in to stabilize it, or finding a good replacement manager.

It takes a long time to do both of those. Atleast in my opinion it should take longer than 1 week.

I can see where you're coming from, but on the other hand, you have to keep in mind that if I got this, I may no longer be an official member of Era's staff team, but I'd also not be on PWA duties 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and in my free time my services could be used on Era if they wanted it. I don't think it would require all that much notice. Applying for a position in anything, you'd have to expect to be given no warning of your imminent announcement of success or failure in the application process. I found out from someone spamming me on MSN that I got manager of Era, and I didn't even see it coming.

...and if ever I needed a place to go and do things on, I'd more than likely head for Era and chat with the people who have helped me get so far. It'd beat sitting on RC on the "Login" server should I find myself with free time to kill, talking to myself, lol.

[ImmortalHuman]

6) Show us some examples of your good judgement in certain situations.
In all honesty, just think about most problems any Manager/Server Administrator would face. Chances are, I've faced them, and overcome them in somewhat my own way, as described above.

HAHA HAHA!

You don't have good judgement at all not one bit ,it's kinda funny that everyone that is on ventrilo (VOIP Client) has a staff position on Era. You play favorites and probably would do so if you ended up getting a PWA position.I'd rather have someone like Tig then you he has friends and never plays favorites with them when it comes to player world administration.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by ImmortalHuman

HAHA HAHA!

You don't have good judgement at all not one bit ,it's kinda funny that everyone that is on ventrilo (VOIP Client) has a staff position on Era. You play favorites and probably would do so if you ended up getting a PWA position.I'd rather have someone like Tig then you he has friends and never plays favorites with them when it comes to player world administration.

I have no clue who you are, but to put that straight, just about everyone who has Ventrilo and an RC on Era had one or the other before I could even add or remove rights. Personally, I barely even get on Ventrilo at all, unless I have the urge to talk to someone.

Edit: I also have no clue as to why your very first post, having just joined the forums, was drawn directly toward my application, and not to the "Hello's and Goodbye's" Sub-Forum, or anywhere else in general.

Originally Posted by cbkbud

I'm going to take back my former opinion that TSA would make a good PWA due to his poor decision making and not dealing with difficulties on Era.

I had a certain problem due to an FAQ giving false information, he said things such as "give it a rest", "go ahead and make a support ticket", "it's only money" etc.

I ended up making a support ticket, and one of the NATs was more then willing to help me, when all TSA did was tell me to give it a rest.

So yes, rejecting my former opinion of him making a good PWA.

I'm sorry to hear about your withdrawal of support, but when I asked you about the situation, and you told me about it, I told you that I would look into it. Only 12 hours had passed and you were still camping on my back about it, and there'd been no chance for me to discuss with the FAQ in question if it were true/false/indifferent, before I simply just gave you money as compensation out of nowhere. Money is one of the reasons Era's in the state it's been getting into. You not giving me a chance to get all angles of situation before spamming me over and over again with "Give me Give me Give me" didn't sit right with me after I told you multiple times I would handle it for you, so I told you to "Give it a rest" when you kept sending me the same thing over and over again when I already knew what you wanted. I wasn't telling you to drop it, I was telling you to give it a rest.

That's around the time you told me you were going to file a support ticket about it, and I didn't rudely reply to you with something as you said 'go ahead and make a ticket', all I said was "Okay" because I can't tell you what to do when it comes to making your own decision about a course of action, especially when I had told you I'd sort it out. The NAT may have had better luck getting a hold of the FAQ you were talking about, and I certainly hope he did, because if every player said "I dont have this, because such-and-such said nothing bad would happen" and someone just simply gave it back, there'd be a lot of unhappy players around.

Originally Posted by Clockwork

I'm not really familiar with era! What work do you do as manager there, any Dev work, or are you one of the managers that sit there and tell others what to do?

I've always been a dev guy, so although I don't develop as much as I used to, I still do work. Sometimes it's easier that I do some things myself, because then I don't need to explain to someone what I want done, how I want it to be, etc etc and jump right to the end result I had in mind.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

I'm sorry to hear about your withdrawal of support, but when I asked you about the situation, and you told me about it, I told you that I would look into it. Only 12 hours had passed and you were still camping on my back about it, and there'd been no chance for me to discuss with the FAQ in question if it were true/false/indifferent, before I simply just gave you money as compensation out of nowhere. Money is one of the reasons Era's in the state it's been getting into. You not giving me a chance to get all angles of situation before spamming me over and over again with "Give me Give me Give me" didn't sit right with me after I told you multiple times I would handle it for you, so I told you to "Give it a rest" when you kept sending me the same thing over and over again when I already knew what you wanted. I wasn't telling you to drop it, I was telling you to give it a rest.

That's around the time you told me you were going to file a support ticket about it, and I didn't rudely reply to you with something as you said 'go ahead and make a ticket', all I said was "Okay" because I can't tell you what to do when it comes to making your own decision about a course of action, especially when I had told you I'd sort it out. The NAT may have had better luck getting a hold of the FAQ you were talking about, and I certainly hope he did, because if every player said "I dont have this, because such-and-such said nothing bad would happen" and someone just simply gave it back, there'd be a lot of unhappy players around.

Meh, you have my support again.

[Pimmeh]

Originally Posted by cbkbud

Meh, you have my support again.

He said, while not even 12 hours have passed O.o

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by Pimmeh

He said, while not even 12 hours have passed O.o

I can read a post in under 12 hours ...

[cbk1994]

I'm going to take back my former opinion that TSA would make a good PWA due to his poor decision making and not dealing with difficulties on Era.

I had a certain problem due to an FAQ giving false information, he said things such as "give it a rest", "go ahead and make a support ticket", "it's only money" etc.

I ended up making a support ticket, and one of the NATs was more then willing to help me, when all TSA did was tell me to give it a rest.

So yes, rejecting my former opinion of him making a good PWA.

[Clockwork]

I'm not really familiar with era! What work do you do as manager there, any Dev work, or are you one of the managers that sit there and tell others what to do?

[Clockwork]

What work do you do now?

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by Clockwork

What work do you do now?

While my roots remain in LAT, my LATs seem to share a view with me which basically puts me out of work there, but I've found that a lot of scripting needs doing. Crow does the bulk of that, as well, so I'm not as much help there, but I've created a few systems, classes, level scripts and so forth where needed. There's really only two things I can simply say "I can't do it" to: Gani and Graphics. Gani because I was far more interested in the Level Editor than I was in the Animation Editor, and Graphics because I plain suck at drawing with a pencil, let alone try and create something with a computer, as well as my lack of programs that'd aid me in doing such work.