New recruiting policy & how to join the Games4theworld team.

Dear users,

Games4theworld has always been about helping people, mostly with issues surrounding PC games, software and hardware. We are, always have been, and will always remain a non-profit organization. For our work, we have always needed volunteers: very idealistic people, who are willing and able to spend what (often little) free time they have to help out on the Forum here.

In the past, we used to do so-called recruitings every 2 years on average. These recruitings tended to attract lots of interest, both from community regulars as well as outsiders. Most recently though, due to our increased efforts to expand into more areas beyond the classic Forum work (e.g. our focus on the Facebook-page, the Minecraft-server, YouTube channel, Twitter, etc.) it has become necessary for aspiring team members to bring along "new" qualities. Such as an increased level of longterm interest in Forum work, alongside certain possible specializations to work in a particular Forum area.

Effective immediately, we have therefore decided to abandon our past practice of recruiting, in favor of an invitation-only system of adding new team members. In our experience, past recruitings mainly attracted community outsiders, who were too unfamiliar with the way we work. The new system we had in mind will not only make it easier for us to decide about who to "bring onboard", but most importantly, it will give you enough opportunity to familiarize yourself with the community and the Staff. What exactly does this mean for you now?



  You are no longer bound by recruiting periods and deadlines: you are more than welcome (and encouraged) to dive into the community, and stick around by helping people, getting to know the community & team members, etc.


  Contribution can mean many things: so not just replying to user requests for support. One other crucial aspect of our work is to come up with - mostly written - guides/tutorials that assist us in our work. As for the rest, I will leave it to your imagination and creativity to come up with more ideas (you can of course consult the Moderators/Administrators for advice or approval). Remember: just because you see that there are no posts to answer anymore, it doesn't necessarily mean there is nothing else that can be done for the Community. 


  If we consider an active community member to be a possible fit, we will send that person a private message with an invitation to join the team. You may be wondering now, but I suggest you do not send team members (private) messages expressing your interest in joining the team. Instead, show your interest by being an active Forum member. We want to emphasize that as of November 2016, we no longer accept "applications" to Games4theworld-Staff positions anymore. Do not ask to become a Forum Helper/Moderator/Administrator, please. The current Games4theworld team will handle all operations from there on; if needed we will seek help at our own discretion and possibly even through other channels than the Forum here. Rest assured: if we believe you are the right fit and your time has come, you will be invited to the team...
Note however, that actual moderation is reserved for team members. Actively involving yourself with the community, does not involve what is known as "backseat" moderation. If you suspect rules are being broken, don't point that out to the user, but PM a team member or report the post in stead.


  You should not expect a quick invitation though, or a high "forum status" upon joining the team. For our team, we are only interested in long-term engagements from users, so the selection of a community member to be invited into the team may take many months. Also, you should not become an active community member just because you believe you will gain a high forum status. Statuses are a nice perk of course, but you will want to stick around because of idealistic reasons. It's really just that: you want to do this because you have a serious long-term interest in helping people.


  For starters, we expect from prospective team members to fully respect the Forum rules, alongside kindness and good communicative abilities. Among the team, we are in constant communication with one another, but communication is also important for effectively interacting with the general community. I'm not saying you have to be fluent in English, but some degree of communicative proficiency is absolutely necessary for the work on the Forum. Besides, communication consists of much more than mere (English-) language proficiency: it is also about e.g. wording things in such a way, so as to make it appropriate for the respective situation.


  Upon joining the team, you will then be guided along your way by a senior Forum Moderator, since we believe this is a very crucial introductory step into your Forum work.




For the moment, that should do. In case of any questions, please send a private message to a Forum Moderator or Administrator. Thank you for your attention, and we hope you will like the new recruiting system.

On behalf of the Games4theworld-team.

Updated on 25-02-2017.