The staff system

[James_Gaff]

I like how many conflicting sides the admins give.

It seems even they don't know how the process works.

Elaborate please.

As an example of my point,

Nevy says being friends with an admin doesn't improve your chances at all, you yourself say otherwise, that
"Of course people we're friends with tend to get staff positions."
and  
"That's why the staff befriend them in the first place."

Though there are some obvious standards the team follow when looking to promotions of possible moderators, but to me, this thread has made it evident there aren't any clear standards. As Von Tempski has said, the fact there is no transparency meaning we have no real, up to date, knowledge of how the system really works. Agreeably, I'm sure each admin looks for something different in what they want on the team, but perhaps generalised standards would speed up the process and keep an active moderator, and administrator, team.

To add to this, you say that applications would standardize players, though perhaps this would actually help. From my personal experiences, servers (of this size and larger) who have applications create a larger, equally if not more, dedicated staff team that moderate the server at all times. Applications, again from experience of other servers, speed up the application process. Those that may be quieter than others, who sit in the corner, so to say, get a chance to put themselves out in the open a bit more. Show who they really are to the staff team. This can also help improve the time zoning issues. I know the team is wide and varied of where you all live, though you can't always see possible potential staff. I'm sure a lot of potential staff members are, essentially, overlooked due to not being on at the same time as staff. Applications are generally a factor toward removal of any of these issues.  

And to you Vauld. If you're trying suggesting I want staff, I really don't. I'm not going to deny for a long time I have, but at this current time I don't enjoy Garry's Mod as much as I did and don't have as much time to spend on video games as I used to.