Sunday, September 26th, 2010
Issue: 48   Editor: SeanGoesToUni


Farewell Rod oAltro
Rod left the Elite Guard this week, has this been on the books for a while? Or was this a spur of the moment choice?

Rod started out his staff life as a Help Desk Operator in the April of 2007, having now spent over three years as a staff member and almost two of those years as a Moderator he has been removed. For the first time, at least in a while, an Administrator explained at the time of removal the reasons. 5litre wrote on the Bootleggers Blog, “While Rod is a great individual, BSF and I felt like he was not performing up to the level which we would like to see.” He explained what he meant by the level he was looking for, “We pulled up some numbers such as activity, help desk rating, amount of bans, amongst other things [...] I had talked to rod about his activity level a couple weeks ago which is when he told me as o why he hasn’t been too active. Despite having things to attend to in real life, his activity here was still not up to part with what we are looking for.”

He is not the first moderator to be removed for inactivity this reset, Andy, after spending over a month without logging in or giving a reason, was removed from the Elite Guard. With VooDooDoll’s resignation several months ago we have seen the size of the Elite Guard drastically shrink this round, despite the promotion of Mika. 5litre said, “BSF and myself have been talking about our current staff situation (HDOs and Mods) and both came to conclusion that the staff needed an overhaul.” He explained how this was progressing, “This started back when new HDOs were being made.” It has been over two months since the last promotion of a Help Desk Operator and the promise of one more. 5litre reassured players that he had not forgotten and that they should not worry. Could that be a hint of one more to come?

We tried to get in to contact with Rod to ask him a few questions, unfortunately he had not got back to us at the time of writing. The players' reaction to Rod as a moderator was mixed, however, mainly positive. For the most part a large percentage appeared to accept his removal was inevitable. Neftobakivor said, “Well I am sad to see him go but if he was not doing his duties in the game then it was right decision.” Venentum stated that Rod “may have done a good job in the past, but frankly he needed to be let go.” CustomStyle wished Rod luck and thanked him. Faith77 said, “By far my favourite mod since I started playing in 2004.” ChillySeas summed up the feeling of many of the other posts, “I didn’t know him that well, and I think that was the problem. My apathy towards him from being removed from EG is rather indicative of his inactivity; I can’t say I’m sad to see him go, but neither am I happy.”

5litre ended his blog article with, “We wanted everyone to know that while he is no longer on the team, we wish him good luck in his future endeavours and thank him for all his prior hard work and dedication. It was much appreciated and we thank him greatly for his service.”