NationStates Jolt Archive

Noticed the following on the News page:

Sun, 13 Nov 2005

NationStates 3: The Search For Admin

by Max Barry

It seems like only yesterday NationStates was helplessly gurgling in its cot, blowing bubbles and spitting up on itself. Nowadays it walks, holds opinions, and frequently expresses them with its extensive vocabulary of as many as several dozen words. Yes, NationStates is three years old today! And still cute as a button.

In celebration--or, possibly, by sheer coincidence--I am pleased to announce that NationStates is hunting for a new admin. Not that there's anything wrong with our current admin; no, no, those fine people are doing a bang-up job, and are drunk far less often than is rumored. But we can do more with more admins, and so we've decided to see if we can get some.

If you've got some free time, a few ideas, and a hankering to make NationStates better, we'd love you to apply!

Sounds....interesting. I was particularly intrigued by the "there is a right answer" questions on the application, like #12, #13, #14 (yay easy Perl), and #16. I'm also kind of curious whether us lowly peons will know the true identity of the new admin, or whether it will become a new NationStates mystery, like the identities of [violet], [dredd], and SalusaSecondus.

I bet that, should someone qualified actually be stupid...err....generous enough to volunteer, their identity will be kept secret so as not to screw up gameplay/IC interactions for the player.:cool:

*giggles at question 19*

So NS admin's have to be able to read minds too? :D

The questions are designed to capture lots about a person including their technical knowledge, personality, general inteligence, and many other things. Max did remove some of my meaner suggestions.

And I did mention that I was in need of my own PFY.

#14 (yay easy Perl)I thought it was PHP :confused: , BTW I know what that block of code does.....
I'm not tellin' you so STFU and go figure it out yourself!!!:D :D :D

I thought it was PHP :confused: , BTW I know what that block of code does.....

The game is coded in Perl.

Forums are PHP and driven by a mySQL database, game's Perl and HTML.

Forums are PHP and driven by a mySQL database, game's Perl and HTML.

Surely the forums are powered by vBulletin now? I know the old ones were PHP.

Nowhere is mentioned that the aplicant has to have high grades on English and must have a spotless record on NationStates for at least 3 1/2 years. I guess that goes with the territory :P

Surely the forums are powered by vBulletin now? I know the old ones were PHP.

Both phpBB and vBulletin are written in PHP. As is Invision, for that matter.

Nowhere is mentioned that the aplicant has to have high grades on English and must have a spotless record on NationStates for at least 3 1/2 years. I guess that goes with the territory :P

Well, having a spotless record on NS for 3 1/2 year would be kinda impossible :p

Minor thread hijack, but...

*huggles Goobs!*

missed ya :D

Both phpBB and vBulletin are written in PHP. As is Invision, for that matter.

Shhh. Stop giving the answers away, y'all.;) :cool:

Yes. Giving away the answers in a public forum is damnably stupid. Let's stop that, shall we?

*cries hysterically*

I have no idea how to do PHP or BB code or Anything! Why me?!

*sniffs*

Oh well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to apply, I hope I'm not spamming anyone with my useless application.

Lol, seriously, it WOULD be usless wouldn't it? I have no knowledge on any code, and my only experience in any of it was with NSWiki, but someone helped me through that complicated mess.

Nationstates is a flatfile system? Good God, thats horrible.

Even if I did know enough to become NS Admin—and I'm not saying that I don't ;)—I wouldn't want the job... I don't see why anyone would want to administrate people like me. Then again, that's just me.

Anyway, I'll watch to see who the new admin will be. I have a few guesses already...

I don't see why anyone would want to administrate people like me.
That seems to confuse folks. Admins write and maintain code. They work with Max and Jolt on administrative matters, like server maintenence and uploading minor improvements and security fixes. They don't administer *you*.

While [violet] and Salusa do in fact act as supervisors to the mods and help define policy, they are not the ones who do the day-to-day administration of the user base. That's what mods do. We're the ones that handle problems, and while we welcome input and direction from the admins, we don't seek it on a regular basis. They get called in when we've got a contentious or confusing decision, or when somebody seems to have a legitmate beef with the mods.

If you wanna play with code, apply for the admin job. Nowhere in the job description does it say anything about supporting the userbase.

To clarify: We're looking for a technical administrator. You could consider them a Tech Modling in authority with server access (to fix things). We are not currently looking for any management level positions.

To clarify: We're looking for a technical administrator. You could consider them a Tech Modling in authority with server access (to fix things). We are not currently looking for any management level positions.

Ah, well... ignore my application then.

...
well.... I'm willing to learn.... ignore my request to ignore my application.

How many people do you think will apply for this? What do you think the chances are at getting the job?

And does something like this happen everytime they look for a new admin? Because I thought they would usually look for someone from the moderating team to be promoted to admin.

How many people do you think will apply for this?
No idea.
What do you think the chances are at getting the job?
Well, if N people apply, then I'd say that you have <1/N chance of getting the position. (After all, we may find no one that we like.)

And does something like this happen everytime they look for a new admin?
This is the first time that we have actively looked for a new administrator. I just fell into the job.
Because I thought they would usually look for someone from the moderating team to be promoted to admin.
They are free to apply as well, but I do not believe that any are interested in this post. (Though if they were to prove me wrong, I'd be very happy.)

Thanks man.

Well, I never thought of Salusa as being as mysterious as [dredd], [mantle] and [violet]... Hey, he's even got bio page somewhere on this site. I think we just need someone who can handle the space prob, not saying Max's doing a bad job. Just think we need a new sorting algorithm. That's pretty insane storing it in flat files though, your gonna run out of space no matter what you do...

Any idea when the final results will come through?

And what were you thinking when you made the question "Who is [violet]?"

I just put down "[violet] is [violet]". Although I am aware that [violet] is one of the Admins, along with Sal, in case that is what you wanted.

I spent the whole of today 'attempting' to learn Perl! And failing gruesomely!

I'd like to be an admin, but I'm afraid my technical expertise is slightly basic.

That's pretty insane storing it in flat files though, your gonna run out of space no matter what you do...

Inane is more like it.....

Relational databases like MySQL are essentially flatfile as well, where do you think its possible for such systems to store the databases and thier contents? They don't "float" in mid air, they're stored as files on the host computer.
Space isn't the issue between Flat Files and Relational databases, its the speed and efficiency. By that, I mean, one with poor design skills with a Relational Database can make a server crash and burn under the strain of continuous queries, while a person using Flat File can run the system smoothly with twice as many queries.

Just thought i'd share that.

To clarify: We're looking for a technical administrator. You could consider them a Tech Modling in authority with server access (to fix things). We are not currently looking for any management level positions.

What level of time commitment does it involve?