Information For Applicants
— the application kit
The Criteria
Not everyone can be a liaison, or would enjoy it. There are certain criteria that we question in all candidates for the position of liaison. If you do not meet one or more of the criteria below, your chances of getting hired are small. It would be in your best interests to work on meeting the criteria, rather than wasting time and effort on an application that is likely to be turned down.
Criterion One: Discworld experience
Applications for a liaison position have the following requirements:
You need to be at least 5 days old.
You need to be at least guild level 150.
You need to have 2 vouches.
You have 14 days to obtain your vouches.
Your application will not be posted for consideration until you have all your vouches completed.
These are the coded requirements without which you can not even use the apply command. Apart from this, it is recommended to have at least 20 days total playing time of Discworld, spread over more than one character.
This may seem like a lot, but for a player committed to becoming a liaison it is quite achievable. The reason to ask as much is that for a liaison having a wealth of knowledge of the Discworld is quite important, to understand what problems players are having and knowing, in many cases, the answers.
It is a very helpful bonus on your application if you have explored the areas and features of the game in depth, played in more than one of the guilds and interacted with many of the people who make up the Discworld community. Apart from that, it is advised to have read at least some of the books, to have an appreciation of the world and stories that underlie the game.
Criterion Two: staying power
You will need to have demonstrated commitment to the MUD and staying power to be an effective liaison. Many players who come to Discworld play for large amounts of time for a short period, and then move on. A liaison is a public face, who develops a rapport with the players over a length of time (both before and after being employed). A high turn-over of liaisons is in nobody's interests. For these reasons, we would like you to have played for a year at least, since the first time you logged into Discworld or returned from a long playing gap.
Criterion Three: trust
Being a liaison involves a great deal of responsibility and trust. Liaison applicants should generally be considered model players, both in respecting the rules and in how they get along with other players. You will need a clean record of dealing with creators and no serious misdemeanours for the previous year, at least.
Criterion Four: communication skills
You will need to be a "people person", and have the self-control and general approachability to be a public face. Good communication skills are essential. When logged in as a liaison, you must generally be visible to players, ready to field any queries or complaints, and you should know when you're (occasionally) not capable of responding appropriately or when your judgement falters, and to go invisible when that happens. Some past liaisons have found that it can become tiresome or even distressing to be visible most of the time and deal with everything that comes at them, or pick up on alerts. To do your job well and enjoy it, you must be prepared to deal with all sorts of players, in various states of agitation, and sometimes several at the same time.
Being the public face of the creatorbase, we prefer to hire people who have shown they can get along well with others. Players who spark controversy and are disliked by an unnatural amount of people have little chance to get hired, since this reflects back on the domain and the creatorbase as a whole.
Criterion Five: time
You will need to be able to commit time to Discworld to be a creator. This is even more essential as a liaison. If you can only spare a few hours per week or can only log on sporadically, this is not the role for you, as you can not keep in touch with all developments that way, and will have trouble dealing with situations that come up.
The aim is to have at least one liaison logged on at all times (not the same one the whole time either!), and often three or four logged in (as liaisons or alts).
Criterion Six: part of the team
The liaison domain forms a team, operating over different timezones, but communicating things that happen and working together on the mutual goal of a healthy domain and mud. You need to be able to work as part of that team, supporting other liaisons, giving and receiving feedback, communicating what happened and what you did (and also be honest and complete about these things when you made mistakes), offering to take over work when you see another liaison has trouble coping.
You also need to be able to work independently, following the domain policy, and seeking help when necessary.
Criterion Seven: learning
You must enjoy learning, because the gods know, there's a lot to learn!
Still here? Great! You must have been able to tick-off each criteria, and still be interested in becoming a liaison.
For your information, the next page is a summary of the application process from start to finish.
