Promotion Guide Part 2: Driver (%)

By Darnell. Art by Regime.
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS EXPIRED.
This article is out of date and no longer reflects Pokemon Showdown's promotion policies. Visit this thread for more information on room and global auth.

Introduction

Welcome back to another segment of Promotion Guides, where we will be going over not just global Drivers, but Lobby Drivers as well, and why the staff decided that we needed them to help us out. Some of you may be wondering why there are so many Voices in comparison to Drivers, and in this article, I'll be going over the qualities of a Driver and how the expectations are much higher than that of Voices. Additionally, I'll give a little bit of information on some recent global and Lobby Driver promotions and why they occurred. Without further ado, let's begin!

Qualities for Getting Global Driver

Leading and contributing to the chat
As a Voice, you should be able to contribute towards and voice your opinion on the current discussion in the chat. We find that we get those amazing users that may come on PS! for a while, striving towards trying to join the staff by contributing well towards the chat, just to get bored after a certain period of time. This is not what we want, which is why the staff take time picking out users for global Driver rather than rushing it. When aiming for global Driver, you should never stop contributing, but once you do get it, you have to be able to maintain and keep control of the chat. If the staff don't believe that you will be able to handle that, then you won't be nominated for Driver.
Contribution to PS!
Contributions range from different things such as art, programming, research, tier leadership, room leadership, or anything else that has been proven and shown to make PS! a better place for everyone. While this can be a method to get promoted to Driver, users won't get promoted if we don't feel they are mature enough to handle the responsibility of locking people and moderating chatrooms. The contributions, however, can replace the amount of chat activity that they need, which is monitored by the staff. The normal procedure would continue and they would be treated no differently than the other staff, with access to all staff areas in case we need them to help with something. This could be a request for programming or discussion of sprites.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are there now Lobby Drivers?
The global staff spoke about it for a certain time period before this took place, and they came to the conclusion that it was time to promote some people to watch the Lobby. We noticed that certain time zones lacked staff and we had to fill those time zones with some staff. The thing with the global staff is that most of them do not originate from just the Lobby; as such, they don't have the time to watch it due to having responsibilities in other rooms. We do not want to force people to watch the Lobby and since we started to notice some mature, levelheaded, and reasonable candidates, we promoted them accordingly.
Who decides if you get global Driver?
Like in global Voice nominations, everyone in the global staff gets to voice their opinion on whether or not the nominee is ready for global Driver. The only difference is that we go into more detail when debating the pros and cons of the person getting it. We make sure to get as much information as possible from both the past and the present, and we make sure that if there were any problems before, they're resolved. Only then can we be certain that the person is ready.
How does the process take place?
The gap between global Voice and Driver is a very important one, which is why for Voices, we have one thread for all nominations. For Drivers, a nomination thread is posted for all of the global staff to see with 24 hours being the minimum amount of time before the nominee can actually get promoted. 24 hours may seem like a short time for such an important position, but do take into account that the promotion is discussed by the upper staff before the thread is actually made.

Recent Promotions and Why

Global Drivers

Audiosurfer
Audiosurfer is looked up to by many users. He is a Room Owner of Doubles and does a ton on the Smogon forums, gaining him a current total of 6 badges! He has a great understanding of the Doubles tier, which the tier leaders can vouch for, so if you ever need some experience, he's one of the people to find. He took part in the Random Doubles Battles on PS! and overhauled it, making different sets by adding moves and items that are specifically useful for Doubles such as Protect, Sky Drop, and Icy Wind. He is totally approachable and knows how to control the Lobby while having fun and not being too strict at the same time. Although Audiosurfer is a Room Owner of Doubles, what sparked his Driver nomination was his recognized contributions to the forums.
Layell
Layell is not known by many users on the site, but he does a ton behind the scenes as one of the two people in charge of sprites along with princessofmusic. He makes sure that you get the most out of how PS! is looking while you are battling. Layell is not afraid to voice his opinion on what he thinks of something, and he already has had a close interaction with some of the global staff, allowing him to join the team even more easily. Similar to Audiosurfer, his nomination was viewed from the points of his spriting work rather than his activity on PS! You may recognize some of his threads on trying to sort out issues involving the sprites, such as this one.
Ascriptmaster
Ascriptmaster, similar to Layell, wasn't known by many of the users on the site but also done and still does contribute a ton behind the scenes. His work with coding and bug fixes is what sparked his nomination by none other than Zarel himself. He has a good amount of knowledge and is very approachable. He has settled in nicely and is now use to modding the website even though he barely did before he was promoted. You can usually find Ascriptmaster in the Tech and Code or Anime and Manga room.
Timbuktu
Although Timbuktu currently helps out on Smogon with The Player/The Smog by virtue of his coding skills, he was noticed before that. Being a Room Owner of 3 rooms (Chess, Trivia, and Academics) is quite a responsibility and takes a lot of dedication. He was also a room Driver in one of my rooms (Scavengers) and went that extra mile when making hunts. His hunts involved bringing up images of a map and having users answer questions related to the image. Timbuktu is a great role model and what we expect in users.

Lobby Drivers

Winry
Winry was noticed as someone who visited the Lobby on a regular basis, always trying to help people and contributing to the discussion currently going on. She already has a good relationship with most of the staff and is an incredibly friendly and approachable person. Furthermore, she is active during the OCN hours, a timezone that the Lobby lacked staff to watch it. The promotion just had to be made; there was no reason not to!
kota
kota has done a ton for the server such as helping out with the scripted tournaments, is an active user, and covers the OCN hours, similar to Winry. Although modding has to be taken seriously, he knows how to balance it out and have fun at the same time. If you want someone who has quite the experience with coding but also knows how to have a great time, kota is the one who you want to talk to.
Xylen
Xylen is someone who does a ton with the Mentorship program, for which he earned the Community Contributor badge. He is an active user on PS! and has been for quite a good amount of time. I can vouch for him when saying that his moderation skills are up to standard, allowing him to become a Lobby Driver; he is a very trusted and capable person.
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS EXPIRED.
This article is out of date and no longer reflects Pokemon Showdown's promotion policies. Visit this thread for more information on room and global auth.