Not to long ago, applications for new membership in Team Vipers consisted of someone wandering onto the site, posting a few words and an administrator saying they were accepted as a member. This worked when we were a small community. We aren't small any more. We have 5 servers and hundreds of players a day. Each server has their own sub-community. There are players joining the forums than entire groups of people have never met because they play exclusively on one game server.
Admins were also inconsistent in how (or if) they voted. Some admins didn't realize they could have a say, thinking it was a privilege granted to only the senior administrators. We've built a system to resolve many of these problems and to make the administration side easier.
Ban information: This will check if the user has any recorded bans in Sourcebans. It's important to know if the user has been banned previously.
Known aliases: Pulling information from our chat logs and Valve's profile page, we can build a list of known aliases. This helps identify users that frequently change names but have been around a while.
There may be other features we add in the future as well.
Updated January 2012 I've removed HLStats from the servers and removed it from new application information. We have added a check of a user's Steam Reputation instead.
After a user applies, they are put into a two week hold. During this week it is expected they will stick around the forums and learn about the community they just applied to. Even better would be that they had done this before applying. While this two week hold is in place, the administration team will be able to cast they votes in a separate sub-forum. They can hold administration specific discussions - usually details that are important for admins to know, but don't need to be public. Once voting is complete, if they become a member, the system automatically grants appropriate forum and server related permissions.
Updated January 2010 This process has been in place for a few months now. It has gone very well. We've reduced the clutter in the applications forum. We've also seen the number of "forgotten" applications drop dramatically.
The original announcement is posted here for future reference.
Zephyr is an automated robot designed to improve our new member application process. The current process, which involves copying a template to a new thread and the potential for applications to become misplaced, is cumbersome and inefficient. The goal of Zephyr is to remove as much of the manual process as possible.
Now, our new applicants will fill out an actual application online. The same information will be requested, but it will be in a more reliable format and will not require an applicant copy and paste anything between threads. This new application will be posted in the same forum as you're used to, and members will be freely able to comment and discuss the applicant via that thread. It will also display which date admin voting will be open, which is two full weeks after the original application post. This will hopefully cut down on any confusion related to the delay between application and voting.
As another note, from now on Zephyr will be the only user capable of creating new threads in the New Member Application forum. As previously stated, members will be able to post comments on existing threads, but the only new threads will come from the application process. This will keep the forum cleaner and help prevent applications from becoming lost or forgotten about.
Once again, Zephyr is an automated robot. It is not programmed to respond to comments or questions. Doing so will not get your question answered. As always, if you have questions or comments about the application process, Zephyr, or anything else, you're welcome to send them to any admin. We'll be more than happy to help.
You may all bow to your Robotic Overlord now.