Guardian Hobba (modernized helper)

[Lewis]

Bad news...

Can't see the picture. Use tinypic.

[Lee]

Can't see the picture. Use tinypic.

[iLogan]

Can't see the picture. Use tinypic.

[DPS]

who cares? hes full of crap lol

[MKR&*42]

Hotel is screwed x Giving teenagers powers in a large community. Fair enough, some are mature enough to do their job but the majority will just be power-hungry noobs and show what a failure the system will become.

[Puma!]

Yeah, not having an age restriction isn't very good - I would prefer an over 18/21 scheme.

In the last few days, the age indicated by some users mean there are plenty of Habbos to choose from also.

[funn]

I just find it amusing that paul dont even answer the tweets normaly as if he doesnt read them. For example a guy asked:

@PaulLaFo are the top patrollers going to be the first guardians? I cant wait !.

And paul answered:

@Tidings_Habbo three weeks. going to be great.

[AngusBreez]

Its a reasonably good idea in my opinion but the as said before the selection process will be difficult.

[Kardan]

Nothing you have said in this (rather biased) post has disproven what I said. I wouldn't be surprised if I knew more about Xs than you, considering you were one of the aforementioned newbie Xs. But knowledge on Xs is nothing to boast about so I shan't mention it again.

Your presumption that Xs adhered to the security and confidentiality rules is very foolish. Plenty of people whose X applications were successful couldn't and wouldn't shut up about it. I had to endure a running commentary of the whole process and was bombarded with screen shots of the forum and your supposed training.

There were no face-to-face interviews or phone interviews, so there were no interviews. Answering basic questions on a forum or on habbo is not an interview.

Regarding X specialisations, there was no training or any vigorous attempt to ensure Xs knew what they were talking about. Xs simply had to memorise a few quotes which they repeated on request (e.g. "download AVG and run a scan" and "don't bet in casinos because you might be scammed") - those who couldn't be bothered to do this became host Xs.

I can not recall any X being fired after 0rca took over, not even the Xs who had left habbo were debadged. By 2007 staff were indifferent to the programme and rarely enforced the rules - hence why I said Xs were unsupervised, because in practise they were.

Your presumption that my critique of the X programme derives out of jealously is just another example of the childish and petty behaviour you guys so frequently displayed. Why you think there was anything to be jealous of I don't know, the only thing they had which was desirable was the room override and that was removed anyway.

I joined the UK Habbo eXpert team back in November 2005, the very first batch when Hobbas were still around, became a Team Leader in 2007, and was still in the team when the program ended in 2008. I was one of only three to stay from beginning to end, so personally I like to think I know a bit about the program as a whole.

At the beginning, the application process was simply a copy of the basic Hobba process, we had to provide contact details, address, telephone number etc. and had to write some sort of essay. From that, they picked a team immediately and the first batch was created. You were right, a bit of a shambles. From then, a few eXperts got hand-picked into the team, such as Ardl, and it was over half a year before applications opened again in June 2006.

At the start, there was one Team Leader, AvadaKedavra, an ex-hobba - and really, the first two months there wasn't much to do to be honest. There were no X Forums, no regular meetings, barely any contact with Staff, but things changed afterwards, with the creation of two teams, which expanded as the program advanced.

Now, you are partly right in saying that eXperts weren't supervised, but not about 0rca. When redtiz was in charge, the program was well managed, Team Leaders were effective and everything ran smoothly. When redtiz got promoted within Sulake, Heidster took over, and she was in charge for about... 6-9 months at a guess, and through-out that time, there was barely any supervision. I think we heard from Heidster about twice, and we actually heard more from Becs in that time, who was head of community or moderation within Sulake at the time. Team Leaders did a good job to keep the team going.

Eventually, Heidster gave up looking after the X Team, not that she did that much anyway, and 0rca and colmc took over, and personally, I feel that's when the team had the most supervision. You say that no X's were debadged during 2007, but I made an eXpert Database over the 3 years I was within the program, making notes of team changes, join dates, debadgings etc. And I can say that 17 eXperts were debadged in 2007, and 8 were debadged in 2008 (And remember, the program only ran for 6 months in 2008).

I feel that the outside impression of the X system is something along the lines of Habbos going into the Welcome Lounge for 5 minutes and then entering official competitions for the rest of their time online, which isn't correct in most cases. There were discussions on the X Forums about removing override for guest rooms (although I'm sure people would still complain about overriding events within public rooms), and colmc did make sure that everyone was clear on the current rules regarding events; you were allowed in, but had to regularly refresh to allow others the chance. Of course, this system wasn't perfect - in hindsight eXperts only needed powers for the Welcome Lounge, Safety Spa and eXpert meetings and eXpert events.

In some ways, people should be thankful that eXperts only had room override, which wasn't a huge power in itself. On the Canadian hotel, UK eXperts were all given a VIP Badge for an evening, which meant room override and the ability to not be kicked, lets just say that a few UK eXperts enjoyed playing falling furni that day. Back in the UK, Team Leaders were given kick, mute and ban powers for a short while, and even though there were only five or so, of the most trusted people in the hotel, Sulake still wasn't comfortable with them having these powers, so it makes me wonder why Sulake have changed their mind, especially since they have less staff to focus on such a program today.

[Bob1]

I remember seeing the bob character, who I thought was a guy, but always dressed as a woman in HPD. Years later I learn Bobby and Bobbie is a multi-gender name and now I got it lol. Gender doesn't really matter, but that was one thing that I could never figure out then. HPD... that was the hangout back then for the good people and the not so well behaved people. It's cool to see names like bob reappear. Bob, you wouldn't know me. I had created the account imJay on the English speaking Habbo hotel years ago. .

I do recognise the name actually! It's nice to bump into people I remember from being around. I am a guy, I once dressed as a guy a very long time ago and Habbox actually ran a news story about it... lol.

@Kardan I'd prefer to see an X-like system like this again, with some alterations, than what I think the Guardian system will turn out to be. I think Xs came about at a bad time, Sulake was in the process of changing as a company/management changes so it wasnt developed as the Hobba alternative it could have been. Unfortunately Sulake wont dedicate the time/money in staff or other resources to make it happen because of this I imagine the flaws will be larger with Guardians...