School application standards increase?

[newomaster]

I've made this thread to get you guys' opinion on something:

Lately I've been seeing a large amount of school applications that look like this:
Minecraft username: Derp
What would you like to learn about redstone: i wanna make a computer
What (if any) past experience do you have: i've messed with pistons
Do you agree with the rules? yes

According to our current application guidelines, there is nothing wrong with the above application (Which is probably why I've been seeing so many of them). It's just very short. However, the problem arises when an applicant makes an application like this:

Minecraft username: Derp
What would you like to learn about redstone: everything there is to know
What (if any) past experience do you have: i've got a little bit.
Do you agree with the rules? yes

In that example, the application only contains vague answers which aren't really helpful for us (teachers/staff) when teaching. So, I often ask an applicant to add information to their applications in this case. School applications are often hard for me to judge because I'm always questioning myself if they've provided enough information to warrant being made student or not.

Obviously there is a disconnect here, we aren't clear on what we expect from their answers (none of the tutorials we have say anything about this). I think that the school applicant should put more effort into their application, so I propose we make the requirement length for each school application prompt (excluding the IGN and rules agreement) 2-3 sentences at least.

What do you guys think? Discuss!

[Iceglade]

The problem is that the vast majority of people applying to school are most likely on average 10-13. I understand age isn't a necessary factor in intelligence, however in maturity (and that includes the ability and patience to type a decent application) it certainly is. People applying to build have either (i) been on school and learned logic or (ii) already done a decent amount of logic in the past. This makes them more likely to have some kind of patience to at least write a two sentence prompt. On the other hand, students are mainly members of the "typical" minecraft community looking for a random redstone server (like the one at the top of google). And if you go to any SkyDoesMinecraft or whatever video and look in the comments, they've never had to be literate before; the standards ORE gives are already mountains higher than what they're used to.

Essentially, I just feel we would have a lot of applications in the Aged subforum if we did this.

[newomaster]

Well, I think we generally should try to avoid letting the "average minecrafter" into the server. If they aren't willing to give up 5 minutes of their time to write a nice application for us, then they are likely not worth having on our server at all.

You can see the effects of letting too many students in by flying around the school server. Empty plots... everywhere. When we let in users who aren't willing to stay and learn they tend to leave and never return.

[Legofreak]

hey, that last sentence rhymes.

When we let in users who aren't willing to learn,
they tend to leave and never return.

[PabloDons]

I suggest adding another question:
what do you expect the server to be like?
or something similar, the reason for that question is to avoid players who do not intent to stay. answers from dedicated applicants would be in depth and with a reason for his/her expectation and an answer from non-dedicated would be something like "I think it will be fun"

thoughts?

[Crazyninja2000]

i think maybe have computer sceince questions in there, like do you know binary, or are you into coding. and maybe turn down the applications that just say "i wanna learn how to make a piston door and a tnt cannon" so we don't end up with noobs saying "i hate this server, computers aren't fun".

[Apuly]

@crazy http://forum.openredstone.org/showthread.php?tid=4097