X

Wiz Me!

The Many Paths

...we typically don't award wizardship to people who ask for it...
- JBum, Original Creator of ThePalace
Personally, I don't think that power corrupts. Instead, I think that power attracts the corruptable. When it comes to picking new wizards at Communities.com's Main Palace Sites, this theory can be shown in practice.
I am constantly asked "how can I be a wizard?" In fact, I doubt I've been on line for more than an hour in the past three months without having someone ask that question. Often, the people asking are guests. For a while, the standard answer was the one devised by jbum: "The wizard password is inside the honor bar in the Honeymoon Suite. Open the honor bar, and you'll get the password." To date, no one has yet succeeded....
In fact, this question was probably the single most prominent reason for me to put up these pages on wizardry so I can just pass on the URL http://www.botzilla.com/house/wizmain.html and entirely skip the more pointed answer: "you can't be a wiz."
In truth, you can. Some people obviously are! But it's important to know this about Communities.com wizardship, a fact oft-repeated: it's not a reward. No one is ever made a wizard because they have "been on long enough" or accrued any other sorts of "points," nor simply because they happened to be friends with some particular wiz. Nor are wizards (generally) employees of Communities.com.
Wizards are typically chosen because it's thought that the palace(s) need their help or sometimes because it's believed that this person will make valuable contributions to the palace culture simply be being able to perform wiz tasks such as room authoring, particularly-good hosting social skills, etc.
Such decisions have typically been made by Communities.com executives with group input from the existing batch of squabbling wizards, who occasionally come up with lists of nominees hashed-out in secret via email. Such groups of nominees usually come along every two or three months, but there is no particular schedule. Even communal wizard meetings are rare (and often occur at non-Communities.com palace sites).
As you might have guessed, this makes Communities.com wizardship itself rather informal. Despite ill-iformed rumor-mongers, very few are employed by Communities.com as wizards there are no fixed duties, no formal schedules, no quotas. Do wizards often spend (too much) time running about chasing down snerts? Sure. But it's up to them.
What Attributes Make a Likely Wizard, Then? No one set of attributes; here are some things that have come up as "positive points" in past discussions about potential wizards.

A Completely Unofficial List

Level-Headedness
Could this person be sent out into a packed palace and take a monumental amount of snertly abuse and still remain calm about it? Or would they turn into a writhing `smartbomb machine? Do they have mood swings, are they habitual liars, or are they all around cool folks?

Helpfulness
Is this person already a great help to others across the palace community? Do they have a good working knowledge of palace (not just technical, but social)? Do they contribute via PUG, ?Magus, web pages, etc.?

Regularity
Is this person around? When? What time of day? Do they hide, or are they social? Does anyone know them from Adam? Most regular users eventually know most of the existing wizards.

Unique Skills
Do they bring something new to the mix? Do they speak a foreign language? Draw? Write scripts? Know Steve Jobs?

Experience
Is this person already wizzing at another site? How are they doing? Have they created their own established palaces? Some wizards have also been AOL guides or prominent figures in other "virtual community" environments, such as WorldChat, Powwow, LambdaMoo, or Habitat.

Maturity
One might think this goes with the territory: Level-Headedness, Experience, Helpfulness... but at times the old calendar also plays a role. To date, no one has ever been made a Communities.com wiz until they were at least old enough to vote. I know it's not fair. Take it up with congress....