Ah gotcha. It was confusing because your previous post contradicted that stance by saying it was "the one thing that unifies staff" (word by word), and then later said that that it is the only benefit to becoming staff. Thanks for the clarifying your position.
Mhm. Your confusion is understood. But I was not referring to the present staff team with that statement - my point was its the one thing that unifies all users who were at one point staff.
The present-staff incentives are good. I mean, it sounds sappy, but I agree with Kythol in that I think the main incentive is being able to not only play the game but also be afforded the abilities to ensure and facilitate fun as much as possible, far more than a non+staff can. IMO, staff picnics are not really anything fun. It's just kinda a lot of abusing ulx commands, and that gets boring quick. The opposite to that is just.. playing ttt, and if we're just gonna play ttt at a staff picnic, why not hop on and play with the rest of the community. Seems unnecessary. As for actual implemented incentives like points, I think you have to be cautious that you don't incentivize it so much that people want staff just for the incentive, rather than the drive to help.
This is a big tangent, though, because I'm more talking about having something concrete (and individualized/personalized) for former staff, not just present staff. A little something that shows that you once dedicated your time just to help the community flourish. Maybe I'm just a dude who cares too much about gmod communities, but I was always quite pleased with my little custom title, as I was proud of my former tenures. It's along the same vein of, like, an early supporter badge or something. I just particularly liked the custom titles, because I thought the "former staff badge" so to speak being a little opportunity to promote individuality was fitting and neat. Really relatively insignificant, but otherwise a cool perk. But enough about the custom titles - onto what could nicely fill the role. Maybe a forum badge or something. I have no idea. It's late and I'm watching Loki ?