A VERY big update will be arriving at Habbo this summer…

 

If you have recently been looking at Paul LaFontaine’s Twitter feed, Fansites or at the actual hotel itself this week, then you may have noticed the words “SuperHabbo”, “Habbo X” and “Habbo CM” tossed around quite a lot. Well, all of those words relate to a brand new community moderation/management programme which will be available to every user in summer 2012. The official name of the users who will take part in the project is “Habbo CM” which means “Habbo Community Management” and their main aim will be to assist and support the Habbo community. They are a replacement of Hobbas, eXperts and Guides.

 

Habbo CMs have been a fairly hot topic throughout fansites and Habbo itself this week, so we thought we’d provide you all with some FAQs and details about the future programme. All details come from the CEO of Sulake (Paul LaFontaine) himself:

 

What are Habbo CMs?

 

Habbo CM stands for Habbo Community Management and their main aim is to provide additional moderation to Habbo Hotel. They are also expected to have a small role in re-introducing events and competitions into the hotel after they were axed by Sulake. A good programme to compare them to would be the Habbo Guides programme which was removed when the English hotel merged occurred or the Habbo X programme which ended in late 2008 – Habbo CMs are a more updated version of these programmes though.

 

Who can become a Habbo CM?

 

The age limit to become a Habbo CM is a minimum age of 13 – there is no maximum age. Candidates for Habbo CM will require a certain number of “CM points” which are gained by helping out other users, having a good reputation, completing certain achievements etc. If you receive a ban you do not immediately become excluded from the scheme, but your CM points will decrease. Once you achieve enough “CM points”, you can become considered for the position.

 

Paul summed this section up nicely by stating “Everyone can earn a place in Habbo CM if they earn trust.“

 

There is also a hint at the points scheme being “trust points” as opposed to “CM points”. Paul stated that “if a person helps someone and they do a good job – you get trust points.”

 

What commands will the Habbo CMs have?

 

Paul himself stated that the “Habbo CM Permissions are not worked out” but he did go on to explain about banning and chatlogs…

 

Bans: Regular CMs will not be able to ban users nor will they have any influence over whether a user is to be banned or not. Highly trusted CMs may have a slight influence over whether a user receives a ban or not & “maybe a very very very senior CM will have ban power, but it will be overseen by moderators”.

 

Chatlogs: CMs will have access to chatlogs. Paul said that “80% of issues can be resolved with chatlogs” so you can probably see why some CMs deserve the access to chatlogs.

 

Will there be a hierarchy in Habbo CMs?

 

Throughout the entirety of his comments, Paul has mentioned “Head CMs” and “Senior CMs” – although he did state at 1 point that there would be “No head CM – CMs watched by mods”, so there is some slight confusion over whether there will be a hierarchy in the CM programme. However, if he does intend for senior CMs to have some influence over user bans, then there is most likely going to be a hierarchical structure implemented.

 

How many CMs will there be?

 

Due to CMs being based on a points system, there is absolutely no limit as to how many users can become a CM. Hence this programme being available for all who are trustworthy.

 

Won’t people cheat to gain CM points?

 

In cases where people use clones to gain CM points, there is usually a solution. If a person is a candidate to become a CM then the moderators will check to see if the points on your account is down to clones. If they are, then you will get banned for cheating.

 

Does everyone start off with 0 CM points?

 

No. Paul said that “older accounts will get credit for activity so people will start off with points already earned“. So a lot of people could potentially be immediate candidates once the programme is introduced.

 

Who will I complain to if a CM is behaving badly?

 

A moderator of course!

 

Those are the basics of the supposed CM programme, but please keep an open mind and remember that the programme is still being developed! So, particular aspects that you read from the FAQs above may be changed – a lot of it probably won’t (due to the CEO saying most of the informtation), but changes are still being made to the actual CM programme, so we’ll have to wait and see how the programme ends up. Once Habbox receives the full details, we will be publish them in a different article.

 

For now though, let’s look at how people felt about the CM programme. At the very start (when they were coined “Super Habbos”) people felt the system would possibly lead way to fairly egoistic people & that the system itself was fairly elitist due to the issue of having “a good reputation”. Although a good reputation is not necessarily the same as popularity, there is still a weak connection in there. So an immediate outburst occurred due to the fact that people who are considered “virtually famous” would most likely become a CM as opposed to regular, useful members.

 

After the CEO managed to explain the CM programme in more detail (and made it seem less elitist), a few people started to convert and support the idea even more but a handful still feel that it is “unnecessary” and will simply “be abused“. Here are just a few recent comments from users who were discussing Habbo CMs:

* The names of the people who provided us with these quotes have been removed due to a right to anonymity.
 

“Habbo CM does seem pretty cool although there are some parts of it I think could be better. We’ll see! : )”

“I hate the sound of habbo cms. This is going to be abused.”

“I think the entire HabboCM system will flop…it will easily be manipulated and he seems to suggest that the only way it will be regulated is by Mods looking out for people abusing it. Unfortunately it is not that easy.”

 I like the sound of the CM’s, would love to go for that role!  But it would be abused by some yes, I like the bit were it says cloning won’t be allowed.”

“The guide system is okay but I don’t particularly want regular habbos reading my CFHs or chat logs.”

“This all sounds really good. Loads of nice updates expected over the next year and I am looking forward to seeing how they sort this CM stuff out.”

“what an utter useless update, Habbo CM what the hell?”

 

It seems like we have ended up with mixed opinions on the programme! As for further information about Habbo CMs, it looks like we’ll have to play the waiting game to see how it all turns out…

 

What’s your views on the CM programme? Share your view by posting it below!