I've tried to get onto the staff a few times over the last ~5 years, but I'm not a great enough roleplayer that they considered it viable. I never felt like RP was where I could make an impact, but in area writing, new functionalities, etc - that I felt like I could make an impact on and where I was shooting for.

The third time I was given the "This was a good char, but try again once you've got more chars under your belt" I legitimately lost the desire to keep trying. You can only deal with rejection so many times before it's time to move on.

So - trying to contribute in the ways I'm being given as options, that I'm not good at - or try to contribute in ways I legitimately have skills in - and the only method I'm given is the first as a pathway to the second that's required. When I suck at the first, I never get a chance to contribute in any of the ways that I can legitimately be a value add to the MUD.

I guess a big point of my personal frustration is not being able to ever contribute and being excluded from that possibility because of standards that don't take into account strengths in one area because of weaknesses in another - which is a poor management choice in my experience and in my opinion. If everyone has to be good math to be considered intelligent, we're limiting our opinion about a lot of people with a narrow outlook that's small picture.

tl;dr - make more avenues for people to be involved in making the mud better without requiring staff status.