After reading this I've gotten a much better understanding of how OptiCraft ranks work.  I was trusted last week after playing for a year, so I don't expect to apply for mod for a long time.  I, however would also like to share my experiences being a member of a server's staff and the responsibilities that come with it.

After playing on a relatively small server for 2 years, I decided to apply for Moderator, hoping to be accepted.  To my delight, one of the mods had just resigned and a spot opened up.  The Owner asked if I was ready for this, and I eagerly said YES!  Little did I know that the time spent as Moderator isn't exactly paradise, as Viper mentioned.  It is extremely taxing and your personal MineCraft time on the server will go down by a lot.  This being said, it was one of my most enjoyable experiences in MineCraft, and I liked it so much that, 4 months later, I applied for Admin.

This server was rather small, and the 3 Admins it had weren't very active.  They left all staff duties to the Moderators.  I called the owner on Skype, and we had an hour-long discussion about the current server staff.  He agreed that the current admins weren't active enough (one of them, we realized, after an /ar check had been AFK for 2 months!), so he asked me and another Moderator, one of my friends, if we would like to step up and become Admins.  This had been a dream of mine, so my friend and I both accepted.  Being an Admin is difficult, I soon learned.  The weight of the entire server rests on your shoulders, and if you slack off even a tiny bit, then it all crumbles around you.

I learnt to enjoy being a member of staff, as I am relatively active and I very much like helping others, and in due time, I became a well-liked Admin.  I hope this post, along with this thread, will help others make the decision to apply for Moderatorship or not.

*One confession of an Admin*: I sometimes would use /vanish if I was alone, so someone wouldn't ask me for help :3 (of course, also to spy on new players to see if they are griefers    )

I would like to join Gogar, I have lots of gear and potion ingredients I could offer to the guild in return.
This would also stop Fish_Luver going after me every time I see him in PvP