While I can appreciate your frustration, just because your situation leaves you with a hole to fill, not everybody is in that position. Entertainment is as much a tenant of VATSIM as education. There's a balance, but if we're not having fun, we won't have people.
What good is a realism-only attitude if there's nobody left? Strike the balance. Promote the strength of the network -- Don't run 13 year olds away just because they aren't perfect. Neither were any of us at that age.
One thing that is being left out is the fact that entertainment/fun comes from the realism. People who fly on the network generally fly where there is ATC. Pilots want to be immersed because it's supposed to be a simulation. The reason that FNOs get 70+ arrivals is because people want to experience top-down ATC like it is in the real world.
Regarding driving 13 year olds away because they aren't perfect: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." If someone really wants to learn, they will buy into the process and work towards it. Pushing a controller along just because they want the C1 next to their name at the end, doesn't do any good to pilots or the rest of the community. If someone goes through the process the right way, the individual also just got pilot training as a side effect.
The fun in training to become an air traffic controller, is the actual learning curve. The trophy at the end has no meaning if there isn't a process to go through that isn't somewhat difficult. I'll be honest, a lot of the fun for a controller diminishes after they get their C1, but you have to find things to improve at.
I couldn't agree more Kyle.
I try and make a point of telling my new students at least once that VATSIM is just like one of those 'choose your own adventure' books. Some people are going to want to control and fly to 100% max realism and some people just want to hop on and hang out (because we're cool people, right?) or fly the default 737 GPS direct from LAX to JFK. It's perfectly acceptable in my mind for a controller to not want to simulate a runway closure or a taxiway closure. But what's unacceptable for me is when a training staff or an ARTCC as a whole drops the training standard to the bare minimum to accommodate this. I was doing a visiting controller checkout for DFW local last week, and was shocked to find out that the controller (an S2) stumbled his way through several takeoff clearances, had two runway incursions, and even after I discussed the concept of the D10 departure gates for 10-15 minutes, still cleared people to their destinations not on a DP or through a gate. This is unacceptable at a tower level, and in my opinion, it's unacceptable at a GND/DEL level.
To Matthew's point, I would never suggest running off young guys. I was probably around 13-15 when I first joined VATSIM and had my first lesson. But I remember that right out of the gate, I had an understanding that things needed to be done the right way or I wouldn't get my certification. If we lower the standards across the board, we can't be surprised when everything falls apart. Simply passing off a student because he tried his best is unacceptable. Dhruv and Ryan and Kyle are hitting the nail on the head here.
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