I don't know. I mean, it's always nice to get to know a person through their app before they get promoted. We can also see what they have promised to bring to the server and whether they are fulfilling that promise. It is up to Cypriot, yes. But the community also deserves to view applications in my opinion. : )
Support. Although there's gonna be a lot less feedback, but people can always write on the applicants' profile.
Because They will not get feedback that may be helpful or revealing to them and the staff. People that flame on mod apps are entertaining and are usually punished anyways. I enjoy reading mod apps and it would be sad to see them go.
It seems like you are only focusing on the negative. Our community is great and the majority of the not so great people are banned. As for the rating part that is kind of a pointless argument. The point of them being public is to help the person applying by letting others give their responses and express their opinions.
I cannot support, unfortunately. There are just so many things that could and will go wrong. The promotions would be a mess, and would be worse than they already are. Ex: Biased promotions. A player being promoted without anyone knowing them. Community dislikes the player (this always sucks). And a ton of other things that could go wrong.
Support but no support I would be extremely surprised if there wasn't already a separate moderator sub section for applications that is limited to their eyes and input only. From my understanding and according to the guidelines posted in the mod application section, our player input is extremely limited and I would assume all of those petty criticisms that are not listed in the rating guidelines are ignored. It is nice to have player feedback from players from the relevant servers with relevant experience. I only play skyblock so I'm not going to tell people from faction or infection applying for mod that I don't support because I have never met them before. There is a lot of petty critics and immaturity that discourages some from applying, but that can be cleaned up with a little bit of effort and coaching in private messages.
Applications should be based on: Activity Number of in-game reports. Attitude. Overall knowledge of the player. Time on the server. I rarely read all the comments/banter. More like I sift through to see the general feel of the players responding. If Cyp and some of the staff were more active in the community I would support this, unfortunately that's still a work in progress. *Hint* if you are active an post lots of reports you will catch my eye.