Clearer guidelines for staff and players

Hi,

As most of you will know I have been promoted to global moderator, which is great and I am really enjoying it, but it is also rather challenging. The reason that being a moderator is challenging is because of the rules - they are incredibly vague and it is only down to the staff member's discretion when a rule is and when a rule is not being broken.

A good example of this would be rule 8 - "Do not scam other players". By definition a scam is "A dishonest scheme or a fraud". This could mean anything from luring a player into the wilderness to kill them or cheating in a game of hide-and-seek. If an experienced player lured a newbie into the wilderness and killed him, would the player have broken the scamming rule? Personally I would say no, but another staff member may disagree.

Not only is this bad for moderators, it is also bad for the players. Not only can the vague rules lead to miscarriages of justice, but can also put them and their accounts at risk. Less seriously, but equally important, it gives the impression that some players are given special treatment, where as others are dealt with more harshly.

Anyway, enough moaning ah? This point of this thread is to suggest a better system to deal with rule breakers and to generally improve the fairness and professionalism of the staff. To do this I think we need a few relatively simple things:

1 - An improved list of rules.

ALL of the rules need to be revised to be much more clearer and each should have a detailed description and possibly an example of what is and what is not a breach of the respective rule. The thread its self should also be made a global announcement so that it appears at the top of all forums.

2 - Better training for staff.

All moderators should have at least some training in-game by an administrator or Sr. Moderator on the new commands that they can use. They should also have any rules and policies explained to them clearly

3 - A staff forum.

A category for staff forums should definitely be the top priority. The category would have to include separate forums for forum moderators, in-game moderators, and administrators, each one with separate permissions limiting who can view, post and moderate.

4 - Clearly defined policies.

In the staff forums should be a few threads with detailed explanations on how to deal with specific problems regarding moderating. These threads should also include recommended punishments.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback and possibly the implementation of some of these suggestions in the not to distant future.

I love the idea but in case of players getting lured into wildy they should read the rules first one of the rules (::rules) is that in wildy there are no rules

The rules are fine and revised well but we need to add a bit more so ye....

We do not make anyone mod only well experience players GET THESE KIND OF High RANKS! and our test for these players is out trial. And that is why we have something called a staff supervisor


I agree with the staff forum

I think for the policies, they should be included in the staff forums but if you want my opinion there are many kinds of scamming and rule breaking that sometimes doesnt have to be punished for and that is usually why players leave this server anyways thankyou for the post and i really liked it. Keep up the good work :p

Impulse wrote:

I love the idea but in case of players getting lured into wildy they should read the rules first one of the rules (::rules) is that in wildy there are no rules

I know that it is not against the rules due to the "no wilderness rules", but it could be considered scamming, so the rules contradict each other there slightly.

Impulse wrote:

The rules are fine and revised well but we need to add a bit more so ye....

I think the rules right now could do with being completely re-written. They are very vague and the use of slag words (trolling, flaming, etc) means that even some of the (now ex) staff didn't know what they meant.

Impulse wrote:

We do not make anyone mod only well experience players GET THESE KIND OF High RANKS, and our test for these players is out trial. And that is why we have something called a staff supervisor

Actually picking who to give staff ranks too is not the problem, rather the training, or lack of, that they get. At the very least the staff member should be told the commands that they can use so that they can actually complete their job.

Impulse wrote:

I think for the policies, they should be included in the staff forums but if you want my opinion there are many kinds of scamming and rule breaking that sometimes doesnt have to be punished for and that is usually why players leave this server

The policies would clearly define what should and should not be punished. It would stop people who break rules from going unpunished, and make sure that everyone that is adhering to the rules do not get banned, muted or jailed for no reason.

Rac wrote:

Impulse wrote:

I love the idea but in case of players getting lured into wildy they should read the rules first one of the rules (::rules) is that in wildy there are no rules

I know that it is not against the rules due to the "no wilderness rules", but it could be considered scamming, so the rules contradict each other there slightly.

Well then if any player by any how got lured to the wildy and killed. It is now by any how our problem and we are not losing players for the players carelessness

Impulse wrote:

The rules are fine and revised well but we need to add a bit more so ye....

I think the rules right now could do with being completely re-written. They are very vague and the use of slag words (trolling, flaming, etc) means that even some of the (now ex) staff didn't know what they meant.

I agree it should be rewritten in a better way and a few rules should be added but, the rules can only be changed if Godly and 126 agree. (So its not really out choice)

Impulse wrote:

We do not make anyone mod only well experience players GET THESE KIND OF High RANKS, and our test for these players is out trial. And that is why we have something called a staff supervisor

Actually picking who to give staff ranks too is not the problem, rather the training, or lack of, that they get. At the very least the staff member should be told the commands that they can use so that they can actually complete their job.


Yes that is exactly why we have a staff supervisor who watches whatever the trial person does and in case of there is any lack in the player. And yes i think adding a trainer would be really good.

Impulse wrote:

I think for the policies, they should be included in the staff forums but if you want my opinion there are many kinds of scamming and rule breaking that sometimes doesnt have to be punished for and that is usually why players leave this server

The policies would clearly define what should and should not be punished. It would stop people who break rules from going unpunished, and make sure that everyone that is adhering to the rules do not get banned, muted or jailed for no reason.

Yes i agree the policies idea should be considered.

Regards,
Impulse