[matt_st3 (Strongrule)]

This thread is meant to address several general concerns that have been brought to the admins. In this will be a couple announcements directed at staff and donors, but also some points members will to read for their benefit. This should serve as a general reminder on what staff should do and not do while moderating the server, and how we should generally act on discord and forums.

In general staff members should try and keep from mixing staff powers into play. Teleporting, kicking, and banning your friends in the middle of the round can be funny if everyone is in on the joke, but it’s also not what the commands are there for. And also not everyone has been in on the joke lately. Staff members set an example to players, and lately it’s been a bad example when it comes to commands. We have received many complaints about staff members from players and even other staff that they are being abused mid round. So if you must fool around, know your audience and when it’s too much. If we keep getting complaints then we’ll have to start keeping track of who is misusing commands for jokes.
The same goes for RDMing your friends too often. They may not want to report a friend but it does get on their nerves after a time. If you have to break a rule to do it, then you probably shouldn’t do it.

We also want to address staff discretion. Please remember that you should use your discretion where appropriate and not just what you want to do. Some rules are very clear about what happens when you break them, but the ones that are not generally have some kind of guideline written. Three rdms in a round is mass rdm, but the moderator has discretion on whether they think it warrants a permanent ban or if the rdms were accidental and just deserve slays. That kind of thing. We’ve had some complaints of bias in discretion so let’s try and keep it consistent.

There exists a /loose/ hierarchy in staff ranks, but that does not mean what the highest rank online says goes in every situation. Please do not ungag the guy a trusted gagged just because you’re a mod and would have handled it a bit differently. If the action is actually wrong and going to cause a problem, talk to the person and get them to fix it. Or if it’s just different discretion like they gagged for a word you would not have, seek clarification or try and get a rule changed to have less grey area. We try not to be too restrictive and allow for different situations within the rules, but are willing to review rules.

There may be an upcoming change to how the relay system will work in TTT. We are talking with dink about this. If changed we will make some kind of notice, but if we do change it don’t abuse it.

Some other changes will be made on keeping staff guidelines clearer. The guidelines themselves have been rewritten recently, and some documents for promotion, demotion, and training may be written and presented. Staff activity will be better represented on the forums by updating the active staff list on the 1st and 15th of month. We should also have something out for how to use the warn system since everyone uses it differently, but we’ll have to figure that out too.

I think that’s it for now.

This thread will be left open for any general comments, concerns, or complaints you may have. Please keep specific names out of this; if you have a concern with a specific member pm an admin. I want this to be open so anyone can respond to this message and any suggestions.