This post is in regard to the recent influx of grief toward the new helpers and the entire staff team in general. Many of you, as part of the player base, are under the impression that the staff team are muting people for no reason. Well, while I cannot speak for the entire staff team, the complaints I have received or have been a part of are completely unfounded and unfair. I will not argue the idea that there are or once were some staff who throw truly throw their weight around and abuse their powers, I just don't see this in our current staff team.
First of all, as far as I know, it is very rare for a helper to "mute" anyone. We have a warn system. If you have prior warnings against you say for spam, as an example, you will be muted automatically by the server.
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Secondly, as many of you know, the rules of craftland are not perfect, there is no set rule for every specific situation that could possibly arise. If there was a rule set in place for every minor warnable/bannable infraction that exists, it would rival the Bible in the sheer volume of content (I realize this is an exaggeration, but it would be pretty damned huge). No-one would read this massive list. I believe the rule list is kept short because of this fact. As a result, a lot of players seem to get angry because what one helper may not warn a player for, another helper will. Now, what you guys and gals need to understand is that when selected for helper, a lot of what you'll warn for, unless it is obvious, is all based on using your own discretion. If you are unhappy about something you got warned for, it may be for a reason that is not obvious to you because each helper views the already vague rules from their own perspective and will use the warning system as such. Just a few examples i'd like to cover that are loosely based on actual warns that ended up garnering complaints. No names will be released.
Player Message: Lolololololololol (or geeeeeegeeeeeee, or weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) I feel that this is spam. Other helpers may not feel the same way.
Player Message: You are a stupid asshole Same thing here. While cursing is allowed, using a curse word to disrespect another player is not.
Player Message: HOLY freaking CRAP on a CRACKER This is debatable. You could get a warn from this depending on who is on at the time. My understanding and interpretation of the rules is that you are allowed to emphasize words in a sentence using caps as long as it is not excessive. In my opinion, this example is excessive.
I hope that some of you see the point here. Using discretion can be difficult, especially when the staff team are being criticized and watched closely constantly in fear of ridicule and silly "#ban[insert staff member name here]2016yolo_roflcopter" campaigns. What you guys need to understand is that some of you are making our experience more difficult by not understanding how difficult using our discretion for an already vague system can be. Personally, friends that I thought I had prior to becoming a helper I have now lost simply because they freaked out over a warn they didn't like, or worse, simply because I became a staff member in the first place... Someone explain to me how THAT is fair... And some of you guys have the nerve to think YOU get treated unfairly...
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This brings me to my third point. Why do some players freak out so badly about a warning and a short temporary mute? Is it really that big of a deal? Is your ego so huge that you can't admit that you may have made a mistake? I wish that those who get a snappy attitude after getting a warn would be willing to calmly discuss things with us helpers/staff members instead of chewing our heads off because you don't like how we interpret the vague set of rules that we are attempting to abide by and enforce in the best way we know how.
In addition to the above, many of the same players who freak out about a short mute or try to twist things around to make the staff member/helper look like a 'monster' are the same ones who will get a system mute after a warn and then bypass the mute by jumping on the IRC and raising holy hell in global. This is a completely dumb thing to do, is disrespectful, and is a detriment to the entire community.
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Next point. I've experienced situations first hand both from the perspective of a helper as well as a player where players will get into trouble then try to twist it around to make the staff member look like they were abusing their powers. Take one of the examples used above.
Player Message: You are a stupid asshole
Yes, more than likely you are going to get warned for this as it is disrespectful. And, if you have prior infractions of the same type, the system is going to mute you automatically (once again, we have no control over this). What I tend to see as soon as their mute ends is something like this:
Player Message: Why didn't I get a warning before I got a warning? or something to that effect. No offense, but this is just dumb. Why would we warn you before issuing a warning? That would defeat the purpose of the warning system. Allow me to share with you guys who don't understand this to a post made by nick back in November:
Another thing that I often see after a system mute is:nickmcski wrote:One of the reasons why I added the warn command was to track when a player has been warned by a staff member. I don't think it makes sense giving them a warning before you warn them. .... I just think that it should still be recorded so that we have a centralised list of who has been warned about the rules of the server.
Player Message: What the fuck! I got muted for saying asshole!!??
Really people...? Isn't it obvious why our example player here got muted? Stop trying to twist what was said around to make us look bad. This, once again, makes our experience as helpers and a staff team as a whole more difficult, and makes the player in question look like a troublemaker.
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Next point. Just because we are friends, if we are friends, this doesn't mean that I'm going to have a double standard. This should be how any helper or staff member acts. It doesn't matter if you are my best friend or my worst enemy. If you spam, speak another language other than english in global, or disrespect another player or staff member in global, I am going to give you a warning, as should any other staff member.
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Next point. Quite simply, I find that those who imply that Craftland is full of drama, like those who bust out in chat to new players "Welcome to DramaCraft," are the main people spreading the drama. Hell, even making this statement in global IS spreading drama. There is going to be drama no matter what community you are involved in, I don't feel we need an announcement in regard to the obvious.
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On to my final point. There are some that think the rules in general are just stupid and you should be able to say whatever you want in chat. What these players in particular need to understand is that from my own personal experience, Craftland has attempted to create a family environment, or a place where parents can feel relatively comfortable allowing their children to play. As some of you may know, but many of you don't. I am also a parent. I would not want my son a part of a community that was full of filth and nastiness. Nide and the rest of the higher staff have already adjusted the rules to where you can now curse as long as it is not directed toward another player in a disrespectful nature, or isn't a racial slur. They have met half-way with those of you who didn't like the rule that didn't allow you to curse.
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In closing, I am already aware that a lot of you aren't going to like this post, and I'm sure that I'm going to make more enemies just for expressing my opinion but its okay because my conscience is clear and I simply can't please everyone. There will always be someone that will complain no matter what you do. I'm just trying to express here that while some of you feel you are being treated unfairly, you don't stop and consider how the staff member might feel, or what they might be thinking while you're throwing a tantrum because you didn't like your warn or temp ban. Maybe if you stopped for a second and put yourselves in the shoes of a staff member who, might I add, are people who completely volunteer their time in an attempt to make Craftland a better place, you would understand the difficult decisions that staff has to make sometimes. Often, it is the staff who ends up being treated unfairly. If you feel like you can do better, then by all means, apply for helper and work your way up the ranks.
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If this gets out of hand and causes a ruckus, I would like to apologize in advance. Once again, I am merely expressing my views and opinions based on my own experience and interpretations.
Oh, and sorry about the lengthy message.. There was a lot to say