Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

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Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Odd » Fri Jan 15, 2016 2:29 am

Notice prior to reading: The following is a reflection of my own personal thoughts and opinions, and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of the entire staff team.

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:
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.
Another thing that I often see after a system mute is:

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 :)
Last edited by Odd on Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:18 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Joyman533 » Fri Jan 15, 2016 3:40 am

This is an excellent post. Maybe it should be pinned so that players unhappy with their warnings will notice it when they browse the forums?
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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Build » Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:34 am

excellent post Odd but indeed long. i think a lot of players and especially those you wanna reach are too lazy to read this ;) However you expressed everything i felt in the first month of beiing helper. what i need to add is that I think the staff team is aware of how fast someone on the staff team can be treated unfairly and everytime I had such a situation mods and admins were strengthening my back. So thanks for that and i assume all helper can count on that if their action can be justified.

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Odd » Fri Jan 15, 2016 11:50 am

Build wrote:excellent post Odd but indeed long. i think a lot of players and especially those you wanna reach are too lazy to read this ;) However you expressed everything i felt in the first month of beiing helper. what i need to add is that I think the staff team is aware of how fast someone on the staff team can be treated unfairly and everytime I had such a situation mods and admins were strengthening my back. So thanks for that and i assume all helper can count on that if their action can be justified.
I appreciate the encouragement. I was relatively certain that a lot of players who really needed to read this would ignore it altogether. It was merely my hope that it could make a positive impact, regardless of how small. These first few months of being helper has allowed me to realize just how difficult it can be being a staff member. I wanted to express this in a way that truly reflects the hardships and overall current condition of being a volunteer of a community. It's tough being a "beating post" without getting paid for it. I feel that a lot of people, whether it be a player or staff member, has the potential of gain from reading and at least making an attempt to relate to this.

Secondly, I think that the staff staying a cohesive group is one of the most vital factors in combating some of the drama and unfairness. I appreciate the fact that we have a staff unit that, for the most part, backs each other and understands a majority of the difficulties I presented.

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Kye » Fri Jan 15, 2016 4:33 pm

Some of the mute/warns handed out are just stupid it is mainly a new staff member that is doing this wrong and handing out undersered mutes.
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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by RandoroMcDuck » Fri Jan 15, 2016 4:59 pm

This post is a good read for anyone really, but as we know some players will go TL;DR on this and stop at the first paragraph, because of this I would like to highlight what I feel is one of the most important parts of your post. I also feel that this the main source to the problem in many of the cases I'v had, as well as cases I'v seen, where the 'drama' appears.
Odd wrote: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.

On a less serious matter;

STAFF: I'm whatever Craftland needs me to be. Call it in.
PLAYER: ...he's the hero Craftland deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So, we'll h̶u̶n̶t̶, whine about abuse towards him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Staff member.
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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Odd » Fri Jan 15, 2016 5:06 pm

Africa wrote:Some of the mute/warns handed out are just stupid it is mainly a new staff member that is doing this wrong and handing out undersered mutes.
Was "undersered" supposed to be undeserved? I will assume this as it is the most logical.

This is your opinion. You are entitled. If you read my thread you would have noticed that I used to words "discretion" and "vague" a lot. With a vague rule system, how a certain item is handled is entirely based on interpretation. Just like you are entitled to your opinion that a warn is stupid, that staff member is entitled to the opinion based on their own discretion that is also based on an imperfect system. It is as if some of you expect that a staff member is supposed to be perfect. Well, unfortunately we are not, and some of us are going to make a mistake and/or misinterpret something the wrong way. However, instead of discussing this calmly, some players decide to go on a staff bashing spree instead of trying to have a civil conversation in regard to the matter, and that is when things truly get out of hand.

If you are talking about me specifically, then I apologize if my performance doesn't live up to your own personal expectations. My attempt is to do the best that I can with an imperfect system, to not have a double standard, to treat each player fairly, and to be a human being that has the potential of making a mistake. If that makes me not fit to be a staff member, then so be it. The difference is that I have the capacity to admit that I may have made a mistake unlike some players who would rather go on a rampage (which, as Randoro describes above, is one of the biggest current problems) than consider that they, too, have the capacity to make mistakes and/or realize that everyone is different as sometimes certain things across different cultures can be interpreted differently. Some folks just don't want to let go of their colossal egos. A server wide "chill pill" is needed.

If we could have a "perfect" robot staff, I'd be all for it. :thumbsup:

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Jovaniph » Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:29 am

Other than what is clearly mention in the rules, there were somethings that annoyed me in your post (PS> I didn't read everything):
As a result, a lot of players seem to get angry because what one helper may not warn a player for, another helper will.
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Player Message: Lolololololololol (or geeeeeegeeeeeee, or weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) I feel that this is spam. Other helpers may not feel the same way.
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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.
So basically, you are saying that each helper is different when it comes to warn/muting a player. It based on the staffs opinion on whether the warn/mute is justified however that is the contradiction. You can't justified something if someone else has a different opinion. Every staff member needs to be on the same page when it comes to warn/mutes. You can't justified the excessive USE of CAPS either because someone might interpret, for example, this sentence as too excessive when it comes to caps. In my opinion, and i know you all might not agree with me because its my opinion, I find it feeble minded. Regardless, its only a mute. What is more upsetting is getting banned for something completely absurd. I don't know how many times I had to get people out of a ban with the amount of silver bullets I had because of it. Not being serious, but it seems that Craftland needs a Lawyer to defend player from staff members because they have there own opinion on how they interpret the rules.
Craftland has attempted to create a family environment, or a place where parents can feel relatively comfortable allowing their children to play.
Nothing in Craftland's description does it say this. There is no source for it and therefore this argument is invalid.
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.
I don't hate you, but it sounds like you are selling yourself out to make a point. Don't make yourself or the staff look weak because feelings were hurt. Last thing I want is a bunch of crybaby staff members.

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In conclusion, warns/mutes can be justified. There are other ways to go by warning a player simply by telling them without issuing the command. Secondly, communication among your fellow helpers should be practice. This website has a Private message system (and your hidden helper forums) as a way to communicate. Use it and abuse it and get on the same page. Lastly, communication with the community, instead of acting like a police officer, engaging with the community allows better relationship with staff members. Don't just look at everyone as potential violators.

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by Odd » Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:26 am

Jovaniph wrote:Other than what is clearly mention in the rules, there were somethings that annoyed me in your post (PS> I didn't read everything):
As a result, a lot of players seem to get angry because what one helper may not warn a player for, another helper will.
---
Player Message: Lolololololololol (or geeeeeegeeeeeee, or weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) I feel that this is spam. Other helpers may not feel the same way.
---
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.
So basically, you are saying that each helper is different when it comes to warn/muting a player. It based on the staffs opinion on whether the warn/mute is justified however that is the contradiction. You can't justified something if someone else has a different opinion. Every staff member needs to be on the same page when it comes to warn/mutes. You can't justified the excessive USE of CAPS either because someone might interpret, for example, this sentence as too excessive when it comes to caps. In my opinion, and i know you all might not agree with me because its my opinion, I find it feeble minded. Regardless, its only a mute. What is more upsetting is getting banned for something completely absurd. I don't know how many times I had to get people out of a ban with the amount of silver bullets I had because of it. Not being serious, but it seems that Craftland needs a Lawyer to defend player from staff members because they have there own opinion on how they interpret the rules.
Craftland has attempted to create a family environment, or a place where parents can feel relatively comfortable allowing their children to play.
Nothing in Craftland's description does it say this. There is no source for it and therefore this argument is invalid.
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.
I don't hate you, but it sounds like you are selling yourself out to make a point. Don't make yourself or the staff look weak because feelings were hurt. Last thing I want is a bunch of crybaby staff members.

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In conclusion, warns/mutes can be justified. There are other ways to go by warning a player simply by telling them without issuing the command. Secondly, communication among your fellow helpers should be practice. This website has a Private message system (and your hidden helper forums) as a way to communicate. Use it and abuse it and get on the same page. Lastly, communication with the community, instead of acting like a police officer, engaging with the community allows better relationship with staff members. Don't just look at everyone as potential violators.
Considering you didn't read everything here, please note that in order to wholly understand everything I was pointing out, it would have been much better to actually take the time to read the entire post.

In regard to your first point. Yes, I'm saying that each helper is different and has a different opinion as it pertains to warns. Notice I used the terms discretion and vague a lot because the rule system is indeed vague, requiring many situations to appeal to the discretion of the staff member. To be honest, it seems as though you, as well as many other players, have unreasonable expectations of staff members. Every staff member simply cannot be on the same page for a vague set of rules, and we all can't be here at the same time to share opinions (especially during inactive hours where one or two helpers maximum are available, and there are typically no mods). As I stated in my original post, if there was a set rule for every single situation, the rule list would be immense and no-one would read it. Yes, the warns are based on discretion because if the entire staff took the time to come together to decide the punishment for every infraction, none of us would have any time to enjoy our time on Craftland, or our lives for that matter. Please explain how, exactly, the use of discretion based on a vague set of rules is "feeble minded." If anything, being tasked with navigating a vague set of rules is anything but feeble minded.

As you point out, it is only a mute. But, what many don't understand is that when we warn we are not muting anyone. The system provides the mutes based on a sliding scale that is further based on prior infractions. So, when we get blamed for muting someone, the point is moot unless we used the /mute command, which is uncommon and is only used if the infraction does not have a specific category within the warn system.

As for your second point, while Craftland has nothing that obviously tells the player that the server has attempted to create a family environment, I think this point is pretty obvious if you have played here longer than a few months (at least, prior to the cursing rule change).

Next point (and this will cover everything else). While you thought I was "selling out" to get my point across, know this: I was appealing not as a staff member, but as a human being. There are so many players that seem to want us to be like a robotic collective and, frankly, this is the vibe that I'm getting from your response to this. I am a human being; I have feelings, opinions and expressions. If this makes me weak, then everyone else is weak too, including yourself. The point I was trying to make is the fact that we are often treated like crap for giving a warn in which the system gave a mute for for an insignificant amount of time. Some players get a 3 minute mute and have a conniption fit in global, stirring up the entire community and pitting said community against the staff. How is this fair? Speaking of a "robotic collective," do you really think that we as a collective staff do not communicate? We do the best we can to stay in close communication. If this was an organization in which each of us made a substantial salary, then perhaps there would be a more comprehensive and intense level of communication throughout each channel that is offered to us in order to communicate with each other, not to mention a more clear-cut set of rules. Unfortunately, we are a collection of random teenagers and adults from all over the world with different schedules and obligations. Some of us often have things come up in our lives that prevent us from staying in close and constant communication. Getting on the "same page" would require for every rule and warn-able offense to be specific down to the exact number of letters allowed before it is considered spam. For example weeeeeee(7 e's) compared to weeeeeeee(8 e's). It would be counter-productive to have a specific rule for something like this, just like with many other potential infractions. This is an unreasonable expectation for a group of volunteers; none of us has the time or energy for this type of undertaking.

Finally, I do have a good relationship with the community, as does most of the staff. I have never looked at anyone as a potential violator unless I have prior reason to. It's not like we just sit around talking about who we're going to warn next, I would get bored with that in about two seconds. But, what many need to understand is that regardless of the community consensus, we are tasked to identify infractions and deal with them as accurately and procedurally as possible given the vague nature of the rule set. The problem exists in a very few members of community who decide to get together and figure out ways they can sabotage the staff and turn the entire community against the staff. People like this REQUIRE policing. If there was not some type of authority, the entire server would be run into the ground and would eventually fade away like the rest of the servers that either have staff that do not care, or worse, no staff at all.

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Re: Articulations of a Vilified Staff Member

Post by amp » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:28 am

Jovaniph wrote:Last thing I want is a bunch of crybaby staff members.
You. Don't. Even. Play.

You don't know the current situation. You haven't logged on for over 2 months. Please, do not stir things up when you haven't been around to know what's going on.
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