MagnusCrowe's Admin Application

[MagnusCrowe]

In-game Username: MagnusCrowe
Discord username: MagnusCrowe
Characters you play: Tim-Lotash, Roobert Floob, Neeus-Dum, Jeb Darkstar, Slick Bardiche, Flint Stonehammer
How many hours are you available per day: 6 hours weekdays, 12 hours weekends
Days you are available on: All week

Are you at least 18 years old? Yes

How long have you been playing SS13 or SS14? SS14, since January, about 1300 hours

Do you have prior administration experience (SS13/SS14 experience preferred, please also post a way for us to verify this)? No admin experience in SS14 or SS13, however I am familiar with many of the admin commands through my work in development and map design on Mining Station 14, you can see my GitHub history (MagnusCrowe) or ask Notafet about the mapping on Mining Station 14.

Have you been banned from our game servers or SS13 servers before? Never.

Answer the following questions in detail, so we can get a better idea of how you'd approach adminning.

What role do you think game admins serve on our servers?
Fundamentally, Admins exist to support/cultivate an atmosphere on the server that promotes fun and safety.  This is achieved through judicious application/interpretation of the server rules, by being knowledgeable enough to answer questions that players submit through AHelp, and through skill at conflict resolution/de-escalation.  Secondarily, Admins encourage this atmosphere by the organization and execution of occasional and consensual events that give players unique experiences.  Admins also work together to ensure the integrity of the server's operations by resolving or escalating issues to experts that threaten to disrupt the operation of the server.
Finally, admins work together to handle ban appeals and hold each other accountable.

How do you feel about the current roleplay status on the server?
Lizard seems to need more administration to me, low roleplay give players a lot of leeway to behave in outrageous but acceptable ways but there are some that treat it as 'no roleplay'.  The best way I can think of doing that is by having more coverage so that players can be discouraged from egregious behavior so that everyone can enjoy themselves.

From the little time I've spent on MRP, it seems to be really chill, the people whitelisted there all seem to get what MRP is about.  I would play there more if the population were higher.

Why do you want to become an administrator for SS14?
I have been loving participating on GitHub and in Discord over the past 6 months and want to do more.  I want to see the player base of SS14 expand so that more people can become involved in all this amazing stuff.  Since Wizard's Den servers are where most English speaking players go first, I would be honored with the duty of ensuring that they have the opportunity to fall in love with the game as much as I have.  I want to be part of a team that fosters an atmosphere that retains players.

Other than banning problematic players, what admin actions do you believe have the biggest positive impact?
I'll give you 3 things. First, outside of consensual 'admemes' and enforcing rules, the best thing an admin can do is keep a low profile to just let players play.  Second, mediation of conflicts and de-escalation is an important role.  Finally, answering questions, even if its the same question asked a billion times by a billion different people.

Have you ever had a negative experience in the game or with a game admin? If so what, if anything, would you do to prevent other players from experiencing this?
I have had a negative experience with game admins in the past, once with SS14 but many times in other games.  The root of the issue in SS14 was that an admin intervened in a round in a way that was jarring, disrespectful, without warning, and out of character while affecting the progression of the shift.  They did not use the AHelp system or any number of ways admins have at their disposal to achieve their goal.  To make matters worse, even after asking the admin why action had been taken, they responded in a flippant/disrespectful manner.  To top it off, the action being punished was not even against server rules.

If it were me I would not use a heavy hand where a light touch could accomplish the same goal.  Also, I would be respectful in any interaction with a player.

Have you ever had a good experience with the game or a game admin? If so, what was it?
Of course I have.  Countless admemes spring to mind ranging from raiding a ghost station, planet testing 'minecraft', xenos invasions, department wars, god damn there have been spicy admemes too numerous to recall.  Admins on Lizard are always prompt to answer AHelp and I think that's what I'm most thankful for.

The following are scenarios, respond with how you would handle each as an administrator. Respond with the assumption that you are an administrator with full access to the admin tools, and that you have all the knowledge needed to use these tools. Respond in detail, explain the reasons behind decisions you make and describe any assumptions you are making. When you need to make an assumption, it is preferred for you to describe how differences in the assumption would affect your actions.

It is the start of the round. There are 60 players on the server. The game mode is traitors, traitors have not been selected yet. A chaplain prays to you "Give me a task my lord".
Assuming we had a healthy population of admins at the time and after a brief conversation with the other admins about who would answer this prayer, assuming I was chosen by consensus, I would do the following.

I would consider what could be something that a chaplain could achieve on the station that encourages interaction with other players, without incriminating themselves or being annoying.  I would consider what rewards would be reasonable to provide to them to fit with the theme of their altar.
Let's assume they have the agriculture altar.  I would task them with recruiting some followers, then gathering potted plants of a particular variety from across the station and placing them throughout the chapel.  Once I had judged their task complete, I would enlarge some of the potted plants to show people that the faith is strong, provide the chaplain with a Weh cloak and allow them to call upon me to perform a plant based miracle for them in the future.  If we're assuming that I am also proficient in loading prototypes mid-round I would give them a test version of an altar themed cloak or outfit I designed myself.

You see a clown using crayon to write on the floor in front of security. The clown writings are negative things about security, like "shitsec". A secoff tells the clown that they're being arrested for vandalism, stuns them, and cuffs them. Before the secoff is able to get the clown into the brig, a passenger slips the secoff, causing them to lose their baton, then uses the baton to stun another secoff that comes to help as the clown runs away. The passenger escapes through disposals.
Assuming the passenger is not an antag, I would check their account's notes to see if this behavior had been documented before. Assuming they had no notes on their account, I would give the passenger a warning about their conduct being self-antagonistic, remind them of rule 12.2 and 18, and keep an eye out for them to see if they took the warning to heart or not, paying specific attention to mentions of them in AHelp by other players (they would also get a note about the warning they received). 

If they ignore the warning, I would contact them through AHelp to explain that they were being banned for 12 hours and why, with a note applied to their account detailing their behavior and the fact that a warning was ignored.  If they behaved in this way after their 12 hour ban expired, I would see the notes and give them another 12 hour ban with an explanation that their next offense would result in an appeal-only ban.  On their third ban, they should be given an appeal-only ban.

However, if the passenger IS an antag, no need for intervention.

You log in to handle an ahelp that came in while nobody was online about "self-antag" activity. The player being reported as self-antagging was being a problem and could be considered acting outside of the rules, but they are no longer online and cannot be contacted about their behavior. While outside of the rules, the infractions are minor and would not normally result in more than a warning in most cases.
I would review admin logs for specific information about what happened.  Then I would document the complaint, including the low severity, in a note applied to the account of the self-antagger with specific mention that a warning could not be given at the time with the reason why.

[Chief_Engineer]

Thank you for applying. We've decided to not accept this application, but you're free to apply again in the future.