Rezbit - RP Admin Application

[Rezbit]

BYOND ckey: Rezbit
Character name: Eadric Fenrir, Yukkuri Shokyaku, Theo, Gyda, Kailey Wind, etc.,
Discord username (+user id): Rezbit
How long have you played on Citadel?: 4+ Years
How long have you played SS13?: 6+ years
What is your timezone/general hours of activity?: 3:00 PM - 12:00PM CST
Previous SS13 related admin experience: CM (3+ years)
Previous non-SS13 related admin experience: TF2, CSGO
Current administrators who have agreed to support your application: N/A
Reason for application: General Administration Application for encouraged organization within the administration team and continue/strive for a positive outlook towards the server via issuing more positive consenus/compromises for both players and admins.

1. How would you engage with two players having an out of character altercation?
General process for an OOC argument or discourse is to try to calm the situation via finding a middle ground. Main priority is a positive resolution/consensus until it is taken too out of hand in negativity or if it continues to go on a loop. An admin ticket will then be suggested for further details and continued conflict compromise if there's no continued further consideration of a consensus from both sides in a public forum/free space.

2. What should an admin do if they're involved in a situation that needs admin intervention?
General consensus is for the admin to not be involved due to bias being a major play involved with their own character, or with themselves. Not to mention, it'd be strange for an admin to note themselves should it come to it if they themselves are involved negatively, so it is best to get another admin to intervene and continue with the ticket situation.

3. How should an admin determine in what way to punish someone who breaks the rules?
Punishment should be determined by the player's recent actions and the severity of the rule that has been broken. Additionally, it can be considered with the general negativity bias (the severity of the public discourse), however that is only during extreme circumstances. The current note system, whatever it is, is a somewhat reliable system to base it off due to keeping dates of notes/warnings, and the severity of said notes/warnings.

4. Under what conditions should an admin de-admin themselves while playing?
An admin should de-admin whenever they are prone to spoil or have an advantage during an event or with a situation. Additionally, if an admin should also de-admin if they themselves feel too emotional due to a situation or if they wish to not be involved with any kind of administration responsibilities. Basically just have a regular round if they believe they're not in a proper mindset, or just wish to enjoy themselves.

5. What is expected of an admin on Citadel?
While the general idea for the expectations of an admin is to uphold a respectable and positive server experience while also having proper assessment of situations and processing of giving punishments when the rules are broken, as well as being able to keep conversations, debates, healthy arguments in a stable and considerate forms, one of the main ideas is to also being able to discern a situation that can be handled ICly. Drama is a constant in the server, and most of the time, it can be figured out ICly. Being able to discern a situation that goes OOCly is what I expect to also be expected from an admin.

Additional questions are suggested for more detailed/further specifications.

[Monara]

I like your conduct in most discussions, and you've never had a problem with RPing poorly or getting into silly fights all the time, but I cant really begin to guess how/what you'd do as staff. The question(s) read very generically, which isn't a *bad* thing but it does keep people uninformed on what it is you see as a problem, or what it is exactly you want to change within staff aside from "stop fighting please". In a way I wish our application template had more depth than the same 5 questions we see everywhere else, but it probably wouldn't be as impactful for gauging someone's mindset going into staff as I'd hope it would be. Our trialmin processing *has* changed recently so it's not an automatic/free entry to admin after a few weeks of waiting. Maybe we'll see an application template change too.


-1
I could easily change my mind when I've had time to think more and see what other people ask/talk about. If you want to elaborate on the issues within staff, or examples of things you'd have done differently, it might help us get it.

[Rezbit]

Thanks for voicing your worries, Monara!

The question(s) read very generically, which isn't a *bad* thing but it does keep people uninformed on what it is you see as a problem, or what it is exactly you want to change within staff aside from "stop fighting please".

Beginning with this statement, one of the main issues that I have does not mainly involve relationships between admins. I have yet to see any kind of signs pointing to that other than the severe cases where it had to be handled by the Head Admins. The main concerns that I had with the current administration team was that I felt there was little involvement by the admins on the game itself, either by ticket responses or otherwise. I do not know the current state of administration in the citadel discord, but I have definitely noticed the lack thereof in the main game. I have felt that maintainers and event managers have been assisting with situations in game more than administrations that felt were needed to be by administrators. Multiple times I have seen AFK admins that go for 1h+ on the server, or there being no admins at all in the server for long periods of time. In simpler words, I felt like there's been a lack of admins on the game server. Additionally, I have been continuously DM'd by people who have disagreed with certain admin decisions throughout the years, some I also disagree with obvious positive outcomes.
The 5th question of the application notes an example of one of the main reasons as to why people have disagreements with current staff decisions. Being able to discern a situation that has gone OOCly from a situation that could have been handled entirely IC. [Note: This is just based on hearsay/a single personal experience with what I considered an improper call.]

As for the questions themselves, I merely answered the questions as best I could since they were not giving examples of certain situations that can test someone's mindset. This is why I suggest those reviewing to ask additional questions for a better perspective and a better informed decision based on the responses I give on dictating if I am good fit for administration on this server.

[Monara]

I wont really touch the way some staff think of others since I don't know it's only really known by the individual, and frankly it's between those two to remedy whatever issues they have. Telling anyone, players or staff, to kiss and make up simply doesn't work most of the time either unfortunately.

Inactive staff is something I absolutely notice and you're right in saying it's shockingly common. I wouldn't fault people being afk on the server, but there could be a better method of pulling staff into the server if admins are marked afk/offline. We have an automated system for this, but I'll start a talk somewhere about making the bot ping staff if admins are marked as inactive instead of offline. Since it also counts EMs as admins when one is on the server as well, meaning automated discord pings basically non-existant outside of deadpop. It forces players to open a discord ticket if they want a response most of the time.

Of course none of that really fixes the inactive staff issue, which is usually dismissed with "it's a volunteer role", which is true to some extent. I wont get into staff policies on inactivity and such because it's long winded and still very conflicted on what should happen and how we fix the problem of it, and I'm a supporter of just exchanging burned out staff until they're ready to return.

I think IC issues are okay to report to admins, only as long as the admins know when to say "IC issue". Frankly there's not enough of that at the moment, and I find that more often than not IC drama that's relatively harmless aside from tension turns into some sort of ooc punishment too quickly, even if it's just a "talking to". It's been better only in the very recent history, but it's easily predictable to continue being a problem not long from now.

You seem to have a decent idea of some of the issues facing staff atm and as long as you keep in mind that changing anything in cit for the better takes a lot of time, persistence, and patience with other staff members, I think you can help encourage stuff in the right direction if you pass the trialmin phase.


After further consideration, as of 4/16/24 I've switched again.

-1

[Auraknight]

While i have great respect for Rezbit as a player, and a highlight of the community, from this application It is difficult for me to give a positive recommendation for staff.

The main issue I see here is wanting 'Positive consensus'. This terminology and others like it comes up repeatedly in the application, and the main issue I take up with this is, while even I am a proponent of wanting to make people happy, being an admin is not a position that ends up with such.

It's easy to say that one will aim for making everyone happy in a situation, but in practice, most tickets are not going to end up with both parties happy- if such a solution existed, tickets generally wouldn't have been made. Of course you can say that it doesn't matter that the occasional quick-ban troll isn't happy that they've been stopped from spewing racisms, but it makes for a quick example. You cannot hope to make both parties happy when they feel begrudged by another, malice will end up levelled at one of the three involved- either for your stepping in, for what is perceived as an incomplete handling of a situation, or for an unsatisfactory result.

Further, I question the viewpoint you take of the 'experience' of being an admin, stating that an admin should de-admin for a round if they ever wish to 'enjoy themselves'. While I take no qualm with de-adminning as needed for personal in-game involvement, it is important to remember that SS-13, as we play it, is intended to be 'for fun'. If every admin de-adminned when they came to play the game, we'd have even more instances of the only staff online being afk or otherwise. You cannot approach this position as being 'just a chore to do when I feel like it', as the needs arise beyond when you feel like resolving things. This also gives me doubts about how disputes might be handled- and while I think Rezbit is capable of recognizing bias, I believe it's worth pointing out that the portion of the application mentions wanting this position because of how often they find themselves complained to- it leads to worries about 'first to the post' admin decisions where viewpoints can be biased simply by who they hear from first- which will end up being people more in touch with them. I think it's worth pointing out specifically that I do not personally have an issue with opposing opinions on how matters should be resolved, but that using a stance of disagreeing with previous admin decisions as a basis for becoming an admin is an interesting take- one that I wonder is a healthy one.

I think Rezbit has the potential to be a decent member of staff, however, I am less convinced that it is in everyone's best interests, including Rezbit themselves. As they've said, Drama in SS-13 is unending. How they've stated they aim to deal with it needs serious considerations.

[Rezbit]

Thank you for voice of worries and criticisms, Auraknight!

The main issue I see here is wanting 'Positive consensus'. This terminology and others like it comes up repeatedly in the application, and the main issue I take up with this is, while even I am a proponent of wanting to make people happy, being an admin is not a position that ends up with such.

You seem to be misrepresenting my statement that is focused on having an experience when someone learns from an experience, understands what they did wrong, and to further develop from there. I have since understood that there is no way to please everyone, I am not a 'people pleaser' as most people who have seen me operate and converse understand is something I avoid. I have been a moderator/administrator in SS13 - Colonial Marines, and in multiple Source games within high count player servers where it was inevitable for people to get in to constant disagreements. When I say 'Positive Consensus', I explicitly mean for when a decision has been made with well just evidence, well informed people, and well minded admins. I have expressed this worry with admins and have been told of this worries by others of the lack of further analyzing between OOC and IC situations. To put it bluntly, I do not aim for people to be happy, but for people to grow further, understand the server better, and to represent the server positively. I am a belief that 'happiness' will come from beneficial growth.

While I take no qualm with de-adminning as needed for personal in-game involvement, it is important to remember that SS-13, as we play it, is intended to be 'for fun'. If every admin de-admined when they came to play the game, we'd have even more instances of the only staff online being afk or otherwise. You cannot approach this position as being 'just a chore to do when I feel like it', as the needs arise beyond when you feel like resolving things.

At the end of the day, administration is a voluntary role that people have put in applications and wish for the position. I will elaborate and say that I have used the assumption of an administrator not wishing to deal with any of the responsibilities, as you have mentioned further in your own post:

'just a chore to do when I feel like it'

At the end of the day, it is still a game, and I will not go and say that it is wrong to de-admin yourself when you don't want to deal with situations every once in a while. We are people that have personal responsibilities as well. However, I will also say that admins have a continued responsibility to the server and must continue with their purpose since they have volunteered to do so, and it's a role in the server that has a large influence on the server.

I believe it's worth pointing out that the portion of the application mentions wanting this position because of how often they find themselves complained to- it leads to worries about 'first to the post' admin decisions where viewpoints can be biased simply by who they hear from first- which will end up being people more in touch with them. I think it's worth pointing out specifically that I do not personally have an issue with opposing opinions on how matters should be resolved, but that using a stance of disagreeing with previous admin decisions as a basis for becoming an admin is an interesting take- one that I wonder is a healthy one.

Yes, I point this out a lot in the application because, as a continuous-searching administrator for games that I enjoy, it is something that I wish to improve. Alongside enforcing the rules when necessary, analyzing and spotting those with ill intent, a positive connection with the general player base is something that I consider extremely important. All of these have connect with one-another one way or another, and continuously hearing how some decisions have been seen as wrong decisions, how staff seems to be close-minded, and how staff is also absent for a general amount, I am confident to put this piece of reasoning out there because it's one of the main reasons I want to join the administration team: Improvement. I don't want to just improve the connections between admins and players, but also admins themselves. As I have said in my Reason of Application

[...]both players and admins.

As for the concern of dealing with drama? I encourage questions, suggestions, etc,. Trial Admin is also there to truly see if I can deal with these situations in a respectable and informed manner.

[Auraknight]

I've been thinking about this application a lot. Mostly, because I'm so very much on the edge of 'neutral' to 'Approval', that i've been introspecting a lot about it over the last few days.

In the end, while I think you have some personality aspects that aint _great_ to have as staff, I think that overall you'll be a far better asset than a negative to the perception. At the very least, you deserve a chance at trial, and to that end, I'll give my +1.

[CharlesWedge]

Alright EM Ruskit here with my two cents.

Rezbit is not only a player with a deep knowledge of mechanical systems but has consistently kept his head above player drama. He has good judgment and the willpower that will allow him to stick to correct decisions even if they are unpopular. There is no reason he shouldn't be allowed trial-min to assess his ability. Here is a Rat's +1

[Nepbalt]

Rezbit has been an active member of the community for some time, and I believe that they have the capability to bring important skills to the team.
While I have some concerns when it comes to the underlying motivations of this application, I think it's worth giving them the opportunity.
+1

[Sakuya]

I'm deciding to remain neutral on this application at this time.

Edit: 4/17/24