Character name: Camryn Adams, Doji Melhe, Hanako, Kimiko, Clotho Lafayette
Discord username (+user id): puddlecathedral (180523966362812416)
How long have you played on Citadel?: ~1 year
How long have you played SS13?: Since around 2010, on and off.
What is your timezone/general hours of activity?: I live in US Central Time (UTC-6), though because of remote work and general lifestyle my hours of activity vary.
Previous SS13 related admin experience: None.
Previous non-SS13 related admin experience: A few Conan RP servers over the past five years or so. Beyond that, I was an admin on a few different BYOND games from 2011~2014 under an old ckey.
Current administrators who have agreed to support your application: Keekenox, Silicons, Jaybird1, Timothytea
Reason for application:
When I first joined the server, around a year ago I had no real intention of sticking around long-term. I had an itch to do some SS13 roleplay, and decided to look around. Citadel 13 RP just happened to be the first server I landed on. I really didn't expect to be here longer than a month at most.
It's a year later. In fact, if I check my join date on the Discord server, it's a year to the day, though I'm pretty sure I joined the Discord a week after first showing up on the server. This is by far my favorite community, not just for RP but for the people in it as well. It's not perfect of course - no community is - but I enjoy almost every day I'm a part of it regardless.
I'm applying because I want to help give back to that community, in a way I both feel capable as and feel like I could do actively and sustainably. A couple people who know me might wonder why I don't just develop for the server and shoot for maintainer instead, as I'm a software engineer in real-life. And the key reason there is the 'active and sustainable' part; from my time elsewhere, I can tell you it quickly gets draining to develop software for 8+ hours a day then do that some more in your free time. That's not to say I don't intend to ever write code for Citadel, just that I don't see that as something I could do as an active, regular contribution.
But, keep an eye on the community, help people out when they're having problems, and try to keep things welcoming and engaging? I can do that no problem.
Please answer the following questions to the best of your abilities:
1. How would you engage with two players having an out of character altercation?
There's not a one-size-fits-all answer to this. It really depends.
But, generally, it comes down to one question: is one player a complete jerk or very, very clearly in the wrong?
If so, then that individual needs to be dealt with (and the other hopefully only calmed down). How they should be dealt with depends on the severity of the antagonism and if they've got a history.
If it's not clearly one of those cases, it takes a more nuanced approach depending on the situation. Every attempt should be made to mediate and resolve the situation peacefully. It might be tempting just to shut everyone involved down, but that tends to cause resentment that has a tendency to boil over later down the line. If it can't be resolved peacefully or it's a more immediately problematic altercation, only then should more authoritative action be taken.
2. What should an admin do if they're involved in a situation that needs admin intervention?
Hand things off to another admin. If one isn't available in-game, try to find someone who's online who can step in. Preferably, you shouldn't do anything else until someone else can get involved.
In the occasional situation where absolutely no one else is available and the situation needs to be handled immediately, you should try to act in as unbiased a manner as possible and document everything.
3. How should an admin determine in what way to punish someone who breaks the rules?
There are basically three situations here.
- An obvious griefer. The guy with the keyboard-smashed OOC notes and description who looks like the "Pools Closed" guy isn't here for RP, he's here to be a jerk. Make sure it's not situation 2, then ban them.
- Someone who is either new to RP or isn't aware this is a HRP community. This is a case by case sort of thing, because some griefers pretend to be this, and even some of the people who are doing their best to stay innocent just aren't going to fit in. Ultimately, the game plan here is to try to help them understand where they are, what's expected of them, what they could do better, and then watch from there.
- Regular players breaking rules. This comes down to what exactly they broke and why. Rules are guidelines, not hard legal code. Sometimes people break rules entirely by accident. Sometimes breaking a rule is justified. And sometimes someone is just having a bad day. All of this should be factored into the decision, but the general expectation is that someone who's been here a while at least knows the gist of the rules and usually doesn't have a reason to go around breaking them, so they shouldn't be getting off light if they're causing problems.
4. Under what conditions should an admin de-admin themselves while playing?
My rule of thumb is that if I don't currently need my admin powers, I shouldn't have them on, period.
In reality, this isn't completely practical, and there's a lot of wiggle room for what could be considered "needing" the powers.
Generally, any situation where my admin powers would give me some form of unfair advantage - intentionally or not, perceived or otherwise - should be one where I de-admin. If I'm playing security in an event I'm not playing an event character for, for instance, I should probably de-admin.
5. What is expected of an admin on Citadel?
Admin is a position of service, not a position of power. Admins are here to ensure the community continues to function and have an enjoyable time, and every action - whether it's punishing someone for breaking the rules or running a silly event - should be taken with that in mind. Admins should be welcoming, but prepared to deal with potentially difficult social situations. Sometimes they need to do things that make them unpopular with some people. They need to try to stay fair and (mostly) friendly through all of this. And at the end of the day, while the work is important, it's ultimately a volunteer position, and it's important to know when to take things seriously, when not to, and when to take a break.
