Nelle's Mod Applicaiton :)

[Locarto]

Nelle's Moderator Application! :-D

BYOND ckey: locarto
Character name: Nelle Vasilevskiy
Discord username (+user id): Yerikk #1042
Reason for application: I like the server a lot, think it's a nice place to chill at (even if sometimes, I get salty when non-antag miners bring xenos on board), and just think it'd be interesting to try and help contribute to keeping the server a nice, and chill place! I also thought it'd be fun to write up responses to what I'd do, and that maybe it'd be fun to be a moderator! So anyways, overly long responses for reasons I can't fathom, go!

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?

I'm going to take this as a two part question, under the assumptions that 'Out of character' simply means any time you're acting as yourself, rather than your character, and that 'altercation' means any disagreement between two individuals. The first part of the question being, what would I do in the event of an out of character altercation, and the second being how I myself would engage in it. Meaning, my demeanour during the interaction.

With regards to the first part, everything depends on context! If their altercation involves cake vs. ice cream, I'm obviously going to be more lenient than if their altercation involves politics. If the topic involves IC issues which could potentially affect the round being spoken of in LOOC or OOC, it'd be dealt with differently than if someone was asking for help on how to open a box of Donk Pockets. Finally, if it's simply an LOOC vs. OOC situation, it'd also have an affect.

If it's a relatively benign disagreement in LOOC, which involves no controversial topics such as politics, religion, or race, I'd probably let it go unless it escalated. If it was a benign issue in OOC, I'd likely let it go, unless, again, it escalates. In the both cases, escalation involves personal insults, or disagreements over the person(s) who are arguing, rather than the topic they're arguing about. This would obviously be more strict in OOC than LOOC, given the public/private domains of interaction. If things did escalate, I'd kindly remind them that this is not the place for insults and such interactions, and that any discussion should remain about the topic, rather than the people.

If it's a controversial topic, I'd kindly remind them that OOC is not the location for such topics, and encourage them to take it into private DM's on a service that is not here. This, in lieu of just recommending they discuss it in the server Discord which, I can't imagine the moderators there would be much happier. Especially considering most admins to the Main and RP servers are likely also moderators for Discord. If, despite my encouragement, they refused to drop the topic, a short, one to two minute temporary muting of OOC would be in order. Should they continue to talk again following that, a five minute mute would be do. If they still yet to drop it, and refuse to take any advice or encouragement, a polite private message to the individuals involved would be due. Further punishment would likely be a temporary, 10-20 minute suspension to give them adequate time to cool off, escalating if need be, although I can honestly say I would be surprised if it ever got that far.

If a controversial topic takes place in LOOC, I'd likely ignore it unless it involves any form of discrimination, racism, or hate speech against any person, persons, or group. Marginalized, or otherwise. Since most discussions of controversial topics often involves some for degree of such, it essentially means that any discussion would be encouraged to move off platform. But, as mentioned, circumstance is everything, and everything that's done needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. No two altercations will ever be the same, and as such, they each need to be evaluated independently. Formal, respectable, and civil discussions are the foundation for society, and are encouraged. But discussions at the expense of another, I just don't think are that good in the long run.

The second part, meanwhile, would largely involve me always interacting with a smile. Be polite, calm, thoughtful in my actions and words, and attempt to never act in a passive-aggressive, or demeaning way. Simply because one person is in a position of power, doesn't mean the other is any less of a person. We're all still people, and we should all be treated with respect, no matter the circumstance. Treat others how you'd like to be treated.

2. What should an admin do if they're involved in a situation that needs admin intervention?

The admin in question, should attempt to dissociate himself as far as possible from the situation as he can. He/she should request a third party admin, not involved in the situation, to deal with it to the best of their ability. This also means, the admin involved should deal with any of the consequences that befall them should anything become of it. In the event that there is no available third party admin, the admin in question should likely err on the side of caution. This again comes down to the exact situation in question. Does it involve another player? Did the player self-antag and murder half the station? Or did the player break a window to get access to a chem dispenser? Potentially was it the admin who self-antagged? Although in the case of the ladder, that becomes more of a trust issue, in how much faith is placed in the admin, and would then become a matter of players reporting his/her actions to other authorities.

Situation is everything, however. If the situation involved another player, personally, I'd attempt to avoid doing anything permanent. If it was severe enough to warrant some degree of action, such as a temporary or permanent ban, I would *strongly* encourage them to appeal it, citing the lack of staff at the time, as well as leave a side note on the reason for the action, once again, mentioning how there is likely bias in the decision made, seeing as how the admin in question was the potential victim or perpetrator, as well as the judge, jury, and executioner.


3. How should an admin determine in what way to punish someone who breaks the rules?

They should ideally consult the handy-dandy guide of "Punishment severities"! But I mean, it's not black and white, so. Time to elaborate! What have they done in the past, if anything? What does that compare to what they've done now? What HAVE they done this time? First time offence? How bad was what they did? Did it affect the server as a whole? And anything potentially else which I've not mentioned. All this combined should give a general idea on how harshly or not to punish someone. And, you know, if the admin is directly involved with whatever it is that's going on.

I really can't go byond that. An admin just needs to look at the situation as a whole, at the person who did it, what they've done, and how it's affected people, taking into consideration the handy graph, and make a decision based on that.

4. Under what conditions should an admin de-admin themselves while playing?

Now, I could simply cite the Administration policy, and copy point number 5 about heads, sec, antags, and metagaming, but since I think this entire application is more a test to see who the individual is as a person, I'll share my personal feelings on the matter. Because, honestly, if we've made it to the application forum, chances are we've stumbled across staff regulations and given it a cursory glance.

I personally believe, anytime they're playing during a secret round, or are RP-ing, they should be de-admin'd. This is because, no matter how much self-control one has, if they hear a changeling has an engineer as a target, and they themselves are one of three engineers, they WILL play differently than normal, even if they're not going to go out of their way to valid-hunt. Sure, they won't hunt down people but, they might avoid maints or being somewhere alone with an individual. Heck, if they hear that an engineer is a target, they might choose to go out of their way to avoid said individual. Or pay special attention to them. While this particular scenario comes closer to self-restraint, I still think any and all possibilities of interference should be avoided. Likewise, some information they could get while admin could influence their choices or actions which they make while interacting with individuals. This is obviously just a generalization, and exceptions would apply.

If, for example, they were the only admin on hand during a shift, they *may* opt to admin themselves so that they can continue their duties as an admin, while still attempting to remain neutral. But, again, circumstances. Each scenario is different. Personally, I'd probably opt to simply do what little work I would during a round, such as set up power for the shift, before opting to cryo, and observe as an admin. That way, I can still take some joy in doing my job, while also being able to ensure that people remain civil.

5. What is expected of an admin on Citadel?

I once again could cite from the admin policy, about what's expected by them, what with polite, patient, friendly, and work when they want to. As well as watching before taking action and doing research ahead of time. But I feel like putting in way more time than in necessary to 'complete' the question, and type more.

Although I mean, personally, I think it summarizes it the best, especially those three points. I think being friendly is the most important thing. But I'm biased, a close runner up is being fair with their decisions, and not have any double standards. If two situations are the same, they should treat them the same, regardless of the people that may be involved. They also shouldn't bend any of the rules for people they know or are fond of. Which, in case someone they know is breaking a rule, it should be redirected to a different admin. But I digress.

Patience is likely a necessity, given that you'll be dealing with people who want to bend the rules to have their own kind of fun, and having to explain why, pray tell, they're wrong, what rules they're breaking, and constantly remind them of this fact while potentially being insulted. Which is always nice.

And finally, working when one wants to. If someone isn't up to being an admin that night, or whenever, they shouldn't. Not wanting to do your job not only hurts you by suffering through it, and doing something you don't want to, but it can also hurt the community as a whole. If you're not in a good mood, chances are you'll make more biased decisions, whatever they may be. And sure, if one gets made, someone could appeal it on the forums. Even if they ultimately get it resolved, it's still a lot of work for what could have possibly just been a mistake or misunderstanding. Basically, if someone isn't' feeling up to admin-ing, they shouldn't. Just take the night off, and relax. It will do everyone some good :-)


So yeah. This is my moderator application. Written out to be way too long.
I wrote this a while ago, didn't really ever think about posting it but, hey. Live a little. But only live on like, the last possible moment. Besides, when this gets denied or something, I'll learn something. Probably. I mean like, the saying goes you only learn when you fail. So maybe I'll learn something? Anyways. If anyone is actually reading this, I hope you have a delightful night/day/time :-)