[Deleted] Phuzzylodgik - Your Host Vote Headmin

[capn_monkeypaw]

MSO, Plap, Hulk & Karp have done me the honor of asking me to be your host vote headmin for the upcoming term.

For those who are unfamiliar with me, which I would suspect is most of you, allow me to introduce myself:

I've been playing on /tg/ since 2016 and became an admin in the immediate wake of the Ssethtide in early April of last year.

Most of my ~1500 hours of playtime prior to becoming an admin was spent in cozy rounds on Sybil, working alongside a tight-knit group of players that rarely, if ever, required admin intervention. I can only recall sending a single ahelp (for the single most shitty act of grief I have ever seen) during all of that time. As a general rule, inter-player conflicts were handled IC, almost as a matter of honor.

99% of the time I've spent as an admin, however, has been spent knee-deep in hubbies on the Events Hall with my banhammer set to fully-automatic. As such, I am not a creative, event-slinging admin. I focus on consistent, fair and - most important - judicious rule enforcement. I give a great deal of thought to fostering an environment that allows new players to acclimate to our culture and develop into fun, creative and contributing members of our community.

Because of this dichotomy, I like to think that I will bring a unique perspective to the incoming headmin team.

As I did not campaign, I do not have a platform. My only promise is this: Over the next six months I will endeavor to provide this community with consistent, thoughtful and responsive leadership. I plan to focus primarily on day-to-day administrative tasks and will do my best to see that issues are addressed promptly.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Vekter]

Shit, I trust you.

Two questions:

1) Manuel has been an interesting place to admin, but even I'm having some issues with some of the RP rules. Will there be made an attempt to get a few more manuel-specific admins in the future?

2) How do you feel about our current policy on harassment and hate speech?

[skoglol]

Good choice, you'll do great!

[Arianya]

First of all, congratulations on your win.

Secondly, do you feel as though your time in Megacity One Event Hall will lead you to holding particular views regarding the rules and their enforcement?

Spoiler:

[peoplearestrange]

Honestly one of the few people I both trust their opinion and would also reach out to if I had a problem. Generally cool calm and collected.
I'm genuinely please they were chosen as a head.

[Jimmius]

We were trialmins together and both decided to admin the event hall. I went insane but he only became more powerful. That is why I can say with confidence that he will be the best headmin of all time

[Tarchonvaagh]

Congratulations!
Also... ?

[capn_monkeypaw]

1) Manuel has been an interesting place to admin, but even I'm having some issues with some of the RP rules. Will there be made an attempt to get a few more manuel-specific admins in the future?

I don't see why not. I'm sure the admins that main Manuel can rustle up a couple of promising candidates.

2) How do you feel about our current policy on harassment and hate speech?

On paper, I think it's about as even-handed as it could be right now.

I'm a strong believer in the principles of free speech and a fanatical supporter of the 1st amendment to the United States constitution. My closely held belief is that governments shouldn't be empowered to regulate speech.

That being said: this a spessman simulator, not a spess klansman simulator.

My policy is more or less this: I'm not going to kick you from the server for using a repugnant slur a couple of times in IC chat, but I do reserve the right to smite your character with brain damage if you've been flooding comms with the gamer word just because you can. If you're screaming about an ethnic or religious group in OOC, I'm turning that shit off. We're here to play a atmospherics simulator game; nobody wants to hear your bullshit.

As for harassment, allow me to be clear: if you're harassing another player or staff member, we're showing you the fucking door.

Don't forget your hat.

[capn_monkeypaw]

First of all, congratulations on your win.

Secondly, do you feel as though your time in Megacity One Event Hall will lead you to holding particular views regarding the rules and their enforcement?

Spoiler:

Yes, my time on Events has definitely changed how I view rule enforcement. I've become a big believer in enforcing these minimum standards:

Naming policy is important.
Malicious and careless intentional incidents of IC in OOC should always receive a note.

Worrying about these sorts of things seems silly and unnecessarily uptight to the experienced player - I certainly felt that way a year ago - but I've come to believe that they are very important when half of a server's 80 players are newbies off of the Byond hub. Broken Windows Theory is a dogshit way to run a city but it's not a bad way to run a public-facing server, particularly when that server might not see a consistent level of administrative staffing. When you tightly enforce these minimum standards, players understand that someone is actually watching and that the rules actually matter. In my experience, it is the best way to develop a self-policing player culture that keeps others from ruining the fun for everyone.

But when it comes to inter-player conflict or anything involving nuanced judgement calls, I still generally believe that a light touch is best.

If someone is griefing or simply sowing chaos for its own sake, booting 'em makes sense. Bans are also often useful for convincing new players that "no really, you can't RDM here."

But when two experienced players get irritated with each other and wind up stepping over the line in tandem, you'll often see better dividends from separating the two and giving them a chance to cool down than you will from applying bans. We shouldn't apply bans simply because we can, we should ban people when it serves a purpose.

As always, it comes down to admin discretion and (hopefully) a sense of judgement that improves with experience.

[Arianya]

First of all, congratulations on your win.

Secondly, do you feel as though your time in Megacity One Event Hall will lead you to holding particular views regarding the rules and their enforcement?

Spoiler:

Yes, my time on Events has definitely changed how I view rule enforcement. I've become a big believer in enforcing these minimum standards:

Naming policy is important.
Malicious and careless intentional incidents of IC in OOC should always receive a note.

Worrying about these sorts of things seems silly and unnecessarily uptight to the experienced player - I certainly felt that way a year ago - but I've come to believe that they are very important when half of a server's 80 players are newbies off of the Byond hub. Broken Windows Theory is a dogshit way to run a city but it's not a bad way to run a public-facing server, particularly when that server might not see a consistent level of administrative staffing. When you tightly enforce these minimum standards, players understand that someone is actually watching and that the rules actually matter. In my experience, it is the best way to develop a self-policing player culture that keeps others from ruining the fun for everyone.

But when it comes to inter-player conflict or anything involving nuanced judgement calls, I still generally believe that a light touch is best.

If someone is griefing or simply sowing chaos for its own sake, booting 'em makes sense. Bans are also often useful for convincing new players that "no really, you can't RDM here."

But when two experienced players get irritated with each other and wind up stepping over the line in tandem, you'll often see better dividends from separating the two and giving them a chance to cool down than you will from applying bans. We shouldn't apply bans simply because we can, we should ban people when it serves a purpose.

As always, it comes down to admin discretion and (hopefully) a sense of judgement that improves with experience.

Given the call from some quarters to have more, or even all, of our servers be hub facing, do you think that enforcement style needs to be pushed on any of our /tg/ servers that are hub facing?

And a secondary question, do you worry that between the Hub-facing server(s), the "normal" servers and Manuel, there is a risk of culture drift which leads to inconsistency in rulings and expectations?

[XivilaiAnaxes]

Based headmin pick

[Timonk]

"protecting jannies is my job, fear me!"

[capn_monkeypaw]

"protecting jannies is my job, fear me!"

[deedubya]

Not someone I expected, or have even really heard much of. Probably means that they've been doing a pretty good job and haven't kicked up much dirt.

That being said, you're mostly working on a promise of "status quo" and more background work. Do you have any fears that you might be seen as/actually turn into the "afk headmin" that people dislike so much?

[capn_monkeypaw]

Not someone I expected, or have even really heard much of. Probably means that they've been doing a pretty good job and haven't kicked up much dirt.

That being said, you're mostly working on a promise of "status quo" and more background work. Do you have any fears that you might be seen as/actually turn into the "afk headmin" that people dislike so much?

Not particularly. I think the consistent work I've put in over the past year speaks for itself.