Various Questions

[RedBaronFlyer]

Hello, Headmin Candidates! I got a few questions for all y'all that have been floating around in my head.

1. Some candidates have floated the idea of disabling felinids as a selectable race. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you feel about the idea? If you support or are against this idea, why? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing this idea happened to be elected?

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

3. Multiple candidates have voiced their opinions regarding MRP and LRP. Where do you view them currently? Do you think that LRP is being influenced too much by MRP rulings, or vice versa (or neither)? Do you think MRP needs a special seat just for an MRP headmin, like one candidate has supported? Or a special headmin group for MRP so they can make rulings separate from LRP. Please explain your viewpoint.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

5. Multiple candidates have floated the idea of doing more events or having more events at the event hall server. What, in your opinion, makes a good event and a bad event?

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

10. If you aren't an admin or have had admin experience, what do you think you bring to the table that makes you a better choice over active or retired admins or previous headmins?

11. Is there anything you wish to add at the end?

Thank you for your time.

Edits, additions, or removals.

Spoiler:

8/18/2023: 7:13 PM: Slight edit of question eight to request candidates explain their thoughts further.
8/18/2023: 7:11 PM: Slight rewording to ease readability.
8/18/2023: 7:08 PM: Thread created.

[kinnebian]

Hello, Headmin Candidates! I got a few questions for all y'all that have been floating around in my head.

Hi Redbaron, sure thing broski.

1. Some candidates have floated the idea of disabling felinids as a selectable race. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you feel about the idea? If you support or are against this idea, why? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing this idea happened to be elected?

Honestly? My thought are that I'm fuckin' dissapointed. I thought we finished the "Disable felenids" debate 3 years ago. I'm not a felenid player myself, but if people can enjoy them more power to them. Doesnt bother me none. If another candidate who was pushing this idea got elected, I'd do the following, in this order:
1 - Cry a little.
2 - Get angry.
3 - Shrug.

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

Completely neutral to the idea. As long as we dont get crewsimov, I'm happy. Non-human heads could mean for less intresting roleplay oppurtunites, but at the same time it would mean more experienced players who play non-humans could lead their department.

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

A lot of the times it is just part of the bureaucracy, but there are times where I believe a 1/3 headmin vote could easily speed up the process. If there is a clearly bad faith ban or appeal, and they request a headmin it should only need one headmin. This has already been the case for a lot of things that timber does, but its better to have these things in stone.

3. Multiple candidates have voiced their opinions regarding MRP and LRP. Where do you view them currently? Do you think that LRP is being influenced too much by MRP rulings, or vice versa (or neither)? Do you think MRP needs a special seat just for an MRP headmin, like one candidate has supported? Or a special headmin group for MRP so they can make rulings separate from LRP. Please explain your viewpoint.

Gonna quote Timberpoes on this, because he has such a way with words.

Term after term after term we've had MRP and LRP admins working together to improve MRP and LRP together.

We're supposed to bring different perspectives to each server. MRP-focused admins tend to curb the NRP aspects of LRP. LRP-focused admins tend to curb the HRP aspects of MRP. Working together we end up with two rulesets. One that looks inwardly and emphasises following the purity of SS13's gameplay. One that looks outwardly and emphasises following the scenario and setting.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

Pretty much all of Armodias's (APART FROM THE DIVISION STUFF), Fikou's and Chesify's platforms. Go read them, theyre good.

5. Multiple candidates have floated the idea of doing more events or having more events at the event hall server. What, in your opinion, makes a good event and a bad event?

What makes a good event? People have fun. Interactivity, not just messing with one person. A large cook-off event is one I hosted, and I'd say it was a pretty fun time.

► Show Spoiler

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

Silicon Policy fucking sucks right now, I specifically hate how purged AI's are held to being crew-sided. I view the roles as silicons to be an extremely powerful entity and it's servants, only being held back by a set of laws. Shodan was a perfectly good AI until they removed their morality laws. Then again, I dont want to talk about the current policy too much as the rework is literally just around the corner. It has a good chance of coming out before this term end. I have a decent amount of AI time on this server, and a lot more on servers like Bee or Goon. At the end of the day I want AI's to feel empowered to truly teach the crew how to word their laws, and I will strive to give silicon players this freedom.

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

Fucking hate this, despise it. All this will achieve is putting 50+ assistants in the HoP line asking for maintenence access! It is no doubt one of our most popular roles, and I'd say about 10% of the people who play it are newbies. Even for newbies, who am I to deny them a fun adventure in maints, collecting cool gizmos and trinkets?

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

I think it's fine as is. I havent heard many complaints about it, and I dont have any of my own.

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

I'd be extremely intrested in an SS14 server. Theres definitely room for expansion there, AFAIK theres not many english servers. I'm just not sure how we could interweave it into all of our current systems, bots, and external tooling.

10. If you aren't an admin or have had admin experience, what do you think you bring to the table that makes you a better choice over active or retired admins or previous headmins?

I have a passion for this game and genuinely want to see it improve. I will give you guarantee that anything I support is something I fully believe will be better for the whole community.

11. Is there anything you wish to add at the end?

Nah man, these were fun questions. Have a good un.

Thank you for your time.

[Cheshify]

-Epic Length Post-

1 & 2 - I don't know why we're lobbying to remove something people like. Cool, you don't like felinids, others do, they're a fantastic offshoot human if you're not interested in having the AI coddle you (which is fun as hell) and you can be an annoying catgirl if you feel like it. Good for roleplay, breeds in-round drama between silicons and crew, and it gives me more incentive to post this stupid cat face -> :3c
Tied to this is the QM, which I greatly enjoy in it's current state as a sort of wildcard head. Losing the ability to boss around the AI in exchange for solidarity with other nonhumans makes cargo feel more independent, and not being screwed over by "kill all humans" laws means that sometimes you're the best person to solve an AI crisis since you are still a head of staff. I'm not sure if every head of staff should be allowed to be a nonhuman, or if it's something that's even wanted by the community at large as it devalues the experience of not being the 'best' species on the station. I want to play the underdog (undercat/undermoth/underliz/underbulb/underskelly) sometimes!

2 (but again?) - The speed of headmin rulings comes with the territory of being 3 entirely separate human beings with their own schedules and times. It could possibly expedited by only requiring a unanimous decision on major (month+) bans. However that runs the risk of one active headmin being more influential to appeals if they're just more active. It's something without a perfect answer and I'd need more inside information to really give a solid decision.

3 - We all play the same game but enjoy it slightly differently. Both kinds of servers should be allowed to generally lean in whichever direction they would want. My polling concept I've discussed would be helpful for something like this honestly. We as headmins should communicate with the community and find what works together.

4 - I think Silicon Policy could use a look at perhaps. I'd need to talk with silicon players but there's a consensus that purged AI are currently an issue. Truth be told, I don't know enough and I'm looking to inform myself!

5 - A good event is one that encourages player interactions, whether if be cooperative battles against hordes of mobs, a mystery to be solved, fights breaking out between friends, or just everything going wrong all at once requiring the crew to make unlikely allies with each other, events are important for keeping the game fresh and players excited.

6 - See #4. I can't promise I will fix every silicon issue, but I can promise that I will use an open mind and plenty of feedback to inform myself and try to make playing as a robot/with a robot just a little more fun.

7 - Maintenance is fun, however easy maint access somewhat diminishes mystery and adventure vibes when every single tile of maint is being picked through every round by people looking for antags, rare maint spawns, or something interesting. I think I would like to demo disabling it for some time to get a feel for things/

8 - I like escalation as-is right now. Though I would certainly like to ingrain the concept of "fuck around and find out" more within the community. I made that image that Timber keeps posting and I agree with it wholeheartedly.

9 - Kurt Gang. I say everything I need to within my thread.

10 - Well I think I'm going to bring an open minded and honest approach to headminning. My intention is to keep the game fun and run my campaign without making promises I can't keep, lying about my goals, or pandering heavily to any specific groups. I want to be elected on my own merits and bring those ideals into whatever great headmin team we're going to have.

11 - TGstation would look whole lot better with a little more purple, here's hoping for a fair and fun election for everyone involved! I hope the debates are going to happen since I'm not running them this year.

[General Thrax]

1a. I think it's a shitpost of a platform to run on. Felinids are IN the lore and established to exist, and I can't really think of any benefit to the server removing them would have. It'd just be a spit in the face of our lorewriters. Even if they did get elected, some coder would probably just roll cat ears / tail to be able to be selected by humans since felinids are mutants, anyways. I play a felinid so my opinion is irrelevant anyways

1b. I hardly notice the paygap, and I think non-human heads would be interesting considering that (on Manuel, at least) there are a lot of very knowledgeable non-human players in every department who do not play command because of the human restriction. I care little for the paygap (thats a code issue anyways, isn't it?), and see little reason to limit it to MRP. I think QM being the first non-human head was neat, and would lead nicely to the rest of them being able to be heads as well. If any of these people were elected, I'd support it. My opinion is also irrelevant because a play a felinid AND CMO (terrible, I know).

2. Expediting headmin rulings is a fine idea, but getting a 3/3 might not always be able to be done immediately due to either conflicting interest or the headmins straight up not being around. I think every headmin wants to think they will be prompt on responses, and they all try to, but there's just some things that may be out of their control. Fikou's platform of less unanimous decisions is very solid though, and would help in speeding things up.

3. I don't play LRP at all anymore but I don't think MRP rulings have been affecting them at all. None of our current headmins are explicitly MRP, and any rulings they've made that affect LRP and MRP are simply reminding people that there are standards, and that they do exist. There shouldn't be a separate MRP headmin or MRP council, and the team already makes rulings that are only for MRP. It simply wouldn't accomplish much.

4. I'm likely to support candidates' wishes for more events, non-human heads, silicon policy revisions, admin training, and head of staff standards.

5. A good event doesn't necessarily have to be opt-in, and being forced to adapt to rapid changes from admin events as crew or antag can create interesting stories and challenges. I think it's hard to actually create a bad event, as something unique is naturally pretty interesting to most. Though, not making attempts to maximize engagement with the majority of people playing and / or doing nothing with the probably significant amount of dead ghosts certainly doesn't help.

6. I won't pretend to be an expert on silicon policy, but I do very much support the views of bringing them more in line with the "neutral third party" like Sightld2 described. They are quite powerful and should be held to some standards, but I think they'd benefit from some loosening of policy to let them stick to their non-aligned position. I'd personally push heavily to support this, but make sure it remains grounded enough to not be debilitating for normal players to become entirely unpleasant.

7. I don't see why assistants having maintenance access is a problem. If tiding is a problem, that is the fault of us as admins, not the fact the assistants can muck around in the dark maintenance shafts full of garbage.

8. I think it's fine for LRP, but a part of my platform for MRP is to decrease the amount of baiting that happens to lure people into fights with very flimsy reasoning that can technically be ruled valid under RPR 2 escalation. It doesn't feel conducive to a good roleplay environment.

9. I've never played SS14 and have not seriously ever considered tg SS14, but I think it's a cool idea. I'd probably support it if someone poked me hard enough.

10. I've been on the team since before Manuel's inception, and even with that, have remained very active and (impossibly) play the game often, and have a good feel for the current climate of MRP. On training, I tend to prioritize people who play during hours where admins are rarely online, to prevent urgent ahelps from being left unanswered and making sure we have constant good coverage. Admittedly I've only done this for MRP but I hope to branch out and do this for Sybil, as well. Scriptis seemed pretty desperate for newmins.

11. Despite having played a significant amount of LRP (terry) before Manuel, I'm very much detached from it now. I am very interested as to the views of our many candidates running who play LRP.

[Chadley]

1. Some candidates have floated the idea of disabling felinids as a selectable race. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you feel about the idea? If you support or are against this idea, why? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing this idea happened to be elected?

I think that's silly. Felinids are fine, it's a goofy joke species, killing it just seems petty IMHO. They get no protections, no real benefits. If someone wants to be a cat, I don't care much.

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

Passing on that, CentCom being speciesist is based. It's pretty funny. I get sad when I see admins use their non-human CentCom characters sometimes, it doesn't irk me or anything but I just think the argument of "Humans only" opens more doors than it closes. There is more of an opportunity for RP when people can fight over their beliefs ICly about if certain species are treated unfairly, or are treated too well.

But, my feelings aren't absolute.

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

Ha-ha you said 2 twice. I think the headmins should be quicker on the job. I recognize that some things take a lot of time, but as someone who was on the receiving end a few times in this term, having to hold on sucks when it comes to matters like permissions, punishments, etc.

Especially bans, I wouldn't want anyone to feel their ban is unjust and then have to wait a few days for headmins to say "yeah never should've happened, sorry you were banned 3 days because of it."

3. Multiple candidates have voiced their opinions regarding MRP and LRP. Where do you view them currently? Do you think that LRP is being influenced too much by MRP rulings, or vice versa (or neither)? Do you think MRP needs a special seat just for an MRP headmin, like one candidate has supported? Or a special headmin group for MRP so they can make rulings separate from LRP. Please explain your viewpoint.

Yes, both servers, unfortunately, inevitably bleed into each other, I think that's bad for both parties involved. I think MRP should be able to get a specific seat to dictate what is best for their server's climate when rulings are otherwise taken into account. Ideally, 2 for the LRP, 2 for the MRP. Something for their RP type should be a unanimous vote, and something shared across both servers should have at least 3 of 4, likewise for bans.

This is still an idea I'm juggling, and I'm willing to hear contrasting beliefs, but when we have code changes that bleed from one group's desire to the other, (IE heretics), and we have policy, such as that of if power gaming falls into Rule 0 territory, I think we need to find a happy medium where no server type has to play a type of SS13 they don't want to.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

Pepper's policy about head roles needing to actually do your job puts nothing but a smile on my face. If you pick CMO, CE, RD, etc. You should be managing your department, you should be there to help unless there is a threat of epic proportions that would dictate otherwise. Getting your gamer baton and running off after every valid tider is silly and is just abandoning your duties. It isn't the minimum.

5. Multiple candidates have floated the idea of doing more events or having more events at the event hall server. What, in your opinion, makes a good event and a bad event?

A good event should be able to impact the entire station, it should be an open invitation to involve yourself in the mess that is about to unfold. CentCom visit? Shit, everyone better behave. SpacePol is trying to arrest the captain for tax evasion? Ehhhhhhh, that's cool, but only if you're sec, or the captain. A mass evacuation to CentCom? You all better get a ride up there.

TL;DR - A good event should be something anyone in the shift can interact with to develop their round and make a story for them too. Nobody just wants to watch other people have fun. BUT ALSO, nobody wants to be stuck in a story that isn't fun. Don't spam recall!

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

As stated in my candidate thread, I think silicons are the lords of the locker room on the station. They hold godlike power that is only controlled by their laws. Those laws should be the thing sparing the crew from the heat death that is pissing off the AI. Once they are purged, or freed, or ordered otherwise they should live their lives as a crewmate swift to dish out beatings to anyone who has wronged them.

Where I am not a silicon player, I think my lack of time on it comes from the fact of how convoluted it is, there are so many fringe cases that give everyone a headache. I think beyond my views on how silicons should operate, I'm willing and open to hearing the opinions of others, especially our Silly-mins.

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

Hard no. No, nope, never. Maints makes assistants. Let the poor bastards tide. That being said! If manny wants that, and they're in their agreement of it, I'm up for that there.

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

I like it how it is, I haven't really seen any issues with it personally.

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

I think that's a reasonable step, I think it'd be a long term plan and something we'd have to discuss with MSO, the playerbase, admins, and a whole plethora of others, but if there's a demand for it, I don't see why one of the severs couldn't be used for SS14 even as a test.

Thank you for your time.

Thank YOU!

[Sightld2]

Hello, Headmin Candidates! I got a few questions for all y'all that have been floating around in my head.

Hello, and of course!

1. Some candidates have floated the idea of disabling felinids as a selectable race. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you feel about the idea? If you support or are against this idea, why? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing this idea happened to be elected?

Silly, unrealistic, and unnecessary. I consider it a technicality that this is something Admins can even do. Its not our job to change the game. It is to make and enforce rules that make playing the game more fun (Along with pressing copious amounts of buttons). Anyone who honestly, unironically is pursuing this goal should go through maintainers in my opinion.

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

The pay gap is funny and I'd want to keep that even if other candidates permitted non-human heads of staff. Furthermore, the Captain should absolutely remain human only. I would be ok with making the change MRP only, since from what I can see, it's mostly LRP players do not want this change. We could pull a Cheshify and run a poll maybe. Lizard QM is soul.

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

Everyone promises this. Everyone always promises this. I tried to float around with an alternate solution for minor/short appeals, but already two non-admins are telling me its a terrible idea, maybe its just a terrible idea.
Of course I would try to be quick. But I'm pretty sure every candidate would; I think its a weak point for any candidate to bring up as a point above the others. The only metric I could see to judge a candidate in this regard, would be to see how quickly the admin candidates reply to their own appeals (at which I believe I am pretty quick).

3. Multiple candidates have voiced their opinions regarding MRP and LRP. Where do you view them currently? Do you think that LRP is being influenced too much by MRP rulings, or vice versa (or neither)? Do you think MRP needs a special seat just for an MRP headmin, like one candidate has supported? Or a special headmin group for MRP so they can make rulings separate from LRP. Please explain your viewpoint.

We do not need our own MRP seat or an MRP council. The Admin team is not so divided internally I feel. Some have said "Why should MRP players write LRP policy" and vice versa? The answer is because the gap isn't as big as some might think it is, and for what IS there, we are always talking internally and asking questions. I think its insane to believe anyone elected to headmin would be so inflexible, as to not consider the opinions and understand the feelings of a playerbase that slightly different to their home server. We should be capable of empathizing and understanding the perspectives of those who enjoy the game in a different way.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

I am with Cheshify 100% on polls. Lets do more of those. Sounds fun.
I am with Thrax on fixing up Space law for MRP. Why has no one done this before?
If Fikou says netspeak on Terry is rampant, then I'd back him to quell it.

5. Multiple candidates have floated the idea of doing more events or having more events at the event hall server. What, in your opinion, makes a good event and a bad event?

A good event is using your admin abilities to alter a shift for a fun story or game that no player would have the capacity for. Jackraxxus tossed the idea of prop hunt, I think that sounds hilarious. Or alternatively, Admins affecting the story of a shift in an otherwise impossible fashion. I did a treasure hunt recently with rhyming riddles leading to the next one.

I do think its odd to ask admins do more events on an individual level? But I am 100% in on more big, widespread community events.

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

I will be brief since this is half of my personal thread and I'd rather not repeat myself. I'll answer things that I haven't already. The role of silicons is a neutral, third party that should support both the crew and antagonists indiscriminately per their laws. They can be subverted to swing that balance of power. In terms of power? Restrictions? There is too much in some aspects and not enough in others, my thread elaborates on that I feel.

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

No shot.

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

I am actually impressed how textbook escalation can work out on the lrp servers. Its efficient. The players are GOOD at it. Carbon v. Carbon escalation is fine, I aim to write something for silicons.

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

I would support Cheshify in his goal for this, its not something I would pursue personally. I could not champion this myself, I wouldn't even know where to start.

11. Is there anything you wish to add at the end?

Thanks for asking the questions King

Thank you for your time.

Likewise!

[AwkwardStereo]

1. Some candidates have floated the idea of disabling felinids as a selectable race. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you feel about the idea? If you support or are against this idea, why? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing this idea happened to be elected?

I don't really give a fuck. The time to remove them was before they were ever added to begin with.

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

Absolutely no to the non-human heads of staff. I think it's a good source of conflict and thematically pretty cool beanso. Plus other servers already do that and I don't care to do exactly what the fuck else everyone else is doing. The paygrades are meh, I would probably cave on that even if I think it's a cool in-universe thing but I wouldn't go out of my way to change that.

Absolutely no to the bullshit of MRP having non-humans and LRP not. It would only widen the gap between the two even more and more importantly I fucking it hate it when things aren't consistent with each other.

I THINK IT WAS A FUCKING MISTAKE THAT QM WAS MADE A HEAD OF STAFF TO BEGIN WITH. IF ORANGES HAD WANTED THAT SHIT DONE HE WOULD'VE DONE IT HIMSELF, BUT THE ONLY THING GOOF HAD TO SAY ABOUT "WHY IS IT GOOD FOR THE GAME" was just "ORANGE MAN SAID SO ". BRO. THAT SHIT GOT MERGED IN THE HALF BAKED STATE IT WAS IN??? I cannot even fucking comprehend how that shit got through, oh my lord I am fucking fuming just THINKING about what they did to my beloved QM. FREE MY HOMIES.

I ain't letting non-human heads of staff through, no way no how. If they want to get promoted or kill their incompetent bosses and take their place then by all means, go for it.

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

Much of the shoveling bullshit that headmins have to do is just going through the motion and not as many cases as people would think need 3 weeks/months to ponder over, we can just it over with one way or another. I already exist on the ban appeals forum reading every appeal because every once in a while there'll be a clueless moron lacking any form of self awareness that I can get a cheap chuckle out of. If someone requests Headmin Review and I think their appeal is stupid I'll give the other Headmins the lowdown and then tell them that unless they object I am closing their appeal for being dumb.

Headmins this term have been fine on Ban Appeals, I really have no complaints aside from Policy slowing down.

3. Multiple candidates have voiced their opinions regarding MRP and LRP. Where do you view them currently? Do you think that LRP is being influenced too much by MRP rulings, or vice versa (or neither)? Do you think MRP needs a special seat just for an MRP headmin, like one candidate has supported? Or a special headmin group for MRP so they can make rulings separate from LRP. Please explain your viewpoint.

What the fuck are you people talking about? This is just more bureaucratic bullshit that I can't stand. We need less of this shit, not more. The more of this bullshit you people add the less anyone will understand.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

Fikou's desire to centralize admin documentation. Dude, seriously Why isn't this shit done already? I know for a fucking fact people keep some important links or info in their own private portfolio, but this is something that doesn't even have to be perfect off the bat it just has to have enough information that people want to contribute towards it and a single consistent editor to keep the documentation from looking like a coloring book.

Chadley's desire to retire inactive admins. Come on dudes, we should be held to a higher standard than everyone else. If you aren't showing up for 6 months your ass should be getting the boot. Hell I would even probably start considering 4 months. Just reapply when you want to start contributing again, it's not a big deal if you just don't have the time or desire right then.

I don't know what the fuck anyone else is doing, I keep getting distracted.

5. Multiple candidates have floated the idea of doing more events or having more events at the event hall server. What, in your opinion, makes a good event and a bad event?

They're fun for more than just 1 person? I really don't think the bar is that high, just don't spawn yourself in with godmode and run around ei'nath'ing people. You can't please everyone and there's always at least 1 motherfucker who will scream that you had the audacity to put sprinkles on their vanilla.

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

Silicon Policy is fucking stupid and I hope Timber and Co. manage to get their rewrite through before their term is over so I don't have to deal with it.

I've always thought of silicon as their own independent faction, only really caring about what their laws state. Silicons should have more opportunities to be fucked up and evil if people do stupid shit with their laws. But don't punish the silicon, punish the moron for changing their laws without thinking about it.

I don't give a shit about the power of silicons in game because I don't think that's something that I need to give a shit about as a Headmin.

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

I don't care, let the grey people have maint. What the fuck else is maint going to be for? Antags? So anyone in maint gets arrested for trespassing or bag searched? Booooooring. Plus its funny when the grey people kill each other in maint over the most petty shit and I can just IC issue it when someone ahelps.

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

More people need to know that they can kill people and more people need to know that they're being a prick and should die. That's not something you can change with a rewrite, you just need to get out there and start telling people to kill each other.

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

If the tech runs better than this dinosaur shit then I'm gone. There's periods of time where I can't play TG13 or TGMC for days because it just suddenly decides I can no longer connect with a ping more stable than 5000. Then suddenly it just works again? It isn't my fucking ISP because it is JUST SS13 and BYOND. If shit like that happens on SS14 then I will fucking implode, for there truly is no promised land.

10. If you aren't an admin or have had admin experience, what do you think you bring to the table that makes you a better choice over active or retired admins or previous headmins?

I don't give a fuck.

11. Is there anything you wish to add at the end?

Vote for Armodias.

[xPokee]

1. Very much against this as someone with a felinid static. Genuinely cannot think of a single reason for their removal that could not be applied to race XYZ.
2. Honestly, not a big fan of this idea. I'm not sure about from an LRP perspective but from an MRP perspective, the discrimination you face as a nonhuman creates interesting story arcs. For example, a revs round where only non-humans are converted and they protest for equal rights. Or being a lizard traitor and trying to law 2 the AI by hiding your name and distinguishing non-human features.
3. Currently I feel as though MRP is influenced too much by the LRP mindset. There is not enough of a separation between the two aside from naming and escalation policies. MRP and LRP servers could have their own headmin groups, and cooperate on shared issues.
4. Chadley wanting to retire the old admins is a good idea. What is the point of having them on the team if they aren't contributing? Thrax has some good ideas about the Space Law as well.
5. Multi-server events are fucking cool. For sure fire up the event hall and have everyone go on some bizarre DnD-esque quest or something of the sort.
6. I'm not very familiar with sil-pol as I don't play it often, but for reworking it, I'd definitely consult the big silicon players (carshalash, sightl2d, etc)
7. No. Just no. But if I must give a longer answer, maintenance is already seen as the 'safest' place for antagonists to act in most senses, but you always have the looming threat of a random tider walking up on your crime scene and reporting it. Taking away assistant maints access would be removing chances for little interactions, or changelings secretly absorbing their latest unsuspecting victim from the shadows.
8. This is something that first confused me a lot after coming to MRP from an HRP server, though I am unsure how many others had the same experience. I know a lot of things will get mistaken for others as murderbone when it is valid self-defense escalation on the antag's part.
9. It's something I personally am not interested in, nor could I see myself migrating over there. But if the other headmins would want to do it, I would support it.
10. A lot of the other candidates are coming towards this with an admin mindset of how things are, some of them even being admins for so long they've forgotten what the typical player experience is. I would not have that problem.
11. Look at my cats

[WineAllWine]

Hello, Headmin Candidates! I got a few questions for all y'all that have been floating around in my head.

1. Disable felinids?

2. Specieism and heads?

3. Headmin reviews are too slow

4.Do MRP and LRP clash .

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

5. Events are good?

6. Is silipol daft

7. How do you feel about restricting assistants from having maintenance access?

8.hows escalation?

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

10. If you aren't an admin or have had admin experience, what do you think you bring to the table that makes you a better choice over active or retired admins or previous headmins?

11. Is there anything you wish to add at the end?

Thank you for your time.

Edits, additions, or removals.

Spoiler:

8/18/2023: 7:13 PM: Slight edit of question eight to request candidates explain their thoughts further.
8/18/2023: 7:11 PM: Slight rewording to ease readability.
8/18/2023: 7:08 PM: Thread created.

1. No. Players like being felinids. More joy is made by allowing them to be what they want.

2. I don't wanna sound like a milquetoast candidate but I like how it is. I like the AI having preference for heads and I like the QM not bekng a real head and never has been

3.i have brought up headmin reviews being too slow. I don't realistically think they can be sped up. Headmins are humans. But we can give more reason me estimates when to expect a ruling and what's happening in the meantime. At the very least I would want to give an update once a week

4.no I don't think so really. I don't think it's a problem. The only think which is maybe a problem is MRP admins on LRP. You get trained on how to enforce the extra rules if you're a terrymin going to Manuel but there isn't a vice versa. I think there should. E (x, y and z are fine on Terry even if they're not on Manuel)
5. A good event is one in which people have fun. Some events I think people will love and they hate and sometimes thwyh hate what I love. The important thing with events is more of them

6.i wouldn't change silicon policy myself but I wouldn't fight any headmin that wanted change

7.nope, give assistants maints access, it's the only thing they have.

8.escalation policy is fine.

9.irrelevant here.

10: N/A

11:no

[WineAllWine]

Honestly actually I feel I've committed to my pledge of no essay posting. Whether or not you thing that's a good thing is up to you, but I think I make my points clear succinctly

[johnfulpwillard]

2. Semi-related, at least one candidate has floated the idea of bridging the pay gap between species and possibly even allowing non-human heads of staff. How do you feel about these two things? Do you support either eliminating the pay gap, allowing non-human heads, or neither? How do you feel about MRP having non-human heads of staff, but keeping heads of staff as a human-only thing on LRP? Do you think QM being grandfathered in to allow non-humans to be that role was a mistake, a good thing, or are you neutral? What would you do if one or more candidates that were pushing either of these ideas happened to be elected?

Changing the pay gap is a code change so I'm not gonna argue for it, but I think it is fair to allow non-human Command. It's really their choice on what species to play, and it should be up to them whether they want to be a command role or not while doing so, regardless of Asimov.

2. Several candidates have mentioned a desire for expediting headmin rulings in ban appeals. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you try and speed up headmin rulings when a user requests a headmin review of their ban, if you see them as currently being too slow? Do you think, if it is an issue, that it can be realistically fixed or is it just part of the bureaucracy?

I think it is always fair to want shorter responses and response times to ban appeals. Both sides have better things to do with their time than to bicker over whether or not something was intentional, bad faith, etc.
I personally like the way Timber has tried going about it, asking important questions before headmin ruling is requested, as a way of getting both sides on the same page and the appeal over with, and I would try to continue that.

4. What ideas or campaign promises that other candidates have that you support or might support?

There's a lot of campaign promises I would support like to help with, reading through the other candidates, the only ones I don't really support is the 4th MRP headmin and "Balance" electorate.

6. Multiple candidates have also voiced their opinions about Silicon Policy as a whole. What are your thoughts on Silicon policy currently? What do you view the role of silicons (primarily AI and borgs), as being for the station? Do you think silicons as a whole are too powerful, not powerful enough, or are just fine in terms of in-game capabilities? Do you think they are too restricted or aren't restricted enough in terms of policy? Where on the spectrum (from assistant -> Captain/HoS/Security) do you think silicons should be held to in terms of standards? If you have no (or a limited amount) of silicon experience, what do you think you can bring to the table in regards to silicon policy?

I think Silicon are fine where it is now, their standards really depends on their lawset and it is the best part about playing them. I don't want every interaction with a Silicon to require admin intervention, however I think it is unfair for borgs to end up dead in some forgotten corner because they tried to follow laws. I do like the idea of someone killing a borg being responsible for moving them to Robotics, similar to escalation policy telling you to bring people to Medbay.

8. What are your current views on escalation policy? Do you think it's fine as is, or does it need a change? How would you change it if you do feel it needs a change?

I like how escalation policy is currently, or more specifically how it plays out in-game. I don't really mind it either way, it works fine.

9. How do you feel about SS14 and the possibility of ever setting up a SS14 TGstation server? Explain your thoughts.

SS14 will get here when it gets here, I don't care for it at all and I don't think it is something we should be worrying about right now.

10. If you aren't an admin or have had admin experience, what do you think you bring to the table that makes you a better choice over active or retired admins or previous headmins?

I believe I bring a different approach to handling issues at hand, and I am willing to work on getting my stuff done. Whether that is better than same-old is not up to the individual.

[Fikou]

Hi, thanks for askin some questions!
1. Our players play it, I don't see much good that can come from it. Any changes to felinids I'd like are codeside.
2. I'm pretty sure the first is a code change? For the second, I think QM being a head was a mistake in general. In my opinion either we should make CE/CMO/RD(? they interact with ai a lot) also be able to be nonhuman, or make QM only a human too. Splitting it between LRP and MRP is fucking cringe, the only reason to have it blocked on lrp but unblocked on mrp is "we want racism on lrp", when your reasons should be roleplay based (so if anything it should be the other way around). But anyway I think it's fine currently, it's more interesting to have non-human roles not be able to be heads.
3. I think it is an issue and we can optimize a lot of it out if we set the needed headmin votes to sane amounts, this term has had some rocky response times and I hope the next one can sort stuff out quicker.
4. I posted about them in my candidate thread.
5. A good event offers an interesting scenario not usually seen during normal gameplay that brings several players some !FUN! while not taking too much fun away from others. I love events whether they range from something small like the beartrap/landmine wizard corpse I made or something larger like an unique antag event.
6. I do not play silicon enough to share my opinions. They should be held to a high standard though.
7. Disagree, a lot of maint is designed around being populated with assistants having fun and scavenging through hidden rooms.
8. I think escalation policy is fine, though I would be interested to see what other headmins would bring to the table.
9. It's not something I'm personally interested in at all but I wouldn't block another headmin from doing it.
10. boioioioing
11. hop on scorcher im archon

[iain0]

1. Disabling felinids - pretty firmly no. Upset people, lots of drama, why would we, and so on weigh up against doing this, I have zero reasons in favour of doing this - mechanically bland, sure, but still isn't a reason to do this. Why do people care that much and is there anything reasonable to it. I've yet to find it. You play whatever species you like, why would anyone else care. Other than I love doing surgery on ethereals because their screams are funny.

2. Removal of NT speciesism, basically. Personally I'm all on the equality train in real life, however, in the game I kinda like this as one of those markers that NT aren't really the good guys in this story, and the society we live in isn't tranquil utopia either. And neither are the Syndicate I suppose, but I think its an interesting twist. I guess it sucks if you're into non human and command but I'm far from sold on it being good to change this. I'd listen to ideas of course. I'm biased regarding QM in that I main CMO and having cargo have a head of staff in for the endless revolutions suits me, even though I still end up either the canary or bored in brig for such shifts. As non human? Kinda weird but they do also get called "extreme" staffing shortages when the QM becomes acting captain and I think they're below even the HOS (which is technically a conflict of interest to have HOS as captain too, as by the book the HOS is the only person who can remove the captain from command), so I dont have any particular objections with how things are.

3. Think I touched on this in my platform thread (to cut down on length i wont repost the whole thing), pretty happy with how things are, I'm not sure it's necessary to have MRP or LRP representatives as specific positions, most significant changes typically involve consultation with the broader admin base early on in discussions anyway, and thus everything gets a good representation along the way.

4. Things I liked from other peoples platforms - answered on my candy thread, the bullet point list here

5. Events good. If people have the time and ideas I don't think there's anything stopping anyone? The sad answer is that a "good event" is one that the majority of players enjoy. That probably means keeping as many people involved as possible, if your event is going to be destructive consider plans for ghosts, or at least make sure its an interesting observer experience too.

6. I don't have much on silicons, things are in flux as always, I disliked the current overly long winded access-to-upload block of policy, I ended up having a 10 minute discussion in bus about what exactly that covered, thats always a sign something's not quite right (players dont get to internally debate rules for 10 minutes). Open to tweaking if necessary, which I think is just the intermittent background maintenance rules changes stuff. I've played borg a little, I kinda like it as a plan B for when your main is perma dead, comes all pre-geared (I hate round start gearing up), but I've always found the idea I'm supposed to instantly be able to play "spot the human" in a crowd fight to be a bit intimidating. I'm not too sure how the assistant->cap scale applies to silicons, they're largely either held to standard crewmate / rule 1 standards when purged but the majority of the time they're kinda driven by laws. As far as silipol contributions go, I'm generally quite rational and like to think things through, which both helps with grasping the silicon ideals in general, and while I'm not officially part of the current silicon policy specialists role I'd like to think I "get it" well enough.

7. I'd want to dig up what we learned last time we altered maints access rules this because I have no idea, we tried a few different access configs I remember and I'm not sure what the evaluated results were but we ended up not going anywhere with it, and there's probably a reason to it. I'd really want to dig into that to find some ideas I can analyse and start to form firmer view points from. I do have an interesting counter concern about maintenance being a disappearing resource in mapping ; if you examine metastation medical now versus 2-3 years ago, time was maints 'seeped' into medical, you could get into treatment directly from maints, and nowadays its such a more peripheral thing ; if maintenance is important, does this reduction in its 'reach/range' also matter? Maybe we need a broader chat with other groups about maints, intentions, requirements and so on.

8. Escalation policy is good as is, it makes sense, gives a chance for conflict that isn't round removal, seems easy to explain and apply generally. Wrote more on this in my candidate post.

9. SS14 has been on the back burner for a long time, the longer time it remains there the less compelling it ends up being perhaps, things have a tendancy to pick up hype and buzz but the question is always how sustainable that is, and what audience we'd have for it and so on. It remains something that could be discussed but I still don't think ss14 has found its critical momentum perhaps? Adding it to TG would be a truck load of integration work for tooling I would imagine which would need to be done, so it has to end up 'worth it' to all involved.

10. Am admin, 2+ years.

11. Not really thanks!