NOTE: Understand that I'm making this thread to address the growing issue that pertains to the behavior of a majority of the staff, and that I will be doing my best to represent the community without directly implicating any one person in the community. Now that that's out of the way, lets talk about the staff. As many of you have observed/cringed-at, staff has steadily become less and less conducive to the community improving in overall quality. How you may ask? Well, friend, lets start with the things that they have supreme jurisdiction over; the punishment of individual community members. As some of you may have heard, staff has really ramped up the number of punishments/threats that they've been dealing out, not ONLY have they bumped the ban-hammer up to eleven, banning certain individuals like Wreth or Darkwill who, yes, have admittedly broken a few rules, but not in some severe, dire, or immediate manner, they were little things that stacked up over a larger and larger course of time that were never addressed by the staff. That is, however, testimony from the banned individuals in question though, because I doubt the staff could honestly give us a serious explanation for what reason they banned them. While we're on the subject of staff dealing out punishments, lets slide into the little sub-topic of HOW they deal with punishing us. I've noticed the staff have a tendency to use false, flawed, or close-to-bullshit, evidence to convict offenders. Examples would be outdated, or ancient, offenses that a player committed a while ago and were never addressed, or not bothering to get individual testimony and using flat out wrong statements such as them using the flat out wrong fact that I never gave Wreth consent to destroy the old colony Katune that I owned. I did, in fact, give consent and while that doesn't atone for Wreth's other offenses, it still represents that staff have a bad habit of not investigating or finding out the whole truth. Be it for personal reasons, or incompetence to discover whether someone genuinely deserves a ban or not. But lets move on to how the staff have been interfering things in-game and ICly without consulting us. Yeah, things haven't really been organic lately with how the server's developing. The staff have been making their own factions like the Coronoa Eclipes (*Cough* Holy Fleet 2.0 *Cough). Last time I checked, they surpassed the rule of needing five or more people to create a faction, but then again, I haven't seen anyone actually playing on that faction. Additionally, as a few of you already know way too well, staff have been pressuring, threatening, and outright banning, certain characters for various reasons. This isn't just a Max grief thing, I've already gone through that shit, there have been others who've been banned just because of the characters they play. Staff shouldn't remove a character unless it breaks a real rule, not because they want to, and even then unless someone actually reports it, they should respect the laisez faire nature of server development. That one might've been a bit more of an opinion, but I know enough people who agree with me that it might as well be fact. Regardless, staff has only been involved in things when it suits them, and not the server. Sure, being a staff member DOES take up a bit of time, but that doesn't mean you get to use the power you have every now and again and ignore stuff the rest of the time and claim you're 'doing your job'. You know what else? Staff aren't elected, they're chosen, you apply for it and Kaz or another high ranking staff member decides 'yes' or 'no'. That's not a fair system for the community, and it means that as a whole, we get much less say in things than we should. Despotism is not, has not, and will continue to not, be an effective means of administrating things or even maintaining them. And there are some sharp requirements for being a staff member, like having skype, or being liked by the staff. Certain members shouldn't be on staff at all after the shit they've pulled as players, and others aren't on nearly enough to be helpful. While I understand that some staff members are worn out, and really have our best interests in mind, you have to look at it from our perspective and get that you're not helping, you're hurting. I made a post a while back about how the staff wasn't involved enough, or addressing various server issues. That hasn't changed, all the staff are doing is increasing the punishments they dish out and how they manipulate the server. They didn't ask us whether they should have added the Council or not, they just did. That's fine for things like forum layout, but if it impacts the development of the server, we need to have a say. Whew, that took a while... Anyway, I think you get the point that there are a decent number of us who aren't happy with how things have been run around here... The ones who haven't been banned or pressured into silence anyway. Stuff needs to change, and before you go about making some rash-as-fuck decision, try asking us what WE want first. TL-DR: Staff isn't doing their job right.
Personally, I see no immediate and catastrophic problem with the staff. Admittedly, I haven't really been on much lately because of life, but I think they're doing the best they can with the time and patience they have. If you don't like that Kaz gets to pick who joins up as staff, maybe another position can be created, and players can be voted into it from the community. There have been too many of these kinds of threads. And don't read too deep into that, there have just been too many that bring up this problem. I think it's important for everyone to remember that, above all else, this is a video game in an online community made up of people from everywhere who just want to have fun. And please, please, please don't blow up this thread with ever increasing threats or accusations. It just leads to bad things. We all know it. If you have an opinion, share it civilly. Please.
Cole, I respect your opinion and the fact you're trying to diffuse a potentially hazardous situation, but if I came off as aggressive I didn't mean it that way. I also didn't meant to threaten anyone if it seems like I am. This thread is meant to address, for the people who have been a victim of some of the staffs inability to function effectively, the various issues concerning how the staff behave and act and try to draw out a solution.
So far the staff haven't acted on anything that hasn't been reported both formally and informally by several players, so claiming we don't act in the community's interest is fairly ridiculous. I assure you anything and everything the staff has done has been with the sole intention of making the server more enjoyable for everyone, not just ourselves. And please don't make me explain why we banned mute and wreth again. Not only I have done this several times, I feel it should be fairly obvious.
I'm not saying I entirely disagree, but the fact that you're arguing for less strict moderation right after they finally stopped cutting you slack for your power gaming on P8/M-4X makes it hard to take this post seriously.
Sorry, Diehard, I disagree with your thread. Often times issues are reported by players and they keep anonymous about it. As for proof, if I ever have an issue, I tend to submit pictures of the infraction. Sometimes staff have to make an executive decision when a lot of people are unhappy with the way things are going. It's likely going to piss someone off, but not doing something is just going to exacerbate the problem in most cases. It's a tough, thankless job being the one who says 'Okay, Tommy. A slap on the wrist isn't working, we're moving up to spankings.' As for the list of banned you gave, Darkwill is no longer banned, if information serves. He can come back whenever he likes. Likewise, I can't think of anyone who's banned that doesn't belong on the list. I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but there seems to be a lot of malice toward the system in your post. I assume since you said you're speaking for more than just yourself that you're taking opinions from more than one source. It doesn't make it fact, however. Part of the reason that staff is so slow to act is because they do things deliberately and slowly, gathering facts and taking input from each other and the community. Just because you aren't necessarily privy to the same information and conversations they're having doesn't mean they're not doing investigations. As for the accusation that staff is only appointed because they're well-liked, that's just not true. Staff are selected based on the votes of current staff, and if I recall correctly, Kaz only votes in case of a tie. I think. That may need backing up. Anyhoot, long story short, there are a few things staff could work on, I agree, but I don't think appointment, bans, or investigation are those things. They're doing fine, considering this isn't their job. This is their hobby, and again, it's rather thankless.
Honestly in agreement given recent events, I'm essentially being punished for someone breaking the rules against me. Plus the fact that I was never even spoken to about what decision was made, I had to hear from someone else by explicitly asking for some kind of response, and I wasn't involved in a discussion about my own colony (I was actually told to not get involved). Not only this, but the staff are seemingly oblivious to the fact that people are ganging up on me all over. Before that little gang comes in and starts disagreeing with my post and responding negatively, I want to point out that the events that happened aren't as important as how it was handled. If I was brought into a conversation to begin with it would have been resolved almost instantly. Instead, the staff decided it was their place to decide how I'm meant to run my own colony and chose to make decisions without hearing both sides. People may wonder why I'm so angry over it, there's some insight right there. It all points to a clear lack of respect for players (or maybe just a few certain players, which is even more to the point) and that the staff believe that they've above the common community member. It only seems to enforce Patriot's point here. Unrelated to my previous points, it has been theorised that the staff will often avoid dealing with situations when they happen because they believe someone else will deal with it, as they operate on an 'everyone does some of everything' policy rather than giving every staff member set duties to fulfill. Okay, I'm going again byyyeeeeeeeee
Theorize all you like. I don't think I'm above anybody here. I don't think that any other member of Staff feels they're above anybody. We do our best with the time, energy, and resources we have. Never can everyone ever be satisfied, that's just the way things work in life. Still, we try to do things "right" by ensuring everybody gets fair treatment, even if they've been total douchebags in the past. That's not to say that we'll put up with continued douchebaggery, however. There is a line, but you'll know if you cross it. We're not going to intentionally ban you out of the blue. There should always be warnings, always signs. We follow our values, values which incorporate fairness and equality. Sorry if you don't feel like things are working out that way. Dunno what else to tell you. I've got to get back to work.
We really should include the community on a lot more things, get input, ideas and opinions from you guys when we can, it's something we have a bad habit of overlooking when we make decisions, you guys always have great ideas! It's something we are working on, and threads like this help, honestly, they act as a good wake up call, and even though we don't always act like it, we do appreciate the criticism in the long run. However, something about all this that bothered me on a more personal level, the Coronae Eclipse, The faction actually IS a part of the holy fleet faction from before, as it is currently run by almost all the people that used to run the fleet before. The faction that I literally advertised as 'Holy Fleet 2.0' when it was still being written, those are my exact words that you are sarcastically coughing at me as if they are some grand secret. The faction has died down a lot, but when it was made we had around 10 members. Most of its current members are members of staff, we are all friends and tend to roleplay together..but that doesn't make this mod abuse. I actually applied for this, I could even show you a screenshot of the application if you really need me to. But I don't really appreciate you slinging my personal affairs around as a way of making the staff look bad when the two things are entirely unrelated.
A lot of the confusion about mod bans seems to arise from our policy of anonymous accusations against other players. If the accused was never asked to stop by the accuser before they submitted a report, it would seem like a ban hammer/moderator activity comes out of nowhere to hit the accused. And many times it is easier to work with moderators than it is to try to reason with whoever is causing problems. Could it use more transparency? Maybe. But the last time we had publicly visible reports, issued bans, and ban appeals, there were enough immature people to make it quite unpleasant for everyone involved.
This seems like old hat. Current staff is decent and not terrible. It just seems like petty nitpicking at this point, especially considering the past when some issues may have been more legit.
Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Song out of the way. I was on the staff a while back (given I was just an application reviewer) I was still included in the staff chats and such and during that time the staff always wanted to know how the community would be impacted by any decision they made. I highly doubt Kazyyk would change that.
I'd like to throw my hat in on this because its something I've been fairly open about lately. I agree with the overall statement of DHP, although I don't agree with his arguments. Perhaps I am the only one that feels this way, but I would guess that I'm not completely alone in this sentiment. I find most of the staff alienating. In more recent times, its been a little better. But that isn't saying much. So first off, contacting staff. I've told quite a few of you at this point that you guys are absolutely terrible at responding to messages. I've sent messages, and waited weeks in the past before begging to be responded to. I'm told this is because internally, you're all on Skype at different times, and talking about things takes some time because you are not all on. This system strikes me as almost non-functional, especially considering I've had to wait for anyone to respond to my PM's begging to just know I haven't been swept under the rug. I don't know if you guys have to discuss the protocol regarding "Should we send Node a PM letting him know his issue is still pending? Or would that make staff look weak?" But seriously, half the time I just want to know I haven't been disregarded. While I'm on the talk of PM's let's talk staff functionality. Because when I want something done, it seems to take all seven people. The more people you add to a problem, the more time it takes. Antares already isn't a democracy, so I'm not quite sure I understand the need for the full staff council for relatively smaller issues. You guys are all so ready to have too many cooks in the kitchen all the time. Everyone on staff has a generalized title, that let's them get involved in everything. Staff should either be whittled down to a small group that can make quick decisions, or be given more specific tasks. Having a lot of staff with equal authority only really benefits in game stuff, and most people squabble that out among themselves anyway. Moving on. The staff turnover on Antares is higher than a lot of other servers. I understand "We do this for free in our spare time" yadda yadda, but damn this staff turnover is high. Makes it hard to really get in touch with staff, because every time I start thinking "Heh, I'm starting to get to know the staff and that's cool", Antares splits in half creating a second server, the entire staff is nixed, or we ban an admin. Maybe this is all coincidence. But I have this aching suspicion that perhaps some of this is caused by an internal issue. Some sort of constant. I don't know, I haven't seen the internal nature of Antares, so I can only speculate. And I'll leave off with one last point. The PR misdirection. Every time I see someone bring up this issue with staff being broken, it's immediately diffused by staff, drawing attention away from the main points and issues. I even see it in this thread. Hell I could make an entire post breaking down every staff post in this thread, and how it's basically misdirecting. I only ever see one staff member who legitimately seems open to suggestion, and trying to fix issues. I won't single you out, but you know who you are. If you are on staff, and you read my post and write a reply, telling me why each of my opinions are wrong, you are not that person. You are also the problem. As I said, DHP's sentiment is alright, but he only criticized surface issues and suggested no solutions. The real problems with the staff lay a bit deeper. It's clearly a matter of method and internal issues. The staff is slow, they are uncommunicative, and they constantly deny problems in the system. Revise systems to improve efficiency. Cut the fat. Remove extra cooks from the kitchen.
I agree. Staff is slow mainly due to long discussions and a democratic structure. We're all equals in opinion and that's a problem. We have no authority in a given situation without the rest of staff and that is a problem. That problem lies in the fact that we, like many humans are, are afraid to act independently. We like reassurance and like to be sure that we will not be reprimanded by the rest of staff. I can only promise that we are doing what we can. That I am doing what I can. I see opinions here and take them to heart for consideration and can only think that other staff members are doing the same.
This is just a tinderbox stuffed full of tnt doused in liquid methane. i cannot comment on recent events so i can't really discuss recent server and form moods but since i've been on here, i would have to agree with Diehard about staff not communicating with the players about bans and kicks.i will freely admit that i've been banned a couple of times and out of those 3-4 times, i could have called in question about 2 of those and that was most likely due to kinda quick decisions and miscommunication. Looking at this logically, you can't say that everything and everyone is sunshine and rainbows. Every staff member has made mistakes and all of them have personally beliefs and opinions that may jade them without them knowing it. Its only human, despite the races we so very well act out. Except Kaz, Hes a master level kobold wizard who runs the server on a rick roll vintage vinyl disc thats constantly spinning. Other then that. I think its just a matter of communications. Thats all from me on the matter *Shrug*
In my time as a moderator, everyone who was banned received a PM on the forums explaining what rule(s) they broke and how they broke them. They were also told they can appeal the ban in the ban appeals forum with a link given to it, which allows them to argue their case and for moderators to explain even further the reason(s) for the ban. Now other people won't know why the banned player is banned unless the banned player chooses to share this information themselves. But the person being banned has been told explicitly why they were banned. Unless this practice has changed, but I really, really doubt it has. Edit: Of course, there was the awkward phase where people would get banned without being told waaaaaaay back in the early days when I was just a new player and it was all super messy without functioning whitelists. But moderation has come a very long way since then.
