Guides, rules, etiquette for current members of Staff

A comprehensive guidebook for new and experienced staff members alike. Written by — SkullTraill – Staff Co-ordinator, Director of Economy, Director of Discipline, etc. For info on becoming staff, please read How to become Staff.

Roles and Responsibilities

Helper

This rank could be considered, but is not always, a trainee staff rank. Players in this rank have been selected by more senior staff as mature, responsible, level-headed and prepared to help other players. Becoming helper is the first step in the Staff track, and is your chance to prove that you are ready for more responsibility. There are a few command privileges this rank has, but not many, as is reflected by the fewer responsibilities. This position is not about what you have to do, it's about proving yourself. Responsibilities include:

  • Teaching new members things about the server, such as; how to region claim, rank requirements, unofficial rules
  • Being very active and using your new abilities to observe members, and report any suspicious or malicious behaviour to your superiors
  • Helping Inquisitors or Moderators when they need it
  • Monitor for griefing
  • Respond to players asking for help
  • Learn more about what it is to be a Staff member
  • Go out of your way to show us that you are ready for more

Inquisitor

This is the senior Staff rank, players who have made it here have either been voted in through an inquisitor election, or have been directly promoted due to recognition of exceptional services provided to our server. This is not a fun job, you have very serious responsibilities and duties as an inquisitor. You will gain significant privileges and commands, and while it is not a requirement, it is often observed that players who make this rank shift from all play, to mostly work/staffing and a little occasional playing. Responsibilities include:

  • Promoting players after extensive observation and thoroughly checking that they have met the rank requirements
  • Handling problematic players
  • Mentoring helpers, and helping players when a helper is unable to/isn't online
  • Regularly liaising with helpers to identify and prevent potential problems, and reacting accordingly
  • Monitor for griefing, and react accordingly, reprimanding the offended in a suitable manner, and questioning them
  • Report all actions taken to the appropriate section of the forum, and to your superior officer for further actioning
  • Respond to players asking for help
  • Carry out tasks that are delegated to you from superior officers

Moderator

This is the absolute highest rank for Staff on this server. It is planned to be phased out, due to the fact that training and handling of staff is now has it's own “department” and is handled by the title of “Staff Co-ordinator”, who will be an administrator. However it is still currently in use, and although has very little in addition to the inquisitor rank, has a few extra responsibilities. The member(s) of this rank can be considered an “Assistant Staff Co-ordinator” and have some limited authority over other staff, however always trumped by the senior Staff Co-ordinator. Responsibilities include:

  • Same as inquisitor plus the following,
  • The very rare banning of a player if administrators are not available to handle it, however should be avoided at all costs, because banning a player will take the whole case into administrative tribunal and if found that the ban was handled incorrectly there will be serious repercussions
  • Mentoring inquisitors and helpers and guiding them if you see them handling a situation in a non-optimal manner
  • Taking of leader when there are no Management level (Manager, Admin) personnel online
  • Leading the staff as Assistant Staff Co-ordinator when Staff Co-ordinator is not online

Promoting

One of the primary duties of Staff is the promotion of players. Promotion is vital for the player experience, as it provides progression and a sense of achievement, and therefore it is vital that all our players are rightfully promoted when they meet the requirements. However great care should be taken when promoting players that you do not promote them when they haven't fully met the requirements for the next rank, it's becomes a real hassle if a player has to be demoted due to being wrongly promoted, and it would make them understandably upset. For this reason please pay close attention to this section.
There is already a resource available for information on ranks, and all staff should have the Ranking for Dummies page bookmarked and easily accessible. It provides general information about all the ranks, and while slightly outdated, should give you a good idea of what each rank represents, and will help you answer any questions other players have about ranks.
That being said, more detailed, accurate and up to date information on ranking requirements specifically can be found as follows:

Restrict

We'll go more into this rank in the Disciplinary Actions section of this document. It's lower than default, and is basically a “jail rank”.

Default

This is the rank all members start with when they join the server for the first time. There are no requirements.

Citizen

This is a special questing rank. Do not promote anyone to this rank, skip it and go to merchant unless you really know what you are doing.

Merchant

Merchants are players who've spent a little time on the server, got to know the basics and ready to start getting serious with the server. The requirements are:

  • Have a house (a house constitutes: at least 4 walls that are not dirt, a work bench and a chest - at the very least)
  • A balance that is not $100 (starting cash) to show that the player has taken interest in the server and started dabbling with the economy
  • A region (ideally one that covers their house) - make sure they haven't just selected the floor, make sure it covers at least one whole building and is more than 4 blocks in EACH axis (x, y and z) use a feather to check several blocks around the area to make sure of this

Soldier

This rank is for players who've displayed basic combat skills. The requirements are:

  • Full set of iron or diamond armour, enchants not required
  • [IGNORE] Be a member of someone else's region – due to low activity levels these days, this requirement is no longer in effect
  • The loot of 5 different hostile mobs, do not be fooled by taking into account 2 different items dropped by the same mob or by items that can be obtained or crafted without killing mobs. The amounts required are as follows (note: players only need to fulfill 5 of the following):
    • Skeleton — 20 bones
    • Zombie — 25 rotten flesh
    • Spiders — EITHER 20 string OR 10 spider eyes
    • Creeper — 20 gunpowder
    • Enderman — 10 ender pearls
    • Slime — 20 slime balls
    • Magma Cube — 20 magma cream
    • Blaze — 10 blaze rods
    • Witch — 10 spider eyes
    • Zombie Pigman — 25 rotten flesh

Knight

This is a special questing rank. Do not promote anyone to this rank, skip it and go to wizard unless you really know what you are doing.

Wizard

This rank is for players who have established themselves as long term members of this server with respectable economic, combat and social achievements. Requirements are as follows:

  • At least $50,000 in game balance
  • A region with:
    • A large (at least approx. 50×50) building, has to be fairly well designed, with decent exterior and interior
    • At least one member in the region excluding the person being promoted (use feather to find the region name, then use /region info <region name>)
  • A moderately complex redstone machine, can be any kind of machine, not necessarily a trap, but it can't be something simple like an automatic door — use your judgement, “would Skull approve this?”

Assassin/Paladin

These are special questing ranks, due to disabled NPC and questing plugins, there is no clear path to this rank. Occasionally given out by Administrators to worthy candidates.

Elementalist

Highest obtainable non-donator/staff rank available. DO NOT PROMOTE ANYONE TO THIS RANK unless specifically instructed to by a Staff Co-ordinator (SkullTraill). Elementalist promotions are handled exclusively by SkullTraill for the reason that there are several non-tangible requirements that need to be individually and collectively judged by a highly experienced personnel.

How to deal with accidental promotions

Of course we are all human, and we make mistakes. If you accidentally promote someone to a rank they do not deserve, follow this course of action:

  1. If you realise immediately after making the mistake (i.e. within 2 minutes of accidentally promoting someone), just correct the situation by quickly /demote'ing the player
  2. Otherwise, a significant amount of time has passed since the mistake, and the user has adjusted to their new rank, do not demote them. In this case, you'll have to explain to the user that a mistake was made, and in order for them to progress to the next rank, they'll have to complete the current rank's requirements in addition to the next rank's requirements
  3. If you accidentally promoted someone to the Wizard or Elementalist rank, demote them as soon as possible
  4. Always report to a senior officer, explain the mistake you made, and what actions you took to correct it

Time frames for promotions

By normal standards, any player may receive only one promotion per day. It is your duty as staff to verify this. If you've met a player for the first time, and are about to promote them, but find it hard to trust them that they haven't been promoted earlier the same day, it would be wise to wait until the next day and promote them to ensure the system is not being abused. If a player is showing exceptional skill and charisma, you can use your better judgement and promote them twice in one day, but this is only to be used in exceptional cases.

Punishments, disciplinary actions and demoting

This, along with promoting players, is the key responsibility for any Staff. Almost all of the following only applies to Inquisitor+ ranked members, because Helpers have much fewer commands at their disposal. If you are a helper, you can assist by reporting any disciplinary issues to a higher ranking staff, with details you have noted down. The following are the types of punishment and what sort of offenses will warrant them.

Verbal Warnings

For minor offenses, like excessive swearing, disrespectful behaviour and non-role play killing (excessive killing without a purpose) you may verbally warn the offender, and do one of the following:

  • /burn them for a short period of time
  • Engage in combat with them (careful not to go overboard, do not kill them repeatedly)
  • For excessive swearing and verbal abuse you may mute the offender for up to 24 hours
  • For excessive non roleplay killing you may jail the offender for up to 12 hours

Muting

If a player is being uncontrollably rowdy on the chat, especially when there are young children online, you may mute them for up to 24 hours. Make sure to always set a time limit like so: /mute chadinha 5 hours/minutes. Never mute someone without putting a time limit on.

Kicking

Generally unnecessary, you may kick an offender occasionally to send a message, but it does not achieve anything because they will just rejoin. Ideal for warning cheaters.

Fines

Can be applied to almost any offense. Using sudo commands, you may take $100 - up to $100,000 out of a players balance (for anything more than that, contact the Staff Co-ordinator). This is especially handy for punishing Elementalists and donators. Don't go overboard with jailing them because they have achieved a lot on this server. However feel free to fine them a appropriate amount if they are being troublesome.

  • Chat violations – $100 - $50,000
  • Non roleplay killing – $5000 per kill
  • Stealing items – the worth of the stolen items + $1000 (if the total is more than $100,000 then refer to a senior officer)
  • Grinding/cheating – anything upto $100,000
  • Grief – Jail, no fine

Jailing

Jailing is primarily used to correct repeat offenders of the above crimes, and to punish griefers. Any griefing should be punished with a jail sentence appropriate to the amount of grief (1 hour - up to 48 hours, any more will be decided by a ranking officer). As with all punishments, you must report it on the forums. Care must be taken when picking a jail to send a player to. Please only use the following:

Offense Jail to use Time frame
Verbal abuse/chat violations spawn 1 hour to 12 hours for repeat offenders
Spam killing and stealing cybertron OR jail3 upto 12 hours
Griefing mars OR biome upto 48 hours
Using cheats/clients/grinding jail1 OR any of the above upto 48 hours

Demoting

For extreme repeat offenders, and cheaters and griefers who have been warned but still continue, you may demote them one rank per offense until they end up as Restrict. Only to be used as worst case scenario.

Banning

Banning is no longer allowed. Unless a player poses immediate threat to the server (hacked their way up the ranks, or bypassing server security) no one is to be banned. If a staff bans a player, the case is immediately taken into Staff Tribunal, and if the staff member is found to be in the wrong, they will face demotion.

Special Procedure for Donators and Elementalists

Due to their contributions to the server, players of these ranks should be given several warnings before serious action is taken against them, with the exception of griefing, for which they should be jailed like every one else. Take care not to upset players of these ranks.

Time Frames

  • Mutes — max 24 hours
  • Jail — max 48 hours

Failure to adhere to these time constraints (forgetting to set a time limit/ setting one higher than these) will result in serious repercussions for the staff member in question.

Staff Abuse

This is a touchy topic, but needs to be covered. The majority of our player base, including some of our Staff are in their tweens and teens. We are all human, and we all have emotions, but you have to understand no matter what, that you are Staff and you have responsibilities and obligations to be an upstanding example. You've been given power and you can't let your emotions cloud your judgement or bias you in any way to use these powers for something that upset you personally. Allegations of staff abuse are taken very seriously, and if a member of staff is found to be using staff powers to resolve personal issues they will immediately be put into probation, and any repeat offenses will result in demotions/terminations. Please read this wonderful post by xPhoenixXx for guidance on this matter.

Staff Probation

Staff probation is a period of time when a staff member is under close scrutiny and is closely monitored. This can occur due to two reasons:

  • Staff member is newly appointed
  • Staff member has been punished by the tribunal

In either case, while on probation, the concerned staff member must make every attempt to behave in an exemplary manner, and perform their staff duties to their absolute best ability.

Record Keeping

Documentation of your actions as a staff member is vital for the smooth running of the server. It serves to keep all members of staff updated, and to prevent any disputes or misunderstandings.

Ranking

Currently record keeping for promotions is not top priority, however this will be changed in the near future, and all staff will soon be required to record every single /promote on the ranking board.

Punishments

All punishments except verbal warnings absolutely must be recorded on the Crimes, Punishments and Appeals section of the website. Please follow The punishment notice guidelines when posting in that section.

Do's and Don'ts

Essentially this is a summary of the values on this page. Remember this as it should be part of your core psyche.

Do

  • Be polite to all players, especially your superiors — insubordination will not be tolerated under any circumstance
  • Read this whole god–damned document please, and bookmark it, and refer to it when ever you are in doubt
  • Always try and document your actions, especially for punishments (read above)
  • Remain in a level head while you are staffing the server – no emotional outbursts please
  • Always administer the correct punishment for the offense
  • Go out of your way to help players who need it
  • If in doubt, ask a member of management — ideally Staff Co-ordinator (SkullTraill) — “What would Skull do? Would he approve this?”

Don't

  • Overpunish people — 24 hour jail for saying “f**k” in chat is just unacceptable
  • Let your personal or emotional issues influence or bias your decision making
  • Upset your superiors
  • Abuse your powers for personal gail
  • Forget your responsibilities
  • Be lazy

Command Guidebook

Staff Tools

 
guide_for_current_staff_7.txt · Last modified: 2015/01/19 13:56 by skulltraill
 
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