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Suggestions for staff conduct.... etc...

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 6:45 pm
by Sun Wukong
Allow me to present you with a simple example where you my reader get to sit at the role of Player A.
Any Generic BGTSCC DM: We accuse you of something.

Player A: Okay, what is that something? What is this about?

Any Generic BGTSCC DM: We cannot tell you that. We need to protect the accuser and therefore we cannot divulge any more information. You are accused of something. We would very much like you to stop doing that something.

Player A: I have no idea what you are talking about. If I do not know what I have supposedly done, when I have done it, how on Earth do you think I act any differently?

Any Generic BGTSCC DM: We the DMs have considered what you have said and we have found you guilty of doing something. We have decided to ban you until Xth day of Yth month.
Now, I am not saying that it is impossible for Player A to convince the DM team that he has done no wrong, it is just highly unlikely without actually knowing when and what exactly he has been accused to have been done. But let us assume that Player A manages to do just that by some odd miracle. What do you think happens to Player A now?

Well, you should go over to the 'Courtesy Towards Staff' section on the server rules as it has the following quote on it:
If you have an issue with a staff ruling, don't argue with them but take your issue to the relevant staff member above them (Lead Moderator, QC Coordinator, Head DM, etc.).

In order to defend himself, Player A has clearly had an 'issue with a staff ruling' and to prove his innocence he has 'argued with the staff' instead of contacting the 'relevant staff member above them' whoever that might be in the byzantine hierarchy of BGTSCC. You would have to guess who that is, which in turn means you are 'fishing for a yes reply', and that is another rule violation. (And so on, and so on.)

The above quote is basically the old rule of 'Do not argue with DMs' phrased slightly differently.

Thus as a whole, what we are looking at is just a Kafka trap. You are damned if you, and you are damned if you do not. Clearly when you get accused of something on this server, you are expected to roll on your back and thank with glowing praise for the unavoidable punishment.

While it might make server rule enforcing relatively simple matter for the BGTSCC staff, it is also something that only creates nothing but feelings antipathy towards the server staff. But that is not all it does, because this is something makes player cliques necessary because you cannot really interact with players you do not think you can trust. Thus this practise that has no semblance of fairness is something that will drive players away. Just have a look at the servers that sit at 0/X number of players in the server list.

And yes, this an old practise on this server... It is unlikely to ever be changed... But the whole problem could be fixed rather easily. Let the accused know what they are accused of. Since accusations need to be posted on the forums, it is easy to just quote a PM and paste it to a new PM. The effort it takes is less than the hundreds custom icons I've done for this server...



Oh, and please tell your forum moderators that regular users cannot edit posts in locked threads, unless you are just looking for an excuse to ban someone... :roll:



Anyhow, this is probably the last thing I will have to do with this server. The staff of BGTSCC can pat their backs for driving yet another player away through their systematic griefing and bullying. Thus with me gone, the only real question left is who gets to be their next victim?



Or you know, perhaps change their code of conduct so the staff doesn't kill this server with the same toxicity that has killed so many servers before.

Re: Suggestions for staff conduct.... etc...

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 7:21 pm
by Aspect of Sorrow
Often times omission comes in the form of preventing escalation, there are probably additional cogs in spin that were addressed and each of them needing only to be individually concerned on and things leading up to this already has the responses sent out. If accusations are in play they probably have something to justify why it required it being handled this way.

It's not always favoring one side or the other until evidence is provisioned.

Re: Suggestions for staff conduct.... etc...

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:12 am
by Sun Wukong
From a lenghty PM I just wrote, I cannot be bothered to edit it... apart from few things that I did. Too late to edit the PM. Oh well, they can suffer the typos.
My amusement? I think I have been rather clear how I am not particularly fond of talking to DMs on this server. They can PM me on their regular accounts and I have no problem whatsover, but a single PM from a DM account is actually something I do not wish to even open. Interacting with the DMs here has never been a source of my amusement, quite the opposite in fact.

Far too often they approach me with things such as: 'We accuse you of something.' - and they have refused to go over to the actual specifics of the accusation. They have refused to tell me who filed the complaint, they have refused show me the actual complaint, and thus they have denied me any semblance of due process. I simply cannot defend myself, and trying to explain the absurdity of the situation often goes to deaf years. (Or to blind eyes since you are reading this, presumably.)

I would just ask you to spend a fleeting moment to consider what that is from my perspective. From my point of view the past few months prior to the accusation could have been without any notable issues. My experience of interactions could have been entirely cordial both in character and out of character. I honestly struggle to understand where the accusation is coming from. Which means that from my point of view there are only three possibilities:

A) The people who I have interacted with and often, and repeatedly are actually being two-faced, which means that their friendliness is just a cruel facade.

B) There is actually an invidual or a group that is out to get me for whatever reason, and they are just spamming false reports in order to use the DM team as their personal judge, jury, and executioner.

C) There are no real complaints and the DM or DMs in question have simply made it all up because they can, and whether they have an axe to grind or wish to abuse their position doesn't really make any difference.

All three possibilities poison the server, all three possibilities make me feel disgusted, and all three possibilities mean that the server doesn't really offer any amusement to me. Honestly, when I see a PM from a DM it simply makes me feel disgusted and violated even before I open it.

Oh, and did you know that many years ago I actually asked Luna to use NWN1 save game editor to edit the hair colour of one of my characters? It actually made it rather easy to counter the false accusations for a while. What is the race of the character? What is the colour of his hair? If the answer to these two questions wasn't, human and dark blue, it was false accusation. These days something like that is is no longer possible as people can use use some UI override to use whatever colours they like. But on the bright side, I guess that character of mine played a part in seeing the Deep Imaskar added... Now that I think of it in hindsight.

Re: Suggestions for staff conduct.... etc...

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:13 am
by Sun Wukong
Aspect of Sorrow wrote:It's not always favoring one side or the other until evidence is provisioned.
You have a practise that prevents evidence from being provided. That is the issue in a nutshell.