Jmana's Admin application (1.1) //DENIED//

Administration Archive Room
#1

Q1: BYOND KEY: jmana74

Q2: DISCORD ID: Jmana#6780

Q3: USUAL IC HANDLE: Jmana

Q4: EXPERIENCE WITH SS13: Playing consistently since 2019. Joined NSV January
2020. Became lore-coordinator in 2021

Q5: EXPERIENCE WITH ADMINISTRATION IN SS13: None.

Q6: YOUR TIME-ZONE:
PST.

Q7: AVERAGE AMOUNT OF HOURS ACTIVE PER WEEK:

Through the week? Maybe something like 20 hours. Weekends? Im almost never doing things,

Q8: YOUR MOTIVATION:

My motivation for becoming an admin is to enhance the quality of rounds with in-cannon lore, facilitate an environment for quality roleplay, and maintain the quality of the server and players by handling administration tickets.

Q9: Why do you think we should accept you over other applicants? Why do you think you are qualified? Why should we trust you?:

All in all, I want to pump life and high concepts into NSV. Initially, that came down to me playing believable and developed characters as a player, then It turned into writing lore so that others may create interesting, developed and believable characters. Now, I am at the stage where I’m starting to find that you can do a lot of good as an admin to create a that same kind of “suspension of disbelif” and that’s something I’d like to try out.

Q10: WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A STAFF MEMBER:

(I am already a staff member)
I wish to make a positive contribution to the community of NSV, in ways that I cannot already do as a player and lore-writer.

Q11: QUALITIES THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR A STAFF MEMBER:

-Consistency
-Temperance
-Faith in the Community
-Thick Skin
-Knowledge and awareness of personal bias

#1 When is it okay to Adminbus?

It’s generally alright to adminbus in pretty much any way that does not affect the balance of a round, or break the suspension of disbelief. A-bussing as a character, such as an admiral or another diplomatic envoy is a good example of this.

Adminbus becomes more tricky when you attempt to alter the balance of an active round. Things such as spawning enemies, creating lore-based objectives, spawning fleets and controlling enemy units, may be a fun and interesting way to make a unique round, however, this could also cause unintended side effects, such as overpowering/underpowering the crew, breaking the suspension of disbelief, or slowing down/crashing the server.

Overall, when it comes to Adminbus, less is more. If you plan to do something drastic, do not do it alone and do not do it without telling anyone.

#2 What is the purpose of antagonists and how much freedom should they have?

The Point of an antagonist is to add variation and challenge to a round. A antagonist should be something that the crew has to work together to defeat, It should be strong enough that it can’t be defeated by one person, but weak enough that it won’t overpower the crew or consider direct and open conflict to be a reasonable option.

#3 What would you do if you were accused of abusing your power / being unfair and how would you react?

Ask an Uninvolved but informed 3rd Party, that isn’t underneath my authority to look over the situation. If they determine that my actions were abuseful, I would recognize the mistake and how it affected others, apologize, and stride learn from it. People make mistakes, and admins are people too, however, that’s not an excuse to be reckless. If what you are doing is not in good faith, then it should not be done under any circumstance.

#4 What do you think qualifies as an abuse of power?

An abuse of power is defined as someone using their position of authority to oppress others in an inferior position, to induce them to break rules, or as a smokescreen for themselves to break rules. An abuse of power is generally done in bad faith, and can either be targeted at individuals, or against a collective. An abuse of power could also be done in good faith, however, this could be defined as more accidental than intentional.

#5 What is the purpose of staff and how do you think they should act?

The role of a staff member is:
-To Cultivate a Quality Community
-To manage and maintain the server in its operations
-To be a positive advocate and representative of the Project
-To be regularly active (however, the volume of said activity is, and should be at the staff member’s discretion.)

Changelog
1.0 - Accidentally submitted to Mentor apps
1.1 - Resubmitted To Proper Avenue + Additional Question Input Clarity.

#2

I guess I’ll ask some questions: (to come up with questions I quickly brainstormed some of the tougher scenarios I’ve dealt with)

  1. A player with a negative reputation on the server, past history with multiple offenses and multiple notes, the works, is reported via ahelp. The ahelper claims that this player just murdered them and one of their friends over a petty argument. How do you proceed?

  2. Command is terrible, and a player ahelps asking permission to mutiny, and makes a compelling case that it would be in the best interest of the ship to overthrow the current chain of command. Said player has 60h of captain and a good reptutation, but the ship is in very critical state both in terms of crew morale and departmental organization. How do you proceed?

  3. Engineering explodes in a plasma inferno and multiple ahelps come in with players reporting a certain person is responsible. However, due to a number of reasons (damage, lack of knowledge from some of the more esoteric admin tools, tiredness) you aren’t able to find compelling log evidence that said player is responsible. The accused player also ahelped one of the accusers earlier over an IC dispute that escalated into the accuser being put into crit after valid self defense, until his friends came to break up the fight. How do you proceed?

  4. Give a specific example of what you would do to “spice up” a dull round.

Please give an example of how someone could abuse power in good faith.

I think you're a good candidate, it's just that I like to pick people's brains and also to give you an idea of what you're getting into. :P
1 Like
#3

Sorry for the late response! i’ve been a bit busy with IRL: stuff and Loreteam stuff, so I’ve not been able to respond until now.

  1. Look at as much evidence as possible, first and foremost by checking the logs, and potentially asking other not-busy Administrators if they’re familiar with the player, in order to get the best possible idea of the type of person they are and the behavior they regularly exude before making a decision. Ideally, you’d want fair and equal punishment for the rule that was broken, but at times it may be necessary to set an example or to teach them a lesson if they’re a repeat offender. It all depends on context and severity.

  2. If command is so bad that a mutiny is actually considerable, then it can be extrapolated that the round has devolved enough that staging a mutiny wouldn’t cause the round to fall into a worse situation than it’s already in. Worst case scenario, everyone dies and you have to restart the round, best case scenario, you have a effective captain at the helm that’s willing to point the crew in a better direction. Depending on the scenario though, it may be more expedient to end the round, or cause the round to end so that someone else could get a chance to become a captain legitimately. It all depends on the scenario and how far into a round that you are, but the goal should be “the most fun for the most amount of people”.

  3. A team is not a single person, and multiple people scapegoating another player for what is potentially a meta-grudge is not something that should be taken lightly. Id also make the claim of “do not expect maliciousness when something can be explained with incompetence” at least, without proper evidence. In the situation of a meta grudge, the best possible thing that you can do is talk to both parties, leave a detailed note, and do the necessary “janitorial” work to get the round back on track / start a new one entirely if the damage is irreversible.

  4. Unique Ion laws, A-bussing in as a diplomat for a faction and giving them a “special mission”, spawning an antag, triggering a random event, etc. There’s a lot of creative thing that I think I could do, but I truly don’t know the limits and application of admintools in ss13.

  5. “The Road to hell is Paved with good Intentions”, But it’s still the road to hell.
    Someone may think they’re doing someone a favor by forcibly causing them to “rethink their life choices” (paraphrase), but that can lead to potential overcorrection and pinning the “star of shame” onto the rulebreaker, one they may learn to carry with pride. People will often justify bad actions/decisions with morality, or the claim of good intentions or faith, but that’s an excuse, one that all humans make. Just because you did it in good faith, doesn’t mean what you did was right.

#4

Your application to be an NSV administrator has been denied due to causing a conflict with your current status as Game Master, please refer to the headministrative staff if you think this was an error.

#5
#6