Archived Improving Relations Between Players And Staff

[BenRekt]

Pretty self exclamatory, I have a few ideas that I believe would improve relations between players and staff.

This is mainly provoked by punishments that I and many of my friends have received in the past week (which I will not go into specifically). A common complaint between most (if not all) of us is that we received little to no specific warning before being smacked in the face with a punishment.

I believe that if the staff would /warn specific people, and within said warning, state what the offending player is doing that is against the server's rules and what punishment will follow if they fail to comply with the rules, many punishments would be easily avoided, thus being better for everyone.

I get that staff do this to some extent, but giving a generic warning in global chat does not have the same effect as taking the time to issue a warning to a specific player along with what they are doing wrong. I believe that staff would find it more beneficial to warn people individually than to issue "warnings" to the whole server.

Furthermore, there are many cases where I respectfully believe that staff have reacted too quickly in their dealings with delicate situations, especially in recent weeks (particularly in sanctioning Deldrimor and Raptum), instead of looking for more diplomatic solutions such as issuing a simple warning or pulling a player aside and simply stating what they are doing wrong, and what will follow if they do not halt what they are doing.

Most players and (I believe) staff want everyone to have the most enjoyable time possible, however with the current state of communication between players and staff, I do not believe this is possible (hence why I suggested my ideas in the first place).

This thread is only intended as constructive criticism, not to dispute current (or past) bans. Please do not bring personal disputes into the situation, as it will only devolve into flame.

Sincerely,
Someone looking to further everyone's enjoyment on Massive.

 

[MonMarty]

We appreciate your suggestion and feedback. I had some things worth noting in reply though that you may have missed:

1.) Warnings are /always/ issued to new offenders. We press it very tightly onto our staff members that first time offenders must receive a specific descriptive warning. They go trough a 23 page document for a month of pre-training before given access to commands to moderate. Now here's where the difference comes in: Regulars don't receive warnings anymore. It stands to reason that a player who repeatedly gets punished for the same offence simply doesn't care about the warning or punishment, should know better, and doesn't deserve a warning anymore. You and your friends (presumably) have been on the server for months/years, and I know (with limited perspective because I am not part of Game Staff) is that this "crowd" generally makes the same offences over and over, thus receiving no warning because they should really know better.

2.) Staff moderation is also sort of on a basis of mutual respect. MassiveCraft as a server doesn't ask players to respect staff members, after all, respect can only be earned, not forced. By virtue of their work, staff members deserve respect in my eyes, but I can't tell someone to be nice to a staff member purely on that merit, because perhaps their sense and value of merit is different. Either way, receiving a warning is not a "right" of a player. In fact nowhere in the rules or the codex does it specify that staff members under any circumstances should issue warnings and not go straight to punishments. Warnings are usually reserved for well behaved players or players who simply don't know better, make a first offence or are generally a positive influence on the community and make a slip up. When it concerns a crowd that frequently ridicules staff, makes shitty videos accusing one of child pedophilia and denouncing a whole slew of them as incompetent shitty staff members, take pride in being able to skirt around the rules and not get punished, have little circle-jerks where they talk trash about staff members, it also stands to reason that staff may feel inclined not to give those players extra privileges. Being warned is a privilege, not a right.

I'll make a quick sub-note on the matter of rule violations and whether staff should play nicer towards player who break the rules. Should this really even be a debate? Why is the basic premise of this discussion that rule violations are going to happen and that staff should act less harsh about them? Why can't this debate be about how to prevent players from breaking the rules to begin with? The rules are simple and concise, most of the people that violate the rules are already well aware that these rules are in place and for those who don't, on some level they surely must realize that by ridiculing, trolling or otherwise trashing another player and being an asshole, they are violating some sort of common sense.

I understand the perspective you're coming from, but I hope the explanation above gives you some insight why you might feel you receive no or less warnings than averagely new players, or players who generally don't give staff such a hard time.

EDIT: On a quick side note, reminders were issued to the Game staff. I see some gray zone in "general warnings" when there is a bunch of trashing flame in General chat. Game staff in such cases often make a message in General warning players instead of being pinpoint specific and issuing actual warnings. They have been reminded now to issue physical warnings, but aside from this I don't really see a need to do anything else.

 

[Arvallon]

I may have some suggestion. However I am not intirely certaint if this is in place yet.
Its not like I generaly over step the line. But incase I do. I would like to know what I did. So I can avoid doing it again in the future.
I remember being banned once. Not intirely certaint why or if it actualy was on massive... But knowing your mistake helps allot in understand why a particular person gets punished.

The only reason I say this is because I once did got punished but didn't know or could find out what it was for. You probably can understand that is very frustrating. So only incase you aren't already doing this, Do make sure that a player Always can see why he was punished. For example your banned and when you try to log on you see: You were banned for doing A. Or when your muted and your trying to type you get: You were muted for B.

I know you generaly give warnings beforehand so. most of the time we know what we did wrong. But just incase...
And if this is too much to do, I understand. Its not like violaters should get all the luxury. But as I earlier mentioned in my case. It could prevent confusion in some cases.

I hope this was a helpfull note ;3

 

[Ampers07]

Only thing I wanna add is about the Warnings in general chat... I personally don't keep many if any other channels in focusing while I'm say rping, so for example I would have no clue if I was being warned in general...

 

[Beetletoes]

Only thing I wanna add is about the Warnings in general chat... I personally don't keep many if any other channels in focusing while I'm say rping, so for example I would have no clue if I was being warned in general...\

Click to shrink...

I just have Local and Event.

 

[Zacatero]

Only thing I wanna add is about the Warnings in general chat... I personally don't keep many if any other channels in focusing while I'm say rping, so for example I would have no clue if I was being warned in general...

Click to shrink...

When you say "warnings in general chat" what are you referring to? Like can you give an example?

If you are referring to the general warnings like:

"Stop flaming" or "if this continues people will be muted"

I don't see how they apply to you if you are roleplaying. And to be honest I doubt the staff read each name that's involved in the warning. I would assume they just pay attention to names after the fact to see who doesn't follow the warning.

 

[Ampers07]

When you say "warnings in general chat" what are you referring to? Like can you give an example?

If you are referring to the general warnings like:

"Stop flaming" or "if this continues people will be muted"

I don't see how they apply to you if you are roleplaying. And to be honest I doubt the staff read each name that's involved in the warning. I would assume they just pay attention to names after the fact to see who doesn't follow the warning.

Click to shrink...

Right... I can see how the staff might not be able to be aware of each player involved but be paying attention to the ones who don't follow the warning...

What I was talking about was being wrapped up in a RP and being warned for something that would apply... like being warned for griefing something that day/week/whenever or being warning for meta or such related RP problems...

 

[ImOffended]

I would appreciate trigger warnings.