Administration Rules and Guidelines - Required Reading for ALL ADMINS

Well hi there! Shadowds here to bring you what you need, a better, more efficient administration staff in The Shine!

Pleasant.

Well I apparently caught the eye of our beloved Ownership, namely Trollerism, Meowbert, and RNK, with something I had posted somewhere in here about there needing to be rules and guidelines for admins published, thus better ensuring a member and guest-friendly experience for...well our members and guests.

You might be asking yourself "Why bother with that?"
Good question. The answer is simple enough. More fun = more players = better potentiality for profits. Also the Admiralty (people in charge) will be getting tired of hearing constant complaints about new admins sooner or later, and even some admins, misusing and/or abusing their admin commands.

And so I now bring you some hopefully helpful tips, guidelines, and ultimately rules to follow as an administrator. If you can follow them, you should probably not run into any trouble and at the same time ensure that everyone has a good time in our servers. Fantastic. I'll be breaking this into two main sections, the tips and guidelines, and then the rules and punishments for not adhering to them. Well let's dive in!

Administrative Tips and Guidelines

This section is to lay out the general things to remember as an admin. Ways of acting, really, rather than actions themselves. Should be a short list since the tips cover ways of thinking, which in turn should govern a majority of actions taken.

• Less is More - The less you're using admin, the more fun people will have.
  
• When in Doubt, Check or Ask - If you're not sure about a rule(s), type motd to check the general server rules for each of our servers, or if you need to, feel free to ask a senior administrator such as Trollerism, Meowbert, and RNK or any other admin who knows their stuff. They should be able to clarify any gray areas.
  
• BE RESPECTFUL! - This is a big one. I've personally witnessed several admins baiting players into disrespecting them by using harsh language or being generally rude and singling people out, so that they could then get a ban on the individual for admin disrespect. This does nothing but make admins look bad and immature.
  
• Be PATIENT - This is one a lot of people struggle with (including me). It's easy to ban someone for being disrespectful...it's hard to let a rude comment slide and give a warning instead. But that's what you need to do. Use the three strikes guideline in this scenario.
  
• Three Strikes - For any really minor infringements, just let it slide with a warning. An example would be players disrespecting others. Don't take administrative action the first time it happens, instead just remind the person(s) that Shine servers are FRIENDLY servers where we try to make sure everyone has a good time. Overt and unwelcome rudeness usually stops after a simple warning. If it doesn't, then after the second time tell them if they don't desist in being unkind, you'll have to take administrative action against them to enforce the rules. It should only be after that that if they don't get it, you should use admin commands to get through to them.
  
• Use the Forums - These forums are an important resource for Shine  Familiarize yourself with the forums themselves and as many of Shine's membership as you can. Get to know what you're a part of here. It's a good idea.
  

Keeping those things in mind should go a long way to helping our staff be better administrators.


Rules for Administration and Punishments

Rules

• You must be respectful to all players. You represent Shine in our servers, and acting like a jackass is intolerable. Be nice.
  
• Warn on first transgression, kick/slay on second, ban only after that. Severity is dependent on the infraction (IE instant ban for hacks, warn system for mouthing off to an admin).
  
• If the person is a repeat offender (every time so-and-so comes into Mini games ghosts where other players are in gun game, or hunt) then you may skip the warn, but you must still do step 2 before proceeding to 3.
  
• Your allowed to slap yourself but not others without permission
  Trollerism, Meowbert, and RNK Meowshouse.net/  admin are allow to do it but not to other players without permission! 
  
• In servers where the give command is enabled, Giving yourself weapons/cash is advantaging yourself over non-admin players please do not use them unless you are giving them to all players so its fair
  
• In servers where the set speed/gravity or hp commands are useable, do not use them.  There's no reason to mess with speed/gravity or health, the game is fine the way it is.
  
• The Slap command is only to be used to get someone's attention if they aren't listening to an admin. Use it very sparingly, if you are seen in the logs slapping someone more than 5 times in 3 seconds, you will be investigated and possibly punished. One or two slaps should be more than enough to get someone's attention. If they don't listen after that, there's a rule for that (Listen to Administrators) and you may kick them.
  
• When you kick someone, only kick them once. Don't keep kicking them when they rejoin. One kick, then wait and see if they obey the rules. If they break the same rule again, THEN you can take the proper administrative action. If you're seen kicking someone multiple times in a short period of time, questions will be raised.
  
• No baiting allowed. This means don't push someone to try and make them break a rule so you can take administrative action against them.  This was mentioned before. It's to be taken seriously.
  
• Make an enemy a friend. If you find that it seems someone just doesn't like you, start talking to them about anything and everything. You'll find that you probably enjoy a lot of the same things and become friendly. This works great on the internet and in real life. It also avoids a lot of crap.
  
• Help out other admins. Some people are terrible admins. It's just how it is. Teach them how to do things right rather than bash them for not knowing something. This applies to a lot of things in life as well. Being able to do this is a sign of good leadership.
  
• Ask for help. This was mentioned before as well, but it's important enough to mention again. If you're not sure about a situation or a rule, or if there's not a rule for something that's going on, then ASK someone about it. You'll usually find at least one of the senior staff members on at any given time, usually more than one is on. If for some reason you don't think you can find someone who would know what to do, then use your BEST judgment and try not to do anything rash.
  
• If a vote fails, do not carry out the item in the vote. For instance, if you make a vote to change to X map, and the server's populace votes against it, even if only by 1 vote, then don't change the map to that map. Don't remake the same failed vote again either, for a bit. How long is a bit? Depends on the vote. Just be sure not to be spammy with the votes. And try to keep junk votes to a minimum, if possible.
  Junk Vote Example:"Is Admin's awesomeness awesomer than urs?" "1Yes" "2Yes" "3***" "4Yes" "5Charles Dunst" "6ADMIN RULES!"
  
• Do NOT use admin commands on other admins. If you see someone abusing/misusing their admin commands, then immediately begin recording a demo of it, and after you've started recording, tell them to desist. The Owners will handle abusive admin cases if they persist in a server.
  
• You Must do Research! Since everything is VAC-secured now, when/if you want to dish out a serious ban, say longer than 6 hours, you HAVE to be sure about it, that means having sufficient evidence for the severity of the infringement. Demos work nicely to that end. Get used to spectating and demo'ing people if you think they might be glitching/scripting/hacking.
  

Punishments

These are general, in some cases there may be more or less dire consequences.

1st Transgression will lead to a warning and familiarization with the rules.

2nd Transgression will lead to a restriction of commands for a week (only kick). 

3rd Transgression will lead to temporary loss of administrative privileges for one week, then training and supervision with restricted admin for a week before full commands are restored.

4th Transgression will generally lead to the loss of administrative capabilities, permanently. You may or may not be allowed to re-buy admin, depending on Chuck's ruling.


This means that you will generally have four chances to prove yourself, or lose the privilege of representing the Shine.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to voice them here or contact one of the senior staff members via pm or on steam.


 Thanks for reading and good luck! 

Good job! (: Keep up the good work 

Very nice as much as I hate reading haha I did read most of it ill have Meowbert and RNK read it.

Mr.Troller is lazy  basically haha

Trollerism wrote:Very nice as much as I hate reading haha I did read most of it ill have Meowbert and RNK read it.

Read the whole thing.

My boy meowbert getting work done

Meowbert wrote:

Trollerism wrote:Very nice as much as I hate reading haha I did read most of it ill have Meowbert and RNK read it.

Read the whole thing.

Thank you for Reading hope you can tell me what you think.

J.R wrote: My boy meowbert getting work done

At least someone did it lol.

Yeah! got to get more active in forums.

J.R wrote:Yeah! got to get more active in forums.

Yes starting with you inviting your friends onto the forums and servers.

Trying catch up to you on forums lol

Be a lot better if you invite your friends then you might pass me.

I still wont. lol

Then you won't be passing me any time soon.