State of the SA:MP Staff Team

[TheGreasyChopper]

As I am unable to reach the respective leads on Discord, I'd like to bring up some constructive criticism over here and hear the rest of the players' opinion on this. It is obvious, that the SA:MP server is currently in a decent state with a stable playerbase of around 20-25 people on a daily basis(could be more, not sure how it is during working hours).

For the past year or so, during peaks and lowpoints, I have noticed numerous things, which I believe, more or less undermine the administrative position of the staff team. The main issue being numerous "gray areas" when applying the server rules. My understanding for the past decade here has been that the /rules are set in stone and are to be enforced by the staff team and as stated on occasions in the past - the admin's word is final.

Now, I do not wish to go back and nitpick every single situation which leads me to this mindset, however I have had many occasions in which the feedback and response from the admin team was questionable to say the least.

Just yesterday, I contacted staff to clarify some rules, giving them an example situation. The answer was clear - "This is rulebreaking". Having this confirmed from a staff member, I went ahead and filed the appropriate report on the respective player. Now, in the past, admins would accept the report and review the situation - giving their verdict in a timely manner(15 to 20 minutes tops after the report was accepted). What happened was a back and forth communication with 3 staff members. One of them confirmed that this is rulebreaking, however they could not come In Game and take the report. Now, the handling admin and I went back and forth and I was told that "these specific rules are unclear", while the other admin In Game specifically said that /rules are clear. The outcome of my report was quite disappointing and unfortunately based on my experience - the new standard. The report was closed and I was informed that "situations like this require a Senior Admin on scene", after which I was notified that no person in staff holds that position. Without any clarifications on whether or not the rule is still applicable, I was told to bring this up to HQ, with no proper way specified on how to contact said HQ.

Needless to say, this report was filed after an hour or two of back and forth in a scenario - with the other party's actions giving our side two opportunities: discontinue the situation and scenario or rulebreak. This was a textbook example of the rule against Encouraging Rulebreak, which simply states that "Intentionally engaging in any act that is likely to directly encourage a player to
break the rules is prohibited". I still fail to understand and would like to know why does the enforcement of the before mentioned rule would require a Senior Admin or even be escalated to HQ, not to mention taking over an hour to be handled.

I have a couple of questions and suggestions and really wish to have this topic consist of a proper discussion and not a shitshow. No, I could not care less about your specific situation, or your personal experience with Admin X or Y.

My number one suggestion for everyone in the staff team, from moderators to HQ: Do not be afraid to take ownership and give clear answers. Now I do not wish to name specific team members, but it seems that the admins are afraid to take action without confirming it with the highest authorities above. An admin's position in any community, regardless of platform, is to enforce the written rules of the community. If you are not able to recognize situations as rulebreaking without consulting with seniors, do you really think you are fit for the position in staff?

Now, my second suggestion(which I have shared with HQ in the past) is to give as much transparency as possible. One way to do this would be to have an active "Player Report" section in the forum, where every report is visible to both staff and players alike. This way it would be easier for all of us to identify potential gray areas or backdoors in the /rules, as well as lower or even remove situations in which players claim that Staff do not do their job. When you report a player, I believe you should be informed what the outcome of the report was - ranging from No Action Taken to Player to be [temporary banned/admin jailed/permabanned]. I believe I can speak for the majority of players and say that "I talked to him" is not a sufficient resolution to one's report.

As for the question part - I'd like to know: If there is a case of rulebreak In Game, having one party either Deathmatches/Returns after death/Breaches the rules on Roleplay - How should the other party respond and are such situations voided IC? And on the case of Deathmatch - should you be attacked by a DMer, are you allowed to defend yourself in any way or not?

And to finalize this and not make it a tl;dr - I have one final question to HQ regarding the rules. Certain situations and reports are discarded due to "everyone does that, it is not rulebreak", despite it being listed in the /rules. From my experience as both a player and a staff member, debates on whether or not this is rulebreak should be done as a follow-up. For example, we implement the rule that players are not allowed to commit crimes on Sundays(example, please do not take this into consideration  ), however on a lovely Sunday evening Player A kills Player B(abiding with all rules and having a RP reason to do so). The server /time states that the time and day is Sunday at 22:45. Logs are checked and it is confirmed that Player A broke this rule. In this situation Player A should be punished by whatever the punishment is listed in the rules - tempban/ban/kick. However, the player is from Mongolia and 22:45 has already passed and in his country it is already Monday. As things currently are - the player is most likely to go back and forth with the staff, leaving the report to be "hanging" - "wait for Seniors to review", even though the player clearly killed somebody during a Sunday(server time). In such situations, I believe punishment should be given out and if the player has concerns or feedback, he should come back to the admin afterward. Should it be deemed that the rule is obsolete - HQ should retire it and notify the players, however if the rule remains, however the player is not punished - do we not have a situation of Staff allowing rulebreaking in specific occasions? Shouldn't the admin's word be final and should the player find it unjust - forward it for review afterward?

If an admin believes a rule is not right and should not be enforced - he or she should bring it up for discussion with the HQ, however until retired or clarified, the rule should be enforced nevertheless.

Should you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to use this, but please keep it civil. This is not an excuse to bicker back and forth, but an attempt to improve the gameplay and environment for everyone on the server from newbies to owners.

PS: If you believe you have been mentioned in this topic and would like to defend yourself or provide further details, please send me a direct message instead of going off in details of what lead you to certain actions/responses.

[Khm]

1- Staff should be reported in an appropriate manner which is forum report function which is under GTA SA Boards.
2- There's no rule that says anything about keeping someone safe in a safezone to avoid being killed under the safezone category but it would fall under the roleplay rules where you should not use any thing to avoid RP. Any way of using something in your favour to avoid RP is not allowed (it's similar to the people hiding behind locked gate or objects that others cant edit)
3- Incase someone DMs you and there's staff IG, you just need to report the said player there's no need for you to defend (as it could complicate things more). If there's no staff IG then you're gonna have to suffer some consequences, you either let yourself get killed and report the player and write a refund request on forums, so the HQ deals with it directly and try to talk with the player and teach him how to play properly (good results on the long run to gain more players). Or defend yourself and get in a heated argument with the dmer, who could outsmart you and get the admins against you the moment one of them pops up IG which could cause both of you to be frustrated and leave

If an admin believes a rule is not right and should not be enforced - he or she should bring it up for discussion with the HQ, however until retired or clarified, the rule should be enforced nevertheless.

Staff should follow the rules from the rulebook directly, if one wants it to be reviewed the administrator should contact HQ after applying the appropriate measures to the rule that was broken and is written on the book.

4- About transparency, whenever you report you are informed of the outcome. All parties involved are informed. (that includes forum reports). We cannot make the board visible for everyone as it could make both reporter and reported players be dragged into a worse situation and argue further about it.

[Stivi]

The staff team displays behavior that is against the rules and guidelines they themselves supposedly enforce.

The low player count leaves room for less capable members in the staff team, resulting in even more chaos.

And then there's the inevitable bias. How do you get past a staff member telling you they will favor their favorite child and disregard the rules?

I think it's great you bring this topic up. If you want to get more answers then perhaps thinking back on you wrongfully punishing other players and understanding why might help you. I'd love to hear the reasons. ( And I'm not baiting you or provoking you, if you can come up with some answers as to why you took certain decisions then maybe we can all understand the mindset of a staff member )

[Khm]

The staff team displays behavior that is against the rules and guidelines they themselves supposedly enforce.

The low player count leaves room for less capable members in the staff team, resulting in even more chaos.

And then there's the inevitable bias. How do you get past a staff member telling you they will favor their favorite child and disregard the rules?

I think it's great you bring this topic up. If you want to get more answers then perhaps thinking back on you wrongfully punishing other players and understanding why might help you. I'd love to hear the reasons. ( And I'm not baiting you or provoking you, if you can come up with some answers as to why you took certain decisions then maybe we can all understand the mindset of a staff member )

You're talking about a state of the server that has been long due. There was no one wrongly punished the past 4-8 weeks.

[Stivi]

You either missed the point or didn't but you added information that is irrelevant. "Thinking back" refers to the past.

[TheGreasyChopper]

1- Staff should be reported in an appropriate manner which is forum report function which is under GTA SA Boards.
2- There's no rule that says anything about keeping someone safe in a safezone to avoid being killed under the safezone category but it would fall under the roleplay rules where you should not use any thing to avoid RP. Any way of using something in your favour to avoid RP is not allowed (it's similar to the people hiding behind locked gate or objects that others cant edit)
3- Incase someone DMs you and there's staff IG, you just need to report the said player there's no need for you to defend (as it could complicate things more). If there's no staff IG then you're gonna have to suffer some consequences, you either let yourself get killed and report the player and write a refund request on forums, so the HQ deals with it directly and try to talk with the player and teach him how to play properly (good results on the long run to gain more players). Or defend yourself and get in a heated argument with the dmer, who could outsmart you and get the admins against you the moment one of them pops up IG which could cause both of you to be frustrated and leave

If an admin believes a rule is not right and should not be enforced - he or she should bring it up for discussion with the HQ, however until retired or clarified, the rule should be enforced nevertheless.

Staff should follow the rules from the rulebook directly, if one wants it to be reviewed the administrator should contact HQ after applying the appropriate measures to the rule that was broken and is written on the book.

4- About transparency, whenever you report you are informed of the outcome. All parties involved are informed. (that includes forum reports). We cannot make the board visible for everyone as it could make both reporter and reported players be dragged into a worse situation and argue further about it.

1. I do not wish to file a staff report, I appreciate the effort from admins and thus posted the topic as suggestions. I have no bad feelings toward the admins I have talked about and believe they broke no rules or guidelines whatsoever. Even if I did, I am yet to receive any response from my last staff report and do not recalling any receiving any notification that "Hey, your report is being reviewed". Which is one of the benefits of having public report sections(similar to unban requests, there should be a rule that only parties involved are allowed to comment).

2. Funny of you to mention, I do not recall saying anything about a specific situation involving safezones. This means you are aware of the event and I'd like to say I am still expecting an answer on the report. However, the barricade you mentioned is rulebreaking as barricades would give a script benefit to the barricaded side. This is mentioned and addressed in the rules about placing furniture in interiors. There indeed is no rule against keeping someone in a safezone. The situation was quite different, as the person who I reported had left the said protection and was driving around on his own. Instead of trying to escape a possible tailing car, what he does is rush to a safezone and enters it while it is empty - giving the other side only the option to either discontinue the roleplay scenario or break server rules. The reported player broke the rule against encouraging rulebreak by definition. Once again, this topic is not to discuss the specific case, but more of a suggestion. Not long ago I came IG at around 15 players, 4 of them were admins. Apparently 3 of the for admins were involved in a single admin situation. Forgive me for being honest, but do you really think that a person is capable enough of being an admin if he requires your, sorry I mean HQ*'s, or 2 other admins' assistance to handle a single report?

3. Do you(being the only person with a rank above admin, ergo HQ=you) really personally teach every single DMer how to roleplay on the server? I am sorry, but I cannot really believe that. How exactly does it complicate the situation if you get attacked by a DMer and you kill him? You have a roleplay reason to kill him - he attacked you. You defend yourself and regardless of the outcome you file a report to notify staff of the situation. Just a few days ago I was admin jailed for "Killing a new player"(which is an unlisted rule that is way too broad and goes against the Vision's idea of equality). The said "new player" entered a scene of roleplay involving 5 or 6 people. He simply /sit next to us, we allowed him to tag along. Said player starts spamming /p "Kill me now". He /kills himself afterward, only to return and start punching me. Which specific rule was broken again if you do not mind citing it?

4. I was not informed of the outcome of my last 2 or 3 reports. I did not see the player be punished(red text) or informed if anything was said to them. What can you do to ensure that players being informed is a thing admins do more often?


In general I find it highly illogical to have every single topic "brought up for HQ to review". Is it really the right thing to do to review every single case on your own and resolving it, advising admins to consult with you on every situation? I am sure you are a busy person, however I am honestly unsure how one(player) can reach you as you are constantly busy handling something else. Perhaps the admins should really have more authority and take ownership of cases. This way we can have a more diverse situation with the staff team and the majority of situations would not need to "include Senior Admin a.k.a HQ a.k.a Khm", lowering the standard report TAT and improving the experience for everybody.

[Kessu]

In general I find it highly illogical to have every single topic "brought up for HQ to review". Is it really the right thing to do to review every single case on your own and resolving it, advising admins to consult with you on every situation? I am sure you are a busy person, however I am honestly unsure how one(player) can reach you as you are constantly busy handling something else. Perhaps the admins should really have more authority and take ownership of cases. This way we can have a more diverse situation with the staff team and the majority of situations would not need to "include Senior Admin a.k.a HQ a.k.a Khm", lowering the standard report TAT and improving the experience for everybody.

I'll only speak for this point as of right now;

Khm is the only one who holds SA:MP specific HQ rank. This does not mean he is alone.

Server HQ is and will always remain responsible for the actions of the administration and it is the HQs job to review cases that the HQ deems should be reviewed by them. Administrations or players opinion on this matter is quite frankly irrelevant.

Admins should possess the ability to handle most rulebreak scenarios, but some will always require HQ's review and this is completely within the norm.

[Ellz121]

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

[Kowalski.]

I can inform you that your group's page wasn't deleted, nor is this any sort of a personal move.

I'll let Khm or another member of forum administration answer this one.

[Thomas_A]

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

Before you jump into conclusions as you would, in that state of mind on Argonath, a group cleanup was executed. Many other groups were deleted as well with HR being one of them.

[JDC]

While I have observed that the general situation IG is more calm now (less moaners and money-hungry mindset, more players interacting with each other and making friends/opponents), I am not informed enough on the performance of admins in resolving reports. So I will refrain from commenting on that point.

What I would like to point out is that these kinds of discussions - what our staff team can do better - are essential to the community. As it is our collective responsibility to (re)build Argonath, and not just the admins' / HQ's, I hope we can have a constructive discussion about what to improve, without the finger-pointing and unnecessary moaning of "omg admin X is like this" "omg admin Y is like that" like this comment:

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

[Stivi]

While I have observed that the general situation IG is more calm now (less moaners and money-hungry mindset, more players interacting with each other and making friends/opponents), I am not informed enough on the performance of admins in resolving reports. So I will refrain from commenting on that point.

What I would like to point out is that these kinds of discussions - what our staff team can do better - are essential to the community. As it is our collective responsibility to (re)build Argonath, and not just the admins' / HQ's, I hope we can have a constructive discussion about what to improve, without the finger-pointing and unnecessary moaning of "omg admin X is like this" "omg admin Y is like that" like this comment:

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

All about discussing. I think he should be able to voice his opinion in whatever form he pleases. Oh, you all don't agree because we have certain rules in place that disallow certain kinds of behaviors? I wonder why we say 'lead by example'.

What good does it do to withhold one's name? Did the person not commit the actions? When are we gonna stop with the bullshit and start acting right?

I have plenty of posts in this forum complaining about the staff team. From those posts, only those with named staff members have resulted in some change.

I'm all about this "we reply to every report" but it's just a lie. I don't have replies in my Discord PMs, Forum PMs, IG PMs, I simply don't.  And I'm not talking about Khm, in fact even when the server thought the staff team was heavily biased towards _Gvardia I was still not getting any replies on my reports. I have possibly witnessed all HQs of RS5 come and go, and this has been an issue since Zaila. (RS5 BETA)
The staff team continuously fails to take responsibility for their actions. The HQ denies it. The players are unhappy.

[TheGreasyChopper]

In general I find it highly illogical to have every single topic "brought up for HQ to review". Is it really the right thing to do to review every single case on your own and resolving it, advising admins to consult with you on every situation? I am sure you are a busy person, however I am honestly unsure how one(player) can reach you as you are constantly busy handling something else. Perhaps the admins should really have more authority and take ownership of cases. This way we can have a more diverse situation with the staff team and the majority of situations would not need to "include Senior Admin a.k.a HQ a.k.a Khm", lowering the standard report TAT and improving the experience for everybody.

I'll only speak for this point as of right now;

Khm is the only one who holds SA:MP specific HQ rank. This does not mean he is alone.

Server HQ is and will always remain responsible for the actions of the administration and it is the HQs job to review cases that the HQ deems should be reviewed by them. Administrations or players opinion on this matter is quite frankly irrelevant.

Admins should possess the ability to handle most rulebreak scenarios, but some will always require HQ's review and this is completely within the norm.

I see where you are coming from and honestly I would like to express nothing but appreciation to your personal attitude toward leadership and actions as a Staff member. From my past interactions with you I have noticed you are very much like me in regards to rules and applying them.(e.g. that time a certain property was admin sold in VC:MP by a Manager "under the table" or the enforcement of the 5 screenshots rule. Even if I disagree with these rules, the direct application of them without any questions or discussions is something I respect and did during my tenure in the SA:MP staff team)


To address your last comment, do you personally believe that an admin would require HQ feedback on the following rules:

"Enticing or Encouraging Rule Breaking
Intentionally engaging in any act that is likely to directly encourage a player to
break the rules is prohibited."

And the one I've been bringing up to HQ for over an year now:
"Usage of /gm (group message), public chat, /pm (private message)
or other non-role-play communication ways to call for backup or as an IC method of
communication is deemed false and are set to a punishment.

Using OOC information for IC purposes is not allowed.
For example you can NOT know anyone's name by seeing their nametag, or know that anyone is a gang member because of their /groups."

Per my understanding of this rule, calling backup over Discord is prohibited. Yet it is more than obvious it is still being practiced, even by Staff members. I have filed a couple of reports for that specific rule being broken, however the responses I always receive are: "Everyone does it, no action will be taken".

Now even if the majority break this rule, it is still listed in our rulebook and it is every admin's duty to enforce it. Personal discretion leading to dismissal of such reports is first of all highly unprofessional and second of all it keeps being "forwarded to Seniors/HQ" without any response being given afterward. One of the times I reported someone for that - it was a Staff Member and lead admins/HQ were made aware of the situation and advised the handling admin to simply discard the report.

@Kessu How would you feel if the VC:MP Staff handle reports this way? Do you find it acceptable? And if not, would you be able to assist Khm and the rest of SA:MP's HQ get a grip on the admin team and rule enforcement?

[Khm]

You either missed the point or didn't but you added information that is irrelevant. "Thinking back" refers to the past.

Get to the point.

1- Staff should be reported in an appropriate manner which is forum report function which is under GTA SA Boards.
2- There's no rule that says anything about keeping someone safe in a safezone to avoid being killed under the safezone category but it would fall under the roleplay rules where you should not use any thing to avoid RP. Any way of using something in your favour to avoid RP is not allowed (it's similar to the people hiding behind locked gate or objects that others cant edit)
3- Incase someone DMs you and there's staff IG, you just need to report the said player there's no need for you to defend (as it could complicate things more). If there's no staff IG then you're gonna have to suffer some consequences, you either let yourself get killed and report the player and write a refund request on forums, so the HQ deals with it directly and try to talk with the player and teach him how to play properly (good results on the long run to gain more players). Or defend yourself and get in a heated argument with the dmer, who could outsmart you and get the admins against you the moment one of them pops up IG which could cause both of you to be frustrated and leave

If an admin believes a rule is not right and should not be enforced - he or she should bring it up for discussion with the HQ, however until retired or clarified, the rule should be enforced nevertheless.

Staff should follow the rules from the rulebook directly, if one wants it to be reviewed the administrator should contact HQ after applying the appropriate measures to the rule that was broken and is written on the book.

4- About transparency, whenever you report you are informed of the outcome. All parties involved are informed. (that includes forum reports). We cannot make the board visible for everyone as it could make both reporter and reported players be dragged into a worse situation and argue further about it.

1. I do not wish to file a staff report, I appreciate the effort from admins and thus posted the topic as suggestions. I have no bad feelings toward the admins I have talked about and believe they broke no rules or guidelines whatsoever. Even if I did, I am yet to receive any response from my last staff report and do not recalling any receiving any notification that "Hey, your report is being reviewed". Which is one of the benefits of having public report sections(similar to unban requests, there should be a rule that only parties involved are allowed to comment).

2. Funny of you to mention, I do not recall saying anything about a specific situation involving safezones. This means you are aware of the event and I'd like to say I am still expecting an answer on the report. However, the barricade you mentioned is rulebreaking as barricades would give a script benefit to the barricaded side. This is mentioned and addressed in the rules about placing furniture in interiors. There indeed is no rule against keeping someone in a safezone. The situation was quite different, as the person who I reported had left the said protection and was driving around on his own. Instead of trying to escape a possible tailing car, what he does is rush to a safezone and enters it while it is empty - giving the other side only the option to either discontinue the roleplay scenario or break server rules. The reported player broke the rule against encouraging rulebreak by definition. Once again, this topic is not to discuss the specific case, but more of a suggestion. Not long ago I came IG at around 15 players, 4 of them were admins. Apparently 3 of the for admins were involved in a single admin situation. Forgive me for being honest, but do you really think that a person is capable enough of being an admin if he requires your, sorry I mean HQ*'s, or 2 other admins' assistance to handle a single report?

3. Do you(being the only person with a rank above admin, ergo HQ=you) really personally teach every single DMer how to roleplay on the server? I am sorry, but I cannot really believe that. How exactly does it complicate the situation if you get attacked by a DMer and you kill him? You have a roleplay reason to kill him - he attacked you. You defend yourself and regardless of the outcome you file a report to notify staff of the situation. Just a few days ago I was admin jailed for "Killing a new player"(which is an unlisted rule that is way too broad and goes against the Vision's idea of equality). The said "new player" entered a scene of roleplay involving 5 or 6 people. He simply /sit next to us, we allowed him to tag along. Said player starts spamming /p "Kill me now". He /kills himself afterward, only to return and start punching me. Which specific rule was broken again if you do not mind citing it?

4. I was not informed of the outcome of my last 2 or 3 reports. I did not see the player be punished(red text) or informed if anything was said to them. What can you do to ensure that players being informed is a thing admins do more often?


In general I find it highly illogical to have every single topic "brought up for HQ to review". Is it really the right thing to do to review every single case on your own and resolving it, advising admins to consult with you on every situation? I am sure you are a busy person, however I am honestly unsure how one(player) can reach you as you are constantly busy handling something else. Perhaps the admins should really have more authority and take ownership of cases. This way we can have a more diverse situation with the staff team and the majority of situations would not need to "include Senior Admin a.k.a HQ a.k.a Khm", lowering the standard report TAT and improving the experience for everybody.

1- Staff reports don't necessarily lead to punishments, they can be lectures/small talk to figure out the confusion that occurred to cause the problem (if there is any) and find a way to fix it to avoid it in the future. Your last staff report was handled by Andeey in 2019, I have yet to receive any report from you except the issue with ARAF in June which was resolved already and you know that. My discord DMs are closed because I use discord in my studies and work and I do not appreciate being spammed all the time during work which is why I keep saying to make a forum report.

2- We communicate with eachother so it's normal for me to know. And I believe Shawn closed the IG ticket and said that he will return to you. (I was not available at that time since i was working). It is very normal for 3 of the staff team to get involved in a single situation to discuss a matter which is also normal, we communicate with eachother to share the experience of each person. The times of fighting amongst staff over decisions has been long gone.
About the person that ran to the safezone to avoid RP, that logically doesn't fall under "forcing people to rulebreak", no one forced you to do anything. You have the option to report.

3- If I'm involved yes, I personally do it, why am I in the staff team then? I must have the patience to deal with everyone, if I don't then I will simply not login.
You could get chased by cops, the dmer's friend could report you for dming a new player and make you waste time with an administrative investigation.
About getting admin jailed recently, we've sat for almost an hour and it resulted to you to understand that you should have reported the guy with like 4 admins present in game. That's one of the consequences to not reporting and taking things into your hands.
Not all situations are written on rules, you can never cover every possible issue that could happen in the future which is why we use common sense. You missed a very important point on the rule #11

Although we strive to cover as much ground as possible with our rules while also maintaining a concise, clear tone, it is unrealistic for a new rule to be created for every single possible situation that may occur in an environment as dynamic as Argonath's. Therefore, administrators are permitted to use their powers for infractions or situations not specifically outlined in the rules at their discretion in order to enforce a positive and friendly server atmosphere. Administrators may also use their powers to enforce regulations created by management in response to a newly released feature until the official rules list is updated accordingly.

4- Not all situations require punishments (the shameful red line that everyone sees). If you haven't received a word after reporting from the handling administrator, report said staff (I will still put a note about this though to staff in a bit) using the forum report function. (Even if it's me Community Leaders will deal with it in that case).

Kessu explained to you the last point you raised.

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

Not sure what you've done but like Thomas_A mentioned, many group topics were archived by my request after their prolonged inactivity and their removal from the game (I've given 1 week time as a warning to the specific groups that were concerned with the removal, if you haven't seen it then that's your issue). If you know that what you have done is wrong then ever thought about not doing it? You're an ex high ranked staff member . We're already through this type of cancer.

What I would like to point out is that these kinds of discussions - what our staff team can do better - are essential to the community. As it is our collective responsibility to (re)build Argonath, and not just the admins' / HQ's, I hope we can have a constructive discussion about what to improve, without the finger-pointing and unnecessary moaning of "omg admin X is like this" "omg admin Y is like that" like this comment:

That is correct.

While I have observed that the general situation IG is more calm now (less moaners and money-hungry mindset, more players interacting with each other and making friends/opponents), I am not informed enough on the performance of admins in resolving reports. So I will refrain from commenting on that point.

What I would like to point out is that these kinds of discussions - what our staff team can do better - are essential to the community. As it is our collective responsibility to (re)build Argonath, and not just the admins' / HQ's, I hope we can have a constructive discussion about what to improve, without the finger-pointing and unnecessary moaning of "omg admin X is like this" "omg admin Y is like that" like this comment:

My groups page got deleted because one person cant handle one comment. (wonder who)

That's all you need to know about the status of the SA:MP community/server. 

Rather than deleting me, deletes a group I'm not even the leader of. seems legit

All about discussing. I think he should be able to voice his opinion in whatever form he pleases. Oh, you all don't agree because we have certain rules in place that disallow certain kinds of behaviors? I wonder why we say 'lead by example'.

What good does it do to withhold one's name? Did the person not commit the actions? When are we gonna stop with the bullshit and start acting right?

I have plenty of posts in this forum complaining about the staff team. From those posts, only those with named staff members have resulted in some change.

I'm all about this "we reply to every report" but it's just a lie. I don't have replies in my Discord PMs, Forum PMs, IG PMs, I simply don't.  And I'm not talking about Khm, in fact even when the server thought the staff team was heavily biased towards _Gvardia I was still not getting any replies on my reports. I have possibly witnessed all HQs of RS5 come and go, and this has been an issue since Zaila. (RS5 BETA)
The staff team continuously fails to take responsibility for their actions. The HQ denies it. The players are unhappy.

That has already changed.

[TheGreasyChopper]

1- Staff reports don't necessarily lead to punishments, they can be lectures/small talk to figure out the confusion that occurred to cause the problem (if there is any) and find a way to fix it to avoid it in the future. Your last staff report was handled by Andeey in 2019, I have yet to receive any report from you except the issue with ARAF in June which was resolved already and you know that. My discord DMs are closed because I use discord in my studies and work and I do not appreciate being spammed all the time during work which is why I keep saying to make a forum report.

Unfortunately I do not recall the staff report that was handled by Andeey, and there is no way for me to check reports filed in the past. Which is one of the reasons I am asking for a transparent and trackable system, which would allow access to old reports by the player as well as the staff involved. Whenever you report staff or a player, you do not receive any notification if the report has been received, updated, closed, is still open.

The report I mentioned was back from 2017, however given that the person being reported is now second only to Gandalf and RON, I doubt anything will come after it.

As for the report Shawn closed - he is yet to get back to me and what he advised was that "A senior needs to be present".

About the person that ran to the safezone to avoid RP, that logically does not indeed fall under "forcing people to rulebreak", however the rule states that "encouraging players to rulebreak" is not allowed. Similar to my previous ban, which was for a rule which by the current definition I did not break. However your argument back was that "it is the rule name". How is that situation any different than this one? Discontinuing a roleplay scenario by giving the other party any option to continue the scenario without breaking the rules is encouragement, however way you look at it and I believe also comes under the "Forcing RP" rule, where they force us to discontinue.