SA:MP Moderators Guide

[Nathan]

I'm pleased and excited to see such a revolutionized reform of the SA:MP moderators and administrators team. Such an update should and will bring upon a complete change within the Argonath players mutual understanding of the rules and guidelines of moderators and administrators.

I have complete confidence that such a reform will help in:

• Building a bridge between the gap of players and server moderators and administrators.
• Better understanding of how Argonath's development team functions and organizes comfort.
• Less friction of stress towards players that accuse moderators and administrators of malpractice.
• Players working alongside moderators and administrators towards helping and producing a better community.
• Helping applicants to become moderators and administrators in understanding how the current team of moderators and administrators work alongside each other.

It's important that players and server moderators and administrators work alongside each other towards developing and maintaining the server. The following of publicizing these guidelines should and will result in mutual satisfaction for everyone that is set to play here at Argonath. Though some may doubt that publicizing the guidelines will result in players criticizing the work of server moderators and administrators; moderators and administrators of the community have been given direct order to remove such comedians from the server and forums.

Welcome back, Munna.

[Frank_Hawk]

The current admin team is excellent in effectiveness throughout the community. The level in which they apply themselves is commendable and bears fruit of Gandalf's aspiration to make this community admirable both internally and externally. Gandalf has been very supportive of the admin team and undertaken additional responsibility of guiding, mentoring and making relevant suggestions. He has continuously applied his experience and thoughts in view of mediating postive conversation throughout the community.

As a result, the admin team have historically been very well managed. The current leader / manager team is strong demonstrating competencies for well needed pillars of support, guidance and helpful advice. Despite being under pressure continuously when compared to moderators or admins they function very well blending their RP character well with their admin personality. Through personal observation, they put their RP role in front of their managerial role which in my view is correct. I don't see the logic behind an admin logging in only to do admin work - it defies the purpose for which we are here for - they strike the most reasonable balance between the two.

The current moderator / admin team is also very fluent in decision making yet lack the experience of leaders / managers. The majority are friendly, communicative and flexible. Regretfully, there are in exceptions in a sense that we are blighted with a minority who feel that micromanagement, heavy handed tactics and zero tolerance will improve bilateral relations in the community.

The admins are in my view here to facilitate dialogue between players. They are not here to dictate conversation nor act as bullies. Nowadays, I've become mindful of the minority of admins who practise heavy handed tactics and excessive assertion. Whilst I do my best to ignore them, their nature remains hostile at best and I can only imagine what other players must feel about them.

This troublesome minority are bringing the entire admin team into gradual disrepute. It's not difficult to see how these people have stained the current admin team, you only need to look at comments which try to build segregation in the community. In stating that 'we are the administration and you are the players' is entirely false - admins are players at best and have no strategic advantage over others. If this is the message that is being portrayed and supported by Gandalf - then I have got the wrong picture of our community and the principles that attracted me here in 2008.

I suggest addressing the main concern around inconsistency whereby a high level of discretion is allowed on behalf of the moderator / admin. Discretion can vary as people find different things offensive in nature. This discretion should be limited in a sense that the admin guidelines should be made transparent. I see no harm in making these guidelines transparent and open - it will allow for greater cooperation and bridge the ever growing gap between the admin team and players. We must understand that this is a thought for improvement and not a sentiment for attack. We are no longer in 2006 but in 2010 - perceptions have changed in line with maturing demographics and the need for transparency will reap greater benefits for our community in aim of standalone strength. 

Benefits in making admin guidelines transparent:
- Limiting double standards
- Reducing heavy handed measures
- Removing inconsistencies
- Limited discretion
- Reducing segregation
- Accommodate flexibility
- Bridge the gap between admins and players
- Mutual understanding on punishments

Happy to discuss offline if needed Gandalf and Violet.

Great to see this made transparent - I hope this improves relations between two troubled groups.

[Antonio.]

There are no unwritten rules in Argonath; if a rule is not published it is not a rule. Rules are carefully considered and decided upon and under no circumstances should you impose a rule that is not official.

Then why did I have a ban regarding "Disclosing Private Information" which was really only someone's in game user name. This wasn't in the rules.

[Leon.]

MAKING AND INTERPRETING RULES

There are no unwritten rules in Argonath; if a rule is not published it is not a rule. Rules are carefully considered and decided upon and under no circumstances should you impose a rule that is not official.

While the rule of not using capital letters in a complete sentence (HI GUYS IM HORNY TODAY AND YOU) should be common sense and self-discipline, it is still enforced. Perhaps the rule should be written OR this particular section should be changed.

[Devin]

It is common knowledge and etiquette to not type a message in full upper case.

[newguy]

Many people state that some rules are of common sense.What if you don't know this common sense at all? Who's the guilty?

[Altair_Carter]

It is common knowledge and etiquette to not type a message in full upper case.

Yet it's not a rule.

[9r2e5i3k]

Yet it's not a rule.

Breaking common etiquettes can be considered as disrespecting.

If you came to play on our server - respect it and our players

Even if that's right next to "no flaming", it doesn't mean that respecting others means only not flaming other players.

Also, people are warned to drop caps before actual punishment is given. If people ignore - they get warned also for ignoring admins.

[9r2e5i3k]

No, they're not.

Yes, they are.

[Caltson]

No, they're not.

If you witness an action being taken in which you think is wrong, report the incident to [email protected] ....

[Altair_Carter]

Breaking common etiquettes can be considered as disrespecting.

Breaking common etiquettes can be considered as a person who simply doesn't know of them. How can you know, maybe i was born in a village with no PCs, and when someone introduced me to a computer I noticed that everyone notices capitalised letters faster than non.

[Antonio.]

Too bad this won't be mean shit to most of the admins / mods.

[Caltson]

Too bad this won't be mean shit to most of the admins / mods.

Is that a plain provokation to the administration team or did you witness actual situations where the admin really did something wrong?

In case of the second one, you shouldn't be provoking those who are doing the job good, just report those doing bad.

[Exclusive.]

You can come with every excuse you'd like to come up with, but Antonio is right. Do you really think the admin would read this again? Maybe Safetymoose because he don't want to get demoted again, but the other. Don't think so.

[TheRock]

You can come with every excuse you'd like to come up with, but Antonio is right. Do you really think the admin would read this again? Maybe Safetymoose because he don't want to get demoted again, but the other. Don't think so.

You're not an admin, so you can't say how we feel.
All admins fear to not get demoted, and want to be the best on their duty.
So that's why we read it regularly. At least I do.