[Battons]

I feel like staff are too hesitant to act immediately. For example, if player A who is my friend does something to player B who isn't my friend I will be more likely to wait before punishing A. Then if B starts snapping back I instantly hawk B. I feel like this feeling of getting away with things by being friends with the staff is how we have gotten to this current state. That and some very large voices in the community who make it well known they only stick around to cause problems because they are bored instead of actually playing, have made others feel more comfortable being unpleasant people.
Currently I've changed my staffing method to a hammer down, don't respond to trouble makers and stand firm behind my choices style and so far it seems to work decent.

[Noire ♜]

So yeah, I had something super long typed up but I just accidentally deleted it all so here's a list of what I think we could work on.

1. What can staff do better?

• Use the !awarn plugin as an archival method to allow staff to accurately punish players for certain actions rather than start over punishments everytime someone new gets on.
  
  
• Use your brain when you warn someone, use verbal warnings to warn for minor stuff when you have to punish someone, use the warning system to archive that.
  
  
• Staff, talk to each other. If you're getting legit mad at this game use the staff team. Talk to the staff team. C o m m u n i c a t e
  
  
• Staff, communicate with the community. We all remember that know that monthly newsletter, right? What about changelogs? I would love to see more of those. I would actively work on them if given the opportunity. Let's give the player base something to look forward to.
  
  
• We've got overzealous staff members basically policing the server and we've got staff members who do nothing to combat issues that arise on the server. We've gotta work on consistency and find a happy medium between the two. I'm sure all of us joined the staff team to make the server a better place, we're just all trying different ways to do it. Ideas are great, but we've gotta work together to make it better because at the end of the day, we're all volunteers. Above all else, our job as staff members is to create an environment for all of our players to have an enjoyable experience.
  
  
• Transparency. We're not Prince Nicky. Our word is not evidence. Every time you punish someone, warn someone, take a screenshot or video of it. Compile that and use it as proof.
  

2. What can the playerbase do better?

• Get along. Don't actively try to make the staff's life harder there's no point in being a dick to someone.
  
  
• Utilize the forums. Is something happening within the server that you don't like? Try for a moment to not be jaded about it and make a solid post on the forums about it and maybe we can work towards a brighter future.
  
  
• Voice your opinions. As I stated earlier, we're all working for the betterment of the server. Whether you're just chilling on the server to have fun or if you're looking to join the staff team we all want a nice place to chill out and have a bit of fun.
  

3. What can I as Admin do better?

• Use your brain. Sometimes, you do stuff that's really dumb. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
  
  
• Grow a backbone. It sometimes feels as though you can't make decisions for yourself and when you do make decisions they sometimes suck hot garbage.
  
  
• Use your resources. Your staff team, previous admins, people well-versed in what you're doing right now. We don't expect you to be an omnipotent individual don't try to do something if you're not sure about the decision/action.
  

To add a bit more to this section, I think you're doing simply alright as an admin Nicol. As a sole admin, I think you're doing a wonderful job. You're busy as hell and have got a lot on your plate. I'm sure that a lot of these issues could be solved if you just sat at your computer all day but, life does exist. Oh, and I think waiting seven days to accept or deny a request or an application is a bit daft if it's not getting any traffic but that goes back to my last sentence. I think that this thread was a great idea to let people voice their opinions and it's a step in the right direction. :)

4. What can you as a player or staff member do?

Well, I'm gonna do my best. I'll help out where I can and hopefully maintain a somewhat positive attitude about the server while I do it. I've been having a pretty good time on TTT here recently so I'm thinking I'm doing something right as a staff member. I'd love feedback from everyone though because I know I can be a bit dense.

[Nicol Bolas]

I feel like staff are too hesitant to act immediately. For example, if player A who is my friend does something to player B who isn't my friend I will be more likely to wait before punishing A. Then if B starts snapping back I instantly hawk B. I feel like this feeling of getting away with things by being friends with the staff is how we have gotten to this current state. That and some very large voices in the community who make it well known they only stick around to cause problems because they are bored instead of actually playing, have made others feel more comfortable being unpleasant people.
Currently I've changed my staffing method to a hammer down, don't respond to trouble makers and stand firm behind my choices style and so far it seems to work decent.

For the most part I do agree. While recently there has not been large cases of favoritism or inconsistency, it has happened. None of which ever feels malicious or even purposeful by our staff members but I've talked to them nonetheless. If anything I feel like inconsistency and favoritism have gone quite down these past few months as I've been encouraging staff to look for signs of it. 

I, and hopefully all other staff members, will take the time to realize any favoritism or inconsistency with how we staff. Mistakes happen of course but hopefully staff, and nonestaff, who read this will take something away from it.

And yes I'm also replying to you @Noire  I just didn't wanna quote you on mobile lol 

[Beskar Baron]

@Nicol Bolas i dont feel like quoting it and hiding or deleting it all so I'm just gonna tag you

Really, there's 2 main takeaways that I wanted from that post.
1) The staff should encourage people to report incidents of harassment, major spam, etc, even if it alone is not bannable, and communicate and collect this well so that they can actually tell who the real problems are (because I'm actually being honest and nice when I say that if you think a lot of the problem makers are gone in this community then you're either delusional or disconnected)
2) Players should do their part as well in adding to that collection of evidence and helping in removing those types of people

I think if we have somewhere to post the minor evidence we have, whether it too little evidence ( a single clip of micspam) or not conclusive on its own (IE a single screenshot of chat harassment is all we have, because they kept it to voice otherwise), WITHOUT alerting the trolls we are collecting evidence on them, that would be nice. Attach the name and steam ID, and then we have a repository of evidence on troublemakers where the evidence is incomplete. Maybe make it work like the discord report thing, where it prompts the questions, and then saves your evidence, without recording it publicly. Then, if staff decide there is reason to ban, they post all related evidence into a ban request or something.
This would also be something the staff take part in. You come on and slay someone who people tell you mass RDMed, but only one person reported it because half of the people were AFK: evidence. You gag someone for using the "hard R": evidence.

---

Also, staff MUST hold each other responsible, and enforce the rules on each other. No more getting away with propkills because they are staff, and if another staff oversteps their bounds, IMMEDIATELY call them out on it. No more "Oh, that is way to harsh, but you are the staff, so my opinion as staff doesn't matter." or "Oh, you broke the rules, but you are a moderator, so what could I do?"

Edit: it double posted here 

Remember: A few bad apples spoils the whole bunch.
If you stand by while someone else makes things worse, and you are in a position to act, you are just as complicit as the wrongdoer.

[lacer]

@Nicol Bolas i dont feel like quoting it and hiding or deleting it all so I'm just gonna tag you

Really, there's 2 main takeaways that I wanted from that post.
1) The staff should encourage people to report incidents of harassment, major spam, etc, even if it alone is not bannable, and communicate and collect this well so that they can actually tell who the real problems are (because I'm actually being honest and nice when I say that if you think a lot of the problem makers are gone in this community then you're either delusional or disconnected)
2) Players should do their part as well in adding to that collection of evidence and helping in removing those types of people

I think if we have somewhere to post the minor evidence we have, whether it too little evidence ( a single clip of micspam) or not conclusive on its own (IE a single screenshot of chat harassment is all we have, because they kept it to voice otherwise), WITHOUT alerting the trolls we are collecting evidence on them, that would be nice. Attach the name and steam ID, and then we have a repository of evidence on troublemakers where the evidence is incomplete. Maybe make it work like the discord report thing, where it prompts the questions, and then saves your evidence, without recording it publicly. Then, if staff decide there is reason to ban, they post all related evidence into a ban request or something.
This would also be something the staff take part in. You come on and slay someone who people tell you mass RDMed, but only one person reported it because half of the people were AFK: evidence. You gag someone for using the "hard R": evidence.

That's what they have the staff discord for. Like Nicol said somewhere else, they have a watchlist of people who are problematic on the server. 

This idea of yours would also require somebody to keep all of the evidence sorted so that nobody is banned off of evidence meant for someone else. I know that sounds silly, but the staff are humans too. They're bound to make mistakes. Who would be the person that has to run through the evidence to prevent something like that? Nicol? He has enough on his plate as is.

I don't know, just seems a little unrealistic to me.

[Beskar Baron]

For the most part I do agree. While recently there has not been large cases of favoritism or inconsistency, it has happened. None of which ever feels malicious or even purposeful by our staff members but I've talked to them nonetheless. If anything I feel like inconsistency and favoritism have gone quite down these past few months as I've been encouraging staff to look for signs of it. 

I, and hopefully all other staff members, will take the time to realize any favoritism or inconsistency with how we staff. Mistakes happen of course but hopefully staff, and nonestaff, who read this will take something away from it.

There was an entire situation where I almost fractured the community because a blatant troll was getting away with trolling because of friendships within the past 6 months.

[lacer]

For the most part I do agree. While recently there has not been large cases of favoritism or inconsistency, it has happened. None of which ever feels malicious or even purposeful by our staff members but I've talked to them nonetheless. If anything I feel like inconsistency and favoritism have gone quite down these past few months as I've been encouraging staff to look for signs of it. 

I, and hopefully all other staff members, will take the time to realize any favoritism or inconsistency with how we staff. Mistakes happen of course but hopefully staff, and nonestaff, who read this will take something away from it.

There was an entire situation where I almost fractured the community because a blatant troll was getting away with trolling because of friendships within the past 6 months.

Maybe it'd be best not to bring this back up. You were at fault for escalating that situation as much as the "blatant troll" was.

[Beskar Baron]

That's what they have the staff discord for. Like Nicol said somewhere else, they have a watchlist of people who are problematic on the server. 

This idea of yours would also require somebody to keep all of the evidence sorted so that nobody is banned off of evidence meant for someone else. I know that sounds silly, but the staff are humans too. They're bound to make mistakes. Who would be the person that has to run through the evidence to prevent something like that? Nicol? He has enough on his plate as is.

I don't know, just seems a little unrealistic to me.

Staff. That is the problem word here. not everyone can access the staff forums. 

The thing is, the absolute worst of the problem comes from that small portion of trolls who knows how to not have enough evidence on them to get them banned. But still, there are going to be tiny pieces of evidence that people gather despite this. It won't be enough to get something done, so they don't post it and the troll goes scott free.

@Noire I don't know how the discord user report bot works, but would it be possible to get a variant that asks for steam ID, a couple of short tags to describe the reason (rdm, chat spam, toxicity, micspam, etc), and the evidence, then saves the evidence into a folder named with the steam ID, naming the evidence files with the reason tag and differentiating them by adding a number (like RDM1 RDM2 and RDM3 for three pieces of rdm evidence? No one who isn't staff can see this, and then those little bits will build up to go a long way.

[dong]

The discord user report function is only made for people who are breaking discord TOS or our server rules, it isn’t supposed to be meant for GMod related things

[lacer]

That's what they have the staff discord for. Like Nicol said somewhere else, they have a watchlist of people who are problematic on the server. 

This idea of yours would also require somebody to keep all of the evidence sorted so that nobody is banned off of evidence meant for someone else. I know that sounds silly, but the staff are humans too. They're bound to make mistakes. Who would be the person that has to run through the evidence to prevent something like that? Nicol? He has enough on his plate as is.

I don't know, just seems a little unrealistic to me.

Staff. That is the problem word here. not everyone can access the staff forums. 

The thing is, the absolute worst of the problem comes from that small portion of trolls who knows how to not have enough evidence on them to get them banned. But still, there are going to be tiny pieces of evidence that people gather despite this. It won't be enough to get something done, so they don't post it and the troll goes scott free.

That's why, if you don't think you have enough evidence for a ban, you send it to an Admin or Mod. At the very least, they'll keep an eye on the player. The staff aren't the problem, it's the lack of trust thereof.