[TheUltraFish]

I am going to lead my thoughts here since it is connected to what was posted but does not qualify for the staff abuse report. This would kind of tie in with the Admin section there Matt. I do like this general setup. It is title rant so I will do some of that as well.

I personally think that the admin rank is the worst rank in this community. You can do things, but you cannot do anything truly useful other than saying yes and no with additional banning privileges. Everybody second guesses your actions and the one time you say something everybody, or in most cases a certain amount of people, does not like. You are all of a sudden the worst staff in existence and it takes a long time, if ever, to recover from it. I have people that go around and say I am not trustworthy. Do I know why? No. Do they tell me? No. It is a vicious cycle. The most things I have noticed I get to say, is no. Does not matter for what. Applications? Generally no. New maps? No. New weapons? No. Something to add some entertainment to the server? No. So on and so forth. Most of the time, it is not me or Nuru actually saying no ourselves but Dink saying no. (This is no way is to specifically target Dink some of things are understandable). However since we are the ones that said "No" we are held to it.

For example, people want new maps. I understand this and I really want this as well. It keeps getting talked about and we have to say no every time because the map vote system is messed up and/or broken. It has been like this for MONTHS with no progress other than saying we are trying. I cannot help here, I do not know basically any Gmod coding so it mainly looks like gibberish to me. No progress has been made and so we are stuck with the same maps showing up repeatedly until another map we have decides to join the map vote and all that truly ends up happening is that the maps get overplayed which does not help with staff activity. I actually got tired with the drama and repeated maps of the server and took a month off announcing it to the ph staff team before departing and not getting on the server. I kept my activity on the forums and discord pretty relative but not getting involved in major topics unless necessary.


I do not really know why I have the admin rank sometimes. Yes I am active but I get little recognition of it by Dink. It has also gotten to the point on many occasions that if we need something done or a person's rank updated or removed (nearly anything general now that I think about it). I have to contact Nuru to contact Dink because the majority of the time I get ignored. If he does update the rank, I do not find out about it until I see it in server or if another staff person tells me. There is a very limited amount of healthy communication. Dink will ask Nuru and I to do things and we'll do them. I never hear back. From gathering evidence or group opinion of a player in question to major decisions.

I realize these issues that have blown up the forums is mainly directed at the TTT side of things. I do not fully understand all the problems going on in TTT, I do not pretend to know when an in server issue comes up. I am not saying this as an excuse for the TTT admins but things are, from the look of things, not getting fixed on TTT (same as PH in some cases) a majority of the time, with a hefty amount of toxicity thrown in because that makes everything better. So everyday they have to look at a mess that none of them can fix and that gets ignored by those who can do something about it. This is draining and gets old really quick. There is not much worse feeling than getting partially to fully hated on for something out of your control. When the issues are not addressed or fixed in any way, they get old really fast and since you cannot do anything about it, you do not want to deal with the backlash that comes along with it. I understand that everybody has lives but the trend across Dink's is that only a couple of the admins actually try to stay active. This can be frustrating to those who need them for various issues but pile those on top of the things that they have to try and fix and are just hit with a brick wall with, and it easily becomes overwhelming.

 The admins do talk to each other on big things like community issues or items that could be applied to both servers either protocol on forums/discord or the server itself. We do what we can but many things we cannot address on our own that the community wants because we simply do not have access to those items or we are so drained from all the time of nothing getting worked on, which causes things to get worse, which makes things more toxic than what they are. I do not know what led to the denial of porky's staff application as that is for the TTT staff to figure out.

I am sorry for the way things are but I am not surprised that they have gotten to this point after continued lack of progression on the server side of things with most issues that admins can do little about. This just piles up on everything else and makes the entire structure worse. Something has got the change before we get back to the point of no return but for that change possibly happening, I just do not see it at this juncture sadly.

[happy]

Again I would greatly appreciate consistency with power use which i have seen at least when I'm on less of. Suggestions for this is stop the hazings for new staff members and promotions that happen maybe an idea to prevent irresponsible use to not start it and put it into the heads of our player base this is what staff does.

When i first joined i don't think i see this many people kicking and tping people around for funsies and score and maybe crack down with the constant joke rdms and fake reports (not saying every joke report is bad for friends, but i believe this has to do with staff leading by example)

We should also try improving quality of life for staff members and players alike who feel targeted whether this means doing something about the damn knife so people stop coming on with different alts cuz they get knifed by the same person every time they are a t, nurfing the damn knife to a 50 hit on front and 100 on back or have it kill hurt people only. If you don't want it nurfed then how about we do a following rule we add into rules you need to warn and if not you get slayed for it like you would door blocking.

As for the discord i have a couple suggestions remove !sync until we fix it cuz of a rank issue that's been happening lately its giving donor and staff ranks out across multiple servers recently
Give us the abilities to add roles that way when people get promotions if the admins don't adjust the ranks on server we can as well as restrict players from specific channels instead of muting them on the entire server as i believe different punishments have different consequence

Finally keep things in the appropriate channels including no more memes and music videos in dr and murder i understand it has been a long time meme to post music videos there, but it makes my understanding of the discord mixed up when i see thats ok, but they can't do it in others...

[matt_st3 (Strongrule)]

Discord staff
This is an offshoot rant before I go any further. Discord is hell now. You can *almost* have a conversation without some idiot spamming the clown emote and/or completely derailing the conversation for some meme. Entire sections are ignored because staff muted them (Hello? You're a discord mod??) and the general mods say its not their problem since discord mod is a thing. That was not the point of giving some staff advanced commands, because in essence that means two (I'm not double counting Avi) staff plus the admins are the only ones doing it. I don't know if that stems from mods feeling like they shouldn't anymore or just straight apathy. I have several personal guesses depending on the staff member. Staff were never really required to staff this, but it should be expected especially from mods.
Overall, Discord mods should not have any used thread on ignore, except the bot threads because that'll get old. The staff should be easily reachable so I have no idea why the roll isn't pingable. I mean come on, its the one role in DISCORD that should have that turned on. I don't care if you're not on all the time, but there should be a reasonable expectation that you can get on and actually do the job. Its a specialized position, use it, the discord is going to hell from lack of effort. And for the love of dink, add more staff to this list please. 
https://www.dinklebergsgmod.com/site/Thr...ng-Discord

Considering there's only 2 of us as Discord Moderators it's EXTREMELY difficult to browse through every single section of the discord. Discord Moderators only have these commands: Mute, Kick, Ban. WE have no control over restricting players nor can we give people roles, that is strictly ADMINS along with restricting reactions on peoples messages. 

The Role isn't ping able because the excessive people who like to MEME ping people as it is. 

There's guidelines in the process which I happily look forward to them being released. 

There's so many clicks, groups, or whatever you want to call them on Discord that the moment you Warn someone the group jumps in for the "injustice" of whatever it may be. 

To anyone who complains about being warned for a rule violation, I am not sorry. 

 

I may not always be able to monitor the discord due to gearing up to deploy, but when able I try to put some effort into what's going on.

If you want to help moderate the discord, by all means apply. 

Apply for Discord Moderator if you're willing to be constantly bombarded with DM's how you're being selective or unfair or whatever uneducated excuse people come up with. 

By all means. Join the Discord Moderator Team, where we are still figuring out how to deal with the regular trolls and drama makers. 

Certainly when I was admin I didn’t read through full general chat every day, but a clear example of “missing” sections should be the health and wellness misuse. Clicking the channel shows a meme from Skyrim immediately.
The ability to give roles should be a part of discord moderator. It’s part of the daily work for discord after all. And should the system be set up right, you wouldn’t be able to give past a certain rank so there’s no issue there. 
As to the pingable role, not that you set it up but if the role can’t be pinged because of trolls pinging it then frankly that hiding from the issue. If they want to shoot themselves in the foot then go for it. If they keep repeating they get banned and oh no one less troll. The same goes for troll groups. Staff have the same issue on server yet manage to handle that, I presume. 
For myself, I have talked to avi about parts of the new guidelines. And perhaps I will apply it has crossed my mind, but after 2 years I prefer this support role. If it can be called that at this point. 

I’ll respond to fish and beyond in the morning, at this point my eyes are glazing over posts

[Lt. Star]

So I guess I'll be making a long reply/rant too. And I'll follow Matt's post just to keep things in order. Also if I repeat something forgive me, there's a lot said on the forums today and I can't remember it all.

Player Base
Most of the player base is great, but there are some that don't understand what they get into and need to have some patience with Staff. Some don't know what we have to get in order to fully do the job at hand. Also there is a lot of trolling going on and in should be toned down, especially in discord. 

Discord Staff
So there are only 2 people plus the admins...... Sorry but that is pitiful. I know there are things being worked out behind the scenes but I really feel that this was so rushed to get it out the door than it stalled. The admins had several apps put in and yes it was in a trial phase but there was no real communication there. People got put on hold then nothing happened, no message, no nothing. Honestly it should've been created when the discord server started. But the past can't be changed. Now server mods do have SOME powers in discord, kick and ban. Now I don't know about TTT mods but I was never told that I had the powers there nor given the slightest direction what I could do. I only found out when I clicked on someones name and was like "I can ban them?" So there is no communication there either, combined with no protocols makes it a free for all staffing position. People aren't even sure if apps are open cause the admins have said nothing.  The bottom line with this is have communication cause it does not exist. 

Donors
I don't have much to add here that wasn't said by Matt. You guys are NOT staff, don't act like it. I appreciate that you want to help the server and have some powers to control thing when staff aren't on but the overstepping is out of control. Read the guidelines to the servers and know where your line is. And don't interfere with what the staff are doing. If you think they are in the wrong make a thread or at the very least speak to an admin and have proof. 

Trusted
So I've seen people say trusted shouldn't even exist. Do I fully agree with that? No, not really. On the TTT side there is a lot going on and they need to learn before making bigger decisions. On PH it's much simpler. Now speaking of PH, Trusted aren't that much different than Donors in reality. They have the forceswap and tp commands, very useful but other than that they have access to staff chats and that's it. So is it a very important role on PH, not really when compared to TTT. 

T-Mods
Now here is a big difference between TTT and PH. PH T-Mods can really ban people, TTT can't, they only make the vanish for an hour. Now that would be a stop gap measure if you have mods that could be there all the time but you don't. Give them access to gban for upto 24 hours. 

Mods
I don't have anything to really add here but to say be sure they are trained well by the admins. I don't know what happens on TTT but I didn't get guidance on what to do in situations EVER in my rise through the ranks. When I became Trusted you know what I got? NOTHING. I got congrats for getting it, no this is how you do this or that, nope. I was sent free on my way and learned by watching and doing. Same happened with every other rank. Now I feel I did a good job that way but if TTT is like that then there are some of your problems. That should not be the way to handle things. Now Fish did get me set up with the commands, but I already knew how most of them worked by than from my own doing. 

Admins
Now here we go. Rotating Admins will never work, not with the limited staff we have. But they have almost no power to start with. Why do they exist? You could very simply make a committee of Mods to so the same work. They should have promotion and demotion powers so things could actually get done other wise you guys will keep your glorified mod status cause in reality that is all you are. Another problem with admins, communication. This can go back to the discord stuff. You guys have said nothing to the community about that. And that is your fault and no one elses. There should be a great amount of openness when decisions are made. Don't rush decisions like has happened in the past and be fair, if you punish one person, do it to all the same way. 

Dink
Is some of the blame on Dink? Sure. Is all of it? No. The staff team has done some of the damage to itself. Does there need to be better communication between Dink and the admins? Hell yea. But he is a person himself and he has a life. Yes its hard for him to find a co-owner but if both servers had an active one I feel many issues could be fixed. Bottom line, things need to be fixed and it will take time but it needs to be done in coordination with everyone. 

Inactive Staff Demotions
Needs to be a thing. Why have admins/mods who can ban people forever come back to a different player base and rules after months/years of absence. It makes no sense. 

[The Dutch Problem]

Y'know. With how little Dink himself has cared to respond to any of the latest "events" himself, I get the real nasty feeling he just doesn't care anymore about this place and is letting the community tear itself apart. If he doesn't want this to happen, he's got some apologizing to do, PUBLICLY.

Apologize to your Admins for taking all the shit that should go to you. Why do the Admins get that shit all you readers ask? Quite simple, when something happens, people look for leadership, look for the ones in charge. Dink does not exist for quite literally anyone here. He does not interact with anyone, he doesn't post stuff on the forums, nothing. So people look for the ones who then looks in charge. In come the Admins, yes they're a rarity, but being rare is better then non-existent. All the complaints that should go to Dink, go to the Admins instead. Feeding the cycle Matt was on about.

Making the Admins be YOUR FUCKING VOICE during the "Toxicity Bans" event was a huge fuck you to them. While the reasoning behind everything was sound and while in some cases the punishment was too hard, the whole event was thrown on the plates of the Admins. Only on the plates of the Admins. While Dink kept silent and just... did absolutely nothing to even try to do anything. Not even when things settled down where everyone was much more open to being talked to. Not. A. Word. DO YOU WANT THE PEOPLE WHO CARE ENOUGH TO GET ALL THE SHIT YOU SHOULD GET?!

Apologize to the community, for failing as a community leader. For failing to recognize Discord going to absolute hell without a ruleset and moderation. Failing to update the community about planned server updates. Failing to show you even give a single damn about this community. Yes, some of the current problems are spawns from either the community itself or are nested within the ranks of staff. But all of this boils down to a single thing. Dink, failing to do ANYTHING to prevent these events from happening, because Dink does not exist, Dink does not know.

You know, I have already lost any faith in the ability of Dink to do anything. The only reason I am still here is because I like interacting with all the folks here. The whole "You have to have X amount of time per month otherwise you get demoted!" schtick was implemented before. Lasted about a week till it changed to "You have to have X amount of time per month otherwise you get Inactive Admin!" (No chance of losing rank=much less of a risk). Till of course next month had passed, a few-all admins (Cant remember) failing to get the appropriate amount of time on the servers, were they demoted? Nope. Were they put as inactive? Nope. Just another month where Dink had disappeared from existence, never to be seen again.

I resigned almost 2 fucking years ago, shit's only gotten worse, hasn't it.

[Dildo Shwaggins]

Okay so the other thread did die down a bit but should not have been closed. That is another issue here. Threads that bring up legitimate issues get closed and it doesn't solve any problems, it just shoves aside issues until they explode. It should not have been closed until there was a promise of some sort of solution.

[Nicol Bolas]

Okay so the other thread did die down a bit but should not have been closed. That is another issue here. Threads that bring up legitimate issues get closed and it doesn't solve any problems, it just shoves aside issues until they explode. It should not have been closed until there was a promise of some sort of solution.

I believe the intent was to move all conversation into this thread instead of splitting it into 2 separate threads. It wasn't abuse therefore it was closed and all discussion moved here.

[happy]

Okay so the other thread did die down a bit but should not have been closed. That is another issue here. Threads that bring up legitimate issues get closed and it doesn't solve any problems, it just shoves aside issues until they explode. It should not have been closed until there was a promise of some sort of solution.

Matt requested topics from the other thread should be moved here so it doesn't derail the main topic of the thread. I'm not necessarily upset with it being locked due to seeing people just shitting on the admins and telling them to resign without actually discussing the topic of the abuse or offering anything in return besides insults.

[RussEfarmer]

-stuff-

Water on grease fires isn't a GREAT idea..

Anyway, personal drama should be kept personal. I don't condone things like this, but mentioning stuff like this is a one way ticket to starting something REAL BAD..

[[Yellow] Travis1421]

-stuff-

Water on grease fires isn't a GREAT idea..

Anyway, personal drama should be kept personal. I don't condone things like this, but mentioning stuff like this is a one way ticket to starting something REAL BAD..

No but this drama still correlates to the miscommunications of the playerbase with Dink. Had Dink been involved with the community during that time, Maybe the things that went down as bad as they did wouldn't have exploded the way they did.