[Nicol Bolas]

Hello everyone. I won't try to go on a super long rant(sorry guys I'm not @Gabe ), but it's quite obvious to most playing that there have been issues on the server. The pandemic plus the beginning of summer for most is causing an influx of players and server traffic is at an all time high. While there's more guests and new players than ever causing normal issues, there are also groups of regulars and donors causing issues. I've noticed quite a few who don't care about the rules and honestly just play to cause issues. While I am working on punishing the select problem-players, it's a never-ending problem. Being an Admin, for the most part, tends to be a lose-lose situation as there are always people who oppose my decisions. I try my best to make the server a place where everyone can come on and have a good time but I can't please everyone. Luckily I've mostly accepted that already and if there has to be a bad-guy in the community, I would rather it be me than any of our younger staff members a some are still quite young.

The server can get pretty toxic on peak hours in the day, and it's causing a lot of the active staff to wear down quicker. We as staff try our best to moderate the server but it's gotten out of hand at times and you're witnessing quite a few staff taking breaks. This isn't a surprise to me, in fact I've encouraged it. Everyone deserves a break, regardless of if you are staff or not. At the end of the day, you gotta realize that we're all humans and we have issues and make mistakes. It's nothing larger than a video game we join with friends to have fun, and yet there are still others who don't grasp that concept. 

I decided to make this thread to help lessen the divide between staff and the player-base. We're all members of this community and we should be getting along, not fighting and devolving into cliques. So take some time and make a comment on this post describing any issues you believe need to be discussed. Here are some questions I'll ask anyone who reads:
1. What can staff do better?
2. What can the playerbase do better?
3. What can I as Admin do better?
4. What can you as a player or staff member do?

I've always believed in being open about how I administrate the TTT server from since before I was even a Moderator. And although I haven't been Admin super long I still believe everyone should be free to discuss things. From the loyal players who still enjoy getting on and playing, to those who have come to hate the server and those who staff it. I value everyone's opinion and I want to hear yours. If you don't wanna publicly say anything, message me on Discord.

---

Some rules to posting on this thread:

1. Don't shitpost or start side-conversations. I'll delete your message and warn you and if you do it again I'll reach through the screen and strangle you. I don't want the thread to be super-duper serious, but I also don't want it to be pointless. 
   
2. Do not, under any circumstance, attack any other community member. There is a very large difference between discussing an issue and directly attacking someone.
   
3. Do not be toxic. Should be self-explanatory you would think. Well you'd be wrong. 
   
4. Know when to snip quotes. I don't wanna read the same thing over an over. In fact we even have a fancy new spoiler system you can use to shorten messages!
   

[GamerErnie46257]

If you are gagged and warned because of mic spam, you shouldn't be instantly ungagged after the warn and instead should have a smaller system of 5 minute gag, 20 minute gag, e.t.c.

I have come up with this idea because of the warn system
Recently it has come to my attention that warns lead to bans, which is justifiable, but if you are allowed to get multiple warns in the matter of minutes, that is where it becomes absurd to me.

This doesn't just apply to mic spam, but for me it does.
This system could also be applied to other reasons that people are warned for.

[RussEfarmer]

I've suggested this before, and it's a farfetched implementation, but I would enjoy a community-wide log or infraction counter of sort. While I don't play TTT that much, I hear about all of this mess happening on TTT, the Discord, the forums, and even Prophunt, but that's about it; word of mouth. I don't know if I'm just nosy, but I get very frustrated when I see people breaking rules or hear about people breaking rules, but it seems like absolutely nothing happens to them (a good example would be the recent discord problems, where people were supposedly getting warned or punished, but not even the person being warned knew they were warned). I would personally be a lot more reassured if I could actually see what was happening, and it wouldn't seem like staff were doing nothing as much to someone looking in.

[dong]

For starters both sides need to realize we are all here for the same reason... To play a video game. Regular players need to understand we aren't here to punish you unless you're breaking the rules, and some staff need to learn to be more consistent. Most importantly, don't talk shit please and for the love of sweet baby jesus. Just have a normal conversation and provide constructive criticism. I'm here to play the video game as much as I'm here to enforce rules and make sure other people have a fun environment to play in... and by FUN I mean not overdoing things.

[Nicol Bolas]

If you are gagged and warned because of mic spam, you shouldn't be instantly ungagged after the warn and instead should have a smaller system of 5 minute gag, 20 minute gag, e.t.c.

I have come up with this idea because of the warn system
Recently it has come to my attention that warns lead to bans, which is justifiable, but if you are allowed to get multiple warns in the matter of minutes, that is where it becomes absurd to me.

1. While a minute-based systems for gags would theoretically work better, without a plug-in or addon that automatically tracks and does that it would be near impossible to keep consistent. Anyone who has staffed any Gmod server knows things can get hectic and I don't wanna make staff bring out a timer for each player they gag.
2. I wouldn't say warnings lead directly to bans. We have a watchlist in the staff discord that keeps track of players and the warning system is just a better version of it. Since I have disabled automatic punishments caused by the system (due to a bug I need to look at), the warning system is largely a staff tool to easily track what players have done in the past.

[Ckg]

To play a video game. Regular players need to understand we aren't here to punish you unless you're breaking the rules, and some staff need to learn to be more consistent.

I believe dong hit it right on the head as to what one of the main issues is.  We as staff do need to be more consistent in punishment and what we do/don't allow, unfortunately, that is hard when it comes to staff discretion, a good example would be how each staff has a slightly different idea of what constitutes mic spam.  The length/content is what makes this grey area hard.  Also, there can be the issue where we give regulars or donors the benefit of the doubt, where we might not give that to regular players and personally I think we need to treat everyone the same.

[MilkManFromMars]

Time to make an unpopular reply and drop my rep by 50 points.

I think that this take is dumb. And I'm not shitposting since I have to clarify that every time I make a post now. And yes, I'll elaborate.
Everyone wants to blame the servers issues on some invisible boogeyman every time people aren't happy, because it's easier than actually taking the time to get evidence and do something about it. In most cases, I'd be the one to argue that people are too sensitive and take it too seriously, and though I haven't abandoned that mindset, I do agree that there are regulars and guests who actually do harass people and have the intent to ruin the game for everyone who isn't their friend (yes people have friend groups, you don't have to say clique for everything, you're not a 6th grade health teacher).
So what should you do about these people, you ask? Easy. Ban them, there you go. 90% of us think of at least 2-3 people on server every time we read a post like this, so why aren't they banned yet? Because we think it's too tedious to gather evidence, make a report, and let it sit and be judged upon the high courts. So maybe we grab a clip or two and a couple screenshots, but it's not worth the effort by then and it collects dust in our hard drives or gets deleted until someone else does the job in 8 months so you can tack it on. The only thing you can do is encourage players to send you clips and screenshots of problem players in small doses, then guess what? When just 4 people send you just 2 clips of toxic players harassing people or breaking some other rule, you've got 8 pieces of evidence to take action with. Keep an archive, don't put your regulars and members through the process of collecting all 8 (or however much it takes) pieces of the puzzle to ban someone, encourage them to give you what they have, and keep what's actually viable. Then, the staff become a hub for all negative incidents, and when compiled properly, with good communication, will stop players from just breaking a couple rules when one staff is on and then waiting for the next one so that it's a clean slate. (Don't get me started on Awarn. I shouldn't have to explain that it would never be used properly in this way. If it would, it'd be cool, but it rarely is)
Listen, one of the major events that made me resent old staff was a weeklong issue with a group of trolls where I asked staff to do something about someone who wasn't dealt with until the end of the week when I finally sacked up and in just 2 hours got the person who's entire group of friends had been harassing me for almost 7 days. What did I learn from this? Staff are helpful, sometimes. But also unreliable, and as a player I have to gather at least some evidence. When it's no longer the job of the regular to gather all the evidence to ban someone like that, the server will slowly (and I mean slowly) start to remove or punish the problem children when a system is used properly.
My last piece of input is about prevention of these issues. Why haven't we discussed systems like voice battery, chat filters, spam bots, and actual enforcement of spam rules? Oh wait- We have, a lot. We just never use them haha silly me. Use what you have, prevent what you can, and bam, half of the problem disappears just like that. If nobody is able to sing into their mic for 4 minutes straight, then you wont have to worry about doing anything about it because it's never gonna be a problem anymore. If nobody is able to send 30 messages in 30 seconds then you wont have that issue anymore. (And I stg don't use my example variables against me because you know I just thought of them in 2 seconds.)

TLDR; Staff: Sack up and do something about it
           Players: Sack up and get some evidence to the staff
                                                   Making a forum post that does nothing is going to do (get this) nothing

[JesseTheUndeadCowboy]

To play a video game. Regular players need to understand we aren't here to punish you unless you're breaking the rules, and some staff need to learn to be more consistent.

I believe dong hit it right on the head as to what one of the main issues is.  We as staff do need to be more consistent in punishment and what we do/don't allow, unfortunately, that is hard when it comes to staff discretion, a good example would be how each staff has a slightly different idea of what constitutes mic spam.  The length/content is what makes this grey area hard.  Also, there can be the issue where we give regulars or donors the benefit of the doubt, where we might not give that to regular players and personally I think we need to treat everyone the same.

I honestly can see and understand this. Everyone should indeed be treated the same on the server in regards to taking people’s word. I also think that if all staff had the same idea on what mic spam is and what punishments should be given it would make things a lot easier most likely.

[Foxka]

I'm going to follow the format to make things easier for everyone


1. What can staff do better? I've said this a million times, be consistent. Some players go unpunished for trolling because they are friends with the staff that are on whereas guests that do the same exact thing are instantly warned and punished. I'm not saying to be nazi mods or anything but at least treat everyone as equals, even if they are your friends.

2. What can the playerbase do better? Idk maybe stop being assholes and nihilistic about everything. If you dont like something dont be afraid to speak up, but dont complain constantly about personal issues you have either.


3. What can I as Admin do better? I dont exactly have any say in this but in my experience as admin it helps to be more transparent and treat yourself as a glorified mod, as in dint be afraid of backlash you get from following protocol. I personally think you're doing a fantastic job nicol and I hope you get some well needed assistance as being a one man show is not fun in this community, trust me.
4. What can you as a player or staff member do? Probably play again, I dont know. I've been so put off by attempting to play anymore because this place is not super welcoming, especially when you have a past here.

[GamerErnie46257]

If you are gagged and warned because of mic spam, you shouldn't be instantly ungagged after the warn and instead should have a smaller system of 5 minute gag, 20 minute gag, e.t.c.

I have come up with this idea because of the warn system
Recently it has come to my attention that warns lead to bans, which is justifiable, but if you are allowed to get multiple warns in the matter of minutes, that is where it becomes absurd to me.

1. While a minute-based systems for gags would theoretically work better, without a plug-in or addon that automatically tracks and does that it would be near impossible to keep consistent. Anyone who has staffed any Gmod server knows things can get hectic and I don't wanna make staff bring out a timer for each player they gag.
2. I wouldn't say warnings lead directly to bans. We have a watchlist in the staff discord that keeps track of players and the warning system is just a better version of it. Since I have disabled automatic punishments caused by the system (due to a bug I need to look at), the warning system is largely a staff tool to easily track what players have done in the past.

I understand the first part and also agree with you on it, but for the second part i disagree. I mainly disagree because not all staff members are the same and some are more lenient than others on warns, but others are very strict to the exact rule and don't let anything slide.

My opinion on the watch list is it may be a good tool to use, but it also induces bias on the staff members that see it. If hypothetically you see my amount of warns( XD ), then you would most likely see me as a person that trolls almost every second of the game instead of a person trying to have fun. And from that comes the more incline to want to punish me for more minor things because it looks like i'm a massive troll( don't get me wrong, I admit to trolling sometimes ) and I need to be stopped. The only issue I have is not something that you can necessarily change because it would be hard to change how others think on the same issue as you. It's the fact that not all staff members are the same and don't think the way that you might think and would have a different opinion on what crosses the line and what doesn't.

Just my thoughts