I know that there is a lot of things happening with the staff team right now, and I will not pretend to know even half of the things being talked about. However, I do know this is a hot topic right now, and this is in no way meant to be a flamewar or to roast any particular staff member. I do believe, as many of my fellow Civ players would agree, that the staff team in its current form is highly unmoderated, bloated, and in desperate need of reworking. These are some suggestions to help with the staff team issues. Please read through these and comment on what you like and what you don't like. I would like some staff input too so we can all gain something out of this, and bridge the highly divided gap between staff member and player. We should work together for a united community, not against each other for a divided one. As such, I will keep personal bias and not name any names or insinuate anything in this post as we all have the same goal - a fun server with a high playerbase and good staff team.
- Set a minimum playtime per week for members of the moderation team.
The idea behind this is simple. There are many, many chat mods, and some of them are really active and some are not so active. To help encourage staff members to be online more, a system where they have to clock a certain number of hours every week (I say week because no one can be on everyday) would help to meet this goal. If a staff member couldn't log on that week, they could send a message in the staff-channel with a ping to the Management or Admins with a simple note as to why they are absent that week. For example "@MGMT, can't be active this week, going on 4th of July trip with family". Something like that. In any case, a quota for hours would do wonders for the staff activity of the less-than-active staff members.
- Expand Rule 2.G. and Define Harassment
We all have seen at least someone get warned or muted for harassment, but it is vaguely defined in the rules. It is said twice in the server rules, as one can not harass a staff member over a made staff decision, and one cannot drive away players with harassment. I think that harassment can be defined pretty broadly, and as such staff members may interpret it as any number of things, while players might not consider what they're doing harassment. An edit to the rules to include what is not allowed and what is allowed in regards to "harassment" would help staff members define where the line is, and help players to not cross it. Along with defining harassment would be setting specific guidelines for punishing people for harassment. I will talk about this more later.
- Anti-Slander Rule
There are many people who have been slandered on the server, both staff member and not staff member. I suggested this before but I do not think it was taken seriously. A rule to prevent players from insulting the personal character, whether the accusations or remarks be true or false, in a public chat. Any genuine concerns about the personal actions of a player should be brought to staff privately, not to the entire server in public chats as this can drive away new players or just scare regular players off in general. For example, I have had people leave my nation because they were told while I was offline that I am a "unstable racist Nazi". If we want our playerbase to be united, then we have to draw this line, and since I know I am at the forefront of some of the things that are going on right now, I want to be the one to help draw this line and admit that I have been in the wrong and going forward will deal with things in the appropriate manner. However, this should not just be a one-time thing, or a polite suggestion. I sincerely believe with all my heart that an anti-slander rule would be beneficial to the server and playerbase as a whole, and bring us one step closer to a united community without toxicity that can infest our beloved hobby.
- Private Place to Report High-Ranking Staff
If you want to report a moderator, you make a ticket. But what do you do if, God forbid, you need to report an administrator? Administrators can see tickets, so that's a no-go. You could DM MGMT, but that hardly seems official, and most definitely would not get the same attention. Reporting someone on the forums is public. I think there should be a private place to report an administrator or developer to the Management team without having fear of the administrator seeing it, or the entire playerbase. I think this one is pretty straightforward.
- Set Punishments for Rule-Breaking
I know this was a thing when I was staff way back when, and I would like to believe it still is however I am not under that impression. For example, I have seen certain people muted for one thing for 24 hours, then another person muted for 2 weeks, then another person muted for a month, all for the same rule violation. This causes discontent and the feeling that the staff team is not united or is following their own agenda, which no community likes to believe and I don't believe it either. I do know that it drives a wedge between player and staff member though. Not only should there be set guidelines for punishing a rule-breaker, but I believe that the general playerbase should have permission to see them. Like I said, at the end of the day we all want the same thing. I think transparency is a big part of us achieving what we all want. It is a lot easier for the playerbase to trust that there's no bias if they know that all the staff are following the same rulebook, and not making it up to their own discretion.
One last thing, I would like to say that the CivWars team is doing a great job, and I think that we're in a better place with staff than we have been in a long time. Keep in mind I come from a time on Civ where the only staff member was talltitanicc... I only want the community to be united and I know that recent actions of mine and some of my compatriots might not reflect this, but we were acting out of frustration. That frustration is what led me to write these suggestions, so hopefully we can mend the social divide between the staff team and the player, together. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, staff member and non-staff member alike.
Thank you.
- Red
- Set a minimum playtime per week for members of the moderation team.
The idea behind this is simple. There are many, many chat mods, and some of them are really active and some are not so active. To help encourage staff members to be online more, a system where they have to clock a certain number of hours every week (I say week because no one can be on everyday) would help to meet this goal. If a staff member couldn't log on that week, they could send a message in the staff-channel with a ping to the Management or Admins with a simple note as to why they are absent that week. For example "@MGMT, can't be active this week, going on 4th of July trip with family". Something like that. In any case, a quota for hours would do wonders for the staff activity of the less-than-active staff members.
- Expand Rule 2.G. and Define Harassment
We all have seen at least someone get warned or muted for harassment, but it is vaguely defined in the rules. It is said twice in the server rules, as one can not harass a staff member over a made staff decision, and one cannot drive away players with harassment. I think that harassment can be defined pretty broadly, and as such staff members may interpret it as any number of things, while players might not consider what they're doing harassment. An edit to the rules to include what is not allowed and what is allowed in regards to "harassment" would help staff members define where the line is, and help players to not cross it. Along with defining harassment would be setting specific guidelines for punishing people for harassment. I will talk about this more later.
- Anti-Slander Rule
There are many people who have been slandered on the server, both staff member and not staff member. I suggested this before but I do not think it was taken seriously. A rule to prevent players from insulting the personal character, whether the accusations or remarks be true or false, in a public chat. Any genuine concerns about the personal actions of a player should be brought to staff privately, not to the entire server in public chats as this can drive away new players or just scare regular players off in general. For example, I have had people leave my nation because they were told while I was offline that I am a "unstable racist Nazi". If we want our playerbase to be united, then we have to draw this line, and since I know I am at the forefront of some of the things that are going on right now, I want to be the one to help draw this line and admit that I have been in the wrong and going forward will deal with things in the appropriate manner. However, this should not just be a one-time thing, or a polite suggestion. I sincerely believe with all my heart that an anti-slander rule would be beneficial to the server and playerbase as a whole, and bring us one step closer to a united community without toxicity that can infest our beloved hobby.
- Private Place to Report High-Ranking Staff
If you want to report a moderator, you make a ticket. But what do you do if, God forbid, you need to report an administrator? Administrators can see tickets, so that's a no-go. You could DM MGMT, but that hardly seems official, and most definitely would not get the same attention. Reporting someone on the forums is public. I think there should be a private place to report an administrator or developer to the Management team without having fear of the administrator seeing it, or the entire playerbase. I think this one is pretty straightforward.
- Set Punishments for Rule-Breaking
I know this was a thing when I was staff way back when, and I would like to believe it still is however I am not under that impression. For example, I have seen certain people muted for one thing for 24 hours, then another person muted for 2 weeks, then another person muted for a month, all for the same rule violation. This causes discontent and the feeling that the staff team is not united or is following their own agenda, which no community likes to believe and I don't believe it either. I do know that it drives a wedge between player and staff member though. Not only should there be set guidelines for punishing a rule-breaker, but I believe that the general playerbase should have permission to see them. Like I said, at the end of the day we all want the same thing. I think transparency is a big part of us achieving what we all want. It is a lot easier for the playerbase to trust that there's no bias if they know that all the staff are following the same rulebook, and not making it up to their own discretion.
One last thing, I would like to say that the CivWars team is doing a great job, and I think that we're in a better place with staff than we have been in a long time. Keep in mind I come from a time on Civ where the only staff member was talltitanicc... I only want the community to be united and I know that recent actions of mine and some of my compatriots might not reflect this, but we were acting out of frustration. That frustration is what led me to write these suggestions, so hopefully we can mend the social divide between the staff team and the player, together. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, staff member and non-staff member alike.
Thank you.
- Red
