Sdtwbaj Interview

FlamingoToday at 10:05 AM
I’m available to do your interview whenever you have the time. It’ll likely take about 30-45 minutes. Possibly slightly longer or shorter depending on additional questions and how long it takes to write replies. Just let me know when you are ready.

AyrismToday at 10:09 AM
Now would probably be good.

FlamingoToday at 10:11 AM
Perfect. Give me just a minute to get my notes.
For the record, can you state your ckey for me?

AyrismToday at 10:11 AM
sdtwbaj

FlamingoToday at 10:17 AM
Alright, let's start off with a couple of the "solving adminhelps" questions. I know you did some during your past interview, so this section will be pretty brief. Before we begin, are you familiar with all of the powers associated with being a moderator, or would you like me to go over them with you?

AyrismToday at 10:18 AM
It'd be nice to get a refresher, it's been a minute since the last interview.

FlamingoToday at 10:23 AM
Sure thing. A basic list of your powers are as follows. Keep in mind these aren't ALL of your powers (most are learned during play), but the ones that are relevant to this part of the interview.

1. The ability to send a staff PM to people (bwoink). This is a direct result of opening a ticket, which acts as an open line of communication between you and a player.
2. The ability to kick players. This boots them out of the server, with an optional message.
3. The ability to ban players. This restricts them from reconnecting to the server, with an optional message, and time limit. While trial moderators cannot permanently ban, we are assuming for the purposes of the interview that you are a full moderator and do not have this restriction.
3b. The ability to job-ban players. This restricts them from playing as a certain role or roles for a period of time, or permanently.
4. The ability to view-variables (VV). This allows you to look through the variables of an ingame mob or object. This can be used to do things like check who's touched a door or item, list attack logs throughout the round, etc.
5. The ability to note players. This leaves a note on their record that other staffmembers can see. It is generally good practice to note down what you've spoken to a player about.
6. The ability to warn players, with two tiers: standard, and severe. Functionally they are the same, except standard warnings last 3 months before expiring, and severe last 4. Warnings are generally used as the lightest form of official punishment, and are required to be acknowledged by the player when they see it.

Do you have any questions about your powers?

AyrismToday at 10:25 AM
Nothing I can think of now, seems straightforward enough.

FlamingoToday at 10:25 AM
I've forgotten that you also have the ability to adminghost, which works exactly the same as regular ghosting, except you can re-enter your body. In addition, you always have access to AOOC, dSay, Msay, and always see attack logs.
Perfect. Let's just go through a couple of quick scenarios then. First up:

You're on the server alone when you see a flood of attack logs come in. You aghost and jump over to see an engineer and a cargo technician beating eachother to death with crowbars. What do you do?

AyrismToday at 10:30 AM
Should I go through everything from start to finish, or just go one step at a time with you telling me the result/whatever I find out?

FlamingoToday at 10:30 AM
Let's just go one step at a time. Easier so I can give you more context if you need it.

AyrismToday at 10:31 AM
Alright. I'd look and see if either of them were antags first.

FlamingoToday at 10:32 AM
Upon checking antagonists, it'd be pretty clear that neither of them are, as the round type is extended.

AyrismToday at 10:39 AM
I'd bwoink each of them when the fight started to slow down, and ask what's up.

FlamingoToday at 10:40 AM
The engineer says that the cargo tech was insulting him in the cargo lobby, so he tried to push him over, and that's when the cargo tech tried to hit him with a crowbar, so he fought back.

The cargo tech says that the engineer started spam disarming him, so he pulled out a crowbar to fight back since he didn't want to die.

AyrismToday at 10:41 AM
I'll go back to the start of the attack logs to see if that lines up with what looks like happened.

FlamingoToday at 10:42 AM
It looks like they're both pretty much telling the truth. The engineer disarms the cargo tech a couple of times, and then the cargo tech hits him with a crowbar, and the engineer responds the same.

AyrismToday at 10:44 AM
I thank the engineer, and let the cargo tech know that going from push to crowbar isn't a great escalation of force. Whether or not I'd warn him or just give him a note depends on if he's a newer player or not.

FlamingoToday at 10:45 AM
It looks like he has a note about hitting someone with an oxygen tank when he was pretty new, but otherwise he's kept his nose clean for a few months, and has been around pretty consistently since then.

AyrismToday at 10:49 AM
It doesn't sound like he's much of a troublemaker, so I'll hold off on warning him and just let him know about reasonably escalating force, and drop a note that he had used a crowbar to respond to someone pushing him, and that I'd talked to him about escalation.

FlamingoToday at 10:49 AM
Sounds good. Anything else you'd like to do before we move on to the next question?

AyrismToday at 10:49 AM
Nothing I can think of, that seems like everything I'd do.

FlamingoToday at 10:50 AM
Okay. Next question. You'd be sitting in the lobby when someone ahelps: "I think I just got ganked?"

What do you do?

AyrismToday at 10:51 AM
Aghost and hop over to their corpse, while asking what happened.

FlamingoToday at 10:53 AM
You hop over and find them decapitated on the ground. It's a round of autotraitor and they're a security officer. Upon asking them what happened, they tell you that they were asked to retrieve someone for questioning, and when they walked up to them and asked them to come to security, they cut off their head almost immediately.

AyrismToday at 10:54 AM
I look back for the attack logs, and see if they line up with that.

FlamingoToday at 10:55 AM
It seems to line up pretty well. You look back and he is indeed decapitated in only 3 hits.

AyrismToday at 10:55 AM
I bwoink the other person and ask them why they killed the officer.

FlamingoToday at 10:57 AM
The other person says that the officer came to take them to security, and they had a bunch of stolen goods on them for their gimmick, including the nuclear disk which they were going to use to threaten the station and start a radio show "do this or face the consequences" type game. Since being brought in and searched would net them a HuT for grand theft and infiltration, they felt it was necessary they neutralize the arresting officer before he could put a stop to the round, as it's only 25 minutes in.

AyrismToday at 11:00 AM
That doesn't sound too unreasonable, I'd ask if he tried anything else before going for the kill.

FlamingoToday at 11:01 AM
He says that he did not, choosing to neutralize the officer in the most efficient way possible (surprise decapitation), because trying to go for a nonlethal limb takedown, or hitting his armored chest would result in the officer being able to fight back and possibly wound or stun him.

AyrismToday at 11:04 AM
I think given the situation, he hasn't done anything that wrong. I'd let him know that it'd be better in the future if he'd try something else before going for the kill, even if it's just trying to talk his way out of it. I go back to the officer and say it was legit.

FlamingoToday at 11:05 AM
Sounds good. Anything else you'd like to do for this one?

AyrismToday at 11:05 AM
I might leave a note explaining what went down, and what I told him, but beyond that I think that's it.

FlamingoToday at 11:10 AM
Cool. That'll be the final question in this portion. Let's move onto a few questions that aren't really related to solving ahelps, but more on a personal front. First up:

You've been around the server for a long time, and even been a part of the CCIA team in the past. Before that, you even applied for moderator (and CCIA at the same time). You were denied at the time, and when you made another application for CCIA some time later, you posted this:

"I ended up deciding that I'm probably not particularly suitable for the mod team, so I've more or less abandoned the idea of wanting to join the moderation team."

This isn't supposed to come off as some sort of damning piece of evidence that's going to land you a denial, but more as a question of why did you feel this way at the time? Why did you change your mind? Do you feel you are suitable to be a moderator this time around? What qualities of yours do you think make you suited to moderate?

AyrismToday at 11:21 AM
I'd say part of why I said that was to give some assurance to Syn that I wasn't trying to use CCIA to leapfrog to being a mod, since that was one of the concerns from my last app. I got rather disillusioned with being a mod coming off of Abo's feedback, and I think I was still stewing over that when it came up. Now, it's been a hot minute since I last applied, and in that time I was seeing all of these kinds of events, and all of the other 'round-building' stuff that mods were doing, and it kind of rekindled it for me. I like the idea of running the events, making the rounds, and that kind of thing, and I think that's my big motivation for applying again.
As far as qualities go, I'd like to think I'm very experienced with the server on the game side, how everything generally works and how the RP is meant to be, and I think I can apply that to moderating. Other than that, I think I'm a very 'player's player', if that makes sense, and I think that's something the staff team would benefit from having. Beyond that, I work at an IT helpdesk, and I think that patience is a huge thing that I can translate to moderating (lord knows it's needed.)

FlamingoToday at 11:30 AM
Sounds good. The next question is a bit of a followup from your CCIA interview. During the interview you answered this question as follows:

[7:39 PM] Synnono: Alright. Lasty - in your new application you mentioned that you wanted, in part, to become a CCIA team member because you'd never become a mod. Why do you feel that way, and knowing that the duties between both teams are significantly different, what do you find most appealing about our team this time around?

[7:43 PM] Ayrism: Well, since my first bout of applications, I listened more to mods talking about modding, and realised that I'd rather not sully my experience on Aurora by dealing with the worst parts of the server. The trolls, the memers, people who insist that everything is admin abuse, I think it's more drama than I really care for. CCIA appears to be much more drama-free, and having a much more laid back atmosphere, which appeals to me quite a bit.

As a moderator, while events are something that you would be able to do (with admin supervision and assistance, as well as proper planning), you'd largely be expected to deal with on-server issues and handle ahelps, as this is the main responsibility of a moderator. If your application is accepted and you move to the trial phase, you will absolutely end up dealing with situations that are not favorable, and often times uncomfortable. People you are bwoinking can often come off as hostile or uncooperative. Is this something that you think you can handle? I understand that you worked at an IT helpdesk, but often times the people you are dealing with in the game can be friends or people that you see everyday during play, and you can sometimes have trouble when having to punish or talk to people you might consider friends.

AyrismToday at 11:46 AM
I understand that as a mod the largest thing I’d be doing is moderating, and I’m absolutely happy to do that. I think CCIA changed my perspective on the idea that drama isn’t for me, or that drama would be bad for my playing aurora in general. It turns out that there is plenty of salt available when you tell someone not to use a character in a certain department for a week. I definitely think I could handle dealing with someone who’s more belligerent. As far as having a relationship with the person I’m moderating, I would say I can effectively separate moderation and personal relationships. In fact, when I was CCIA I was handling an IR on a person who I was rather friendly with, regarding a character that I liked. It gave me a bit of pause at first, but I signed up to do the thing and I’ll do it. If I end up think ing I couldn’t handle a case because of my personal bias, I’d call up someone else to take over, but I don’t see that happening.

FlamingoToday at 11:51 AM
Sounds good. Just a few more questions. These ones are a bit quicker, as they don't really involve anything too complex. As I understand it, you are a mentor on Star Trek 13? It is an Aurora policy that staff members are not to be staff on other servers. I am not personally familiar with the specifics (on if mentor is okay or not, but I'm assuming not for the moment to be safe). If your application is accepted and you move to the trial phase, you would likely be unable to continue as a member of staff on another server. Is this something you would be okay with doing?

I also want to make clear that a trial being granted does not guarantee you pass and become a full moderator, so you'd effectively be required to step down for a non-gauranteed chance.

AyrismToday at 11:54 AM
If I were to go forward with becoming a mod, I could drop being a mentor for ST13. I don’t actually do much over there in the first place, since it’s still in development and only open for test, mentors mainly update people on mechanics.

FlamingoToday at 12:01 PM
Cool. Just wanted to make sure that was understood right away. I will caution you against stepping down right away though, as the staff team will still need a couple days to make a decision after this interview. For now, let's move on. I wanted to go over a couple of the notes/warnings you've accrued over your time on the server. While having them is not a deal-breaker, you have had some behavior in the past that concerns some of the staff team. The moderation team is held to a very high standard when it comes to behavior, as they are expected to enforce it amongst the community, and their trust in our ability is extremely important.

In the past, you've had a habit of going a bit over the top when it comes to either stirring up OOC and the discord channel, or in some cases, being overly sexual. This has even resulted in punishment being doled out. While I've said before that the staff team is by no means completely serious or professional all the time (this is a hobby after all), your behavior in the past is still seen as a bit over the top for what we generally deem as acceptable, even resulting in Syn having to speak to you while you were a part of CCIA. I mostly want to hear your thoughts on the matter, as this sort of behavior is something that we won't really have as a part of the moderation team.
also i lied apparently. it seems my paragraph questions are not quite over. sorry!
it also appears my initial estimate of how long it would take was completely off, so if you need to do something, let me know and we can arrange picking up at a later time.

AyrismToday at 12:05 PM
That’d probably be better, I’m actually heading out in a few minutes.

FlamingoToday at 12:06 PM
We'll stop here for now then, and we can pick up again later. When is the next time you'll be free?

AyrismToday at 12:06 PM
Probably in a few hours, some time tonight.

FlamingoToday at 12:08 PM
I have to work in about 5 1/2 hours, but I can likely continue during work, as long as you are willing to deal with my replies being a lot slower. That said, if you are back before then, shoot me a message and we can finish up. I only have like 1-2 more questions after this one I sent you, so it shouldn't take much longer once we start back up.

AyrismToday at 3:06 PM
I'm back home, we can pick it up whenever.

FlamingoToday at 3:30 PM
Cool. I can continue in a few minutes if you are free.

AyrismToday at 3:42 PM
:thumbsup:

FlamingoToday at 4:01 PM
Alright I’m set. My replies might be a bit slower but we’re almost done. Do you want me to repost the last question or are you fine scrolling up to it?

AyrismToday at 4:02 PM
I can look back at it.

AyrismToday at 4:13 PM
I think that's rather been my 'default' for some time, and when I joined CCIA I insisted that I would transition to a bit cleaner demeanor. I think as my time as CCIA progressed, I got there after a hot second of transition. In general I'm able to 'step up' to what matches my position, especially now that I've already had the transition to 'staff mode' once. And even outside of being staff, recently I've been making more of a conscious effort to not go full Citadel. On the side of stirring drama or causing tension, I think I've gotten away from doing that kind of thing in general. I think I would be able to represent the mod team well.

FlamingoToday at 4:32 PM
Cool cool. This next question is about activity. Namely, you haven’t really been too active as of late. According to our stats, during the month of November 1st to December 5th, you connected to the server 10 different times, and joined 5 different rounds. While we don’t expect you to be on all day every day, we do generally look at activity as a good metric for how invested someone is going to be, as well as if they are going to burn out quickly or not.

Do you find yourself not on server much because of duties to another server? Or have you just not been on too much as of late?

AyrismToday at 4:38 PM
I hadn't really tried to start having consistent activity until around the middle of November I think, and I've kind of waxed and waned in popping into a round. I've been kicking my activity up a bit more recently, though with finals coming up that's been dragged down. Right now I try to join a round at least a couple of times a week, when I have >2 hours available and find a round that's in a timeframe that I'd join in., and I think my activity will easily pick up after the end of the semester.

FlamingoToday at 4:41 PM
Alright sounds good. Next question. If you could change anything on the server, what would it be?

AyrismToday at 4:43 PM
More realistically, security-population ratio enforcer to do away with secstation 13. Anything in my wildest dreams, though, we'd have a multi-level station map in normal space, instead of an asteroid.

FlamingoToday at 4:44 PM
Sounds interesting. Just one final question, then.

Are you okay with this interview being posted on your application or would of prefer it be kept private?

AyrismToday at 4:45 PM
Let's post it, bare it all.