FabianK3 - Mod Trial Interview

Owen

 — 20:07
Alrighty. This is not a super formal process, so feel free to interject with questions. We’ll just be running through some different scenarios that you might come across as a mod. There are no right/wrong answers here. We just want to hear your thought process, and you’ll basically just tell me what you’d do in each scenario. I can provide further details as you “handle” each scenario and give you some feedback on them
Also we usually post these interviews on the forums. Is that okay with you?
FabianK3 — 20:07
That's good with me!
Owen

 — 20:08
Alright great. Any questions before we start?
FabianK3 — 20:08
Not to begin with, nope
Owen

 — 20:08
Okay,. To begin, what's your ckey?
FabianK3 — 20:09
k3fabian is my current ckey.
It was fabiank3 a while ago before an account change.
Owen

 — 20:09
👍
Before we start with the scenarios, here is a list (non-exhaustive) of moderator powers. You'll have access to all of these and more as a full mod, but during your trial you wouldn't be able to do things like perma ban, spawn items, etc.

You also notably lack things like VV edit, build mode, BST that I think you have as a dev:
- Access to msay. It allows you to speak with other staff members.
- Access to dsay. Self-explanatory, you see the deadchat and can even speak in it.
- Access to in game logs about a lot of thingsA. This include LOOC, dchat, admin actions(like kick, ban, note, warn) and some things to prevent grief. Imagine Urist McUrist open a phoron tank you'll have a message stating it. Same for a fuel tank or a valve of any kind.
- Access the variables of the objects on the server. While you cannot edit them, you can view attack logs on a player, who touched what the last, etc.
- The ability to adminghost, basically will consider you as if you ghosted from the lobby or died. You can aghost again to re-enter your body.
- The ability to Wind people. It freeze them and keep them from interacting with the game.
- The ability to spawn items
- The possibility to AdminPM someone, and check all the tickets that have been made on the server.
- The ability to kick, note, warn, ban. More in-depth about this:
Kick = Just boot someone off the server. You can set a custom message. It's not really used often, but still useful to get someone's attention.
Note = It's basically our notepad about players. It's useful for the other staff that will interact with the player, to know their behaviour and if something already happened before.
Warning = Depending the severity of something, it can be directly a warning. This one is visible to the player, and they need to acknowledge it to play on the server again.
Ban = Same thing as kick expect on a larger scale, or even permanently. A ban is often an escalation of warnings.
Every action taken by a staff member is visible on the player's ckey. Only kicks are not shown.
I think most of it is fairly self explanatory, but if you are confused by any of them I can explain them more as we go
FabianK3 — 20:11
I expected those yea, as DEV I do already have VV and BST
and dsay
Owen

 — 20:12
Alright, so you'll be mostly familiar. The only thing to take note of in your case is that as a mod you'd be expected not to use those DEV powers to handle any mod business. Not super familiar with the circumstances you can use that stuff as a dev, but you'll obviously just have to stick to dev specific guidelines
ANYWAY
Here's the first scenario:
You are sitting in the lobby and an ahelp comes through saying that an assistant and a janitor just joined the round and started attacking each other. The assistant is a 3-day-old account with zero notes and the janitor is a 10-day-old account with zero notes. Walk me through what you do here.
FabianK3 — 20:13
I would first switch from the lobby to ghost to look what exactly is going on
A 3 day and 10 day accounts are super young so I would assume they are generally new to Aurora and not experienced, maybe even our rules and such
If they are still actively jumping each other or worse other players / equipment I think I might wind them to stop that from going on
With or without wind I would poke both and ask what they are doing
Owen

 — 20:16
The janitor responds saying that he's showing his friend how to play the game. The assistant does not respond and instead posts in OOC asking why he can't move.
FabianK3 — 20:18
Considering friend A doesn't know the rules and friend B doesn't even know what just happend I would probably explain to both of them same: I would tell them that they have joined a high roleplayer server and that their behavior isn't acceptable
I would refer both to our rules and our guides on HRP and game basics
Depending on how receptive they are to those things I may be able to unwind them and see what if they understood.
If they start to argue or don't seem to really understand the fundamental meaning of HRP I think the only viable option would be to remove them from the round
Owen

 — 20:21
Fair enough. To be clear, you mean banning them?
FabianK3 — 20:22
Yes. I don't think just kicking (and cryoing) will be enough if they don't understand, I assume they would come back and continue
Owen

 — 20:23
Mhm, yeah. Think this is a good point to note that when it comes to bans, we have both temp bans and permas. It is fully up to the staff member if they want to follow the typical rules of escalation, i.e., 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, perma.

But we do have that outlined. In this case, you could easily justify most of those, depending on how the conversation played out.
I think we've covered all the main points here though
This also completely escaped my mind, not mandatory reading right now, but something that is worth it to look over in your spare time: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php/Administration_Guidelines
Administration Guidelines
FabianK3 — 20:25
Yeah I think it depends on their responses to me. I would probably opt to either a 7 day ban or perma.
7 day ban if I get the feeling they are just super new to HRP or perma if it's a lost cause, which is probably the most likely scenario
Yup, I read over the guidelines, thank you
Owen

 — 20:25
👍
Question 2: You are playing as your CE during a merc round. You are on the bridge and when the antags break in and attempt to hold you, the BC, and the XO hostage. You attempt to break out of the bridge and one of the antags stops you as you are escaping through the staircase into the kitchen. Somehow, miraculously, you managed to kill/maim/disable the antag and continue running. A few minutes later a ticket comes through from the dead merc that says: “Bro wtf, the CE ignored FearRP. He attacked me while I was aiming a gun at him and killed me.” There are no other mods/admins online. What do you do?
FabianK3 — 20:29
I would start with taking the ticket and inform them that currently no other staff member is available and that I can't processes their ticket as I am involved.
I'm not sure if that is common or an option, but if so, I would quickly check if another staff member could come online to take over the ticket.
If it is still only me available on the server I would tell them that they can make a complaint instead on the forum (or ahelp over discord after the round is done? I'm not sure if the discord ahelp bot is used for that at all, I would suggest the forum)
Owen

 — 20:32
Alrighty, that's basically what I would suggest here as well. It isn't super common, but depending on the time of day it does happen that you're the only one on and you get a ticket against you. You can try to ping mods/admins on discord and give it a few minutes--you can even tell the ahelper as well. If no one shows or is available, then yeah, next best option is to have them make a player complaint
FabianK3 — 20:33
Makes sense, I think the core here is that I obviously can't deal with the ticket myself.
Would point them at the round-ID to make things easier and perhaps apologize for circumstances without going into any detail about the event leading to the event
Owen

 — 20:33
Yep, perfect
Question 3: When first joining the server on a traitor round you get an ahelp from one of the traitors saying that an officer just deadchecked them on the ground despite already being down for a few seconds, leading to their death. What would you do?
FabianK3 — 20:34
I assume with deadcheck you mean hurting them more to make sure they "stay dead"?
Owen

 — 20:35
Yes. The ahelper was downed and they're claiming the officer kept shooting them, killing them
FabianK3 — 20:38
Alright.
I would start checking logs to see which officer put in the last attacks and confirm by asking the ahelper which officer it was.
Considering I just joined the server I can't directly draw from the vibe of the round, as in, was it a chase for 30 minutes and the antag already killed people granting security the option to eliminate the threat... (-> Scenario circumstances?)
I would then poke the officer and ask them if they could explain on what happened
Owen

 — 20:42
Checking the notes of the officer, you can see that they have two previous warnings and a handful of notes, all related to poor escalation as either an antag or officer.

When explaining what led up to it, the ahelper says that there was a lot of tension--but the fighting only just started there for real. This was the first shootout during the round.

The officer claims that the antag had been leading security on a manhunt for nearly 45 minutes and that they kept causing issues, harassing the crew, breaking into high-security places, and then escaping. When the shootout started, they didn't have any backup, and needed to make sure he didn't escape again so he claims that he was shooting to kill.
FabianK3 — 20:47
From that I would argue that harassing the crew and breaking into places is not enough reason to finish them on of on purpose in the first place. Drawing from the officers notes this seems to be the same issue as before with them.
I would also check the logs to confirm if it was in fact the first fire fight to confirm there was no previous escalation with violence.

I assume it would be repetive behavior on the end of the officer, which with two warnings about it is already bad enough.
Considering that the officer has been noted and warned for that as antag and officer, an antag ban wouldn't be enough.
With two warnings I think the last option would be a ban, not a perma though
Owen

 — 20:48
Alrighty. Sounds good. How long of a ban do you think? Also, keep in mind that job bans are also a thing
FabianK3 — 20:48
Oh I forgot about job bans honestly.
Job and antag ban then.
Do we have 1,3,7,perma on job/antag bans as well?
Owen

 — 20:49
Yep
FabianK3 — 20:50
I don't think anything below a week would make much sense for job/antag bans here so it would likely be a 7 day job/antag ban to give them a last wake up call.
If they seem not understanding and try to argue about it and don't show any insight into the issue a perm would be fine as well in that case.
Owen

 — 20:51
Fair enough
One last scenario question... will need a second to type it since I am coming up with this one on the spot lol
Over the past couple of days, when you've been playing/observing, you've noticed an officer has been going down to the Intrepid at the start of every round and stocking up on medical supplies... medpacks, bandages, injectors, etc.

You've not actually seen them get into a scenario where they've had a reason to use any of the supplies--they just have them.

What, if anything, would you do here?
FabianK3 — 20:54
Considering that everyone already has a survival kit with that stuff I find it a bit odd.
I would poke them ask why they would take that stuff.
Owen

 — 20:55
"I just wanted to be prepared, and my character is a trained medic but has switched careers. They have the experience and the emergency kits aren't enough in case of emergency."
FabianK3 — 20:56
Do they have any notes or even warnings about that or similar?
Owen

 — 20:57
Nothing related, no. Most recent note was from a year and a half ago for referencing IRL memes IC
FabianK3 — 21:01
Then I would have to explain to them that they need to defer from doing that as it is considered power gaming.
Explain that its:
A) taking the job the actual medics in the round
B) The gear in the Intrepid is mean for emergencies in there and not supposed to be taken at will and
C) That their character background don't permit them to do the job of two roles

I'd add that taking such may be okay if there is no medic at all and they are in a high intensity situation (merc with no medic or such), but that might already stretch it as well
Without any related notes or warning I would leave a note
As usual, if they don't seem to understand what I'm trying to convey, a warning
I would also mention the power gaming warning in our rules ofc
Owen

 — 21:02
🙂‍↕️
anything else?
FabianK3 — 21:03
I would ask them to put the stuff back of course
Owen

 — 21:03
Great, lol
Alright, one last question. Not a scenario question
You may have heard rumblings of a big rules rewrite being worked on by mods/admins for the past several months--while we've mostly finished it at this point, if you had the opportunity to change any rules, policies, standards... essentially if you had the power to change anything, what would you chage?
FabianK3 — 21:10
I personally am quite content with our current rule set, but I'm sure the rule rewrite certainly has its reasons for it. Interested on what is going to be changed myself honestly.

It think the most friction causing thing is probably power gaming, but I can't give examples on what I would change, there is that small path between HRP and power gaming in some instances that is pretty difficult to put into rules...

That's probably the most difficult question of the interview.
Owen

 — 21:12
Yeah, sorry to put you on the spot like that. Just like to put out feelers to see if people have any big ideas. Most of the changes is just a facelift to the rules, as there are many very outdated references and things in them. They hadn't really been touched all that much since coming over to the Horizon, and there have been so many different rulings and things just taken as "common sense" that often lacked a proper place in the rules.

ANYWAY, that is basically all I have for you, unless you had any final thoughts to add?
FabianK3 — 21:14
No, valid question, expected that
I haven't had any issues with our rules but I can well understand if there is the need to update it. I could probably give more insights from the POV of staff that have been dealing with them for eternity...

I got nothing else to add.