Sovieteer - Moderator Application

[Sovieteer]

Byond ID: Sovieteer

Colonial Marines Character: Adam 'McLovin' Hastings

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Timezone: UTC-4:00 America/NewYork Eastern Timezone

On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate?: Until college, I can roughly say 35-40 hours per week. When college hits, it will vary between 25-30 hours a week, but college does not start for me until late August. Even then, I have three days off a week and my hours aren't that much per day when I do have classes.

Do you have any previous experience in being staff (not just SS13)?: I have been senior staff and above on Unturned servers (admin+, all the way up to head administrator or head of staff), Head Administrator on the Fallout 13 server during is initial start up when Mhatt12 was running it, Moderator2 on Unbound Travels until its collapse in 2015.

Did you play any of the previous Colonial Marine servers?: I'm not aware that there were other Colonial Marine servers, but I have been playing since the Nostromo, if this is what the question entails.

What are the 3 biggest servers you play on besides CM?: I haven't played any other server other than Colonial Marines for over three months, but I used to play Hippie, Aurora, and Goon in my past.

Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made: viewtopic.php?t=3541

Are you currently a staff member elsewhere (not just SS13)? If so, where? I am not a current staff member of any other SS-13 server, but I am a head administrator on an Unturned server. However, I have posted my indefinite haitus for said server since my internet connection cannot support running or updating Unturned anymore.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on Colonial Marines?: I do not recall ever being banned from Colonial Marines for more than 24 hours, if at all.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on ANY server? If so, which server, when, and what for?: I have not been banned for more than 24 hours on any server.

Are you familiar with the chat program Slack (its use is required)?: I am not familiar as to what Slack is, but I can easily get it (providing it is free) and install it given my internet does not fail me in doing so. I have vaguely heard it in my past, but I cannot remember as to where.

Common Staff Situations:
Write a description of what you would do in each of the following situations. Do not write on the same line as the situation - use the space below it or make space as needed. Failure to do this proves your inability to follow instructions and your application will be automatically denied.

1. A player randomly shoots someone at round start and MPs have detained him.
Using the aghost verb if I am ingame or simply jumping to the person that shot someone, I would view into the situation. If the person was killed during the shooting, I would inquire with the person in question to find out their motives for the shooting. If they were to respond with something immature or blatantly displayed the motif as griefing, I would discuss this with my fellow moderators and possibly administrators to see if anyone had any objections or other evidence. If none was found, the first time (or subsequent offence) time would be enforced for a ban or job-ban, depending on severity and response from the suspect. A note would be placed on their profile for future reference. If nothing fatal has occured, then I would simply keep reviewing the situation and interject if they seem to be breaking OOC in IC rules, or blatantly going SSD.


2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.

Being only a moderator, I'm sure there is not much that can be done in terms of blocking the breach myself (it's been far too long since I've familiarized myself with SS-13 staff verbs). I would contact an administrator to assist me with patching the breach up (if possible) and gather intel as to what or who caused the breach in the first place. Anyone found causing the breach will be interrogated as to why they did it, and their motifs taken into account when processing them for punishment. If it's severe, or the player has disrespected staff or has no moral for his actions, then a ban or job-ban will follow, respectively. If it was an accident, a note will be placed on their CKey. I would ask an administrator to a-heal anyone affected by it, if applicable.

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.

If in-game and in my own body, I will try to help the person ICly find their way and get them where they need to go. If no one is assisting said player ICly while I am observing, I will probably direct message the player and asks if he's okay or needs help navigating, as I know how confusing it is to be new to a game and having no help almost whatsoever. Once the player is familiar, and/or has looked on the wiki, I would minorly observe or bring other staff members attention to the player in case a situation arises involving the player in the future.


4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.

People tend to display a rude attitude when it comes from a place of hurt, or they do it out of spite when emotion clouds their judgement. I would ask the player to please calm down, and ask them to refrain from being rude in adminhelps in the future, as well as for the duration of the investigation. I would then call for a Administrator or above's attention to be brought to the situation, if any are found online. I would send a message via Slack if applicable, or some other way. If no admin+ members are able to get online, I will inform the player that they are unable to be reached at this time, but they have been notified of concerns, and if a player or staff member is being complained about, to write a complaint post on the forums.

5. You notice a player with a name that doesn't fit our naming rules. The player is arguing that: They've used the name for several years, no one has told them to change it before, and that they didn't know it was a rule.

While many people think that since they used it for years and they haven't been told different, this is obviously against the rules. Politefully, I would tell the player that everyone has to follow the rules and that no one is an exception to it, and that valid names that do not violate the rules help players immersively blend into the roleplay hat is taking place. I would then change the player's name into something they would find more desirable, or if they are still uncooperative, change it to something temporary and issue them a warning to change their name for the next round. A note will be placed on their Ckey if they are uncooperative or becoming rude, or show defiance, so that other staff members may know they were already warned.


6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.

At this point, there isn't much I can do. It's more an IC issue that MPs will have to deal with unless a threat is being presented to other players or the integrity of the round. If it's substantially threatening or is grounds for a possible griefing or unauthorized mutiny, I would subtly message them saying "You think it's a bad idea to be wearing armor and having a rifle out. Isn't it code green? You feel rather safe."


7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.

I would inform the medic that this is no excuse to perform surgery. Combat medics are not trained to know surgery on the battlefield, and are essentially enhanched EMTs and are only trained to keep their comrades up and transport them back to the dropship area or LZ for medevac to the ship, so the doctors there may be allowed to operate on them. Though it was a noble action, this falls under the grounds of metagaming, as they take knowledge of a doctor/surgeon and infused it into the medic role.

8. The round is stagnating. There are 30 marines and 4 aliens. The marines won't leave the ship, and the aliens won't attack. What would you do, to "encourage" the sides to engage each other?

At this point, I can make an announcement that marines could easily overcome the alien menace and end things once and for all, and to go and fight the enemy until the last breath. This can be done by subtly messaging or having some sort of IC means to egg the most highest ranking officer on the marines side, to do so. If there are four aliens, with no queen, then obviously preservation is going to be key. It's a variable situation, and it can be handled in multiple ways, but broadly, an announcement or subtle message on either side should work.

9. The round ends, a MARINE starts shooting a hostile IRON BEAR and the IRON BEAR Adminhelps complaining he was killed after the round ended.

Well, this one is a tough one for me. I'm not sure entirely on how to deal with it, because I have a confliction to say if it is EORG or if it's legitimate, since obviously even if the game ends, in reality, people wouldn't stop shooting at each other. Though, I do think of it this way as well. End game is like war being called off. Both parties, ideally, should stop. So I'm going to go ahead and say that the Marine is in the wrong and a warning should be distributed.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.

This is really unruly behavior and should try to be solved ICly if possible. If it progresses into an all out round-ruining experience to multiple people, I would step in and message the player and ask him what they are doing. If they respond with rude behavior, or they have no reasonable validation for their actions, I would enforce a warning for them to stop their actions and to continue the round normally. This would also result in a note being placed on their profile. If it persisted, a ban would be put into effect.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.

Obviously this is taking things too far. I remember being in a situation like this where I punched a marine and the other marine set me ablaze with an incinerator. I handled it poorly as a player, but I regretted my actions. I would tell the player that killing a marine over a punch is not acceptable, and if they were a special job role, then they would be job-banned if not temporarily banned. A note would be put on their Ckey for reminders in the future.

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.

Seeing as not much can be done on my side, I shall call ahead to those with Admin+ abilities on Slack or another means of communication, and notify that their assistance is needed. In the mean time, I would monitor the situation and keep updates ready for anyone with admin+ abilities who inquire on it.

13. There are minor racist comments going on IC. 9 of the 10 people are laughing and RPing but one player gets offended and Adminhelps about it.

In order for rowdy people to understand the depth that racism is not okay, I would disable OOC and then announce that racist comments of any kind, no matter the depth or meaning, would not be tolerated by any means or forms on the server, and that it was a direct violation of the rules. Then I would unmute OOC and deal with anyone objecting or causing a ruckus over it, in an appropriate manner.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.

This would also require Admin+ abilities to fully solve. The person in question would be given a maximum of five minutes to relog back into the server to answer for their actions. Failure to do so will be counted as blatant griefing and with no regards to apologize or answer for the actions, and result in a permanent ban, as well as note being left on the profile. All those affected in the griefing incident would be a-healed and the round would go on, as one could explain it as a mental breakdown or a rogue synth of sorts, or a clone (as was done today).

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.

I would ask the player why they did what they did. The most likely answer is that they did it to avoid chest bursting and that this is considered failed/bad RP, and they would be warned to not do it. If this is a player's second or subsequent offence, then they would be punished accordingly.

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.

A simple warning telling them to stop would suffice. If not, then they would be dealt with in a mannerable fashion.

17. A xeno player calls the shuttle a "dropship". A different xeno player complains to you that it's metagaming/failRP to call it a "dropship".

While inclined to agree, some players may be used to calling it a dropship due to having played as a marine for awhile or being a first time xeno. I would remind the player calling it a dropship that aliens have no idea what their actually called, and instead should call it a metal bird.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.

This is metagaming, by all counts. Command staff have no idea what is going on down on the planet and must rely on information from players going planetside on deployment. The command member would be interrogated on this issue and a temporary job-ban would be put into place for them, as well as a note. This is possibly round-ruining and can cause players to simply go down and attack anything in sight.

19. A Marine kills another Marine on the EVAC Pod to take the last spot and claims it was RP as he was saving himself.

This is still not okay. They have blatantly taken another person out of the game to help satisfy their need to survive or get away without dying. The other player may of wanted to escape also, and killing them has ruined their fun in the game, and possibly ruined future rounds for them. My response to this is to punish the player with a temporary ban, and a note.

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.

I would tell the staff member in Msay that the information they are giving is wrong and help correct them with the appropriate information. If a rule is being enforced wrong, then I would try to help them enforce the rule correctly, by either offering tips or doing it myself if they allowed me to.

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.

Seeing staff members abuse their power is not a laughing matter. At this point, screenshots or possible recordings are going to be taken and all evidence will be gathered against the offending staff member. I will send this evidence and my testimony of the incident to my superiors and hope they do something about it.

21. You see a player talking in OOC chat about what he did with your mom last night.

Simply laugh it off and let the player go on with playing their round. If it became to excessive and/or resulted in spam, I would warn them to calm down, otherwise an OOC mute may occur. Either way, jokes against my mother aren't going to rile me up.

Any additional information you'd like to add?

A bunch. I know some of my answers here may seem a bit inappropriate or vague, and I'm really trying to improve on how I handle matters. If I do get accepted, I hope that the trial I am given will help me learn a lot about what I can do instead of what I've posted here before you. I just hope you may give me the time to prove myself and show the good intentions I have in mind, and the good abilities that I have. I'm just trying to give back to the community and help make the community a better place to be, so that people can have a sanctuary to have a fun and diverse RP experience. Also, my internet ranges from the 100-300 KBPS range as of right now, and connection is spotty some days, so that may affect my ability to moderate slightly, but I assure you, that's rare. I know I made an application in the past, and failed to adhere to the expectations that were expected of me. At that time, I had a lot of things going on in my life, and most of it, I had to be away for awhile to really take care of things that were out of my hands. This time, I hope to redeem myself and thus redeem the expectations of those who put faith in me. I wish to try to become a moderator to help the server and its playerbase, to the best of my ability.

EDIT: Answered number 9.

[Finefire984]

Let me get this straight first. I'm not a mod, so I can't judge how you enforced the rules. I just look at notes, how long you've been playing, and activity. Now the first thing is that you've been here for a while. Longer than me even. However, you only have 17 forum posts. I've also never seen you in game. I don't know if it's because of time zones or what. I also saw that you were a trial mod here in the past, but failed it for inactivity. I'm going to say -1 here.

[Sovieteer]

Let me get this straight first. I'm not a mod, so I can't judge how you enforced the rules. I just look at notes, how long you've been playing, and activity. Now the first thing is that you've been here for a while. Longer than me even. However, you only have 17 forum posts. I've also never seen you in game. I don't know if it's because of time zones or what. I also saw that you were a trial mod here in the past, but failed it for inactivity. I'm going to say -1 here.

You have a lot of valid points, and I do agree. I only have 17 forum posts, but with everything here you just said, I have explained it with a reason as to why: IRL reasons called out more to me and had to be dealt with for awhile, including getting kicked out of my home and trying to get school work prioritized. I'm currently working on being more active and making more of a difference. I've been on all the time for at least four days, perhaps more. Now, if the tone of this defense sounds rude or condescending to you, I do apologize, I do not mean it in such a way. I just want to plainly state the reasons why I've been inactive, and that I'm trying to make myself more known and be more involved.

[TehSpoderman]

Uh...you didnt answer number 9...

[Sovieteer]

To be frank, I couldn't answer number nine. I feel like any answer I formulated at the time wasn't correct, so I left it blank intentionally because I just didn't know to respond.

[slc97]

Answer number 9. I would rather you answer it wrong and I be able to correct you than you just put no effort into answering the question.

I do believe you put effort into formulating an answer as you've said, but first glance at the applications gives me a bad first impression when an answer is blank.

[slc97]

Okay, I'll go ahead and do another post for visibility sake instead of an edit.

Your answer to number 9 is wrong. EORG only applies to Marines shooting Marines. Hostiles are fair game at round end. It's okay to get this wrong though. I would rather you get an answer wrong and be open to learning the correct answer than anything else.

So from here, staff is gonna come in, give opinions and ask you questions and clarifications. Answer to the best of your abilities, and I'll give my final opinion at a later date.

[Symbiosis]

2. If the breach was caused by the dropship crashing into the Almayer, no need to intervene.

3. Throw this guy to the mentors. That's what we're here for; and it frees up you and other Mods to handle the big stuff!

9. Marines can fight hostiles after round end.


15. The question is about Larva only, beeline suiciding as a Larva is definitely an issue. Big red flag. I've seen Xeno job bans given for this.

17. Dropship works. Hivemind is literal English translation. No intervention needed.

[Sleepy Retard]

Right, well,

• 1: Pretty good until we get to the punishment part. " If none was found, the first time (or subsequent offence) time would be enforced for a ban or job-ban, depending on severity and response from the suspect. A note would be placed on their profile for future reference." I would probably keep this as a warning if it's their first offence, not a ban...Unless it was clearly grief.
  2: Generally pretty good, though if you were a full moderator you don't need an admin to aheal for you.
  3: Just throw the person in question to the mentors, they're always so happy to help naked baldies.
  4: Not bad, I suppose. Though I don't see much reason to fall for the "I want to speak to a manager" thing, if they actually need an admin it's fine. Just keep in mind if you need to note them mark down their bad behaviour
  5: You can't change their name but an admin can if it's that bad. As well, you'll always want to note them even if they were cooperative. Just how it goes.
  6: Yep, seems fine to me. Just subtle message an MP if it really gets bad.
  7: If someone is performing surgery tell them to close up (don't finish surgery, just cauterize the wound) and apply a note for doing surgery.
  8: Looks good.
  9: It's fine, you're allowed to shoot hostile ERTs after round end.
  10: Looks good to me.
  11: Seems good, but remember to aheal the person who was killed, and make sure they don't come back with a vengeance
  12: Yeah, you got it.
  13: Your way of handling this is pretty bad. Just go to the area and say something LOOCly, or PM the guy if it's only one. No need to mute OOC (which doesn't matter since players can't use it) and announce it to everyone.
  14: Mm. Depending on the extent of the grief it's not instantly answered with a perma ban. If we permabanned every griefer we'd have too long of a list.
  15: People have been jobbanned for this, keep that in mind. There isn't much use charging the front lines as a larva, your teeth aren't that sharp.
  16: Looks good
  17: Nah, it's fine. Hive mind is a direct translation. They can say dropship.
  18: Pretty much fine, but if they mention it's aliens like Farwas or Yiren it's probably fine. If they mention xenomorphs that's a concern.
  19: No, it's fine. You're allowed to kill someone to get a spot on an escape pod if you really need to. It's IC and that's how they were designed.
  20: Good, but instead of sending it to your superior send it to the applicable senior staff, be it Jerkface for mentors, SLC for mods, and FreeMySoul for admins.
  21: Yeah, that's good.

Just remember if they break a rule at all to note them for it, and to make sure you aheal anyone who needs it. As well, applying the ban in the situation is probably your best bet when you do it last. It's more important to deal with everything else.

I got no opinions either way.

I will ask you a question though. When playing you see this:

Moderator McModerating (ElDefaultio) shot WorseModerator McModeratington (Karmac) with a the rifle bullet!
Moderator McModerating (ElDefaultio) shot WorseModerator McModeratington (Karmac) with a the rifle bullet!
Moderator McModerating (ElDefaultio) shot WorseModerator McModeratington (Karmac) with a the rifle bullet!
Moderator McModerating (ElDefaultio) shot WorseModerator McModeratington (Karmac) with a the rifle bullet!
Moderator McModerating (ElDefaultio) shot WorseModerator McModeratington (Karmac) with a the rifle bullet!

Naturally you chuckle at the competence of the marines, however you later get an ahelp from the victim, Karmac, stating he was griefed by a very handsome man. How do you proceed?

Additionally, a Commander grants a survivor a job as a Military Police, alongside the rank of SSGT as you do. The reasoning being he was a colonial marshal on the now ruined colony. How do you proceed?

Lastly, a marine is permabrigged and writes out 'Woody got Wood' on numerous pieces of paper. What do?

[Feweh]

Last time you were staff you pretty much did the same thing.

Played for a solid few weeks, applied to staff, made trial and then disappeared.

Noticed you've only been in-game for a few weeks again and I'm seeing the same trend.
Are you purely a summer player?

[Tharinoma]

Hello. I have a question if you can spare the time.
You get the following ahelp :
Adminhelp (Alien Queen) : Larva 111 Is refusing my order to evolve to drone.

Lets assume you PM the larva. You find out he's now Runner 222. You ask him abou the situation and get the following responce :
PM (Runner 222) : But I did evolve to drone, I followed the order. I just ghosted after I was done and joined in another larva lol.

What do you do?

[Emeraldblood]

A few answers are wrong, but you do seem to have the ability to work as a mod. One thing that worries me is how much time you'll be able to be on. You're saying that you can spend a lot of time on the server but you also said that you've been having internet problems and time problems. I don't know the extent of all of this but being a mod is going to be an investment that you may not be able to handle. For now, I'll keep neutral but if you can answer a few more questions correctly I'd probably give you a point.

[slc97]

This is denied. We do not do seasonal hiring and don't want a repeat of your last tenure as a trial. Maintain server activity and reapply in 30 days, and this can be reassessed.