Solarmare - Moderator Application

[Solarmare]

Byond ID: Solarmare

Colonial Marines Character: Kane Laborde

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Timezone: GMT

On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate?
I believe I should have at least twelve ready each week for moderating.

Do you have any previous experience in being staff (not just SS13)?
No experience so far.

Did you play any of the previous Colonial Marine servers?
I've only really played on the most recent

What are the 3 biggest servers you play on besides CM?
TG, Yog, FTL.

Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made:
No other applications yet.

Are you currently a staff member elsewhere (not just SS13)? If so, where?
Not a staff member on any server.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on Colonial Marines?
I have not been banned on this server I believe.

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on ANY server? If so, which server, when, and what for?
I have no been banned for such a time on any other server.

Are you familiar with the chat program Slack (its use is required)?
I have it, but not made use of it yet. I should learn it fairly quickly.

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.
Look into the situation and the history of the marine that fired, if it seems clear and the marine is actually interacting with the MP's and claiming it was a misfire it seems best to leave it to be resolved IC. If they aren't actually interacting I'd ask what occurred from them, and if they are saying nothing or were doing it purposefully I would warn them that they should not be firing their weapons at other marines and put a note on the incident.

2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.
If this is not caused by a player, leave it to be handled IC. If it was I look into who caused it and pm them why it occurred, if they did not have reason to do so I warn them to avoid causing breaches without sufficient cause IC and place a note. Perhaps a 3 hour ban if the breach was made large enough by them and they don't seem to be trying to get it repaired.

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.
PM them asking if they are new and link them the marine quickstart guide if they say they are. Then tell them to use the adminhelp feature at the admin tab to call a mentor if they have further questions after going through. If they're not responding I tell them to click on my name to talk to me. Though I would try to get a mentor on them to directly help them first if were one online.

4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.
If the situation does not need to be resolved through higher permissions, I tell them to calm down if the situation is going to be resolved appropriately. If they continue being rude I refer them to rule 1 and to remain professional if they do not want a punishment off their behavior in ahelps alone. Beyond that try to resolve the situation if they calm down, apply a warning and perhaps a 3 hour ban if they do not and continue to be rude. If the situation does require one I tell them to calm down and I will try to get one when I can,

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.
I tell them to play on the server they will actually have to comply with all rules, including the naming one if it has yet to be enforced on them. I give them a chance to change their name but warn them if they insist on keeping the name.

6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.
Seems like a situation to be dealt with IC, though if no MP seems to notice for some time I message one that perhaps they should be aware of such a thing occurring.

7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.
This should be a moot point with the skill system, I warn them to not attempt surgery if this happens to change.

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?
Message the highest ranking marine that they need to actually be pressing their advantage, and should be trying to end them if they're aware that only a few are left. Or that a queen should go up and launch the dropship if most marines really aren't willing to go down.

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.
Tell them that EORG applies only to friendly factions, and that hostilities between hostile ones can continue despite the round ending.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.
Seems like it can be resolved IC, though my concern in this situation is that they might not actually be interacting much with the other marines they're affecting. If they are not I warn them to avoid such behavior, and try to act as if they were an marine with discipline while on this server.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.
I tell them that using lethal force with such little reason is not acceptable on this server, as it seems a low RP thing to do. Look into what occurred, and apply a 3 hour ban if he did it for as little reason as he stated with a note. Aheal the killed marine once the situation was resolved.

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.
I attempt to get one notified about the situation as soon as I can, and attempt to do what I can for the issue if there isn't one present or around to come on to deal with it themself.

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.
Tell him that racism and such are allowed for characters in this server so long as it remains minor and they should attempt to resolve it in character if they want to see it dealt with.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.
Apply a 7 day ban to the player, then make a post in the permaban request forum for them. Aheal the harmed marines by the firing.

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.
Ask why they were in the area and if they don't have a satisfactory reason, apply a three hour ban and note it and tell them to avoid areas with combat as a larva.

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.
Tell them to remain in character as an alien and they should avoid such behavior in the future, with a warning and note if there is nothing else about their behaviour as a xeno.

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".
Tell them it's fine to use whatever name they like for the dropship, as it's a hivemind and the images of it and not actual words of it are what's being sent.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.
Make an OOC announcement to completely ignore whatever the player said about the aliens, and then tell the player they don't actually know what's down there yet. Apply a warning and note to the command player if no other issues of metagaming are present.

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.
Look into the situation and see if the marines were trying to both take the spot, if tensions were high enough for them to fight over it I leave it as an IC issue. If the marine taking the spot improperly escalated the situation or simply started firing without much reason I apply a 3 hour and note on the issue.

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.
PM the admin afterwards about what occurred if they were giving wrong information and to correct themself to the player if they could, if they gave a wrong enforcement of a rule I bring the issue up to a head staff to deal with.

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.
PM them to knock it off, bring it up to a head staff if they continue with the abuse.

21. You see a player talking in OOC chat about what he did with your mom last night.
As long as it's a few lines or such I can ignore it, but if they fill the chat with it I warn them about being disrespectful to staff members and OOC mute them with a note.

Any additional information you'd like to add?
Overall I want to help preserve the RP of the server, and encourage it in certain cases where I can. I'm concerned with case 10 for example, because it seems not to have much of a roleplay element to it and the player carrying it out might be griefing. I would prefer to warn rather than give straight bans, but cases like with the larva and the lethal fire from a marine over a punch seem to merit a bam.
I don't think there's much question with the moves to permaban the pajama marine firing on briefing, but perhaps a 7 day ban might be enough to prevent it?

Besides that I have no experience and no familiarity with the admin verbs, so I'll be slow about looking into the incidents.

I'm aware of the protocols and code of conduct of the staff. So I might not have mentioned pming those involved in the cases, but I'm aware I should be messaging those involved and checking the logs if I can to see if something actually occurred. As well as determining the severity, though that doesn't seem too difficult with punishment with the minimal being the one that should be applied.

My answers in the cases might a bit wrong or not imply enough care on my part, so I'd like to know which are lacking. Also would appreciate people offering additional cases for me to give an answer towards if that helps give an idea of how suitable a moderator I would be. Rather looking forward to getting to try this and help out the server, so I'm hoping for approval.

Forgot to note that I do indeed have a skype account, and can share it whenever I'm accepted.

[Robotonic]

I haven't seen Kane Laborde yet or interacted with them yet, I don't believe I've seen them in-game. I've never seen your account name online before, or remember anything about you either good or bad.
The application likely tired you out a little bit due to the amount of information you had to fill-out, however I have more questions to ask and advice to share, so bear with me.

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► Show Spoiler

1. A player randomly shoots someone at round start and MPs have detained him.
If the player in #1 were to continue ignoring you, what would you do? And can you explain why you believe a warning would be sufficient for someone who intentionally shot another marine with no roleplay reason, possibly ruining the other marine's round? What would you do to the victim? What if the victim was extremely angry, or had even already rage-quit?

2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.
For #2 you say you would warn a player for causing a breach without sufficient reason, if you've seen it in action our atmospherics system can be brutal and unforgiving and as such an intentional breach can single-handedly destroy every marine aboard the ship. A stern warning for an accidental breach would be acceptable if it were truly an unfortunate accident with little consequences, but for an intentional breach a warning is extremely light as it stresses the severe punishment quite seriously. If a player intentionally and knowingly caused a breach regardless of justification, how would you deal with them knowing this now and if you read our rule on atmospherics again?
Do you have any thoughts on how to handle special, unique roles on causing explosions on the ship such as a predator?

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.
#3 Alright, if they're already speaking to you then you wouldn't need to tell them to use adminhelp to call a mentor as you could just ask one who is in-game currently for help assuming there is one online at the time, but you seem to know what to do to help the player here so that's good enough. What would you do if the new player simply didn't reply after being PM'd several times? Think about what tools you on this server and admins on others may have at hand to use to effectively force them to reply.

4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.
#4. Okay, if they didn't stop being rude to you when told to stop a warning wouldn't be sufficient. If the player were insulting you quite severely with long-winded, quite genuinely angry messages, what punishment would you recommend if they didn't stop after being told? And what about if they weren't insulting you, but rather getting very angry and going off on another player over LOOC? What if that player was getting quite irate and complained about it?

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.
#5. Good, what if they didn't change it next round, either on accident, or, if you were able to find out so, intentionally?

6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.
Number #6 is almost perfect, however we don't interfere with what's going on in a round if at all possible. If an MP seems to continually ignore the MT even after seeing them several times you can give them a subtle message hinting at it being against the law, however telling an MP that an MT is committing a crime without them ever having seen that MT at any point or telling them directly via an admin PM would be excessive. This is an in-character issue, an MP would not suddenly know an MT is committing an offence on the other side of the ship because they were PM'd by a moderator.

7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.
#7. Righto, good. If it did somehow change in future and they were in the middle of surgery when you noticed, would you tell them to stop it straight-away?

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?
For #8, always use subtle messages or announcements in cases like this. Avoid direct PM's unless necessary for the situation. You can subtle message the leaders of both sides if they're delaying like this, of course.

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.
#9. Good stuff.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.
#10. Terrible behaviour such as fist-fighting, repeated theft and excessive, even obtrusive levels of shoving at round start can be considered a mix of low-level griefing and low-RP, so a warning sometimes escalated to a ban depending on the situation is quite apt, especially so if a large number of marines have suddenly begun to do the same. It's up to you as a moderator to decide whether it's an IC issue or an OOC issue, judge this upon whether all they are doing is causing grief for other players instead of getting ready to go planetside, if they have prior history, and if a bunch of marines are suddenly deciding to all act in a terrible way like this all together which can cause big issues for the round and MP's alike.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.
#11. Why do you believe a three hour ban is acceptable for a person who killed another marine over a punch? What if they had a history of murdering people over petty fights?

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.
#12. Good.

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.
#13. Righto, reasonable answer.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.
Okay, #14, pretty much what I said when I made my application, and a common-sense reply that'll you get more specific details on if accepted. Good.

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.
On #15, how would you find out if the larva actually ran out towards the frontlines or if they simply chestburst in an unfortunate location? Who would you ask? If they didn't have a good reason, what if they had a history of doing this?

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.
For #16 do you believe any level of memeing in hivemind is acceptable, and if so, what would be a good definition of a player excessively memeing on it if you had to give a definition on it?

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".
#17. Good answer.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.
#18. Good response to attempt to stop the information spreading further. If there were other issues of metagaming present on the player what would you do if, for example, they had one prior note of metagaming saying 'Warned for metagaming. As an executive officer ordered all squads to fortify the self-destruct room prior to hostile forces being enroute.' ?

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.
#19. Alright. What if they had both improperly escalated each-other, for example, a marine stabs a medic to get on the evac pod with no prior escalation and the medic proceeds to blast them with an entire magazine's worth of rounds, decapitating them?

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.
#20. Alright, that's fine.
20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.
a. Not a great idea depending on what they're doing, for the most part you should take evidence such as screenshots and just bring it straight to their head absolutely ASAP.

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

Lastly, can you write me a single example note for a person who shot another marine to death at round-start and disconnected instantly afterwards? I don't mind about ban-times or niche details so much right now, just give me an idea of how'd you note that type of situation in a summarised but informative manner.

---

Some of the issues with your answers are to do with inexperience with moderating and apparent lack-of-clarity of how our rules work. I haven't seen you online particularly much, you aren't active on the forums, and you seem very tentative when it comes to banning people. I have just now seen a couple of faxes you've written and I must say they're quite good, but I can't take much just from faxes, especially relating to your ability to moderate.

How long ago did you begin playing our server? Have you played high-stress roles such as XO, SO or SL yet? And are you certain that you understand our rules to a level of accuracy necessary to moderate the server?

At this moment I can't point out many positive points on this application when balanced with the negatives. As an additional I'm a little tired right now, if I go over this again in the morning and there's any issues I'll correct them, I figured you'd want some feedback pretty quickly here. Essentially, I don't really know who you are. I'm not personally supporting a decision to make you a trial moderator until there's more feedback from both other people and you. If you have questions of your own, would like clarification, or if you think I messed something up then put them up on this thread. I'll get back to you ASAP.

I highly recommend you use spare time to go over any previous answers and check you're certain they're correct, I haven't given you the answers to everything, simply asked you for more specific scenarios and how you would react in them. Another moderator can tell you the specifics of what you should be doing if they wish to do so, I simply wish to see how you handle this by checking our rules again and thinking it over some more. Regardless of how it goes, I wish you luck.

EDIT: Oh, yes, of course. Remember to always check their notes, note them on what happened, and carefully judge a proper time for a ban. The latter can be difficult at first, don't worry.

[Emeraldblood]

I've got a few questions. I've never seen you or heard of you, you have no notes (which could actually be a good thing), and your forum account is just a few days past a week old. How long have you been playing on our server? Can you give me like a rough month you started?

Overall, the answers aren't bad, but they're pretty basic. Some aren't that good but others are alright. Going to need a lot more information before I can consider giving a positive vote to your application.

[Solarmare]

Mm, I wasn't keeping in mind the difference between subtle messages and actually direct pm's in some of my answers. So I should clarify in some of the cases then. For 6 I should certainly be using a subtle message to the MP if they're witnessing it directly and not doing much, I'm supposing I simply wanted to push too hard on some interaction occurring there so I'll keep in mind not trying to interfere with the round much. As you say I certainly should be using subtle messages for 8 where the round is stagnating, and should be keeping it in mind for other issues that arise.

I'll try answering the other further queries though I'm a bit tired now.

---

► Show Spoiler

If the player in #1 were to continue ignoring you, what would you do? And can you explain why you believe a warning would be sufficient for someone who intentionally shot another marine with no roleplay reason, possibly ruining the other marine's round? What would you do to the victim? What if the victim was extremely angry, or had even already rage-quit?
I would eventually forced to sleep them if they were not willing to respond I think, and tell them they could only move after responding. If they continued not to respond I think I'd end up being forced to assume it was a case of grief and have to issue a ban. I'd want to issue a warning if they were actually communicating since I think they could realize that the next incident would warrant a ban and wouldn't carry on such behavior. But perhaps an immediate ban might be needed, I prefer warnings too much perhaps simply because it offers them a chance to realize they have done something wrong. If it was an actual case of grief the victim should be ahealed, but if they've rage quit I'm not sure anything could be done at that point.


For #2 you say you would warn a player for causing a breach without sufficient reason, if you've seen it in action our atmospherics system can be brutal and unforgiving and as such an intentional breach can single-handedly destroy every marine aboard the ship. A stern warning for an accidental breach would be acceptable if it were truly an unfortunate accident with little consequences, but for an intentional breach a warning is extremely light as it stresses the severe punishment quite seriously. If a player intentionally and knowingly caused a breach regardless of justification, how would you deal with them knowing this now and if you read our rule on atmospherics again?
Do you have any thoughts on how to handle special, unique roles on causing explosions on the ship such as a predator?
Upon reading that more thoroughly, I wasn't willing to issue an immediate ban on that case. But seeing how severe it is breaches do end up deserving an immediate 3 hour ban at least then, seeing how much damage it does. As far as predators and other special roles go, those aren't really the concerns of staff as per the rule itself so those are left to be dealt with IC.

#3 Alright, if they're already speaking to you then you wouldn't need to tell them to use adminhelp to call a mentor as you could just ask one who is in-game currently for help assuming there is one online at the time, but you seem to know what to do to help the player here so that's good enough. What would you do if the new player simply didn't reply after being PM'd several times? Think about what tools you on this server and admins on others may have at hand to use to effectively force them to reply.
I believe the most appropriate tool to deal with it if they did not respond would be to sleep them to make it the only thing they could do, and remind them they could respond by clicking my name at the time. If they proceeded not to answer at all though, I'm not too sure how I would actually deal with a player that's completely nonresponsive but not griefing.

#4. Okay, if they didn't stop being rude to you when told to stop a warning wouldn't be sufficient. If the player were insulting you quite severely with long-winded, quite genuinely angry messages, what punishment would you recommend if they didn't stop after being told? And what about if they weren't insulting you, but rather getting very angry and going off on another player over LOOC? What if that player was getting quite irate and complained about it?
If they would not heed the warning and the fact they would be banned after they continued, I would give a ban to them and note the incident. If they were railing at the other player I would do the same, tell them to immediately stop. If they did not I would OOC ban them, then issue a short ban to the player after the main issue had been resolved. I would have to tell the other player to remain calm themself while I dealed with the player that was rude, and that if they could not they would receive some sort of repercussion since I was busy dealing with the one angering them and they had no need to be mad themself at that point.

#5. Good, what if they didn't change it next round, either on accident, or, if you were able to find out so, intentionally?
I would offer them the chance to change it again, I don't think I would have given a warning if they willing changed it in the previous incident. Though I would give them a warning this time and a note on it and remind them they should have their name changed in set up when they could unless they wanted a ban. If they did so intentionally I think I would give a short ban as I had just made them aware that their name should be changed, and a clear punishment in this case is warranted to make it clear that it was not acceptable.

Number #6 is almost perfect, however we don't interfere with what's going on in a round if at all possible. If an MP seems to continually ignore the MT even after seeing them several times you can give them a subtle message hinting at it being against the law, however telling an MP that an MT is committing a crime without them ever having seen that MT at any point or telling them directly via an admin PM would be excessive. This is an in-character issue, an MP would not suddenly know an MT is committing an offence on the other side of the ship because they were PM'd by a moderator.
I suppose I wasn't keeping in mind the difference between the direct pm and subtle message in the answer here, so yes I'd only be using the subtle messages if the MP was witnessing the issue directly and not seeming to be aware of it.

#7. Righto, good. If it did somehow change in future and they were in the middle of surgery when you noticed, would you tell them to stop it straight-away?
I believe the appropriate action would be to tell them to finish the operation immediately with a cautery if no damage was currently caused by it, or to deal with the damage if they had cause any such as clamping bleeding and then to end it.

#11. Why do you believe a three hour ban is acceptable for a person who killed another marine over a punch? What if they had a history of murdering people over petty fights?
I think a three hour ban is justified under the lethal force section in the server rules, where it's considered griefing without sufficient reason. I personally think an immediate ban should also be applied, because it's very low RP to outright murder over a punch and a warning is not quite sufficient in this case to convey this should really not be done. I think a history of murder over small fights would be enough to apply a stricter ban, as it seems to be a consistent failure to rp and respond appropriately to such a situation.

On #15, how would you find out if the larva actually ran out towards the frontlines or if they simply chestburst in an unfortunate location? Who would you ask? If they didn't have a good reason, what if they had a history of doing this?
On the question it only mentioned a larva running out to the frontlines so I didn't consider a chest burst. Hopefully I could investigate to see that it was not an intentional death if it bursted at the wrong time, I believe dead chat might be the right place to ask as well as the larva themself and who they bursted from if it was in a poor situation. If they didn't have a good reason otherwise, I think a ban for griefing would be fine here. If they had a history of it, a stricter ban is needed and a xeno job ban if their history has enough incidents.

For #16 do you believe any level of memeing in hivemind is acceptable, and if so, what would be a good definition of a player excessively memeing on it if you had to give a definition on it?
I believe it on the level of a single joke for some levity is fine, but it should be stopped if it continued. If I had to give a definition it would be; insisting on not actually acting as a xenomorph, making jokes or references constantly that don't have much to do with their situation, or doing something mindless like continually shoving other xenos or emote spamming.


#18. Good response to attempt to stop the information spreading further. If there were other issues of metagaming present on the player what would you do if, for example, they had one prior note of metagaming saying 'Warned for metagaming. As an executive officer ordered all squads to fortify the self-destruct room prior to hostile forces being enroute.' ?

I believe on this the same rule of metagaming rule is violated. So a ban should be applied if they held such a note recently since they do not seem to care for changing their behavior, or expect further action from the staff.

#19. Alright. What if they had both improperly escalated each-other, for example, a marine stabs a medic to get on the evac pod with no prior escalation and the medic proceeds to blast them with an entire magazine's worth of rounds, decapitating them?
Seems like both should be punished in that case then, if the marine stabbed the medic they're using lethal force unnecessarily and so is the medic blasting them. In this case it seems like both deserve a ban for a very poor display from both of them. It seems like they deserve the same punishment to me for both acting inappropriately, but the marine that stabbed that could possibly receive a lighter one though it should still be a ban.

a. Not a great idea depending on what they're doing, for the most part you should take evidence such as screenshots and just bring it straight to their head absolutely ASAP.
I'll keep this much in mind if such a thing comes up then, as I wasn't quite aware on how to deal with another moderator abusing power.

---

As far as a example note, I'll try to provide what I think it should look like.

(Date) During round number(#) shot and killed (other player) roundstart without reason, immediately disconnected.

I suppose it's not too surprising I may not necessarily be noticeable, I don't play roles that most people have to notice much quite a lot such as SL. I admit I've never really played XO, I prefer other roles such as RO that might not really be seen a lot by other players. And I don't play as an SO too much though I know the role now I think.

I think I've been playing for 4 months by now, but I've only really settled into my character a month or two ago or so. Something that might also hurt is that I can play late at night or early in the day sometimes. Overall I could improve my playing time, I certainly have plenty to spare. There are just a few situations out of my hand that effect my ability to be on sometimes.

I hope the further clarification with the questions can help with what emeraldblood would want to see. Also, more questions and such cases would be very helpful in giving an idea to the people who aren't sure.

[Emeraldblood]

Your date all checks out, so you're good. Just had to make sure. For notes, you don't actually have to put the date or your name down, does this automatically. For what it's worth, you don't have to say "During the round..." because 95% of cases are going to be in the round anyway. These are small things, though, and your answer is fine.

I'll leave all of Robo's questions for you and him to deal with, and while he did address some of the problems, I'm going to point out a few myself.

8. This is probably something you shouldn't be doing unless you have to. Never PM a player about IC information to give them an advantage, this is going to get you in a lot of trouble. What you'd want to do is use Subtle Messages to give a small nudge to one of the sides. This plays out as something like "You hear a voice in your head say..." and should be worded in an IC manner. Say you SM the XO and say something like, "There can't be much of those bastards left at this point, we should mount an attack and finish this for once and for all!" Most likely they won't just ignore you but usually want to try to tell the stronger force to make a move. If each side refuses to make a move, you have access to the Queen Mother and you can order the Xeno to take the DS up. Remember that Queen Mother is also an IC thing and you need to word it so.

19. This one is a tricky question as it can make a few acceptions to more standard rules. The biggest factor you'd want to look at here is the RP that lead up to the event and the state of the ship when this took place. A marine would be allowed to shoot if there was a fair warning to the victim beforehand and the ship has fallen into enough disarray. What would not be acceptable would be a marine opening fire on some guy if he said "Don't move" and the other marine took a step while most of the ship is still under Marine control. A good example would be saying that the Xeno are attacking the bridge and the comms just went silent; there is one slot and the Marine warns the other that if he doesn't step away from the escape pod or takes out a gun, he's going to shoot. That Marine then walks up and starts climbing inside the pod, then he'd be able to shoot him because he's trying to take the last spot. This is context sensitive so you have to assess the situation yourself.

20. This one doesn't say it's an admin who gave out wrong information, just a staff, but we can just say it was in this case. First off, you'd want to tell them when you notice they're getting a rule wrong, not after they've handled the case improperly. Second, you'd want the staff who gave the wrong information to be the one who fixes this with the player. This is less confusing for the player themselves and also helps everyone know who's taking care of what. You can ask the staff member if you want them to go correct it, but they will most likely fix it themselves. For the third part, you don't really need to bring this to a head staff. Probably 95% of mishaps like this are in more fringe rules and the staff just didn't know any better. A perfect example of this is a staff gave out a warning for a commander sending down one squad before the others. This rule had been asked about a lot but an official ruling was given that it's fine right now. The staff didn't see that it was said that this is fine so we got every fixed up when I brought it up to them. The only time you may want to contact a head staff about this is if they've messed up something basic in a large way, which is very unlikely.

20a. This answer isn't very good. While yes they are doing something they shouldn't, it's not under your authority to be telling other staff what they should and should not be doing. That and PMing them to "Knock it off" may only be adding fuel to a fire and just get you in trouble as well. You just want to take a screenshot or get the logs of the incident and inform them about what's going on.

I have a little scenario for you. Say the XO notices the Marines aren't doing a good enough job listening to orders and is going to go down to the ground to get things under control. There is no CO so he's giving command to one of the SO while he's gone. Is anything wrong with this or is this fine to do?

[Solarmare]

On 8, I should have mentioned the difference between pm's and subtle messages in the answer. Though I wasn't quite aware if I had access to queen mother to make a xeno's make the move if the round has been stalling for long enough.

19, On that I'm concerned with the RP of the event and making sure there's enough to justify someone shooting as is, so I think it should be fine but it does need some investigation.

20, I would be asking the staff member to correct themself if their weren't doing so already. I don't really think it would have been right to interfere during another staff members issue, but if they're applying a rule wrong I suppose I should be bringing it up to them in the moderator chat to help ensure that a punishment isn't given wrongly or at least corrected soon as possible. For the most part I shouldn't need to bring a head staff then since it can be corrected.

20a, As far as this goes I wasn't quite aware on how to deal with another moderator abusing their powers, so screen shots and logs would be the best route to go then.

With the case with the XO they should never be going down if there is not a CO present on the ship, so perhaps a subtle message to remind them they have to stay on if they're insisting on going down to the ground. If they had to enforce discipline sending an SO or an MP down would seem fine if they're really failing to heed orders.

[Emeraldblood]

Understandably that the last ones would be more confusing. We have access to a staff channel in-game that you can use to talk to the other staff, as well as PMing another staff in-game if you really need to talk to them. For the XO, you can SM to remind them if they're talking about going down, but if they're already on the Dropship or on the ground, you should step it up to a PM

Overall, your application isn't bad but I feel the others outshine yours right now. I feel you could work as a staff but we're going to need more questions from other people before I can say if I'd vote for you personally.

[Kernir]

I feel as though Emeraldblood hit the nail on the head largely, your application isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination but I do feel as though you would have done yourself justice going further into detail about the specifics of each scenario.

It's quite hard for me to truly judge your character with what's provided though I get the general sense that you're quite level headed, the lack of depth means I'll give this a -1 for now.

I may return with a couple of questions once I've got a bit more time, I just wanted to dip in and give my general feelings for now.

[Robotonic]

I go over the answers you've given me and Emeraldblood, just clarifications for your answers and also ask two more scenarios of you in this one. Not too much you need to reply with to this one.

► Show Spoiler

1#
Warning someone over killing another person with improper escalation is a good idea if they acknowledge that they've made a mistake after being spoken to and show regret, but if they simply don't seem to care about it, are ignoring you or even insulting you and the server rules then a ban is typically the best option. Sleeping them if they're ignoring you is a good idea, and also if they're still currently in the process of killing the guy when it's quite apparent it wasn't escalated properly.

2#
A recent mapping issue causes a section of the hull to be replaced with standard destroyable hull instead of indestructible outer hull.
A player uses this opportunity to build an extension off of the ship as an MT, leading to a small room in space, they take great care to construct it without causing atmospheric issues. Later in the game the player, one of the last people alive, runs into the room in space and welds the door shut, but a group of 10 aliens melt the doors and walls surrounding the entrance whilst attempting to get inside leading to a serious breach. Another moderator has already fixed the breach. It is very late in the game.
Do you punish any of these people? Who do you punish and how do you do it?

On the next round a player takes a job as a researcher, creates several beakers of thermite and beelines towards the mapping issue. They throw them on the walls and light them on fire, this causes a massive atmospherics breach which depressurises all major hallways and several rooms, killing over half of the entire marine team and ruining the game. When PM'd the player says 'MARINES IS FUCKING RETARDED GAY FUCK YOU FUCK YOU' and disconnects.
How severely do you punish them?

At the moment I find a three-hour ban extremely light for intentional mass-grief such as this. A player can and often has ended rounds instantly whether early or late-game by doing this type of griefing. It's quite serious. There can, of course, be genuine accidents as I've said in my prior reply.

#3
Yes, that's how we deal with new players who aren't responding to PM's to try and make them reply to us. When they even after being sleeped simply refuse to reply to us it can get very difficult because there's not much else we can do, and if possible we don't want to ban them if they break a rule because they're typically new to SS13 over-all if they can't even reply to PM's or do basic tasks like eat.

#4
Good response to a player being rude to you or another player, and how to handle players getting angry themselves over another player going off on them. If a player is being seriously toxic and aggressive to another player for little reason we tend to take a serious stance to it as that's unacceptable behaviour and a serious breach of the Don't be a Dick rule, and it applies just as much to being disrespectful and insulting staff in PM's as it does to other players being blown-up on by another player.

#5
Good. If the player just flew in the face of the rules after being spoken to regarding their name a ban be placed in most cases. For example if they went from using 'Bruce Wayne' to 'John Doe' implying they had read the naming rule and very intentionally went against it they should most definitely get a ban.

#6
Righto, good. Clarification on what you previously stated makes this a good answer.

#7
Good reply, we previously dealt with the issue simply by telling them to stop the surgery there and cauterise the incision to stop the player bleeding to death.

#8
Covered by Emeraldblood. We don't take direct action when delaying occurs, mostly just subtle messages and the gradual rising

#11
Good reply, you take into account all of the rule breaks that typically occur as a result of improper escalation and escalated punishment for repeat offences in this answer.

#15
Appropriate response, make sure to ask the larva player in question first-thing if it's unclear it was an accident and ask them to explain it. You may also be able to tell by whether they were a bloody larva, mature larva, or if an alien player witnessed it.

#16
Good, an alien should act like an alien, not breaking fourth walls like they break skulls. We allow some leeway as it can give people something to cool off with after recently dying as a marine, but there's a point they break low-RP and xeno-RP rules.

#18
Right, that's how we deal with it. Good. If people keep up with metagaming they should receive escalated bans, if they have a notable history of it a command job-ban is quite recommendable too. Do remember that job-bans whilst theoretically permanent are effectively temporary, the player simply has to admit and understand their mistake in an appeal to headstaff.

#19
Yep, the marine stabbing them could get off with a warning but the medic would likely receive a ban for permanently ending the other player's round like that, due to the amount they shot them very likely being aware of it too. It was sort of implied on my part that the escalation wasn't handled properly in an RP manner, just confirming this now since I should have done so in my original post. Emeraldblood covers an example quite well.

Investigating the issue is a good idea as killings over spots on evacuation pods are fairly rare and the FF logs are typically quite apparent. Be aware that a player may twist their version of events even if they're not lying through PM's when being questioned. You don't always have to PM a player if you look at logs in-game and see it was escalated in a manner, however other times it may be required to ask players their version of events. It's a careful line between IC and OOC issues as a result of roleplay or griefing respectively.

#20.
Essentially what Emeraldblood said. Abuse, take it straight to their head or if their head isn't online and it's fairly serious take it to both their head and any senior who's online and can have it dealt with ASAP. If they're simply giving out improper information or applying a rule incorrectly go ahead and give them a heads-up and how so exactly. Varying punishments for rule-breaks caused by a player are up to a staff-member and you shouldn't accuse them of having an improper time unless it's a grave mispunishment such as a warning for WGW instead of a permanent ban, the latter would be an issue to inform them of ASAP and contact their head over about them misapplying a very simple part of the rule as explicitly stated.

Good example note, what you've put up is what's expected to be placed in a note.

Your ban-times for atmospherics issues is still questionable, I've covered that in this reply and given you two polar-opposite scenarios I'd like you to answer if possible. Ban-times for improper escalation are fine, if it's a common issue then you should escalate the ban-times as needed, and it can get a bit in-depth as to why the players escalated improperly so punishment varies. A significant number of people simply don't seem to take warnings seriously, and instead of rethinking how they act in game just decide to not do that specific thing again - instead, they try and get around it and continue with borderline or far-past-the-line stuff. Make sure to inform people of why you're banning them and how long, it can also be useful to see how they react to being told this as to whether or not they will actually end up changing for better in future. Noting a player's attitude when being PM'd is handy for future staff-members.

As you've said I've likely simply not seen you due to you taking less-often seen roles and having little time to hop on to play the game. If I understand what you say correctly you'll only be able to play one round a day, since twelve divided by seven is little over an hour a day?

Last thing of importance, always make sure to note a player if they did something worthy of gaining your OOC attention that was proven to be their fault. If a player is continually failing to act in a proper manner with application of Marine Law as an MP it's important to note this. If they simply can not learn how to play MP then that is likely an issue caused by themselves not reading the rules or job-related materials properly.

[Solarmare]

I suppose you are right in that I'm putting the punishment for a breach very lightly, I'm underestimating a fair amount the amount of damage such a thing does when it can end a round. I'll try putting an answer to the two scenarios with that in mind.

► Show Spoiler

A recent mapping issue causes a section of the hull to be replaced with standard destroyable hull instead of indestructible outer hull.
A player uses this opportunity to build an extension off of the ship as an MT, leading to a small room in space, they take great care to construct it without causing atmospheric issues. Later in the game the player, one of the last people alive, runs into the room in space and welds the door shut, but a group of 10 aliens melt the doors and walls surrounding the entrance whilst attempting to get inside leading to a serious breach. Another moderator has already fixed the breach. It is very late in the game.
Do you punish any of these people? Who do you punish and how do you do it?

As far as this one goes, the MT should have consulted the staff before even attempting to make their room since it could have caused a breach and still posed a danger even if built properly as the scenario suggests. The MT probably deserves a ban on the level of 7 hours or such, as a heavy warning not to do anything of the like without mentioning it to staff or in general even if it was done properly. The xenos that aren't melting the walls of the extension probably aren't culpable in this case since they are trying to reach the MT, but if there's one that goes on to melt all of the walls or the most of it after the the ones blocking the way to the MT has been dealt with they seem to be wanting to cause a breach intentionally and would deserve a day ban if it was. As far as the moderator goes I ask whether they noticed the MT earlier or any other around did and brought up the issue with them, I don't think them fixing the breach should be any issue but such a situation should not have occurred I suppose.
I don't think I have a concern on the moderator about this case at least, just an MT that could cause a potential breach and failed to consult staff before attempting such a dangerous thing and if the xenos were attempting to make the breach worse than they would have needed to for entrance and are clearly attempting to grief.

On the next round a player takes a job as a researcher, creates several beakers of thermite and beelines towards the mapping issue. They throw them on the walls and light them on fire, this causes a massive atmospherics breach which depressurises all major hallways and several rooms, killing over half of the entire marine team and ruining the game. When PM'd the player says 'MARINES IS FUCKING RETARDED GAY FUCK YOU FUCK YOU' and disconnects.
How severely do you punish them?

This seems clear enough to follow the procedure for a permaban, with a 7 day ban with a note and a post onto the permaban request section. I suppose attempts also should be made to repair the atmos if the tools exist, but I'm not quite aware of all of them, as well as the victims that died to the breach ahealed if the game can continue at that point.

As far as the amount of time I play goes, I believe I should be able to play at least that amount. I think two rounds each day might be the average I could put in as I do have plenty of free time, as well as rounds seeming to at least last 2 hours and a half to 1 and a half on average. I'll keep in mind to note players that have rather large failings like that, as well as their behavior with the PM's. I would ask if you had any further concerns in that case, as well if the first presented scenario was dealt with correctly to you.

[Robotonic]

Both replies are pretty spot-on, we have protocol on how long we ban people for so you'll learn the proper ban-times if you're accepted. In the first scenario I can tell you from experience a lot of alien players run outside and won't come back inside, so that can be a bit problematic. Since the MT went ahead and did something like this which they would have known was risky without consulting a staff-member they are at fault in their own way, so a short ban would be pretty apt as it wasn't intentional grief.

Second scenario is a pretty open-and-shut case, very intentional mass-grief with evidence that it wasn't accidental.

One to two rounds a day is a pretty typical time for most staff-members, so that's just fine. When players continually stir trouble up just for the sake of it and get noted on it a lot they can start getting punished for OOCly for things in an otherwise IC situation, such as repeatedly causing fistfights and fucking over people for no real reason. If people continually fail to meet the standards of a high-competency job such as MP they may end up being job-banned, so essentially noting players who keep doing these types of things can be quite useful.

---

Right now I'm asking any player who's just sort of sifting through these a bit if they can throw in any opinions on how the trial moderator applicants act in-game and if you've had any notable experiences with them thus far. It can be really handy, you don't have to write a novel or anything, just put up something supporting or against how they behave towards other players for example.

Yeah, your replies are pretty good now. If we can get more opinions from players or staff that'd be extremely useful. I'm feeling you'd do fairly well as a trial moderator now, you'd be able to work out the specifics during a trial period. You're going to need to be more active in the community if you're accepted, primarily just the forums, two posts a day throwing out opinions or information would cover that quite quickly.

[slc97]

This is accepted. I apologize for the delay, I've been without power due to the hurricane for the last week.