Grubstank's Moderator Application

[Grubstank]

Byond ID: Grubstank

Colonial Marines Character: Andres Addison

Age: 23

Gender: male

Timezone: EST (GMT-5)

On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate?
Between 4-10 hours weekly. Sometimes more, rarely less.

Do you have any previous experience in being staff (not just SS13)?
I was an admin for most of the past eight years across various gmod serious RP servers, but I've never been an admin for an SS13 server.

Did you play any of the previous Colonial Marine servers?
No

What are the 3 biggest servers you play on besides CM?
I don't do very much gaming these days, so I only have the time to play one server. I played Yogstation for several months when I got into SS13, but I've rarely been back since I found CM.

Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made:
viewtopic.php?f=150&t=18797

Are you currently a staff member elsewhere (not just SS13)? If so, where?
No

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on Colonial Marines?
No

Have you ever been banned for more than 24 hours on ANY server? If so, which server, when, and what for?
No

Are you familiar with the chat program Slack (its use is required)?
No, but I can figure it out.

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.
The severity would be important; everybody has a triggerslip now and then, but full on murdering somebody is something else. I would message some of the players involved to confirm it was unprovoked, and read over the offender's notes in the mean time. I would take the player's note history into account when determining the punishment; if it's clean or positive, I would be much more inclined to believe the shooting was accidental.
If the incident was mild and accidental, I would note the incident, give the player a warning, and let the MPs deal with it. I would apply a ban if the player has previously received warnings for this behaviour, starting at a few hours, and ranging into a few days based on severity/history.

2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.
I don't think we have a functional atmos system at the moment; but if it were the case, then I would seal off the breach as best I can, and aheal/resurrect affected players. If a tool exists for it, I would refill the depleted oxygen in the affected rooms.

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.
I would message the player, ask if they're new, and include instructions on how to reply to my message (just in case!). I would welcome them to the game, provide them a link to the quickstart guide, and either direct them to the attention of a mentor, or help the player myself.

4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.
I would remind the player that I'm there to help, and that I'm able to handle their situation. I would ask why they feel like an admin is necessary, and allow it to escalate if they remain obstinate. If no admins are available (or if they're occupied with matters that actually require an admin's authority) I'd offer the player my help again, and let them know that their alternative would be to make a report/appeal 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.
I apologize to the player for the inconvenience, but insist that they change their name. I would make sure to note the incident, and let the player know that they can appeal the decision on our forums.

6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.
I see this as an IC issue--the MPs can handle it. If I have nothing else to do I might observe them for a while and offer them help if they seem new.

7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.
Medics are mechanically incapable of performing surgery -- in any case, I would advise them of our powergaming rules, and let them know that wounded should be directed back to the Almayer's medbay. FOB doctors are the exception, not the rule. I'd add the incident to the player's notes.

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?
I prefer to keep intervention IC, so I would message the leaders of the factions either as the Queen Mother or as USMC High Command. If the issue persists I would consult an admin, and hopefully get a response team to flatten whichever side looks to have the disadvantage.

9. The round ends, a MARINE starts shooting a hostile CLF member and the CLF member Adminhelps complaining he was killed after the round ended.
Just as I wouldn't fault a marine for shooting a xeno after the round ends, I wouldn't fault a marine for shooting the CLF. I would explain to the CLF member that end of round grief rules don't apply in that instance.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.
I would immediately message them and ask them to stop; if they don't immediately reply, I would use some sort of freeze/sleep command (if mods have access to one) and run over their note history. I'd try to find out if they had any sort of IC motive beyond "my character is crazy", and let the player know that it isn't acceptable behaviour. If there's no relevant note history and the player promises to stop, I'd add a note, unfreeze the player, and let the MPs take the punishment IC.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.
I would read over the note history for both parties involved. If there was no further escalation (as corroborated by the logs), I would run over the escalation rules with the offending marine, add a note, and possibly issue a temp ban based on their history.

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.
Try to find an admin in game. If the issue is urgent and there are no admins ingame, I'd take it to slack/discord to find one. As a last resort, or if the issue is not urgent, there's always the option of filing a report/appeal on the forums.

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.
There isn't an issue here so long as the banter is kept IC. I would remind the player that everyone there is just roleplaying their characters, and if they're offended, they can retaliate IC so long as they obey the escalation rules.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.
Add a seven day ban, note the incident, and apply for a perma on the forums. I would aheal/resurrect the affected marines, particularly if medbay doesn't have their shit together.

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.
Try to get some context; if the larva burst deep within marine lines, then their death is understandable. If they had just come from the hive and decided to hang out on the front lines for no good reason, then it's a different story. I'd let them know it's unacceptable to suicide as a larva, add a note, and possibly escalate to a jobban based on their note history.

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.
Message the player, give them a warning for excessive LRP, and note the incident.

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".
Hivemind chatter is an approximation of thoughts into lanuage, so it is acceptable to refer to it as a dropship.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.
Quickly message the player and remind them that the USMC isn't aware that there are aliens on the planet -- events are the only exception to this. I would note the incident, and review their history in case this was a repeat occurrence.

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.
I would investigate the incident by asking questions and corroborating their answers against logs. I would need to see a significant amount of RP (ie dialogue) and adherence to escalation rules in order for this to be acceptable. If it was unjustified I would add a note, review the player's history, and consider a ban if the player has a history of improper escalation.

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.
Diplomatically let the fellow staff member know of their mistake, and let them fix it. If they don't fix their mistake, I'd escalate up the admin chain of command.

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.
I would let a higher ranked admin know of the situation, and take screenshots if the type of abuse would not reflect in logs.

21. You see a player talking in OOC chat about what he did with your mom last night.
Brush it off; either ignoring it or making a joke back.

Any additional information you'd like to add?

[taketheshot56]

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.
I would investigate the incident by asking questions and corroborating their answers against logs. I would need to see a significant amount of RP (ie dialogue) and adherence to escalation rules in order for this to be acceptable. If it was unjustified I would add a note, review the player's history, and consider a ban if the player has a history of improper escalation.
(This is actually one of the few situations where someone can kill another marine for their spot, it is allowed.)

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.
I would let a higher ranked admin know of the situation, and take screenshots if the type of abuse would not reflect in logs.
(Dont go to an admin, go straight to their manager.)

Overall very good app and any other bits can easily be ironed out in a trial. Your notes are actually quite good.
+1 Hope to see you on the team.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

This is a guy who literally ahelped and reported himself for saying TBH IC as an accident, and he even has a positive note from the past for trying to help people in LOOC. So he has my vote of confidence.
I just wanna ask you some extra what if's

1. You get an ahelp reporting a CL has done nothing all round, deployed on the alamo, followed some marines, got crabbed, and suicided with a pulse rifle. You check logs and see he barely said anything, and he had logged out before you could speak with them.

2. You issue a 3 hour ban on a player for an offense due to note history after a long discussion on the server about it. The player suddenly starts spamming you on discord wanting to continue to argue his side.

3. During a valid mutiny 5 marines convince the CO to stand down peacefully, and the CO says he will turn over command to the XO. The XO who was not a part of the mutiny originally tells the Commander the operation failure was his fault, and executes him with his side arm. The CO ahelps this saying he was murdered for no reason.

[Frans_Feiffer]

Honestly, I was gonna hold off and make my decision after you answer the round of questions we normally offer, maybe ask my own. However my minds been set on giving you a +1 from the get go, and it would take a lot to change that. Honestly a good player who deserves the shot. More activity then I had when I applied for mod, decent activity ingame, and an impressive application.

To add to what taketheshot said though on #19, that is one of the only times where a marine kill another, IF there is roleplay. It’s understandable a marine would be scared out of their mind and willing to kill another if it meant their survival, however if they do not make this clear, Or wordless kill the other marine, that is still grief and thus the way you went about it in your answer is perfectly acceptable.

That’s all I gotta say, good luck and here’s to seeing you in Msay.

[Dorkkeli]

I have never seen you in-game, but I'm in the continent that has banned memes, so it might be a matter of timezones. ..
Anyways, your application is well thought out, and you seem like a chill gent.
Welcome addition to our team, if you get added.
+1

[Grubstank]

Thank you everyone for your vote of confidence!

I just wanna ask you some extra what if's

1. You get an ahelp reporting a CL has done nothing all round, deployed on the alamo, followed some marines, got crabbed, and suicided with a pulse rifle. You check logs and see he barely said anything, and he had logged out before you could speak with them.
There's a tradeoff between not wanting to punish a player for being (presumably) new, and enforcing rules -- particularly in a role with higher roleplay standards. Being new isn't against the rules, and individually, none of the things the player did are a grave offense (they can all be excused given certain circumstances and roleplay). But given that the player's a mute, there was really no RP involved here. The player isn't around for a discussion, so the only option is adding a job ban, noting the incident, and checking their history to make sure it wasn't a repeat occurrence.

2. You issue a 3 hour ban on a player for an offense due to note history after a long discussion on the server about it. The player suddenly starts spamming you on discord wanting to continue to argue his side.
I would let the player know that their only option for appeal is through the forums. If they continue messaging me after I ask them to stop, I would either ignore them, block them on discord or log out for those three hours. It's just not worth getting into, and sets a bad precedent to privately haggle the terms of a ban (especially a short one!) after the fact. Decisions shouldn't be overturned by whining, and the situation is inequitable to players who don't have a discord.

3. During a valid mutiny 5 marines convince the CO to stand down peacefully, and the CO says he will turn over command to the XO. The XO who was not a part of the mutiny originally tells the Commander the operation failure was his fault, and executes him with his side arm. The CO ahelps this saying he was murdered for no reason.
The mutiny rules are pretty clear. Attacking surrendered personnel is forbidden, and only a whitelisted commander can perform BEs. The XO doesn't have a leg to stand on either under both the mutiny and BE rules. You're looking at violations of rules 14, 16, and 17 depending on how the XO chooses to defend their actions. In any case, I would give them a warning and note the incident, checking to make sure this isn't a repeat occurrence.
If this occurred very early in the round and the CO wanted it, I would consider giving them a revive. That being said, most mutinies occur quite late into the game, and the game play of a surrendered-CO doesn't tend to be the most interesting in the first place.

edited for formatting

[ThesoldierLLJK]

That’ll do moderator +1

[Ghostdex]

Great answers to Soldier's questions and as such I only have one myself.

1. A player ahelps that a predator just killed a squad of marines for no reason, what do you do?

[Grubstank]

Great answers to Soldier's questions and as such I only have one myself.

1. A player ahelps that a predator just killed a squad of marines for no reason, what do you do?

Message a few of the players involved and try to get a sense of some of the context -- being sure to corroborate their statements against the logs. While it is possible a predator decided to go on a spontaneous murderboning rampage, it's more likely that they were backed into a corner and happened to win the fight. In any case, I would figure out if there were any significant breaches of the honor code, and proceed with punishment if necessary (keeping their note history in mind.)

[Ghostdex]

Message a few of the players involved and try to get a sense of some of the context -- being sure to corroborate their statements against the logs. While it is possible a predator decided to go on a spontaneous murderboning rampage, it's more likely that they were backed into a corner and happened to win the fight. In any case, I would figure out if there were any significant breaches of the honor code, and proceed with punishment if necessary (keeping their note history in mind.)

Your hearts in the right place but moderators dont deal with whitelisted players in game outside of a few specific issues (this isnt one). What you should be doing is really just telling the player to make a player report on the forums if they have an issue with what happened.

I’ll +1 this, I’d like to see how you’ll perform during a trial.

[Grubstank]

Your hearts in the right place but moderators dont deal with whitelisted players in game outside of a few specific issues (this isnt one). What you should be doing is really just telling the player to make a player report on the forums if they have an issue with what happened.

I’ll +1 this, I’d like to see how you’ll perform during a trial.

Okay, thanks for the feedback. I'll admit I wasn't completely sure how to proceed on that one.

[Slywater]

Everything seems ok, so +1 from me.

[Imperator_Titan]

Accepted.

Check your inbox.