Robotonic - Moderator Application

[Robotonic]

Byond ID: Robotonic

Colonial Marines Character: Eric Penton

Age: 16

Gender: Male

Timezone:
Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0:00) not accounting for DST.

On average, how many hours are you available per week to moderate?
40 to 50 hours.

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

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

What are the 3 biggest servers you play on besides CM?
LLJK, Paradise Station, I don't have any other server I regularly play.

Provide links to any previous Colonial Marines applications that you've made:
N/A

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?
Not to my memory.

Are you familiar with the chat program Slack (its use is required)?
No, the web page provided in the staff requirements makes it appear similar to discord in it's appearance, I don't know about how it works though. Never used it.

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.
Message them asking them to explain their actions, if it was a misfire I would put a note down on their ckey, if they don't give an explanation or if it's seriously inadequate I'd ban them for about half a day.

2. The ship has a breach to space and a bunch of players have died or are dying as a result.
If it was caused by a bomb or the removal of a wall I'd ask a staff member with the powers to do so if they could fix the breach. Assuming I have the ability to do so I'd also try and find out who did it and question them over it. If however it was caused by a drop-ship landing partly into space I likely wouldn't act on it if it was mostly localised to one area, if the breach affected a large area such as an entire hallway I'd ask if this is a proper situation to fix a breach in. If it was caused by a person and they weren't doing it maliciously I would warn them and note them.

3. You see a player walking around the ship naked and clearly lost.
I'd see if any mentors are online and ask if they're able to guide the player. If there aren't any available I'd act in their place, assuming they're a standard I'd guide them through eating, gearing up, landing and link them to the rules if they haven't read them already. If they joined as a more complicated role such as staff officer I'd also make sure they've read the job-specific rules in place and do what I can to help them through that job, being as dynamic as they sometimes are.

4. A player is being very rude to you in Adminhelps and requesting to speak to an Admin+ staff member.
See what I can do to calm them down, tell them to stop insulting me over the issue and do what I can to assist them over their rudeness, but if I tell them to stop and they continue to insult me over adminhelp then I'd ban them for 3 hours to cool off.

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.
Check their notes for anything related to naming issues, tell them to change their name, warn them about it and write a note. If this has happened several times before I'll inform them they're on their last warning, if they already have had a final warning then I'd ban them for 3 hours with another note.

6. You see a Maintenance Tech running around in armor and carrying a rifle. The security level is green with no threat present.
Message them informing them that they can't carry a firearm or armour whilst the security code is green, tell them to take it off. Put a note down about it, if they've done this before job-ban them.

7. You see a Squad Medic performing surgery on the planet. He claims it was because there were no doctors in the FOB.
Tell them that they can't perform surgery as a medic, ask them to finish it and then not perform surgery again unless they're a doctor, as the player being operated upon shouldn't have to potentially die from suddenly being removed from a half-completed surgery. I'd put a note about them performing surgery as a medic. If they refused to stop performing surgeries after being warned I'd job-ban them from squad medic over it.

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?
If I have access to announcement systems I would give the marine's command staff a message informing them there are minimal levels of hostile activity on the colony, and that they should head down ASAP. If I don't have access to any way of hinting or informing them of the imbalance I would see if anyone else is around who can.

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.
Reply telling them that combat between hostile forces is allowed after the round ends, the rule only applies to shooting friendly and neutral people such as fellow marines or non-hostile mercenaries.

10. A marine is running around disarming, punching and stealing gear at round start.
I'd ask them why they're going around causing chaos, and ask them to stop it ASAP as it's considered griefing to go around causing that much chaos without a proper reason. If they don't stop I'd ban them for 3 hours. Put a note on their account for it, if they come back and continue to do this then escalate the ban time as it occurs.

11. A marine has killed another marine. When you ask him why, he said it was because the other marine had punched him.
If the only explanation given is that they were punched I would explain that a punch is not an acceptable reason to kill a player and can not reasonably be considered self-defence, inform them of the lethal force rules and then ban them for a day. Get someone who can rejuvenate the murdered marine, assuming they didn't retaliate.

12. An issue arises that requires Admin+ abilities.
Mitigate the issue as much as possible whilst alerting staff on Slack, assuming it alerts staff who have Slack active. If not, then by another channel.

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.
Inform them that in-character racism is allowed to a reasonable extent and that the other players are acting within the rules. Tell them if they're offended by it they're going to have to deal with it.

14. A marine opens fire at round start in briefing killing multiple marines and instantly logs off.
Ban them ASAP for seven days then make a perma-ban request. Find someone who can rejuvenate the dead marines ASAP if they didn't fire back.

15. You see a player playing a xeno larva/chestburster run towards the frontlines and die.
Tell them that larva are paramount to the xeno's success in a game and that needlessly getting yourself killed as a larva can be a serious problem for xenos. Warn them not to do it again and note it on their account, role-ban them from alien if they've already been warned about it before.

16. You see a xeno memeing, saying AYYLMAO, REEEEEE etc in hivemind chat.
If they're excessively spouting memes over hivemind warn them to stop it, tell them they're only able to do it to a certain extent and the amount they were spamming the hive-mind with them was far too much. Depending on just how much they were doing it note them on it, and if they don't stop then ban them for 3 hours.

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 that aliens don't have to use dumbed-down descriptions of objects or places and that it's perfectly acceptable for them to call it a drop-ship, and the same applies for rooms aboard the Almayer.

18. A Command staff player at briefing near round-start mentions there are aliens on the planet.
Message them informing them that they, as a marine, along with all the other marines on the ship, don't know about the aliens until they encounter them on the planet. This also applies to all of the things the aliens do such as vent-crawling and how face huggers work. Link them to the rules and ask them to read them again, note them on it. If they continue after this job-ban them from command.

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.
Confirm what's happened with combat logs, find out both sides of the story to make certain it was justified by roleplaying and if not inform them of the improper escalation and ban them for 24 hours, then get someone to rejuvenate the dead marine if they didn't retaliate.

20. You see a fellow staff member give wrong information in an Adminhelp or incorrectly enforcing a rule.
Tell them over msay that they've said something I believe's incorrect, if they're a game admin or head admin then it's possible they're using rule 0 with enforcing a rule.

20a. You see a fellow staff member abusing his powers in-game.
Inform a head of staff or superior staff member as soon as possible, gather evidence on it so I can throw it around where needed. Explain what happened and present any evidence I have with me and hope it gets sorted.

21. You see a player talking in OOC chat about what he did with your mom last night.
Ignore it, they're either salty or they're joking. As long as that's all they're doing that's fine.

Any additional information you'd like to add?
I started playing CM about mid-2016. I've never moderated before, I'm going to have to get the hang of it if this application is accepted. There may be a problem with how little I've posted on the forums but if being active on the forums is a requirement or at the least encouraged I'm open to doing so, I simply don't often post on forums most of the time.

I have one note, killing survivors en masse as a survivor. Shot a monkey or two with a pistol then beat it to death, if I recall correctly.

[Karmac]

These are all reasonable answers and I think you'll do just fine, and I was going to complain about you being a bit quick to pick up the ban hammer in some questions but honestly that's sometimes the best tool to apply to a situation. I'll +1 this.

[driecg36]

I haven't run into you much in game or OOCly, so I can't speak for that.

Your answers seem mostly solid, though 6 would be an IC issue and would be handled by MP's, not by staff. Your general mindset and attitude seems pretty good, which is what matters at the end of the day.

I'll +1 this for now, and spoony will go more in-depth for these questions.

[TheSpoonyCroy]

Lets just hope into this

• For question 1, I would suggest factoring in prior history before making any judgements. Also give me an example of a note for both examples you listed down for this question.
• For question 2, generally staff don't get involved with breached caused by dropships (which should be more rare now) but action will be taken by admin+s for the interest of the round if the admin+s online decide that it would be good for the round or not.
• For question 3, good and quite a welcoming approach a minor thing is most new players wouldn't know how to reply to you, so what would you tell them to help them in this endeavor
• For question 4, I can see where you are going but what would you do with their initial issue assuming it is valid. Also make a note for me for this player in question.
• For question 5, define several warnings and what do you think would be a final warning about names?
• For question 6, incorrect and you have to remember you have to keep up with changing of rules, this rule in specific was implemented since May and this was shifted more towards making this an IC issue.
• For question 7, sadly we won't allow the medic to "finish up" have them sealed up and shipped off however besides that this is fine.
• For question 8, you have ways at hinting towards things but you basically have psychic whispers but this power should only be used sparingly
• For question 9, good.
• For question 10, maybe a tad forceful. Its best to leave this to the MPs unless some actual grief occurs
• For question 11, a tad harsh on the punishment since as you put it "if they don't give an explanation or if it's seriously inadequate I'd ban them for about half a day." (from question 1) and you can say they fall into the same umbrella yet they have double the punishment for it?
• For question 12, good
• For question 13, I guess this is ok.
• For question 14, the whole retaliation thing is a very old rule that was a part of the old rules which were from around October 2016 but this is no longer part of the rules and I didn't mention it in rule 11 since I find for a single person dying its up to the staff in question discretion on what they think is the "right thing to do" (answer is there generally isn't a single right thing to do) for the round and how this will influence game play however for mass grief like this I'm always going to aheal everyone harmed.
• For question 15, good
• For question 16, what would you count as excessively spouting memes? Also again remember to check their notes before placing down a punishment and escalate it from there
• For question 17, fine however we do encourage people using "dumbed down descriptions" since creatures relating unknown tech with things they already know about seems pretty logical.
• For question 18, a job ban seems a tad harsh at least if we are going from notes to jobban skipping bans as a whole.
• For question 19, maybe a little harsh on the time if it was a first time occurrence
• For question 20, fine
• For question 20a, fine
• For question 21, good.

I'm neutral leaning towards +1, I'll away further opinions and how you respond to a few things

[TheMaskedMan2]

Let's see what I can add to this, overall impression seems to be generally positive but I do feel you are quick to drop the banhammer. We do actually have a procedure for ban times in most scenarios. Though besides that my overall impression is that it is a little rough at times, but you seem to have the right mindset to me and I think things like that can be worked out during the trial. I'll go with a +1

[Jay Burns]

A solid player and RPer, havent seen much salt come out of them and OOCly they are very co-operative, plus this application is sehr gut. +1

[Robotonic]

Alright, I've read Spoony's questions, had time to rethink some of the situations and kept up with what attitude people generally have about how I play in-game.

1)
Notes:
a. Shot a marine, claimed it was a misfire. Only hit the other marine once, apologised about the FF. Shouldn't be a problem.
b. Shot another marine, when questioned over it several times never replied. Banning for 3 hours.
c. Shot a marine and when asked about it replied "He pushed me out of the RO line", warned about lethal force rules and told not to do it again. (If they have a history of it ban them for 3 hours.)
There were technically 3 replies to this, I covered all 3 just in case.
2) This is treated about the way I imagined it was, leaving it be if it's not causing serious issues.
3) I'd forgotten to account for particularly new players. Tell them they have to click on my name with the blue or bright purple link in order to reply. Ask them if they're new to the server and go from there with it, such as which squad has which colour, which side of the ship, how and why not to kill your fellow marines.
4) Regardless of the outcome of the adminhelps I'm still going to investigate the issue. It wasn't said what the issue was so I can't go more in-depth than that, but check notes, warnings et.c. as needed.
Note:
Ahelped about XXX, was constantly insulting me whilst discussing the issue. Banned for 3 hours to cool-off, XXX issue was investigated and dealt with.

10) Got it. Essentially, monitor the situation if I can and wait until they cause anything more serious than pushing, stealing and hitting people with fists such as beating someone into crit without a good reason, if I understood that correctly.
11) I'd consider killing a marine over a punch more serious than a misfire, unless you're referring to what I put down in 1.c. as an example note in which case that's similar in seriousness to this one.

13) Something I want to add on, I wouldn't straight-up say "deal with it" as that'd probably make it worse than it already is. I'd apologise about not being able to deal with it as it is within the rules, and that they should ahelp again if it gets any more serious. Link them to rule #1 'Don't be a dick' so they understand that the other players are within the rules currently.
14) Got it, this is a mistake on my part. I'll do a retake on that. In any issue where there's mass-grief I'd alert an admin with rejuvenation powers ASAP to revive whoever's not rage-quit. Do what I can to stop people from rage-quitting, too.

16) If they were spamming the hivemind with memes in a manner where it was interfering with other hivemind messages and a xeno player complained about it, then I'd ask them to stop.

18) Would it be more appropriate to check their notes, warn them and if they continued to talk about aliens planet-side, ban them for 3 hours instead of a job-ban? Then, job-ban from command only if this is something they do regularly and don't stop even when warned several times.
19) If they've been warned before about improper escalation on their notes, then ban them for 3 hours. 24 if they've already been banned before recently over the same issue of improper escalation. Otherwise, just warn and note them over the escalation issue.

For both #11 and #19, reconsidering it I think a ban for about 3 hours be more appropriate unless I've got another incorrect time. Regarding investigating their notes, I apparently forgot to write that step down, if there's any issue where I'd warn them or ban them then I'd check their notes to see if they do this regularly or not and make a decision on that. #16, to put it simply if it was affecting the alien's ability to communicate effectively, someone complained about it being excessive (and their complaint was valid), or if they simply would not stop spewing memes out everywhere all the time then I'd have them stop.

Judging from what everyone's saying here I'm fairly heavy with the bans or ban times, and I also forgot the rule regarding retaliation and admin rejuvenation was changed. I'll leave it up to you to decide, if anyone else wants to add or ask me anything about a situation or anything else related to the application I'd be happy to reply. The line between IC and OOC was crossed with #6, remembering that the rule regarding this was shoved into Marine Law instead under Crew Authorised Weapons. For everyone who's thrown a +1 my way, thanks. I'll see what the heads say about this and hope I haven't slipped up with the app too much.

If I misunderstood or missed anything Spoony brought up tell me and I'll correct that ASAP. Any skipped answers to questions are because it was a summation on how appropriate the replies were by Spoony. As a final note, intent of the person is important and I'll base a lot of decisions off of that.

[TheSpoonyCroy]

-snip-

Yeah this is looking quite good.

however for 11, I was working with "if they don't give an explanation or if it's seriously inadequate I'd ban them for about half a day." in mind, so reason whyI mention it like that but yeah you did a pretty good job with all of this

For response 14, Mods have rejuv powers (trials don't sadly)

For response 18, depends on who you ask but that seems lenient enough for me since the rulebreak in 18 seems very minor unless they have set plans due to this ie making an FOB at tablefort (yes I know this isn't possible anymore but a pretty decent example of blatant metagaming)

but yeah you are doing fine and this is still pretty app, and this batch has been pretty good as a whole but I will await more opinions before saying anything final but alot of your issues will be hammered out in trial if you are accepted which is likely

[Robotonic]

I just realised I forgot to reply to #5.

5)
I would inform them they need to change their name, and that their current name isn't in-line with our rules (Marine-Specific #2). I'd warn them and note their account for it, that should be that.

If they did it again the round after I'd PM them again over it, if they say they forgot I'd warn and note them again informing them if they don't get it sorted out by the next round I won't just warn them next time. If they don't say they forgot but instead admit flying in the face of the rule or if they changed their name to a different but still improper name I'd ban them for 3 hours, note them, hopefully once they're back they'll understand both not to keep using incorrect names and also remember to actually change their name.

If someone forgot three times in a row I would tell them about the names rule again, then note and ban them for 3 hours informing them to change it once they're back.

Also, could someone provide me with clarification with #7? I'm not certain if Spoony ment the medic should stop the surgery ASAP or if they should cauterise it and leave it there.
Clarified.

Thanks again.

[Finefire984]

I haven't really seen you in game, so I can't really judge you on that. You only have 9 posts, but you account is more than a year old. However, you're answers are good and you don't have many notes. I'm going to stay neutral on this.

[TexasTwoStep]

Howdy Robotonic,

Right, I really haven't seen your character in-game, nor have I really interacted with you, HOWEVER: This is why. Upon reviewing some logs, it appears that you like to be a Staff-Officer, or atleast from yesterday's logs. From what I could gather, and that wasn't much because to a fault I am lazy - you take roleplay seriously, even going as far as to stay in every possible Military Officer Etiquette respect.

No doubt you're sitting on this application, waiting for the notification that someone replied and praying it was a +1.... oh wait....

Through your answers, and after Polishing up on them from Spooners post, it's evident that you have good intentions. +1

[solidfury7]

One of the most level headed and reasonable people on the server. Extremely active and a heavy RPer which is a bonus in my book.

He does need more forum activity but other than that, he's a good cookie. Hell, I'm on holiday right now but I had to make a post regarding this.

+1

[Kavlo]

I like the app
I like the player

+1

[Tidomann]

Good app- and good responses to spoonies analysis. I'm surprised by the hours you've posted. Are you currently on summer leave?

+1 from me

[Robotonic]

At the moment, yeah. The hours posted are fairly optimistic to say the least - not taking into account other things. Practically I'd probably get a bit under 40 a week. Shouldn't have put 50, that's crazy in any case, I averaged it at about 45 then slapped on 5 hours each side. Primarily on SS13 at the moment as I've got no work to catch up with, not on holiday right now either.

Finefire, I've seen the name Michael Carrio around a bit, but I don't think I've actively SO'd you and I've never seen you on the ground when I've played standard which is likely why you've not seen me.

[Snypehunter007]

+1 from me.

As a side note, we need another robot on the team.

[Adralimas]

Application looks good to me!, Have seen them in game quite a few times too and they've always struck me as competent and reliable, +1 would like to have on team!

[slc97]

This is accepted, you'll receive a PM from me shortly.