My Experience as an Administrator

[Wrynn 1349]

___

 

Introduction

Hey there! I'm sure a lot of you know that a while back I was in-fact an admin on the server and for those who don't I'll explain a little bit more about my role. I was introduced to the server as the 'Community Admin' and to be quite honest I was pretty excited about it. I had really enjoyed helping out the community as a GM and I felt that joining the Administration would allow me to be of even more benefit to the community, which was the main reason I joined, however not the only one, I was also simply excited to become an Admin, just as how I was simply excited to be first joining the Event Team back in 2016, and on that note, I'd like to be as truthful as possible in this post so that you guys can really see what it was like for me being on the team; even if it means I drag my own name through the dirt at points.

 

Now that we have the formalities out of the way, we can get onto the real stuff!

 

Joining the Administration

Usually when an Administrator leaves the team, 501warhead or Telanir will post in the #staffannouncements channel in the LotC staff discord announcing that they are on the lookout for another Administrator and if anyone is interested in the position they should contact either of them. Nevertheless Telanir had contacted me and said I'd be fit for the role and asked me to fill out a google form called "Administrator Package", which was simply a google document that gathered information about myself and also asked questions such as: "What do you think the Administration currently lacks?", "What direction do you feel the the server needs to move in?" and "What do you feel an Administrator's role is?". They're all pretty vague questions however I think they're simply used to get a feel of where you'd be taking your position and what you'd be focusing on. 

 

Nevertheless, I had finally submitted the google form and was added to the Administration discord channel as well as every staff chat we had in the discord. The Administration channel mainly consisted of two chats, the first being the actual Administration chat channel where we would discuss certain topics that had been brought up or ask questions to one another. The second channel was called something along the lines of 'Admin-Approval', I can't quite remember the exact name however this was the channel we would use to request approval for actions we were going to undertake, so for example if I had drafted a new warclaim system I would have to ask the other admins for approval before I could implement it, and this was the channel where we would do so.

 

I was then given quite a few google documents to read over, the main one being the 'Administrator Policies', I believe it was called, where outlined in a rather formal fashion were a defined list of polices that all of the Administrators had to agree to and abide by during their time on the team - I'll talk about this a bit more further on down in the post. Next I was sent in-game to be given my permissions by Kowaman (Llir). He gave me a rundown of the commands I hadn't used before and also explained a few menus etc. There however weren't too many commands that I hadn't used before seeing as I had been a GM for a large amount of collective time before hand.

 

My First Few Weeks

My initial experience on the Admin team was honestly really fun; I felt driven to undertake projects and fix systems that I felt needed some touch-ups or perhaps even complete overhauls, and to be quite honestly I liked feeling important, I liked being able to work with the community more and being able to have the opportunity to do that made me pretty happy. I'd regularly check discord on my phone to see if I had received any notifications (which I usually did) and I'd give my input if any discussion was going down in the Admin chat. It took me a while to actually get to terms with how the team ran due to it being so different to how the other teams I had been on went, there was nobody leading the team which was the main difference and is where the Administration Policies came into big effect. The Policies outlined things such as how you should interact with other members on the team and what types of approval you needed for certain actions. Honestly it was hard to get to grips with at first and it felt rather intimidating to have this long document telling you how you should do things correctly and as a new member I didn't want to break any of those policies accidentally, in fear of perhaps being removed or the other administration members judging me.

 

The Members 

During my time as an admin, the members were myself, Harold, 501warhead and Telanir. I'm sure you'll garner an opinion of me just from this post but I'd like to give you my opinion on the rest of the members simply from my perspective and I'll start of with Harold. I had worked with Harold before on the GM team and knew his work ethic pretty well already, due to this I felt a little more relaxed when talking with him and I enjoyed having him on the team. He seemed to care about the server and wanted what was best for it and other than that I don't have much to say about Harold - he was pretty active within the chat during my time there and I enjoyed working with him.

 

Next I'll move onto 501warhead! In my opinion 501 really cared about the server; 501 always wanted what he thought was best for the server and if someone disagreed with that he would argue for it. Now although I'm sure there are some of you reading this going "This doesn't sound like 501," however in my opinion that's how I had viewed him. 501 fought for what he thought was best, and sometimes that annoyed me. One of the sayings that I had heard from 501 a few times was "The community doesn't know what they want. One moment they are shouting for nexus to be removed and the next they want it back?" When I had given input on the community's stance on certain topics which kind of annoyed me a little. From my role as a Community Administrator I noticed that 501 put a large amount of emphasis on the community when speaking to the community however never really seemed that interested when it came to making actual decisions. Nonetheless 501 put a great amount of work into his role as an Administrator whilst I was on the team and for that I think he should be thanked, he really cared about his position and indeed was trying to make the server better.

 

And finally I'll mention Telanir. Honestly Telanir was not around much during discussions and actually hasn't logged onto the server in so long it no longer recognises him as a player that has joined before. Telanir was made the 'Chairman' of the Administration which basically meant he was appointed to take on new Admins when current ones left or making sure that other administrators obeyed the policy that they had agreed to. However Telanir being as inactive as he was became simply a hinderace to the team, getting full approval for certain actions took much longer than they needed too, the community was upset that Admins were becoming inactive and the position could have went to someone who could have had so much more motivation to actually log on and do things! Telanir also once chatted to me about my 'inactivity' within the community which I thought was rich coming from him.

 

Administration Approval

I've mentioned Approval a few times now, however I'll explain it a little bit more in detail so that you guys are certain of what it is. In my opinion Approval is one of the main reasons that decisions take so long to be made and handed out from the Administration; it requires most often that every single admin on the team give approval to an action. Once again for example If I had drafted a new warclaim system I would have to request approval from all of the other Admins before I would be able to execute the action. Getting approval from every single admin could take up-to a few days even though it was only 3 more people that you had to get feedback from. Now after I had been on the team for a while this system became strange to me, because you would have to request approval for almost anything you would do as an administration - whereas coming from a GM position, I had just implemented a Heist system without really having to get approval from anyone. I found that I was having to ask for approval to make [Your View] posts which I would simply do by myself back when I was a GM. 

 

I will also admit that sometimes I simply agreed to things without actually looking into them or giving them a good think before I reacted which is something I regret. I feel that if I had the opportunity again I would be more careful about what I choose to approve, as a lot of the actions coming through the channel regarded players. In summary I think that the approval system helped keep the team stay on track with each-other I do feel that it slowed down our progress a lot of perhaps ended up being even more of a hindrance.

 

My Role and Me

I'd like to talk about my role as the Community Administrator and where I feel I perhaps didn't do as well as I intended to. Firstly I don't feel that I was actually spending enough time with the community, although I intended to make sure people's feedback was looked at by the respective teams and people were being heard etc I feel like I didn't sit down and just simply talk to the community enough (which is something I regret) Now I'll stay in OOC and simply ask how everyone's day is going, not because I feel I have to however but because I genuinely care. I'd like for anyone to be able to come and chat with me even now if I'm not an admin and even if in the future I'm not in any staff teams! I regret not doing more with my position. Sometimes it can perhaps be hard to see areas of concern when you're in a certain position and that's something I regret, although I handled a lot of feedback I should've been involved with people's opinions and I should have been doing something regarding them! Nevertheless I certainly feel I could have done more with my position and looking back on it now I can see points where I would simply change my attitude towards things and do certain things that would've ended up benefiting the server so much more. I also stopped performing modreqs when I became an Admin (another thing on the list of regrets). In my opinion they're a great way to get talking to you guys, and as a GM now I really enjoy doing them... I'm not sure why I stopped doing them. This was the first ever post I made in my time as an Admin and looking back at it now it doesn't impress me.

 

 

 

I will however say that I did certainly enjoy being the Community Administrator. I enjoyed setting up efficient systems that made sure player's feedback was being listened too, being read and also being given detailed responses. I enjoyed making sure that the community was being heard when we were making decisions in admin channel and I of course enjoyed getting to work with all of you guys <3.

 

The Workload

I'd often hear people say that an Administrator role is an extreme amount of work and you'd be "torturing yourself" if you'd agree to take upon the role. However to me I didn't think it was, it was fun at the start and I left whenever I felt I was becoming more inactive. I hear admins say they have 20+ players message them over discord each day asking for things however I never had that to my recollection, which is honestly something I'm rather jealous about. If people were going to other admins instead of me (the community admin) it made me feel like I wasn't doing my job right if I didn't seem like a good contact between the administration and the community. I will however say that yes of course the role is obviously more intense that being an ET Builder is; however you're not going to be loosing loads of sleep over it.

 

Why I Left

I suppose you could perhaps say that I became 'Jaded' for lack of a better word, with the server. Things that I enjoyed became routine for me and I began roleplaying less and less, I started to forget that I was a player and simply look at the server from an Administration perspective. Yet I am still glad I left, because If I was still an admin now I feel that I would be a shitty one - one with little motivation and little care. A break for people once in a while is always good and it helps refresh your attitude towards certain things. I announced that I intended to leave within the admin chat and later that day my pex on the forums, discord and ingame were removed and I was gifted a free Aether VIP for my contribution, which I'm really thankful for.

 

Closing Statement 

I feel like there have probably been areas I've missed out and forgotten to mention, so if you feel that I have send me a message or even comment and I can perhaps add it for you if I have much of an opinion on it. I'd also like to ask you guys for your opinion on my tenure as admin and my role as a GM now. I'm always looking to improve myself and talking to you guys is one of the ways I can do that. So thank you for reading an have a good day! ?

 

 

 

 

[Man of Respect 5471]

first

[Wrynn 1349]

3 minutes ago, Syfy said:

how often were you guys ****-talking me in your little private chat? Heard it happened quite often though none of you had the balls to face me when you had an issue with me, instead you always put up this friendly facade while constantly talking behind my back. Bet I'm not the only one who thinks this too

Honestly Teegah, I can't remember ever talking **** about you - personally I don't have anything against you and I don't believe I've ever **** talked you. I'm sure your name probably was thrown around in the chat a few times but nothing comes to mind. I'm also sure there are other players who think it - I know even in GM chat some people are slagged off and it's an issue.

[Raomir 1855]

I don’t think anyone doubts 501 is doing his best to make the server better, but the simple fact is the dude is incompetent and his ideas are 9/10 times downright horrible. He led some random engineering guild in Aegis and thinks he has it all figured out. He’s never properly ran anything on the server and is completly detached from how stuff works and how to improve stuff.

 

Tbh if he really cared he’d step down.

[Wrynn 1349]

21 minutes ago, dsdevil said:

The only concern I had with you as an administrator is that you were open minded and able to see the community's perspective but you didn't seem to have the confidence to impose yourself in the team in order to bring change/justice.

Honestly, I agree with you. Looking back on it now I feel sometimes I wouldn't have argued as much as I should have due to perhaps fear of being stepped over.

[User 366]

30 minutes ago, Wrynn said:

Why I Left

I suppose you could perhaps say that I became 'Jaded' for lack of a better word, with the server. Things that I enjoyed became routine for me and I began roleplaying less and less, I started to forget that I was a player and simply look at the server from an Administration perspective.

This is what separates you from other admins still currently on the team. It takes a competent person to recognize when they have that 'Jaded' feeling. It also takes a competent person to recognize that they should step aside if they know they're not giving maximum effort. Things can only progress if motivated people continue to step forward, but when you have someone like the "Chairman" just chilling there halting progress it prevents others from having equivalent authority to push whatever is needed to better the server, it's extremely counter intuitive.

[dogbew 267]

I always thought you were a good Administrator Wrynn, I often look to your interaction with the community as an example of what an admin should be doing, and it was something I would aspire to frequently in my role as Forum Team Director. 

[Vaynth 3005]

I definitely get where you're coming from with the admin approval chat. Often times we had to be vague when responding to players due to requiring input from the rest of the admin team first, and while it made us all aware of decisions that were being made, would cause unnecessary delays. Perhaps this system needs to be adjusted to better accommodate situations where hasty decisions have to be made or when the outcome doesn't heavily affect the player base. Great post!

[Dizzy771 900]

As a fellow ex-Admin I have to agree with your statement on the approval process. It was my main gripe around how the administration works and I strongly believe that it is a large hindrance. The system makes sense on paper but mostly serves to slow down any decision made by the admins. I obviously don't know if thats how it still works but if it is I'd strongly encourage the current admins to find a new protocol. Worst case scenario you let a single admin make an autonomous decision (so long as its not a massive one) and its bad then you just apologize and change it. I believe that smaller admin level issues need to be dealt with in a timely manner and the idea that it needs to take weeks in order to get it just right is a tad silly. The most infuriating thing for players isn't necessarily receiving a bad verdict, its waiting ages in order to even get one to begin with. The concept that a verdict can't change if more evidence is presented at a later date or if things are explained more clearly is also silly to me.

[_krug_ 247]

1 hour ago, Wrynn said:

Next I'll move onto 501warhead! In my opinion 501 really cared about the server; 501 always wanted what he thought was best for the server and if someone disagreed with that he would argue for it. Now although I'm sure there are some of you reading this going "This doesn't sound like 501," however in my opinion that's how I had viewed him. 501 fought for what he thought was best, and sometimes that annoyed me. One of the sayings that I had heard from 501 a few times was "The community doesn't know what they want. One moment they are shouting for nexus to be removed and the next they want it back?" When I had given input on the community's stance on certain topics which kind of annoyed me a little. From my role as a Community Administrator I noticed that 501 put a large amount of emphasis on the community when speaking to the community however never really seemed that interested when it came to making actual decisions. Nonetheless 501 put a great amount of work into his role as an Administrator whilst I was on the team and for that I think he should be thanked, he really cared about his position and indeed was trying to make the server better.

An admin's role is to serve the playerbase. This sounds less like "helping the server through bettering the playerbase and making the server more enjoyable" and "spiting the entire playerbase for not enjoying MY lotc". What 501, Telanir, and their decisions were and are consist of appeasement, not genuine care for the playerbase. Take the aforementioned removal of Nexus, for example.

 

Many called for an outright removal of Nexus, yes, but many others also provided constructive criticism and suggestions of modifications or toning down of the system. We can sort these into two generalized groups.

 

Those that wanted Nexus gone completely were usually made of people who play lotc for the mechanical aspects and the factions period. 

 

Those that provided alternatives but still agreed Nexus was a mess were usually made up of those that enjoyed the RP aspects of nexus, but did not appreciate the grindy, tedious aspects of it. They were generally those that play lotc for the rp experience and world.

 

Now, despite the fact both of these groups are sizable chunks of the playerbase (with the mechanical driven group actually being larger/more vocal in the community than the rp driven group), we can actually find who to appeal to for the overall benefit of the playerbase and server very easily.

 

LOTC is rp driven at the core. Without the RP drive, the server loses what makes it unique. It would even lose the aspect that keeps the mechanically driven players coming - the factions that are much more developed than standard pvp server fare. So, the better choice would be to appeal to the side that sticks with the core ideas of the server (the RP driven one), even if the mechanically driven one might actually be somewhat larger (this is up for debate, even I don't know for sure when it comes to the server demographics) and definitely more vocal and active within the community.

 

The admin team went with the other option.

 

To put this in perspective, imagine a game dev making a successful title (for this example, a third person shooter). Perhaps a sizable portion of the title's playerbase really likes the platforming elements of the game (bear with me here), which make it unconventional amongst its peers.

So, in response, the devs' sequel to the title is a pure platformer.

 

The decision to entirely remove nexus is the equivalent of that. It was appeasement of a more vocal portion of the playerbase rather than actually tapping into the server's core ideas and the needs of the playerbase, or otherwise genuinely caring for the heart of the server (the players), because the admin team (or at least 501, maybe Telanir, maybe others, who knows) doesn't view themselves as fellow hobbyists helping to keep what they enjoy alive and orderly while improving on it and providing for their fellow hobbyists - they view themselves as above.

 

They don't mean to serve, they mean to maintain. That's the flaw. That's what keeps us from improving massively. That's what keeps me and others away.

 

Sorry about the tirade, it's just that I get really riled up about the server and its lost potential whenever I get involved with it in any capacity nowadays. It's just really disappointing that this server can be dragged down by just a few individuals with the wrong mindset. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just needed to get my thoughts out there.

[Medvekoma 2073]

On the nexus portion, has there ever been an official, administrator-announced poll on it? I do remember myself making one or two on various aspects of it, and seeing smaller community polls where the majority always sided with the "rework the grind in it" perspective.

 

Other than that, nice post Wrynn. One thing I would prefer all members of the Administration team would do is to only ever assume the position for four or five months, resigning after that. If after a month of non-admin they want to return, have the drive and the activity, fine. But stagnation does not only kill nations and communities, but admin stagnation kills the server.

[ibraheemc2000 2965]

Wyrnn With pure and utmost honesty I think you were the best admin I met, I remember when I broke rules of powergaming you didn't just resolve the Issue but you didn't make me feel like ****. you took me to the Side and Helped me understand what I did wrong and on top of it how to improve, If that wasn't enough you offered to help me any time. You Didn't seem like the big scary staff or admin but a fellow Human being and Brother, I don't remember a single time you were hateful in tone or attitude, You were always calm Happy and Understanding. You helped Make the Server a better place, not just lotc but us as a community and human beings. When I saw you leave admin it was the first time I actually felt bad.

 

as of Improvements, none comes to Mind, But I think seeing how you were and how you are, we both know how the player base can be hostile when suggesting or bringing things up. I suggest that maybe you can Help us Small and weak lil roleplayers bring up our points and voices to the admins as WE ALLLLLLLLLLL on the server respect you, you know how to speak kindly and respectable and Ik that you would even be able to talk to a man with a gun to your head down and make them happy and calm and change their ways........

 

I would honestly love to see you as an Admin again with honesty

 

ps: How you been I Miss you and been wanting to rp with you :3

[Wrynn 1349]

9 hours ago, dsdevil said:

 

You should consider applying for the community manager position they recently announced if you're interested/have the time. 

I did actually PM showing interest in the position, however I didn't get a response. Which is one of the things that annoys me about some staff. Also how is your magic plugin going?! I've been watching those sneak peak videos over and over again.

6 hours ago, Medvekoma said:

On the nexus portion, has there ever been an official, administrator-announced poll on it? I do remember myself making one or two on various aspects of it, and seeing smaller community polls where the majority always sided with the "rework the grind in it" perspective.

 

Other than that, nice post Wrynn. One thing I would prefer all members of the Administration team would do is to only ever assume the position for four or five months, resigning after that. If after a month of non-admin they want to return, have the drive and the activity, fine. But stagnation does not only kill nations and communities, but admin stagnation kills the server.

I do believe, (I could be wrong though) that Sporadic had made a lot of polls regarding nexus, however you'd probably have to dig through his activity to find them.

[Zeldarina 60]

 

Read this all. Nice.

[Wendigo 786]

Thanks Wrynn, it was good to see a post from an inside perspective. That being said there were a few things that seriously have me worried and it seems you confirmed them.

 

I'd like to start off with 501. From my experience I actually like 501. He does seem driven to help the server, and has even helped me with a project concerning plug-ins, which I actually just started working on again due to my hiatus. That being said something, which I'm sure can be generalized, that he said has me very concerned.

11 hours ago, Wrynn said:

"The community doesn't know what they want.

Granted, this can be very true at times for a business which LotC is. The consumer may not know what they want until it comes out, like a new addition on a phone. In some instances it's absolutely necessary for the admins to put down the hammer otherwise nothing will get done I know that. Believe it or not I used to run a community of my own, not as large as this but pretty respectable at the time and not in minecraft. It was 95% adults with 100+ members.  That being said it can be very easy as someone higher up in the food chain to forget how you got there. The process, the 'struggle', and more importantly the people who supported you through the way.  From what I've seen and read from you though who I trust sincerely, 501s actions have me extremely worried. He actively fights for things that HE thinks is right when the community says otherwise. He won't see reason or another perspective and will actively argue or defend his even when you and/or other admins disagreed. You as the community admin went to him probably on multiple occasions with community feedback and you were either ignored or given a passing glance in his eyes. This further shows not only 501s disconnection from the playerbase but ALSO from other admins. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

Telanir. Wow he's been around forever and although I haven't really directly interacted with him, he seems like a nice guy. But how can an admin who isn't active on the server make proper decisions concerning it. So in my eyes I see only 3 Admins that we are aware of that are currently active. That doesn't seem like enough. He's the chairmen and has a say in new members for the administration but also current issues that are connected with the server. In my eyes from a business perspective him having a vote for server related things when he's not been online and only reading the forums, which isn't always true to reality as we're aware, has me SERIOUSLY concerned. As a member of the administration you not only want to have a connection with the playerbase, you NEED to have one. I have no problem with Telanir making decisions on new members because in my eyes he's done a pretty damn good job thus far, but as a admin who has a say in the going ons of the inner workings of the server who isn't actively participating in it has me concerned. In order to speed things up for not only the admin team but the server as a whole he should as a chairmen be excused from votes concerning the server or be used as an UNBIASED tie break voter since he's not too active. He may disagree and and once again please correct me if wrong.

 

So to sum things up, Dear 501 and Telanir,

I don't know if you'll bother reading this or taking me seriously but the Admin team as a whole, whether you're in the right or wrong concerning whats going on, has some serious damage control to get working on. I tend to er on the side of defending you as the server is still here, we're not dying, but we're certainly 'sick' in the sense of we have some issues that need to be addressed. I'm actively asking you to respond to this post, and talk to me in a constructively criticizing manner. We're all adults here, and human non-the less and I'd like to think I'm a member of this community who actively cares and wants to see it succeed. I'd be more than willing to help with my small but respectable business and community experience. I really don't know what else to say, I'd even hop into voice chat with you guys.

Sincerely,

Austin

@501warhead and @Telanir