Mod Team Update - May/June

[Josh3738 3137]

 

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, and we figured it was well past time to give y'all an update on the state of the team.

 

It’s been over a year since we gave a proper update and a lot has happened. From having multiple people as admin within recent times, and now me, we’ve had a lot of shake up when it comes to moderation leadership, the effects of which have been felt universally. As I assume what I anticipate to be long-term leadership, I have high hopes that we’ll be able to proceed in fairness and consistency with help from you, the players.

 

Considering this is the first general update post put out during my tenure, I figure I should properly introduce myself. I’m Josh! I’m a graduate student in engineering technology, and with the end of my program in sight I decided to volunteer for the job. I first joined the server in January of 2013, primarily playing as a dwarf and recently an Adunian, and I spent much of that time on a variety of teams and various degrees of management. Now as mod admin, I’m looking to lend my prior experience and understanding of the server alongside my iterative pursuits as an engineer to the benefit of the team and our systems as a whole. From my perspective, the server is ever-changing and needs the continual improvement and effort of iteration to its rules that I would apply in my actual job. So my plan is to approach things in the same way I would approach an engineering problem, looking for feedback and information before iterating the ruleset, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and iterating it again. It’s my hope that, with your help, we can improve the server for ourselves and those who will join us as we grow.

 

Current Team

In my first few months as admin, it’s been one of my goals to reorganize the team somewhat given that we had some folks departing and different needs arising in the face of other goals I've set.

 

Firstly, I’ve made my expectations known to the team and I’ll make them known publicly as well. If someone’s on the moderation team, it’s because I have trust in their ability to do the job until they give me reason not to. I expect them to give sensible verdicts and rulings in line with the rules themselves, and misunderstandings, mishandlings, or abuses will be dealt with accordingly. Beyond that, I expect them to be able to operate mostly independently of the need for managers or myself to step in on rulings unless necessary. Moderators should be able to moderate after all.

 

To this end, management for the team has also been reworked such that each manager has specific oversights for functions of the team and shall serve as more of a coordinator for those higher functions rather than a “manager” that would otherwise step in for a higher ruling.

 

As of right now, managers and mods are:

 

 

We’re also recruiting!

We’re currently looking for more folks to bring onto the team as well. If you think you’ve got the experience and temperament for moderation, put in an application!

 

Projects

Below is a list of the projects we’re currently working on. 

 

• War Rules (Finished) - We’ve made a number of amendments and additions to our current war rules which are now live.
• War Training - Documentation and training for all mods on how to run wars correctly.
• Petty Theft and Heists - Adjusting some of the rules to be more current to what’s available on the server and patching a couple of things like redstone doors. Also introducing proper rules for boat theft.
• Build Standards -  Taking a look at better explaining the expectations of the mod team when it comes to builds and the introduction of rules for some lawless things like door limits, redstone doors, and moving boats.
• Villainy Blacklist - An idea that’s currently bouncing around as an intermediate punishment between warnings and outright bans that more directly targets the rules broken.
• Rule Clarifications - A review of the current rules looking to see where things could be confusing or otherwise require an amendment.

 

Afterword

The rules of the server stand as both reference and guideline for how we should proceed, but they’re also flexible and should adapt with the times and what’s available to us so we might provide the fairest, safest experience we can. Things can be changed, and it’s your help and feedback that lets us know how we can change things for the better. A big factor in how we adapt and introduce rules and systems is player feedback, so join the Moderation Discord if you want to give input on our active projects and anything else you’d like to see changed.

 

Otherwise, if you’ve got stuff for me specifically, feel free to shoot me a dm on discord (Josh3738).

 

Your Mod Admin,
Josh

[subatomic 1498]

josh3738 might have aura

[Dyl 2088]