Staff Policy

Affected Groups

Defines those that the Policy affects.

Anyone with the Staff or Trial Staff role.

Preamble and Description

Defines the intent of the policy, provides useful links, and prepares the Reader.

Staff Policy covers all branches of the Staff team. Everyone has the same fundamentals. All Staff have access to the Staff Administrative Center, where the forum and tools reside.

As Staff, our goal is to provide a safe and entertaining environment for our community to enjoy.  This means moderating ourselves just as much as the community we represent.  

The cultivation and growth of our community relies on how we behave and present ourselves.  If we do not facilitate change and improvement within ourselves, it will never happen in others.

Writer Credits and Background

The writer(s) jointly provide a statement on the policy.

Staff Policy is something that every server has in some form, from an SOP to guideline. It exists to provide the fundamentals for our volunteers to do their jobs, and it provides Crew with a point of reference.

Writer 1 - Moonridden

Defines Writer 1's contributions to the page, and how they feel on it. This section is by the Writer.

I have rewritten this from the ground up, using modern standards and preparing to delegate specific role-based policy TO that role. Previous 'Policy' was a bloated document that was equal parts instruction guide to rules and descriptions. This should be a proper de-skyratting. Modern policy should be easy to look at, and supporting information should be presented in a different format. I feel that people might not like having to look at different pages, but they will thank me with remembering what's where later.

Staff Hierarchy

Staff are grouped into Classes, a shorthand used primarily for internal reference and accessibility in discussion.

Staff Class (Shorthand)		Role Description
Class 4 (C4)		Overseer In charge of all Server and Community related affairs.   Each Head has a Focus.
Class 3 (C3)	Project Manager Runs Projects within the Community such as Access Requests, Chat Moderation, the Nova Stars program, Chat Moderation, and more.		Staff Manager  Handles day to day   Player / Staff Supervision on a Community level.
Class 2 (C2)		Event Curator Orchestrates Staff response to IC situations. Plans and organizes large scale events with the Event Assistants.	Administrator Staff who are active and familiar with Server culture, policy, and Direction.   Act as the first point of escalation and references for all lower staff. Performs all Assistant duties and have a Specialization.
Class 1 (C1)	Project Assistant Assists with specific facets or features within Nova, such as Access Requests and Chat Moderation, and non-policy related tickets as their skills allow. Project Assistants follow their own unique applications. All PA's are first trained as Game Assistants	Event AssistantHandles IC Interactions between Staff and Crew. Prepares and assists with large scale events.	Game Assistant Enforces Policy and Rules, mentors Players, provides punishment if or when that fails. Game assistants have a resource comprehension, morality, and social skills oriented application.

Policy

Defines the extents of the Policy coverage, using as few descriptive groups as possible.

Staff Core

Support, mentor, and correct the Community.

Assist the Community and Staff Projects with your personal abilities.

Enforce our Rules, or inform someone that will. If you see something, say something.

Use the power afforded to you in a way that benefits the experiences of others.

The privacy and right to consent of other Crew is paramount.

When in doubt, ask a superior for help.

On the Discord, you must have your CKEY presented first before anything else.

Staff Optics

Be mindful of your position, the power of your words, and possible interpretation of your actions.

Be respectful in everything that you do. Remember that anything can be taken out of context.

If you cannot meaningfully handle an issue, document it or inform someone that can.

Avoid official business that you have personal connections with. If you must, disclose your bias.

Staff Class Allowances

Classes inherit all lower allowances. Staff are provided these permissions explicitly as logs are reviewed often and randomly by many parties. We hold our Staff to high standards, and they are rewarded for maintaining our Obligations.

Class 1

Priority claim for slots in Events.

Access to the Aux Cable.

Rights to non-mechanically benefiting IC usage of Spawn panel, Player Panel, and VV.

May request an Antagonist status from Senior Staff.

Access to active Staff channels, including the Staff ERP Channel.

Class 2

Expanded rights to the authorization and execution of large events.

Expanded rights to Threat and CentCom Policy.

May self-bus antagonists, as an Admin Event.

Rights to non-intrusive IC usage of Spawn Panel, Player Panel, or VV in private spaces, at own risk.

Class 3

Blank check on the Game Server. Class 3's answer only to each other and the Overseers on what they can and cannot do with their powers on the Game Server. On Discord or other platforms, they have the right to make necessary calls in times of need. They must otherwise respect each others Role, and particularly the domains of Project Managers.

Class 4

Blank check. Class 4's answer only to each other on what they can and cannot do with their powers, on any platform, except with respects to each of their specific domains.

On the Topic of Notes

The Note System

Within TGCode exists the Player Notes system, which is built to assist server administrators with creating a record of information on players over time.

This can be accessed with the 'View Admin Remarks' verb in game.

• This is where you can find any Standard Notes or Bans (counts as a note) that you have accrued.

There are three note varieties: Bans, Standard Notes, and Secret Notes. We manage a Notes database between the Game Server and Discord for:

• Keeping track of our interactions with our players
• Providing positive Standard Notes over particularly good gameplay or performance within events
• Logging administrative concerns
• Logging changes of CKeys
• Logging shared-household players
• Logging Standard Rulings that are specific to a player

Nova Sector Noting Culture

• First time offenses (on most policy types) that we judge were performed in ignorance and in good faith for the roleplay environment are typically logged as a Secret Note. You were spoken with, the presiding admin confirmed you understood the policy, we log a note that the conversation happened.
• Repeat offenses is where you will receive Standard Notes, or Bans.
• Any notes applied to a Player with the Veteran rank must be reported in the Nova Stars Issues thread on the Staff Forum.
• Serious offenses at any time, especially those found to be in Bad Faith, will skip steps in the note / ban severity scale.
  • Violations of Rule 11, for example, typically start with bans.

On Noting Culture

Nova Sector is focused on guiding our players towards better roleplay experiences.

There will be times when players with good intentions make mistakes, and there will be times when the Rules are intentionally ignored or flaunted.

The way we utilize the Notes system should reflect our goals.

Standard Notes

These are your warnings, your slaps on the wrist. They do not prevent you from playing a job or role.

They exist as a reminder of notable brushes with policy, and to help Staff establish trends in behavior that may be concerning for Quality Control.

Positive Notes are typically Standard Notes.

Bans

These types of punishments come in two varieties. Modular, or Soft Bans, and Server Bans.

Bans are always counted as a High Severity Standard Note.

• When considering Notes, Bans are black marks.

Bans can be Temporary or Permanent, which the Staff will decide as a group unless provided directly by Senior Staff.

Soft-Bans

We have the ability to restrict player access to most social and gameplay features. Just to list a few types…

• Job Bans are given for exceptionally poor behavior, willful negligence, or bad faith behavior when performing the duties of your selected Job.
• Dead Chat and OOC Bans are typically levied for toxicity directed towards other dead chatters or towards players on the server.
• Pacification Bans are for long term, excessively violent or combat power gaming players that somehow still contribute to the community when they aren’t being violent
• LOOC bans are not a kind of ban we apply. LOOC is an important safety tool, and if you can’t be trusted with the safety tools, you can’t be trusted to play the game.

Server Bans

When we apply a Server Ban, we are sending a message.

Server Bans are for when Staff have decided that the player needs time away from the server to reflect and ideally return with a fresh mindset and approach.

This can be due to a single egregious policy break, or due to a series of negative remarks on your notes.

We will do our best to clearly explain how you went wrong, and why we are making this decision.

Secret Notes

They do exist. We do use them. If we are manually tracking information about your play performance and you have not been approached by Staff then 9/10 times we do not yet consider the behavior something that needs correction.

Potentially problematic behavior, situations where a report was made but we did not find an issue, or seeing if there is a trend in behavior that only trip certain lines of policy when done over an extended period of time are all reasons why we might keep a secret note. We also Secret Note about completely innocuous information, a selection of which is listed above. There are even Positive Secret Notes.

Secret Notes exist to make the task of Server Administration easier for Staff. We do not use Secret Notes to discredit players in private. We would punish Staff for doing so.

Notes that contain data about other Players, CKeys, or Discord IDs will be Secret Notes.

You may request a copy of your Secret Notes. We may restrict your access from Nova Sector services if you do.

Positive Notes

These are typically reward notes and do not confer any specific benefit.

Staff are discouraged from providing Positive Notes to their friends without getting approval from other Staff.

Staff are encouraged to provide Positive Notes to players they witnessed:

• Being particularly good examples of Roleplay Quality
• Giving good performances assisting with Events
• Reporting exploits
• Making, and performing, good OpFors
• Displaying any other significant positive behavior that Staff wish to recognize and encourage.