Staff Operations Policy

This document will cover what we expect from Staff inside, and outside, of the Community.
If you have concerns with the behavior of another staff member, make a formal complaint with a staff-ticket, or reach out by DM to a Staff Manager or Head Administrator as necessary.
As Staff, our goal is to provide an entertaining and safe 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.

Staff Policy

You must be on the Discord. Leaving without warning is considered resignation.
Respect the chain of authority. Those higher on the chain then you have the final say.


Community Staff Hierarchy	Discord Staff Hierarchy	Maintenance Staff
Head Admins Staff Managers Administrators Game Assistants Trial Staff	Head Admins Head Chat Moderator All Community Staff, by Rank Chat Moderator	Development Overseer Sysadmin Maintainer

General Staff Conduct Guidelines

It is expected that you take the position seriously.
Maintain professional conduct both in game and outside of the game. This doesn't mean you can't talk casually to the playerbase.
Ensure your discord name contains your CKEY, on the left side. [ CKEY | Anything Else ]
There is a minimal tolerance for drama between staff members. Keep it out of the staff ecosystem as much as possible. If needed, contact a Staff Manager+.
Be careful using VV or testing our admin tools, you will be held liable if things break.
If you make a ticket about an issue, keep the discussion of your ticket within the ticket.
Try not to involve yourself in any tickets that involve you, or someone you have personal connection to. If you have to handle a situation like this, inform a Staff Manager+.
Do not interfere with a Staff’s admin-help or ruling if they are the same rank as you or higher. Feel free to point out important missed details in ASAY.
Privacy is paramount. Do not publicize IP(s), Computer IDs (cids), notes and bans anywhere outside of the staff channels. The exception to this guideline is listed under Ticket Conduct.

Game Staff Conduct Guidelines

Do not exploit any of your staff powers for in-game advantages for you or others. You must ask an administrator or higher, and follow the Admin Event procedures. You may not use it to create an unfair disadvantage for others, nor may you use it for any abusive purposes, without explicit player consent.
You should not use your powers to give yourself a mechanical advantage. There is leeway for event characters, however admin intervention should not detract from player immersion. Have an Administrator or above review your plans if you are unsure.
If you wish to provide help to a player with Staff powers, you must get their consent in some way. Don’t recover bodies, heal, or manipulate a character without explicit consent from the player, unless you are 100% certain it will not result in a complaint about your interference.

De-Admin Policy

If you are on the server, you are encouraged to remain adminned up to contribute to discussion and provide insight.
Captain and Security should de-admin. Antagonists MUST de-admin.
If you are the highest-ranked Staff online, you can stay admined, or if there are low staff count. When in doubt, ask the highest ranking staff present.
If you are asked to De-Admin by a superior, do so.

Ticket Conduct Guidelines

If someone is asking whether something was valid to do, make sure you have the full absolute context before giving any answer.
Listen to the Staff, they have the final say under Server Rule 2.
If you are creating a ‘Standing Ruling’, which is when you make a judgement call on a situation based on policy that will impact player perception of the rules or future shifts, talk with senior staff first to make sure we get it right the first time.
Check a player's notes and the like before handling issues surrounding them, it may provide context before going into the situation.
If Party A makes a ticket about Party B that results in any administrative action against Party B, including speaking with Party B, Party A should be informed of the results of that action but not of sensitive specifics. If a report results in a ban, specify the duration.

Rule Enforcement Guidelines

Our goal with rule enforcement is to foster a common understanding within the playerbase, seek to educate the players, and guide them.

Staff have discretion in determining if an offending party is acting in bad faith, even if they may not be breaking the exact wording of a rule.
The offending party should be told why this action was bad faith.

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

Noting Policy

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.
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.

You may request a copy of your Secret Notes. We may restrict your access to Nova Services if you do.

Positive Notes

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

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

Staff Operations Policy

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