As the titles explains, I believe we need to revise the Mic Spam rules slightly to be less vague and discretion based since this has been causing some issues within our community. I'm going to take a quote of what we have for"rules" on mic spam: "This rule is very discretion based, as some moderators/admins may act on it differently than others." This causes more then enough conflict between players and staff within our community, and I have seen this happen long enough in my time here to know this is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. A very intelligent man told me this "Vague rules exist because it's the only way somethings can be taken care of that otherwise couldn't exactly be clearly justified but it also has room for people without integrity to abuse." This ignorance exists, but it can be destroyed. I'm quite sure that people will look upon my attitude and sentiments and look for hypocrisy and hatred in my words. I want a better experience for my friends, the new comers and for the community as a whole, we just need new eyes to look upon this and come to a consensus. In conclusion we need an improved version of these rules, now I'm not saying to completely change them or form them into a strict nonnegotiable law or anything along those lines but something needs to be done otherwise the experience for many will be tarnished and we will lose people, we will lose the trust of many, and overall the health of the servers will diminish. I would like everyone's opinion on this matter, both staff members and players; I hope we can come to some sort of agreement. I wish to tag a few people, first off our Lead Admins @Sinz and @Event Horizon because they basically write the rules, and my administrator @Disruptionz. I wish you all a great day, and also happy early holidays.
P.S I will add more on this later, for now I wish to wait and see what others opinions are before I continue.
What do you suppose we revise it to? I believe the rule set is clear-cut the way it is now. Spam occurs. Gag/mute (serves as a warning) Gag/mute for a round* Ban 8 hours
I think he means to have a definition in writing as to what exactly constitutes "spam". Correct me if I'm wrong @kynwall
Sinzy I'm not saying revise the punishments, but revise what is considered spam. The punsihments are fine, how we handle a situation isn't. Example, we all know who CMDRSprinkles is, and what he likes to do. He talks an obscene amount, telling stories, giving tours of maps, random babble. Now some would consider speaking for a prolonged amount of time spam, others would not, and I have seen him gagged for doing so, other times not; and that to me is an issue. I'm not trying to single out Mr.Sprinkles or anyone for that matter but the issue is how staff approach it. As stated above we all act differently on this causing confusion among players and staff and inevitably causing issues. The issue is we all have a different view on what spam actually is and I feel we need some sort of common ground or guide line to help us as well as the players because right now Mic Spam is vague and people argue on what it constitutes. @Rice you are correct. Punishments/protocol = fine.
I agree with @kynwall on this. I like to run around on a server as a character, and I control my use of the sound files for that character carefully. I can't always do the voice acting some players can to do such things, but is it that much worse to just use the actual voice? For example, I was playing as Navi quite a bit, but I made sure to control how much I said her phrases: "Hey, watch out!" or "Hey, listen!"- When I kosed someone "Look!" - When finding an unid "Hello?" - As a live check I rarely spammed them (on a couple occasions the timing was funnier with 2 "Hey listen!"s in a row), but I found myself getting warned or gagged for even my first use in that session, getting told off that I should just use my actual voice. Other time's the mods found it hilarious and understood what I was going for. Then while I am gagged, there is a guy talking for 2 minutes straight on absolute nonsense, or various genitalia. I ask the mods why I was gagged and not him, I am told "You want me to gag him for just talking?" Of course not for "just talking", it's for interrupting game play with random screaches or talking over people who are trying to call out things. Things are just way too obscure. I don't mind on what the choice is, I just want it official: -Can someone use quote sound files to communicate or not (assuming it isn't overly loud, annoying, or musical)? -Can someone abuse their VIP mic time to overtalk about various gross or pointless topics that interrupt game play? If not, then what is considered interrupting gameplay? What are bad topics? When is it overtalking? (these last ones are often vague for a reason, but I'm sure we can come up with a few examples).
We can very easily make a list of what is "mic spam," and what is not. However, as soon as these were enstated into our !motd, players would very easily find ways to mic spam in ways that would not be listed. This would then make it so our moderators would not be able to gag the player without an administrators discretion because gagging the player based on these set rules would be an "abuse of power" according to the revised !motd. This would allow mic spammers to validly report any moderator who is simply trying to ensure every player is not annoyed and that staff members may handle reports and players without having to deal with the spammer. Simply put, this would limit the power of the moderator and allow loophole trolls to mic spam until an administrator is contacted, and even then the mic spammer would complain about an "abuse of power," when the gag would regularly be allowed for the convenience of other players on the sever.
He has each paragraph a different color, and quotes a separate color. I like it And for the suggestion, I would love to see this implemented, except it would be difficult to do and possibly lead to more problems. Like Opii said, That's why I believe we should still leave it up to the staff member present, because it could create more conflicts. But, of course a player can report the staff member on the forums if they believe the staff member had no reason to gag them, we encourage that.
I personally believe that we should have a basic rule set about what is considered spam. The final call will always be up to the staff member, but we should still have a general overall idea on what is spam and what isn't, so players can't use the excuse "I didn't know". I have spammed on occasion, so I know lol. For example, playing music in mic, though at times it is hilarious and appropriate, should be mute. Spamming chat with certain phrases such as 'le reddit army' etc. repetitively. Breathing heavily into microphone or moaning, etc. Loud noises that distract users from gameplay. These just a few examples of what could work.
Alright so again I have ran into an instance were players have come to me and said that they have felt wronged when they were gagged, that the moderator at the time had been abusing their powers. I have spoken to the moderator myself and they asked me if there was an outline on the forums for when we gag/mute players, I had to sadly reply with no. I still strongly believe we need a guideline to help us, instead of this 100% discretion we are using. @Opii again I must reiterate myself, I do not want a hard set of rules, or something written in stone that players can easily abuse/loop hole troll. A guideline insures this due to it being well a guideline, it's something we can use to help us when we are unsure of when to gag/mute a player, so there will still be a hearty amount of discretion just not 100%, leaving room for ourselves to make decisions but at the same time giving us something to go on as well when needed.
I agree with kynwall. A general guideline would be appreciated. Despite a lot of the time it being obvious when someone should be muted, there are enough times when players do not perceive it as spamming and are confused when they are gagged and warned when previously, a staff member had no problem with their antics.
