Chambers asks the community V2 (Staff Sits and You

[Chambers]

Hey guys,

As the community continues to evolve and grow I'm going to bring up issues or points of discussion that haven't really been brought up publically or in a official capacity.

This is the first one here: 

Yes this is still being worked on I just have been on LOA due to serious situation in my family which made me step back from my duties for a time.

 

Since I've slowly been easing back into things I have been hearing alot of feedback on staff sits and how most people have been having extreme negative experiences or no correct resolutions.

This most likely falls back into our staff training so this is my question to you.

What situations do you commonLy see staff being unable to handle properly?

Try to be a specific has possible as feedback from this will allow us to provide specific examples in the training of staff so they know how to handle these types of situations as they come up!

Thank you and have a great day!

[Bbstine]

Not sure this adapts to modern Synergy but how staff handles sits in the brig.

Whenever something happens in brig that requires staff attention there just seems to be “too many” staff in there with the rule breaker (scenario in the cell btw.) 

 

Also something that needs to be improved on as far as I saw back in August was how staff handled banning, say someone says the naughty word and they get banned for racism for 7 days, however some low level staff member be like “me me ban yes yes yes”

 

Just gotta nail down how to take sits properly by yourselves and how to effectively speak in staff chat when handling bans and or mutes.

[Rickle]

I think sometimes there are more than enough staff on the server, but when you make a sit nobody responds until about 10 minutes later when the problem is already dealt with. This is not generally about staff sits, but I feel like when there's more than enough staff on, at least one should be able to take your sit within 10 minutes. For example, I needed a staff to whitelist someone for me and they never showed up. Or by the time they showed up I was already gone.

[Pythin]

Personally I think their are too many staff members. The problem is I think most of the people who currently play either are staff, or re-apply again. I think their should be a cap at how many members should be in it. Which leads to the scenario like how Bbstine described it

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pythin

[Rohan]

5 minutes ago, Pythin said:

Personally I think their are too many staff members. The problem is I think most of the people who currently play either are staff, or re-apply again. I think their should be a cap at how many members should be in it. Which leads to the scenario like how Bbstine described it

 

There is currently 56 staff, 49 without High staff (Only counting HAs). Might be in your timezone where there is too many staff but from my experience there is 0 staff on at points in the day. Just putting this out here cuz I don't believe there is too much staff. We used to be at 70 ish before.

[Unkindled]

6 minutes ago, Pythin said:

Personally I think their are too many staff members. The problem is I think most of the people who currently play either are staff, or re-apply again. I think their should be a cap at how many members should be in it. Which leads to the scenario like how Bbstine described it

 

We used to have over 200 staff members btw. I think we need more staff members because we need people taking tickets, right now lots of tickets are being left not being taken and someone requesting something is just being pushed aside either because no one can do it or they would just ignore it.

[Stockings]

I think staff just needs a quality reform, perhaps and an updated training guide.  I've never been staff on Synergy, nor do I plan to be, but I've seen a few times where Staff misconduct has been the cause of a few problems.  As well as what I can assume is poor training.  

Occasionally on the server, I'll see the wrong person get banned and such.  Hell it's even happened to me when someone came on spouting a racial slur and I happened to disconnect at the same time, only to find out I'm banned with no reason.  Fortunately, I was able to come into contact with high staff easily.  However, I can't say the same for if I had happened to be a new player who is shy to the community.  I can also attest that I'm not the only one this has happened to.  

These idle and simple mistakes are fine as long as they can be corrected.  Apologies can be given and all can go about our business, but I think more should go on to try and figure out why any mistake happens.  From there we should find a way to prevent it in the future, this could be writing in-depth guides on how to handle specific situations and more.  We should always strive for continuous improvement! 

From a management perspective.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Stockings

[Sixta]

Some issues I’ve been seeing lately is high staff slipping up and being disrespectful to players in game. i.e calling people retards in voice chat. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Sixta

[Sanchez]

41 minutes ago, Pythin said:

Personally I think their are too many staff members. The problem is I think most of the people who currently play either are staff, or re-apply again. I think their should be a cap at how many members should be in it. Which leads to the scenario like how Bbstine described it

 

Actually theres not enough staff if you have a staff team of let's say 150 people (we have 56) then the intelligence (I'm not calling staff dumb) of the staff team tends to lean on those smarter individuals so the younger (less intelligent yes not everyone has the same intelligence) more inexperience individuals can learn and grow 

[Gadget]

From when I've been on I've noticed some of the higher ranked staff getting complacent and the lower ranks trying to pick up the slack for issues they don't have the experience for, resulting in like 10 admins for 1 sit.

This is even true with tickets for staff as I am SA again and I spent about 4 hours 1 days cloaked and in admin mode doing tickets including ones I shouldn't be doing but no active NA+. Felt like a admin on duty on a Dark RP server...

[Trixx]

Holy shit is this someone wanting to listen to the community? Omegalul.

 

Yeah no I think there are some things staff does that's questionable. For example when I have to have people in my battalions names changed back to what they should be, some staff member had been setting their names per their request to some long ass name. 

 

I do think that overall the actual staff team does decent work, the GM program however needs to either be wiped clean, retrained, or given a set time frame to get the events together, say what you want but when I am on for 6 hours and only 2 encounters come up there is an issue. When there is an event 6/10 times its one that follows this:

CIS enter planet

CIS frigates hover over base

CIS drops pods and attacks

CIS somehow manages to get past 3 battalions even tho they're alive and holding the line

CIS breaks HMC even tho DU has it held down and no one has entered

We beat CIS after 30 minutes

Get power back on

Event over

 

Now I understand that its hard to have original ideas these days for a CWRP event, but copying the last GM's event that happened 2 days ago probably isn't the best idea. Just my thoughts.

 

ALSO- Before you tell me to join staff and stop bitching and complaining about events, I was staff and iv had my time there I am now a player and I don't want to worry about being forced to do a job I don't get paid for and add more stress to myself that is unnecessary. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Trixx

[Jayarr]

There's a lack of staff for certain reasons. This pertains to things such as:
- Overuse of quota systems that make people work their ass off for little reason -
- Expecting much but giving nothing -
- Lack of communication from the high end to the low end -
- Egotistic people in command positions -
- Branches such as game master lacking in their own ability to be amusing for both player and creator -

Some of these things are okay to have, whilst others aren't. Forcing too many things upon a community that is turning lack luster in terms of staff, and soon enough players, is never a wise decision. As it has been stated that there is 50+ staff at the moment compared to the past 200+ staff, yes there is major faults here and there. I feel like the overall communication from one another and ability to do something for a pristine award or something along those lines could form a much better community of staffing.

There are many things you can do to try and further progression for staff, but ultimately it's a game of trial and error with how the community acts now-a-days. It used to be much much more crisp and uniform and much more professional, but things can't last forever and I feel like moving on and adapting to how this community acts should be an ultimate goal for director+. I could go on a whole rant of "Oh this is how it used to be" and shit like that but that's not gonna help anything.

So overall, my ultimate complaint about the whole staff this and that scenario, is listen to what people are throwing out there, whether it is upfront to you or behind your back somewhere else. If you get the community to appreciate you as a staff team (instead of needing a post or an announcement or a doc or anything like that to figure out what issues lie in wait) then you will gain more players, more staff, and more quality.

This is no callout to anyone in particular, this is a personal overall view for now and the future.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Jayarr

[Scribbles]

Can i comment on this as a staff member? 

To give my view on how some of the stuff i see is currently? 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Scribbles

[traditional]

1 minute ago, Scribbles said:

Can i comment on this as a staff member? 

To give my view on how some of the stuff i see is currently? 

He's asking for community feedback.. are you apart of the community?

[Trixx]

8 minutes ago, Scribbles said:

Can i comment on this as a staff member? 

To give my view on how some of the stuff i see is currently? 

Lmao come on Sribbs give your thoughts!  

[Scribbles]

Just now, traditional said:

He's asking for community feedback.. are you apart of the community?

Yes i guess you right.


Alright so, from how stuff is going from what i've seen. "Alot" and i mean alot of staff are pretty ban happy, from what i've seen is when someone usually breaks a rule that requires a ban,  too many low ranking admins ban at the moments notice without taking people to staff sits and telling them whats wrong, or just banning with the most they can ban even though there are higher ranks to ban for a higher time on and active.

Speaking of active, while AFKing on the server is allowed, i have seen way too many staff go AFK on the server without putting AFK in their name, did we get rid of this rule? 
If not then people must have forgotten. If so, then why? 
Because if this rule was indeed forgotten that leads to people assuming staff are active on server because of people not putting afk in their name and think "Oh, i see an SA on but why isn't my ticket being taken?" 

 

2 hours ago, Carter said:

What situations do you commonLy see staff being unable to handle properly?

Tl;dr 
Ban Happy people without actually doing sits, or banning when others could ban for a proper time on the server. 
Did we get rid of the "Put AFK in your name as a staff" rule?
Just curious about these. 

[Unkindled]

Before banning people I'd like to fully see the admins go through the process of bringing people to the admin box talking with the offender of why they are about to be banned and why it is leading to this then going on to explain the process if they want to come back to the server or shorten their ban appeal they can then go to the forums. Of course there would be exceptions to this for instance someone like Jouii or someone of the like who are banned indefinitely just making alts. Also admins should act in the upmost mature manner and not be dumb about going around things especially if someone doesn't know how to handle a situation it's best to contact a higher staff member until the problem is solved.

[zoink]

Sometimes I wonder if staff thinks this is real life and they are like police officers. Like even though we are serious rp they feel like we murdered the milkman if we did something wrong.  They are ban happy and pretty negative but the worse thing about the staff team is the high staff. Man I am blown away, every new generation of high staff gets negative and negative its scary.  I think High staff needs to have postive thinking in order to make the community golden.  

 

That's my litty outlook 💯😂 👌

[traditional]

2 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

but the worse thing about the staff team is the high staff. Man I am blown away, every new generation of high staff gets negative and negative its scary.

It'd be nice if you could expand on how high staff are being negative as just calling them negative is kind of vague and will most likely help Chambers and the Directors to fix the problems faster

[zoink]

1 hour ago, traditional said:

It'd be nice if you could expand on how high staff are being negative as just calling them negative is kind of vague and will most likely help Chambers and the Directors to fix the problems faster

k

Killing people with lightsaber rifle in public, calling people retards [I know it's the internet but your high staff don't call people retards in public],  Overall attitude problems. God I sound like a triggered feminist but these of my examples 

[Craigary]

Over all? 
 

I’ll put in a ticket for something simple as NPC spawning for a sim or health setting and they’ll be flat out ignored or it’ll take an hour for someone to get to it. At the same time staff will be chatting about in comms or OOC. It just really gets my goat.

3 hours ago, Carter said:

What situations do you commonLy see staff being unable to handle properly?

that’s my issue over all it just seems as though people are getting lazy, idk if it’s a TimeZone issue or what.

[Chambers]

Uh so I accidentally deleted someone's comment on my phone  if you see it missing pls repost sorry. 😅

[BlackiSblack]

Im confused i got a warning point for nothing can you answer my pm @Carter

[Life-]

Main issue with staff is definatly 100% the names they are too wrong. Like who came up with "New Admin" amirite lmao

Edited October 16, 2019 by Josh Schneider

[Beast]

Honestly other than what has been said I think we just have unqualified people in staff that cannot properly do their job 

[hop1003]

One issue is staff are taught that they are not above Freshly joined CTS.  There has to be a good reason for this. Because they should be above considering they are supposed to enforce rules?

[zoink]

2 hours ago, Juan_Cena said:

One issue is staff are taught that they are not above Freshly joined CTS.  There has to be a good reason for this. Because they should be above considering they are supposed to enforce rules?

????????????

[Sn3akyboi]

Tbh I think the staff on this server are good compared to other CWRP servers.

However I've been playing for less than a month and the events are starting to get really repetitive.

Just sayin but a D-Day themed event would kick ass if it was executed correctly. 

[Foxey]

On 10/16/2019 at 2:49 PM, Scribbles said:

Did we get rid of the "Put AFK in your name as a staff" rule?

Nope, that's still meant to be in effect.

[Foxey]

The staff team can fairly be broken down into Game Master, Trainer, and General Staff work, in my opinion.

Game Master...
Within the Game Master Program, there are Game Helpers (GH) and Game Masters (GM). GHs have a quota of 2 helps per week, where GMs have a quota of 2 events per week. This use of a system does help to guarantee that there are a certain number of events hosted each week, ideally minimally the number of GMs times two. However, the program has little extra reward for deployments and does not take encounters into account. Due to this fact, GMs tend to go the "get the most for your buck" route and host quickly thrown together main server events. If an alternative to the basic 2 event quota system were developed, something that accordingly rewarded GMs for the time they put into events, I believe the program could only improve from that point on. 

Trainer....
I'm currently an RTR, however I am a former TRO. I didn't enjoy being a TRO, so there's a bit of bias here, but I'll voice my opinion anyways.
Trainer Officer (TRO) isn't complicated work. You pass a test proving you know the ins and outs of trainings, and then you're TRO. You're added to a roster, given a quick rundown of your duties by your Trainer Manager (TRM), and then you're set free. You need to host a certain number of TR trainings per week, and you need to shadow a certain number of TRs per week. It is incredibly mundane, and the common adage within the staff team is that TR/TRO doesn't really help you much other than keeping you on the team. It's a basic structure; you have the trainers, then the people who train trainers, then the people who oversee them all. I believe the quota system could do with some tinkering, but it makes sense for where it's used. A reality is, however, that there are often CCs calling for trainers with no response- neither from TRO or TR, or even RTR. Quotas can burn people out fast, that sense of mundane redundancy... Just a thought, really- I'm not particularly well voiced in TR anymore. 

General Staff...
I would define general staff work as that which you are expected to do regardless of which branch you have chosen. Taking tickets, doing sits, maintaining order on the server. This is where I would say the lack of professionalism shines brightest. Like some have said above, people are ban happy. Someone makes a ticket for cell glitching in brig, you'll find 5 talz flying into brig ready to swing the ban hammer. I personally didn't make my first ban until I was a VA, it was a 7 day ban for racism and I realized I should do it because I was the only one on who could ban for that amount of time- I believe this is how bans should be treated. Individuals should know to leave the banning to the highest ranked staff on the server. Staff sits, whether it be for new people to the server or older people, do tend to lack that professionalism as well. There is an admin room meant to be used for sits, and it is- by a few people at least. The attitude towards tickets in general has been a largely known problem: people simply not taking the tickets that they should be, tickets going unanswered due to laziness or other factors. As staff, paid or unpaid, it is your duty to place that work over roleplay and to assist others. The lack of that attitude shows. 

In summary, it isn't uncommon to see staff failing to perform well across the board, between Game Master, Trainer, and their general duties. I believe all of these problems can be solved, though. Recognizing the issues is a critical first step, and after that it's just about getting together and targeting one small thing at a time. Putting new systems in place, checking back frequently to make sure they're working, and yes- cracking down on the lack of professionalism regarding the team. A staff team reflects a server as much as a server reflects the staff team, perhaps staff can be the force to lead us into actual SeriousRP.

[Beast]

14 hours ago, Foxey said:

Trainer....
 It is incredibly mundane, and the common adage within the staff team is that TR/TRO doesn't really help you much other than keeping you on the team. It's a basic structure; you have the trainers, then the people who train trainers, then the people who oversee them all. I believe the quota system could do with some tinkering, 

 

Do you have any ideas for how we could tinker the quota system to make it less mundane? I understand your concerns I was a TRO for ages and I do realize that it can be really mundane and boring at times.

 

[McFisher]

its because the server is only active when events are happening. barely any RP happens when events aren't on. cause no one knows how to. and most are CIS Etc 

[Foxey]

15 hours ago, Beast said:

Do you have any ideas for how we could tinker the quota system to make it less mundane? I understand your concerns I was a TRO for ages and I do realize that it can be really mundane and boring at times.

Off the top of my head, I do not have anything substantial- however I will give it some serious thought and contact you on discord perhaps with anything I can come up with. 

[Beast]

1 hour ago, Foxey said:

Off the top of my head, I do not have anything substantial- however I will give it some serious thought and contact you on discord perhaps with anything I can come up with. 

great thank you 

[Chambers]

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

 

Please see this thread here: