Denied Remove Site Command and ISD

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What does this suggestion change/add/remove:

This suggestion changes the following;

[Removals]
- Remove the O5 Council, Alpha-1, and their Assistants (outside of events/SSL)

- Remove the Ethics Committee, Omega-1, and their Assistants (outside of events/SSL. Ethics could possibly be reintroduced in the future in a different form.)


[Department Expansions]
- Expansion of the Security Department to include a whitelisted security task force (Like an MTF, but under Security) dedicated to the protection of Site Administration, and executing their will, acting as their combative arm.

- Expansion of Internal Affairs to include more trusted jobs with more powerful arrest and investigative authority site-wide. This could possibly include a more combative job, like the “SWAT” of I.A.

- Possible expansion of Site Administration to include jobs such as Zone Managers or Deputy/Co-Site Director (Just an idea, somewhat questionable in use)

- IA and/or DEA pick up infoleak suppression as a duty, possibly some kind of shared thing to encourage RP between the two


Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
Site Command being removed has not been suggested before outside of mess hall, that I know of.


Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):

> Significantly reduced drama and ego battles within the community

> Less potential rule breaks

> Improved roleplay environment

> Reduced amount of excess, unnecessary job bloat (Less of a player split, and two less MTFs)

> Removes the overlap issues and frustrations between Site Command, ISD, Site Administration, IA, and the rest of the community.

> Provides opportunities for other departments to expand or be created, such as Security, or Nu-7/E-11.

> Prevention of ISD wars, which go so bad when left unchecked that UK SC made an OOC agreement that heavily limits what can be done.

> Makes sense in RP - why would O5-1/2/3/4, three ECMs and the ECC all be stationed at a containment site [EDIT: Added later]


Possible Negatives of the suggestion:


> All of the work done regarding Ethics, O5, and Alpha/Omega-1 will be removed.

> Members in Site Command and Alpha/Omega-1 will lose their positions (Though can be transferred to other positions of their choosing at the discretion of the roleplay leaders)

> This is a major change, and can cause a temporary destabilization within the community as they adapt to it and figure out the new environment that would come as a result.

> Significant reduction in combative jobs, which may (or may not) cause an imbalance between the Foundation and GOIs/SCPs


Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:

(Note: Things mentioned here do not account for every single site command member who’s ever existed or does exist in the community. Some ISD/SC have done relatively well in their positions, but that does not account for the majority. This is not intended to be a disrespectful or personal jab at anyone.)

For one, Site Command simply does not contribute enough of value to the community to make up for the issues caused. While the idea of the O5 Council, Alpha-1, Ethics Committee and Omega-1 are all very cool ideas and work well within the SCP Wiki and have a lot of roleplay potential, that isn’t how things have worked out in this server. These groups contribute nearly nothing to the roleplay environment of the community and have only taken away from groups such as Site Administration. Not to mention the amount of drama, toxicity, and egos that come from and are often caused by all four of these groups who constantly fight for who’s right, wrong, and who has the most power/authority over others. Site Command and ISD have only caused frustration, community divide, and problems. Even certain past ISD commanding officers have stated they would rather have someone toxic who doesn’t roleplay over someone bad at combat. The priorities of these groups are not in line with the communities best interest, and this has been proven over the past two and a half years where players outside of Site Command and ISDs friend groups express their frustrations with their near limitless power and their nonsensical use of it. It doesn’t make sense in any lore, and it doesn’t make sense for the community to continue having Site Command in the way that they are implemented currently in the server to essentially be two major powers who do the same exact thing and fight each other on a daily basis.

Overall, having these groups have only caused toxicity and frustrations in the long run. The Site Command/Administration rework only helped in the short run until the point of that rework was forgotten, and Site Command still stepped on and overshadowed Site Administration on many subjects, involving themselves directly in site affairs more often than they ever should have.

There have been countless incidents relating to toxicity, power abuse, server rule breaking (often not addressed when staff are aware) and similar, that often significantly affect server health for other factions/departments/etc. These issues come naturally when you introduce two major powers with minimal restriction on what their expectations are. Even if Server Leadership manages to weed out every bad apple of Site Command/ISD, the mere nature of these groups will continue to encourage more unsavory individuals to work themselves into these positions again and again. [EDIT: Specific incidents have been removed as to not potentially cause drama, but there was previously an actual list of various incidents over time, so while I won't include them, rest assured that there are plenty.]


Frequently (Predictably) Asked Questions:

“How would this be implemented in roleplay, and what would happen to these roles?”
Essentially, The Administrator would decide that leaving the O5 Council and Ethics Committee permanently assigned to a site such as 65 was far too dangerous to be reasonable, and went against the Foundations expectations of personnel of their class. So, they’re re-positioned to Site-01 with the rest of the council. These roles would then serve as a position for Game Masters to use for events, or for Server Leadership to use when assigning a new Site Director or intervening in roleplay situations when necessary.


“What are the main benefits of this suggestion besides whats mentioned in the reasoning?”
Besides what’s posted, removal of O5, Ethics, and everything associated opens up alot of room for opportunity. Floor 3 and Ethics Wing could be repurposed or removed entirely in favor of other sectors in the map that other groups could benefit from. There would also be a reduction in models for these roles unless NL decides to keep them for events. This would also remove many roles, including many combative roles, from the server which opens up room for other departments to expand or be created without bloating the server. (Such as expanding Security, Internal Affairs, giving room for E&TS, RAISA, etc.)


“Could these roles ever come back?”
Depending on what NL wants if they accepted this suggestion, I’m sure they could. But they would have to be much more strictly chosen based on their roleplay capabilities and how kind they are to others, and not who’s friend they are, their combat skills, or what documents they created. Other implementations of O5, for example, could include solely being a Forum/Discord role given to heavily trusted players who are excellent at roleplay and respect with maybe one O5 job slot that can only be used when authorized by Server Leadership for specific events/scenarios. The EC specifically has a lot of potential to be reworked into something else that wouldn't be nearly as susceptible to these sorts of issues.


“What about the people who hold these positions already?”
I definitely can understand that some of these people, especially those in Site Command or ISD COs, have worked long and hard for their positions. The prospect of that work being stripped from them like this wouldn’t feel good. One idea for this process is to allow all people in these positions to hold their roles until they choose where they want to go or resign, however the roles would be locked and unable to be obtained by anyone in the future. So if there’s four O5 now and two choose to resign or transfer, there would only be two O5 remaining until they resign. In return, O5 and Ethics would lose their power over site policy and would not be able to edit it further without permission from Site Administration once there’s less than three Site Command from each group remaining. They would continue to hold their power in roleplay to initiate different RP until their role dissolves. During this process, members of SC and ISD can transfer to other departments such as other MTFs, Junior CL4 roles (or Senior CL4 roles for ISD CO and SC+), DEA Senior Agent, IA, etc.
 
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Conditional +Support

It has my support based on the points below if they were added/tweaked, I support the concept as a whole however.

To keep things short i'll use bulletpoints;

Zen and Myself spoke about certain aspects behind this being posted and reached a level of agreement about *why* it was posted, mainly the "SC/ISD Powertip"
This could/should pass if it meant expanding SA and ideally the departments of Research and IA. And likely adding something new.
SA should see "Ethical Advisors" added to maintain the Ethical RP that would be lost, similar to ECAs, not needed for OSAs as SA is similar as is.
ISD Regiments should be integrated into IA or something new altogether that would work under SA
Allowing SC characters to be used by GMs and adding them as delegates or auditors for the new Site-65
Delegating ECO to an expanded SA offices, giving Floor 3 to whatever is new or Research

Edit (made to respond to certain aspects of the "why" it should be implemented instead of "how"):

I completely and utterly disagree with everything said in the "Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted" section as I think it displays a misunderstanding of what SC is, how it operates and what it has done for Server(s) and community. I can understand frustrations being directed at SC but to say SC "these groups contribute nearly nothing to the roleplay environment of the community" is absolutely outrageous and falls into the category of someone being upset because RP has not gone their way or hasn't targeted them as an audience.

I also thing this post neglects some of the server health analysis that Site Command does, take for example the recent IA changes, there was a hefty and vigorous discussion among SC of which it is still ongoing as to the benefits and disadvantages this change may bring. These are some changes that have a direct impact on server health that SC take into consideration on a fairly normal basis.

To say "two major powers who do the same exact thing and fight each other on a daily basis." also tells me that very little is known about ISD interactions. ISD do not fight on a day to daay basis, and haven't for nearly 9 months ever since the ISD conflict agreement was established to prevent this. Is there snarky comments made on ISD comms? Yes obviously but theres no fighting that directly impacts people's experiences on the server, and when there is it extremely closely moderated and observed. O5 and EC work closely together and when ordered to, ISD do the same.

"Site Command still stepped on and overshadowed Site Administration on many subjects, involving themselves directly in site affairs more often than they ever should have." this is very subjective. I can recall a majority of last year how Site Administration where the bosses on the site. I can remember the intense E-11 audit that saw the entire CO team striked, i can remember the removal of legacy positions and the controversy it caused, i can remember the introduction of the ZJP, i can remember the handling of GOC relations. The fact of the matter is is that SC doesn't go out of their way to overstep on SA and there's alot that goes on behind the scenes, twice this year has SC had to appoint "emergency" site directors because of how dire the SA situation was, as you may recall, -4 had to step down, which resulted in his burnout and leaving the server. SA being "overshadowed" is due to them not taking their own initiative and managing themselves, however under the latest SD this has been successfully mitigated and SA is returning to its former glory. But to say SC are constantly overstepping is not the whole truth.

That is some my personal responses to certain accusations, but nonetheless i
support the concept proposed, not really the method
 
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Recker

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As the acting UK -1 I feel I have some sort of say in this, so wanted or not I'll leave my twopence below:


However, now since the expansion of Site Admin, Site Command- or more specifically the O5 are placed into this weird stuck-in-the-middle spot where people want us to both be involve and on hand, yet hands off to allow for Site Administration to rule without us micromanaging them. Resulting in whatever we do being seen as wrong. The current state of Site Command is essentially that of a Gamemaster, creating roleplay and projects for departments and the site to enjoy. Except (for completely valid reasons... see recent examples....) we are not trusted anywhere near as one and thus are not as well equipped.

Which is why the position needs to go.

It is unfortunate to say this but the community in general and the server has slowly been descending to almost purely combative, with little-to-no 'natural' or 'genuine' passive roleplay occurring around site, with the only occasions rp scenarios occur being when either a GM or a Site Command Member has set up a project (in between the endless CI Raid > Mass Breach > DC > CI Raid loop).

Which is great, however, the very nature of a Site command member creating a project results in Internal Security getting involved whether intended or not, overshadowing / interrupting the rp, which reinforces the seemingly daily asked question of "are ISD the elite of the elite or just bodyguards".
The Lore argument ISD members like to utilise is that they are the former- which may be accurate however on a server with a 128 player cap, having two factions which may make up 20% of that at peak times, permitted to interrupt and overrule any ongoing roleplay is detrimental.

The two main current roles of both branches of Site Command and ISD would be much better off served in a different manner:
  • Expansion of Site Administration: To handle FLC changes and the like,
  • Return Roleplay Creation to Department Directors and Foundation Level Projects to Gamemasters (which to be honest, would be better off.)
  • Seperating Infoleak/breach and treason enforcement to a separate entity, such as RAISA, MTF Iota-11, or even returning the power to DEA, which would revive it from its rather defunct state at the moment.

These changes would be hugely beneficial for the health and creation of roleplay, streamline the Chain of Command, and would reduce both IC and OOC toxicity.


___

PS: To those stating "wait for site 9", this is not a problem of 'ew (insert your less favourite site command or isd here)', it is a problem of having bodies of unchecked power and this disruption to roleplay that their very existence create.
This is EXACTLY why I +support the removal of it. I was unable to give my proper thoughts before but you really hit the nail on the head with my thinking.
 

Recker

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First person to ever tell me that
On the US server, sadly, it is true. Site Command have completely restricted the ability for ISD to be held accountable outside of their branch. Feel free to take a look at the US Code of Conduct. Even as a Director of Internal Affairs I need permission to tribunal say the O-1 Commander.
 
-Support

I believe there are some issues with removing 50 players from a regiment they worked for. Sure, you may offer them new positions after an alternative has been developed, but those who have been playing ISD for a long period of time are accustomed to and enjoy what ISD do, putting them in a new position might just force them to resign or join with no passion or motivation which is not healthy at all. ISD does influence how people play Nu7/E-11. People who wish to move to A1/O1 may change how they act and motivate players to work hard. Overall this seems like a huge change to the playerbase and a huge risk to its health i don't think its worth it.

CI-C COM
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I can't tell if this is some massive joke that I'm just not in on, but what...

SC is one of the primary ways that normal players (meaning non-staff) can affect site RP, which is one of the more interesting things that this server does. Allowing players to rewrite IC rulings, add new ones, and decide how they're enforced is such a cool and involved way for players to interact with the server.

Now I will agree that sometimes it doesn't go as well, but I place the blame on the few past SC who have misused the power. But in most cases, it can be used to push server RP to a very high standard and the use of SC has spearheaded the best server-wide events we have had on the server and generated RP across the board.

Not to mention, removing ISD/SC would gut far too much, and it'd likely just result in the can being kicked down the road so to say, meaning that now SA would bear the brunt of the current SC complaints seen here.

Instead of removing some of the core drivers of RP, it would be best to rethink and enhance the abilities that SC have to drive RP, and this also means ensuring that SC do actually go out of their way to make RP, and not just sit and do nothing, or in the worse case, actively harm RP.

Based on the above, it'll be a -Support from me.
 
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On the US server, sadly, it is true. Site Command have completely restricted the ability for ISD to be held accountable outside of their branch. Feel free to take a look at the US Code of Conduct. Even as a Director of Internal Affairs I need permission to tribunal say the O-1 Commander.
I mean yeah, that makes sense. They belong to an organization that outranks you. Why would you be able to ICly try to hold them accountable without permission when you are below their organization in the hierarchy?

ICly yes you need permission. But if they start breaking OOC rules you can still have them reported just the same as anyone else. Not to mention that if you provide evidence of them carelessly breaking FLC in public, they’ll generally get punished for it.
 
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Recker

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I mean yeah, that makes sense. They belong to an organization that outranks you. Why would you be able to ICly try to hold them accountable without permission when you are below their organization in the hierarchy?

ICly yes you need permission. But if they start breaking OOC rules you can still have them reported just the same as anyone else. Not to mention that if you provide evidence of them carelessly breaking FLC in public, they’ll generally get punished for it.
Not true. MTF Alpha-1 and Omega-1, unlike actual SCP lore, share spots with regular MTF on the global site hierarchy and none of them in that division outrank me or other Dpt. Directors unless they are completing orders from Ethics (which as a former O-1 CO, isn't that often). Not sure where this is coming from.

If you're referring more to the fact that O-1 belongs to Ethics and A-1 belongs to O5, well, DEA belonged to O5 for the longest time yet we were able to hold them accountable. I understand ISD is in a different ballpark but maybe public confidence would be increased if they were held more accountable. Just some food for thought.

As for forwarding evidence of ISD breaking FLC to the appropriate COs, parties, etc. I have done this previously with my DMs either getting ignored, or it's received as "not a big enough problem" or w/e. That's why when you ask a large majority of the server if they would feel confident about whether or not something would be done with an ISD report (with evidence), they'd say no. Ask anyone who's not in ISD. Public confidence in the ability for them to be held accountable is still very low, albeit I will give huge props to them lately for trying to better themselves and it's miles better than what it used to be.

Just a general disclaimer, I don't hate ISD and I genuinely enjoyed the time I was in it. I don't want to give the perception that I have an axe to grind, I am merely trying to exclaim that more accountability is not a bad thing and with past experiences I've had regarding reports, I can see where a lot of people come from.
 
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SC is one of the primary ways that normal players (meaning non-staff) can affect site RP, which is one of the more interesting things that this server does. Allowing players to rewrite IC rulings, add new ones, and decide how they're enforced is such a cool and involved way for players to interact with the server.
Why dont you believe an enhanced SA can do this?
 
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I can't tell if this is some massive joke that I'm just not in on, but what...

SC is one of the primary ways that normal players (meaning non-staff) can affect site RP, which is one of the more interesting things that this server does. Allowing players to rewrite IC rulings, add new ones, and decide how they're enforced is such a cool and involved way for players to interact with the server.

Now I will agree that sometimes it doesn't go as well, but I place the blame on the few past SC who have misused the power. But in most cases, it can be used to push server RP to a very high standard and the use of SC has spearheaded the best server-wide events we have had on the server and generated RP across the board.

Not to mention, removing ISD/SC would gut far too much, and it'd likely just result in the can being kicked down the road so to say, meaning that now SA would bear the brunt of the current SC complaints seen here.

Instead of removing some of the core drivers of RP, it would be best to rethink and enhance the abilities that SC have to drive RP, and this also means ensuring that SC do actually go out of their way to make RP, and not just sit and do nothing, or in the worse case, actively harm RP.

Based on the above, it'll be a -Support from me.
The inherent belief that only SC can do the jobs that are done by them at present is a factually incorrect belief. An expanded Site Administration actually would accomplish the same if not more due to a reduction in layers of total communication meaning faster turnaround time from proposal to implementation, as well as acting like removing SC somehow "kicks the can" to SA. No? The whole point of the can is that SC is so isolated from the rest of the playerbase that they don't get to interact with general pop for 90% of their total playtime per day and accordingly creates the ego divide. I straight up think *all* of your points are wrong.

gonna put a second -support just to stress this point:
The idea to remove SC to give SA all the power is bogus. It will just shift whatever problems have with SC powertripping/toxicity/whatever to SA.
Having this divided power system is also way better. Having come from a server with one person at the top, having two powers with ~equal power makes it way more interesting for rp. Trust me, powertripping becomes way more of an issue with a single position only held in check by staff.
This is also wrong. Ethics do not have the same level of power as O5 do in this server and to claim as such is a delusion, and I mean that with no offense having played on both sides of the pond. Ethics, on the daily interaction of the Site, is meant to be "disguised". They'll approve things, appear as a Committee and are supposed to be ready to pounce on dramatic happenings that breach moral/ethical codes to either bend them to their will, or rein the necks of the O5 in. With no events ongoing, consistent stagnation periods occur reducing their RP loop to near zilch without intervention or some very impressive creation from the players themselves.


Having discussed my logic with other members of the community in private, I am in fact changing my position to +support. I think that paying more attention to SA and Dpt. Directors and centralising power whilst also reducing the amount of layers to it is going to improve communication, make setting up RP easier and just reduce toxicity.

I'm also with Broda on this one. Any ISD or SC who claim they will leave will inevitably calm down and join another regiment or move on because they want to. It's not that deep and we shouldn't hold up changes to server health for these people.
 
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Alexander Kovalski

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let’s say neutral, because honestly I have no clue.
In one side it’s looks good, In other side it’s going to get many people mads and we know its can get the servers in not good vibes
 
Surely the suggestion made by a UK player with mainly UK community members complaining is a US issue, My fault forgot the US is the scapegoat to any negativity about the UK site.
This suggestion was made by a group including both UK and USA players.
It's the Assistants being axed from seeing IA Comms all over again
I don't know the exact reasoning for why that was done, but I will say that UK IA were a bit split on whether it should have been done (I'd prefer they don't have it). The reasoning I can see is that IA can arrest assistants, so them being able to see our comms makes that more difficult.
 
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