Denied Remove Site Command and ISD

This suggestion has been denied and will not receive development.
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Sep 16, 2023
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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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Aura_

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Jul 3, 2022
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And what method of removing members of O5 and Ethics would you propose that's actually viable and could happen?

Like you said there's been good SC, but they don't make up the majority. There's even been good -1s and Chairmen/women who had the power to remove Site Command below them and cared to make sure their department was good quality. And some of those people have been in their positions for months, yet nothing changed in the long run. We still get terrible people in SC positions, and the only people who can remove site command is site command. They are the living version of the meme "We have investigated ourselves and discovered no wrongdoing".

Server Leadership/SL are the only ones who can also remove SC, and typically require an entire group conversation. And most people in SC are either friends with SL/SSL members or are SSL themselves, and won't be nearly as easily held accountable unless they do something absolutely deplorable. Network Leadership only remove people from their positions if they do something truly degenerate that cannot be defended or hidden.
To start, we can extend the requisite that SL+ can't be in positions of SC. I believe SSL already has this, but I don't know if I'm actually just wrong here.


AS for the method itself, there could to be some sort of system perhaps something similar of a human resources adjacent of staff under NL that could handle problems of nepotism among other nefarious behaviors from members of high command and maybe staff as well; These would have to be clear-cut. These members could perhaps take cases and have good transparency in the thought processes behind why someone should be punished. Obviously, members would also have the restriction of not being in positions of high power. Sadly, I fear that no matter what body makes a decision, not everyone will be happy. I could draft something for NL if they wanted something like this, as I have prior experience. J

This is just one alternative imo.

But do you think it would make sense that, for a top-down organization set up by players, fixing the top could perhaps fix the things below them? Do we not apply similar logic to a lot of things IRL?

Chop the top off the org here and you're just making a new top. ie same problems, back to square 1.
 
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Making ISD a real regiment and give it to SA sounds alot better then the current system.

This change has to be thoroughly thought out and communicated between SC/ISD/SA/SL/NL. Given recent updates, I don't trust this process would be smooth at all, and would likely bring more issues then it solves.
 
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I'm fine with SC and ISD staying if they all adopt a zero tolerance policy for toxicity and god-complexes and don't make up excuses when confronted.
If you have any issues with any member of A-1 report it to a CO, since I have been CO I have seen a single toxicity report go to the CO team directly. I don't know why you are bringing this up as a point when toxicity just isn't tolerated already.
 
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If you have any issues with any member of A-1 report it to a CO, since I have been CO I have seen a single toxicity report go to the CO team directly. I don't know why you are bringing this up as a point when toxicity just isn't tolerated already.
I mean let's be honest, we all know why people have beef against the regiment. A-1 is improving, that's a fact, but it's going to take awhile for people to forget the old guard of A-1 and to drop the stigma.
 
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removing like 80 players+ whitelist is bit harsh aint it and regiment? but anyways
like the suggestion is cool and all that but like on the US server we currenty have 2 O5s, 1 of them trying to RP and even trying to make CI RP and still wants to do it, and the other Ex-DoR that mainly did RP in research and tries to help in many ways as O5 to help in Research, i cant really speak about the uk server.
Anyways again an good suggestion, implementing it would take a long time and a lot will have to change.
Also if you really want RP, people need to go with it and its a lot of people that just wont go with it and its not only ISD, also "trying to RP" means he not always has enough people to RP with so he cant really do it (most of the time) or they just dont go in with the RP

Overall -support
 
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IMO this wouldn't fix much. SA would most likely just turn into the exact same thing that SC is right now. Many say that no one punishes SC, however this is both the opposing SC's job and SL's job. If SL can't manage to do it, its nigh unfixable due to the way SL and the server as a whole works. It combines the worst parts of SC with the worst parts of SA.

Removing SC, would simply make SA replace them, causing the same issue of no one really being able to punish them other than SL, the exact same thing it is now except without the dynamic of EC tribunaling O5 or vice versa.

This simply would reskin the current issue with a new coat of paint.
 
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Oct 8, 2023
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Site 54
-support with a small grain of +support
While I do see where this is coming from, I think that the suggested changes would be impossible to implement and that there has been no (recent) issue that would warrant this.
Yes, as it currently stands, Site Command makes Site Administration a bit obsolete in some areas. But I don’t think that SC needs to be removed to fix this, instead SA’s potential under SC could be expanded on.
I do admit that SA can feel a bit silly sometimes, hell Site Advisors don’t even know about the nuke on US, but as I said, expanding on their permissions and general appearance on site could be a big step into the right direction already.

As for the ISDs, I like the idea of having regiments that people strive to join rather than going up in their normal CoC. I know that this does feed a bit into the ego thing for some people once they manage to join, but I don’t see that as a good enough reason to get rid of it entirely either. If done right, I see a lot of roleplay potential in the teo groups without taking away opportunities from other departments/regiments - I for one always try to involve other groups like DEA as long as it makes sense.
Considering what I’ve said earlier with it being something to aim for, it would also be a punch in the face for many who are currently in ISDs.
I, for example, have given up on a different senior cl4 position to advance in A1, and I do know of even previously higher ranking people who have done so, including other MTF senior officers.
Im not sure how prevalent issues are with ISD on UK, but I don’t think that the common issues that people point out with ego tripping or toxicity are that big on US right now, and from a CO perspective I also know that a lot has been done to prevent this.

Also rq for SC, I see a shit town of rp potential that both groups have both when interacting with eachother but also on their own with other groups. Limiting this to GMs would be kind of lame, especially with how they’ve been established for years now. SA’s potential is, imo, only slightly reduced through their presence if done right. It just feels like SA are underselling themselves sometimes because they are too afraid of repercussions for doing something fun for once.

Also let’s be real, O5 is way cooler as a goal than Site Administration. Marketability and all /j

Honestly, Id just wait for Sote 9 to release and see how it works out there before making drastic changes to the Site 65 server environment. Isn’t the whole having a ‘more grounded’ rp experience the whole premise for it? Why try to apply that to Site 65 now with Site 9 (presumably) getting ever closer.

[wrote this on my way to uni so the flow of it might end up a bit weird]
 
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+Support

I've been fortunate enough to be Chairman and O5-1 on UK so I feel I got a bit of a unique perspective here.

Site Command's purpose is to be the creators of roleplay and be the guiding hand of Site matters. But where does that leave Site Administration?

Site Admin needs a facelift to mimic the Site Command setup, this should include SA assistants being added and allowing people to transfer into it.

Whilst I do agree to some extent that SC can be good when it had good players, it doesn't solve the fundamental issues. A1/O1 encroach on other department duties religiously and sometimes through no fault of their own.


To those saying "Nah it won't happen", don't be so sure. If I were you use this chance to express your opinion.

I'd write more but on mobile lol
Agreed, people saying it won't be implemented even though they are +supporting it are ultimately dragging the idea down through their own deception. This is genuinely a necessary change that should be made to expand on the Core of the Site, 62 slots of the server can be taken up by ISD, Assistants and SC which is almost half of the player cap (ridiculous) whereas GSD, Research and Medical are becoming more and more stagnant throughout time. The Core departments of the server (GSD, RsD, Medical, IA, DEA, Engineering, SA) Need to be expanded on in jobs and take away from the 62 job slots for unnecessary positions.
 
Feb 27, 2022
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said issues mentioned would also just occur on SA (the next highest power if this was approved)
Arguably more so, as instead of having 2 heads that hold each other to account you would have a single individual as Site Director with executive say so.

Unless you lowered the power of the SD and made it more of a committee style role where they have to gain approval from the site managers
 
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