The Rules
I have been on this server for several years at this point and have had a lot of fun on the server, I just want to state I don't intend on going anywhere but I do want to voice my own personal concerns on the state of the server's administration. I believe a lot of the staff on our server have the best intentions and are doing their best; however, I don't think that the system is working the way it should. There are far too many situations that I have personally experienced and heard from others where admins make their own determinations on rules that end up with a player receiving a warning.
During my own personal experiences on the server I have noticed that a lot of the times I will receive a warning for something then go to another admin who will say "Oh yeah you should appeal that, that wasn't against the rules." Then I go to appeal it and it either gets accepted or it doesn't. Though quite frankly that doesn't quite matter because the problem begins where staff are disagreeing on basic level rules on the server. This problem is systemic though I believe there are some easy ways to fix it. There is no reason that a server of this size with so many staff can't get together and organize the rules better. I want to point out that I am not oblivious to the fact that this is a video game and that I don't expect them to have a lawbook that covers every possible situation.
The problem that I am noticing is that there are basic level rules that are impossible for the average person to understand because they are either buried in the rules or not in the general rules to begin with. An example I will use is breaking into foundation as a Parawatch, the rule set doesn't state what level of violence they are allowed to use and thus can result in a member of the server getting warned by one admin and possibly not another.
I personally have a warning for breaking into foundation as an Parawatch with a gun and killing people who pointed guns at me while searching for information that I can use against them; though the warning is for FailRP which I argued made no sense because the rules do not state that what I did was against the rules. They claimed that I was raiding, however the rules don't state what I did as raiding. It was just determined by the admin handling that it was the case, and I believe that is where the real problem is occurring, I agree that the admins should have some discretion, but if it isn't in the rules then someone shouldn't be warned for it. People should not be expected to dig deeper into the forums to find rules that aren't directly in the SCP:RP Rule section on the forums its unfair and doesn't make any sense.
During my own personal experiences on the server I have noticed that a lot of the times I will receive a warning for something then go to another admin who will say "Oh yeah you should appeal that, that wasn't against the rules." Then I go to appeal it and it either gets accepted or it doesn't. Though quite frankly that doesn't quite matter because the problem begins where staff are disagreeing on basic level rules on the server. This problem is systemic though I believe there are some easy ways to fix it. There is no reason that a server of this size with so many staff can't get together and organize the rules better. I want to point out that I am not oblivious to the fact that this is a video game and that I don't expect them to have a lawbook that covers every possible situation.
The problem that I am noticing is that there are basic level rules that are impossible for the average person to understand because they are either buried in the rules or not in the general rules to begin with. An example I will use is breaking into foundation as a Parawatch, the rule set doesn't state what level of violence they are allowed to use and thus can result in a member of the server getting warned by one admin and possibly not another.
I personally have a warning for breaking into foundation as an Parawatch with a gun and killing people who pointed guns at me while searching for information that I can use against them; though the warning is for FailRP which I argued made no sense because the rules do not state that what I did was against the rules. They claimed that I was raiding, however the rules don't state what I did as raiding. It was just determined by the admin handling that it was the case, and I believe that is where the real problem is occurring, I agree that the admins should have some discretion, but if it isn't in the rules then someone shouldn't be warned for it. People should not be expected to dig deeper into the forums to find rules that aren't directly in the SCP:RP Rule section on the forums its unfair and doesn't make any sense.
The Fix?
I do not believe that this situation would actually be that complicated to fix, all server rules that could apply to the general player base need to be congregated into a general area. I believe that there are a lot of rules on the server that people just believe exist in the rule section when they really do not. Ensuring that the staff are only acting on the rule set that is currently being displayed is crucial. There is zero reason why Admins should be enforcing rules that do not yet exist on the server or that they "Believe" or "Believe SHOULD" exist on the server.
Training with staff on unique situations would be a good way to prevent issues like this from happening during staff meetings, doing fake sits with unique scenarios so that the staff time are all on the same page. Currently there is far too much disparity between one staff member and another in what they might say during a sit, it needs to be standardized. I shouldn't be hoping for one specific admin over another, I should trust them to handle all the situations the exact same. Granted once again I do understand that this is a game, and the staff team are volunteers, so I am not expecting perfection, but at this current point in time the disparity and gap between what two staff members think is too large. The SCP foundation as a whole is a group writing/reading project, the staff team should have no issues acting out or reading another set of guidelines to assist in unity.
My situation listed above was only one recent example of the issues that I have had on this server thus far, you could make the argument that I fly too close to the sun and shouldn't tow the line of the rules, though I argue differently. The rules should be a strict guideline, not something that can flex in one direction or the other. It shouldn't matter how close I get to the line as long as I don't cross it. I am quite passionate about this server and a great many of the people that are in it I consider to be friends of mine, which is exactly why I care so much about the state of it.
I invite all of you to post situations that you have experienced where you believe the rule set was stretched or believe that a staff overreach may have occurred below. Because this doesn't only extend to just warnings and rule sets, it goes far beyond that as well where staff will interject into an ongoing roleplay scenario and shut it down from people who are only trying their best to make a fun situation within the foundation. Roleplay should be allowed to prevail over what the staff team says in most situations as long as it isn't drastically out of bounds of what the server normally has going on.
Training with staff on unique situations would be a good way to prevent issues like this from happening during staff meetings, doing fake sits with unique scenarios so that the staff time are all on the same page. Currently there is far too much disparity between one staff member and another in what they might say during a sit, it needs to be standardized. I shouldn't be hoping for one specific admin over another, I should trust them to handle all the situations the exact same. Granted once again I do understand that this is a game, and the staff team are volunteers, so I am not expecting perfection, but at this current point in time the disparity and gap between what two staff members think is too large. The SCP foundation as a whole is a group writing/reading project, the staff team should have no issues acting out or reading another set of guidelines to assist in unity.
My situation listed above was only one recent example of the issues that I have had on this server thus far, you could make the argument that I fly too close to the sun and shouldn't tow the line of the rules, though I argue differently. The rules should be a strict guideline, not something that can flex in one direction or the other. It shouldn't matter how close I get to the line as long as I don't cross it. I am quite passionate about this server and a great many of the people that are in it I consider to be friends of mine, which is exactly why I care so much about the state of it.
I invite all of you to post situations that you have experienced where you believe the rule set was stretched or believe that a staff overreach may have occurred below. Because this doesn't only extend to just warnings and rule sets, it goes far beyond that as well where staff will interject into an ongoing roleplay scenario and shut it down from people who are only trying their best to make a fun situation within the foundation. Roleplay should be allowed to prevail over what the staff team says in most situations as long as it isn't drastically out of bounds of what the server normally has going on.
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