rescind the "no admin complaints for events" rule

[PapaMichael]

the rule as written feels horribly anti-player. luckily the rule as enforced ("don't complain about admin events unless you're right and the admin actually did something complaint-worthy") is a lot better, but unless youre a nerd reading every post and writing peanuts in the player's club (a fraction of the playerbase), this tacit fact could easily be missed.

if a player, in good faith, feels like they have been done wrong by an admin, they should absolutely be able to get headmin's eyes on it without having to rules-lawyer over whether or not they're allowed to even speak.

the definition of event is nebulous, anything besides just being a janny and taking ahelps could be construed as an event, banning complaints on these wholesale is bad because you are banning complaints on 50%+ of an admin's entire conduct.

the rule is a decade old and purports to prevent this forum from getting clogged with too many posts, but c'mon there are like 4 complaints in here a year nowadays be real

[Archie700]

For context, this ruling was made in 2014, when events were basically in their "wild west" stage and made by someone infamous for setting events up.

What it was supposed to be was to prevent admins from being worried about setting up events with no fear of complaints of ided just for setting up events.

In reality, it's basically something admins tap into when people make complaints about what happens during events, regardless of whether it have merit, as if it's a shield against any complaint

[Imitates-The-Lizards]

I disagree. I think that the rule serves an important purpose in that admins don't need to be afraid to push buttons during events. Especially relevant because the incident which spawned this thread is EXACTLY what the rule is supposed to and should be protecting - an admin pushing buttons to ensure an event runs smoothly.

I don't want admins to be afraid to run events, and I feel rescinding this rule will cause exactly that.

[NecromancerAnne]

I'm of two minds about this.

Firstly, I think there has been, historically, admins utilizing the 'event' framework to shield themselves from what is definitely a legitimate criticism or outright abuse of their administrative powers. I've butt heads with those kinds of people in the past, and I definitely do not think events are a license to either grief or cheat as an admin in a scenario of their own making while they bully via god powers. It's shit, and I think it is ridiculous to either present or accept that as an excuse without at least working out what took place in the 'event'.

But secondly, I have absolutely had people completely furious at me about events because they ended up on the wrong side of one. I don't typically announce event rounds and I usually try to seed them into the round discreetly so that it seems more like a cohesive part of the experience, or in place of, say, a midround roll. Small, absurd, and condensed. And only while I can get people to play bit parts to drive the narrative. Sometimes these are stacked odds. Sometimes people try to abort the round early upon evidence of an event and I maneuver to keep it going (like recalling the shuttle) because I think the bit isn't quite done yet (and isn't station destroying so I don't feel like I'm subjecting people to an aborted round via admin event/abuse while they probably sit it out in dead chat/maintenance since their department is gone). Or, I just seeded in some ghostrole actors into the event and wanted them to have a chance to join in too. The takeaway here is that I could have a large number of people enjoying and engaging, but because one person may well have ended up feeling like I was abusing them in particular or that I was abusing my powers to ruin the experience for everyone (from their perspective), I would then have to dedicate a lot more effort to trying to defend the overall experience I was trying to provide. Usually, this is better handled via admin remarks, absolutely. Since most likely there is something there that I neglected or maybe I really was thoughtlessly impeding their experience without good reason.

I don't think the rule is used in the proper way it is meant too, and I definitely do not think admin remarks are acknowledged nearly often enough for my liking by headmin staff. At the same time, you can already make the necessary complaints to demonstrate how someone's event was actually a demonstration of admin abuse, and I do think that in these scenarios they should be investigated, but a completely gormless application of the rules would have such a complaint automatically closed on the basis of it being an event. That needs to go. I don't think this rule should be used to shield bad actors as much as it does.

[dendydoom]

we currently have no interest in revoking this rule.

we will address any conduct breaches from complaints AND feedback whether it's due to an event or not.

what this rule is meant to protect is the admin's ability to DM rounds confidently, which makes the game better.

removing this rule will create a situation where an admin will have to accept putting their neck on the line every time they want to do something enjoyable for the players and make the game run at its best.

conduct is all-encompassing and there is no rule that protects admins from breaching conduct. this includes abusing powers for your own benefit, or simply using events as a way to make yourself the main character with your admin powers, as opposed to using powers in a way that may inconvenience some players but ultimately is to serve an event which is made for the overall enjoyment of players. the former is what we try to determine in order to ascertain whether a complaint should be upheld and lead to an official sanction.

feedback is very important for admins and they take it seriously. it is their reputation as gamerunners and it's something we as headmins also keep a close eye on and discuss with admins as is necessary. complaints are for when an admin is in direct breach of admin conduct which deserves an official sanction rather than a polite correction to their methods.

as an aside, this term alone we've upheld 2 complaints that came about as part of an event. i've also directly addressed issues that have come up as part of feedback which insinuated that breaches of conduct occurred.