DaxYeen - Back against the wall

[Dax Dupont]

Hey Guys,

I'm Dax also known as Caroline Dupont ingame.
I've been around with breaks since 2013, been an admin since early 2018. I'm mostly a manuel min these days but my roots were Sybil and Basil, then Terry when it was new.

I'm known for my bigger events and the slightly weird and wacky side events.
Additionally you may also know me for my ancient code additions such as the Disco Inferno shuttle.

This thread will not be fancy with any silly banners or major formatting, no unnecessary dopamine here. What you see is what you get.

What's my platform?
1. Wallening is bad, and headmin pressure against it might either help convince coderbus or MSO further. Generally running on code issues doesn't make sense, but the gravity of this situation where a lot of players and admins feel disenfranchised is abnormal, and could lead to our community falling apart and splintering. We cannot and should not continue this vanity project at the cost of the community.
Edit:
So a revert is going through, but I am not convinced that is enough to properly repair relations and we should see what we can do to have a good framework for controversial changes together with coderbus. Seperation seems to have mostly worked in one way, that should end and we should work closer together for our community and discuss expectations, plans and procedures. I want this to work both ways, since configuration changes have led to unhappiness from the maintainers(see jellypersons) we should also discuss these changes to make sure coderbus is also included in major configuration changes.
We work together or we don't work at all.

2. Keep Manuel as is, or improve MRP. Honestly, Manual is in that sweet spot, and while some rather see Manual slowly go to a LRP server, I would like to see more RP. However, we must not forget LRP. We should let new admins admin on both during training so the difference in styles and rules is more clear to new admins who might've only played on LRP or MRP. I want to prevent admins from noting or banning on LRP servers using MRP interpretations and visa versa.

3. More leeway for complaints against events. While headmins should be able to dismiss complaints about events, we should have some more accountability for events.

4. Be kind on people making mistakes, be hard on shitters. This has been my mantra for years and it's something I usually tell new admins. People making a mistake or breaking a small rule shouldn't be (heavily) penalized while players who make a habit of making people miserable by constantly breaking rules and chasing people away from our community should be removed.

5. Space Station 14, I would like to have an auxiliary SS14 server. Of course this would require MSO's approval so I can't make hard promises. All I can promise here is I'll try.

6. Configuration based 'events', like enabling certain species or changing charismatics like walk speed for a few days. Feedback on these will be collected to see if they should be repeated once in a blue moon or not. I'd also would like to open an in character dispatches from Nanotrasen channel to communicate to communicate this and to draw people to small more impromptu events to say announce a zombie nations round(those are so cool by the way) or other events where secrecy of the event existing doesn't matter.

7. More experimentation with configuration as well, make gradual changes and see how players actually prefer things with polls.

8. I also want to make it a requirement to link feedback threads for admins, feedback is important I still see some with theirs not linked.

A lot of it of my platform is trying to empower the player base into having more agency and having their feedback matter as much as it can.


https://scrubby.melonmesa.com/ckey/daxyeen
Please forgive my lower recent playtime, but I keep running into issues while connecting the past few days and wallening killed my mood for a while.

[TheRex9001]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

[Imitates-The-Lizards]

Hello Dax!

Can you please expand on plank one of your platform? If elected, what exactly is your plan regarding the Wallening, since that's more typically a coder matter? Use headmin position to run polls on the PR? Vote to make an official request to MSO to fork tgstation official to the Wallstation codebase? Both of those and more?

Additionally, regarding plank 3, I'm concerned that increasing the actionability against admins regarding events will cause a chilling effect which may lead to less admin willingness to push buttons for events in the first place. Kind of like how many players just refuse to sign up for security because they think they will end up having to explain every arrest in a bwoink to an admin and risk getting banned for doing their job. Do you not think that this will happen, or is admin abuse under the guise of events happening frequently and you want to put a stop to it, or do you have some other reason for wishing for this change?

Thank you for your time.

[Dax Dupont]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

Because the reasoning for taking a break(which I've done before because I don't want to burn out on the game) was solely wallening and the way it was handled.
I love this community, and if I can help fix this instead of taking a break even if it comes at the cost of additional stress? Yeah I'll go for it.

I didn't feel like I really had any way of 'fighting back', Oranges and MSO's comments have given me some hope, as slight as it is, that this might just work.

As I've stated before, I would probably be back if I fail but after a long break, that's also why I didn't outright quit as an admin and posted in the LOA thread. I don't think I have it in me to abandon my home, you'd be surprised how much of a part of me it has become. Sure I admin more than I play these days but this doesn't make it any less of my home.

[Dax Dupont]

Hello Dax!

Can you please expand on plank one of your platform? If elected, what exactly is your plan regarding the Wallening, since that's more typically a coder matter? Use headmin position to run polls on the PR? Vote to make an official request to MSO to fork tgstation official to the Wallstation codebase? Both of those and more?

Additionally, regarding plank 3, I'm concerned that increasing the actionability against admins regarding events will cause a chilling effect which may lead to less admin willingness to push buttons for events in the first place. Kind of like how many players just refuse to sign up for security because they think they will end up having to explain every arrest in a bwoink to an admin and risk getting banned for doing their job. Do you not think that this will happen, or is admin abuse under the guise of events happening frequently and you want to put a stop to it, or do you have some other reason for wishing for this change?

Thank you for your time.

I would run polls to gauge how players think, I would also announce these polls so people who've left the community either temporarily or permanently because of wallening may also come give their input, as not to sweep it under the rug.

If I'm right and the support against wallening is high enough this would be enough 'political capital' so to speak to make the request and hopefully convince MSO.

Plank 3, We shouldn't have a full on rule against event complaints but we should quick to dismiss meritless complaints and most 'actions' if we get that far will mostly be talking to the admin on how to improve the player experience on events. If it's a pattern then yeah, more action is needed.

It's more going after the fact that some admins over the tears have gotten the view of 'well you can't appeal events so though luck' and that basically gives too much power for abuse and is less transparent if the players are discouraged to do admin complaints in the first place.

[conrad]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

Because the reasoning for taking a break(which I've done before because I don't want to burn out on the game) was solely wallening and the way it was handled.

Headmins have no control over the code repo. On the time I was an admin, it felt really, really distinct, even when Timber was a headmin, him being a coder and all.

I am not happy with how the wallening was handled, but I don't think being elected headmin will solve it.

[Dax Dupont]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

Because the reasoning for taking a break(which I've done before because I don't want to burn out on the game) was solely wallening and the way it was handled.

Headmins have no control over the code repo. On the time I was an admin, it felt really, really distinct, even when Timber was a headmin, him being a coder and all.

I am not happy with how the wallening was handled, but I don't think being elected headmin will solve it.

MSO has stated that he'd revert or rebase to wallstation codebase if people don't like it.
Player polls, headmin opinion and all the heartbreaking posts people have been making should be enough to hopefully convince MSO further of this.
I know this is a long shot, and generally yeah you're right that applies but wallening has become such a huge issues outside of just code but also attitude against players from admins and coders.

If headmins don't at least try to prevent our community bleeding regardless of code or not, what is the point?

[iansdoor]

Howdy there, Dax

Your claims are a bit over the place and what really gets to me is that you pick and choose what you reply to. As headmin, will you continue to spread misinformation or correctly doompost. But even then, doomposting as someone that is supposed grounded, calm and make decisions for the community via policy and admin team itself, I don't think doomposting is very proper either. I understand that you are coming from a good intentions, but are you coming from a good state of mind.

[Dax Dupont]

Howdy there, Dax

Your claims are a bit over the place and what really gets to me is that you pick and choose what you reply to. As headmin, will you continue to spread misinformation or correctly doompost. But even then, doomposting as someone that is supposed grounded, calm and make decisions for the community via policy and admin team itself, I don't think doomposting is very proper either. I understand that you are coming from a good intentions, but are you coming from a good state of mind.

I was off about the player count screenshot and I admitted I was wrong. Mistakes happen.

I'm coming from a fine state of mind, I generally don't doompost but this certainly is wreaking havoc on the community. Do you disagree with say, dendy's statement or really, a lot of players statements in the player's club thread that this is really bad?

It's fine if you do, but I am certainly not the only one that sees the gravity of the situation. You can call it doomposting all you want, doesn't make it less true.

[iansdoor]

You did not correct that mistake and added more on the fire. You have the privilege to know more and put out fires that DDos is still ongoing, yet you double, triple quadruple down on the rude person's insignificance.

If you wish to pull in dendydoom quote, then you understand that the entirety of community response as been hella demoralizing on all sides. Yes, half cooked PR, but you fail to see the spark in spriting community itself to gain the inspiration. I doubt you check and watch their conversations. I hope you may look upon Chesh for guidance as myself and realize that things take time and the immediate actions of others and their thoughts like Birdshot and other maps have taken toll to burn out individuals that mean well and had vision. Players will straight up not play those maps or ahelp to complain about those maps.

On the topic of big pulled requests, what do you feel about our map pool and how will you quell those fires?

All in all, I'll ask again, are you coming from the right state of mind to take the lead on direction or are you doing this as a response that shit ain't happening fast enough?

You have shown a tendency of hasty and sloopy that doesn't help anyone.

[Dax Dupont]

Screenshot_20240816-160947_Chrome.jpg

You did not correct that mistake and added more on the fire. You have the privilege to know more and put out fires that DDos is still ongoing, yet you double, triple quadruple down on the rude person's insignificance.

If you wish to pull in dendydoom quote, then you understand that the entirety of community response as been hella demoralizing on all sides. Yes, half cooked PR, but you fail to see the spark in spriting community itself to gain the inspiration. I doubt you check and watch their conversations. I hope you may look upon Chesh for guidance as myself and realize that things take time and the immediate actions of others and their thoughts like Birdshot and other maps have taken toll to burn out individuals that mean well and had vision. Players will straight up not play those maps or ahelp to complain about those maps.

On the topic of big pulled requests, what do you feel about our map pool and how will you quell those fires?

All in all, I'll ask again, are you coming from the right state of mind to take the lead on direction or are you doing this as a response that shit ain't happening fast enough?

You have shown a tendency of hasty and sloopy that doesn't help anyone.

I posted later that it was not be best snapshot in time later in the thread. I could've edited the original post, I suppose?

I am not in the habit of checking out what the spriters are talking about since I don't sprite, I generally focus on admin stuff and coderbus is interesting usually. If you concern that getting the wallening reverted is going to upset a few spriters, I am more worried about much larger amounts of players no longer playing in our community. There's no pleasing both sides anymore.

Also, do you honestly not expect people to get upset when maintainers have been somewhat hostile in their approach, the words 'if you don't like it leave' has many people seeing red because they feel disenfranchised.

It's not that things are happening fast enough, it's there's nothing that's gonna fix wallening because it's not just mechanically and visually broken, the concept doesn't work in my eyes.

If I can keep calm when my place burnt down I sure as hell can keep calm and reasonable over a PR.
If your concern is hastiness, I do not intend to make any decisions without consulting my fellow headmins, and any official statements will also generally be handled by all of us. I

Sure, I'm probably hasty sometime but I don't think its in any degree that would affect me as a headmin.

[ekaterina]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

Because the reasoning for taking a break(which I've done before because I don't want to burn out on the game) was solely wallening and the way it was handled.
I love this community, and if I can help fix this instead of taking a break even if it comes at the cost of additional stress? Yeah I'll go for it.

If you do end up being elected, but the other two headmins don't agree with what is essentially the only reason you are running, what do you do then? Do you give up on being headmin and leave your voters hanging, or force yourself to stay involved in a game you wanted to take a break from?

[TheRex9001]

I’ll be honest your response to my question worries me, will you just leave tg if you fail to get your campaign promise through? Will you nominate a headmin in your stead?

[Dax Dupont]

You have posted vocally about leaving our community "It's time for a break boys, I'll be back in a while", why do you wish to have more involvement than before in a server you do not wish to remain in? If your attempts to revert the wallening fail do you intend to follow through and leave?

Because the reasoning for taking a break(which I've done before because I don't want to burn out on the game) was solely wallening and the way it was handled.
I love this community, and if I can help fix this instead of taking a break even if it comes at the cost of additional stress? Yeah I'll go for it.

If you do end up being elected, but the other two headmins don't agree with what is essentially the only reason you are running, what do you do then? Do you give up on being headmin and leave your voters hanging, or force yourself to stay involved in a game you wanted to take a break from?

I will not abandon the community, dipping out because one of your points, albeit a big point, is lame and cowardly. At least I feel like I could make an impact regardless on things and we can try and salvage the community in other ways, I'd be motivated to do the job as long I can still do good. If I still feel like the game isn't going in the right direction I'll take a break after my term.

[iansdoor]

snip

I posted later that it was not be best snapshot in time later in the thread. I could've edited the original post, I suppose?

I am not in the habit of checking out what the spriters are talking about since I don't sprite, I generally focus on admin stuff and coderbus is interesting usually. If you concern that getting the wallening reverted is going to upset a few spriters, I am more worried about much larger amounts of players no longer playing in our community. There's no pleasing both sides anymore.

Also, do you honestly not expect people to get upset when maintainers have been somewhat hostile in their approach, the words 'if you don't like it leave' has many people seeing red because they feel disenfranchised.

It's not that things are happening fast enough, it's there's nothing that's gonna fix wallening because it's not just mechanically and visually broken, the concept doesn't work in my eyes.

If I can keep calm when my place burnt down I sure as hell can keep calm and reasonable over a PR.
If your concern is hastiness, I do not intend to make any decisions without consulting my fellow headmins, and any official statements will also generally be handled by all of us. I

Sure, I'm probably hasty sometime but I don't think its in any degree that would affect me as a headmin.

I'll be honest with you. you don't really understand your actions, so I don't see how I can vote for someone like yourself. Any lick of TG admin understands how to appeal to folks, which is to be honest and not deflective.

The amount of fallacies to deflect the issues you have caused. You lean on the wallening so hard and don't see beyond on that. some could say that this is a wall. But, the big glaring point with overseeing everything is that you as the headmin, set the standards and you set the tone in what is to be done. I wish you well on your campaign, probably get the sentiment of the players that advertly against the wall sprites.

For your information, not every single spriter is doing the wallening stuff, but the creative spark that has happened, this is a push to make sprites more noticeable and higher quality. Your intentions and words is like poison to that, so consider that in the future.

[Dax Dupont]

snip

I posted later that it was not be best snapshot in time later in the thread. I could've edited the original post, I suppose?

I am not in the habit of checking out what the spriters are talking about since I don't sprite, I generally focus on admin stuff and coderbus is interesting usually. If you concern that getting the wallening reverted is going to upset a few spriters, I am more worried about much larger amounts of players no longer playing in our community. There's no pleasing both sides anymore.

Also, do you honestly not expect people to get upset when maintainers have been somewhat hostile in their approach, the words 'if you don't like it leave' has many people seeing red because they feel disenfranchised.

It's not that things are happening fast enough, it's there's nothing that's gonna fix wallening because it's not just mechanically and visually broken, the concept doesn't work in my eyes.

If I can keep calm when my place burnt down I sure as hell can keep calm and reasonable over a PR.
If your concern is hastiness, I do not intend to make any decisions without consulting my fellow headmins, and any official statements will also generally be handled by all of us. I

Sure, I'm probably hasty sometime but I don't think its in any degree that would affect me as a headmin.

I'll be honest with you. you don't really understand your actions, so I don't see how I can vote for someone like yourself. Any lick of TG admin understands how to appeal to folks, which is to be honest and not deflective.

The amount of fallacies to deflect the issues you have caused. You lean on the wallening so hard and don't see beyond on that. some could say that this is a wall. But, the big glaring point with overseeing everything is that you as the headmin, set the standards and you set the tone in what is to be done. I wish you well on your campaign, probably get the sentiment of the players that advertly against the wall sprites.

For your information, not every single spriter is doing the wallening stuff, but the creative spark that has happened, this is a push to make sprites more noticeable and higher quality. Your intentions and words is like poison to that, so consider that in the future.

Not everyone will like every candidate and that's fine.

[iansdoor]

Not everyone will like every candidate and that's fine.

I do appreciate the lack of seriousness and still stands on that point of hasty and sloppy. You can clarify you points if you choose to from what I have said.

[Dax Dupont]

I added a few more points in case anyone is interested.

[RaveRadbury]

You've demonstrated yourself as passionate and understanding in this election arc, I think everyone sees that. I'm a big fan of the config mini-events idea.

What event of yours are you the most proud of?

In regards to improving MRP:

In the first year or so of Manuel I tried to boil down the core traits that I think would mechanically enable good RP:
Style, Pacing, and Sportsmanship
Style - A skill sink to show off with and sandbag to give newer people a fair shot at participating in narrative.
Pacing - Keeping in mind a three-act structure to allow antags to develop something interesting and to set expectations on how things should develop.
Sportsmanship - this feeds into the two prior, it just underlines that there are more important things than winning. Give other people a fighting chance on the rulest where peak gameplay is not the focus.

I don't think this is something we can enforce so much as it's a set of virtues we should seek to put sunglasses on and have do finger guns so everyone knows that it's cool.

I think that this is both simple and effective, this sat in the rock tumbler of mind for a minute so I feel it's quite polished. But it's still missing something, lacking in execution or in need of some other adaptation.

So, given that we may be sharing a room together for the next 6 months:
What do you think of the traits, anything you'd change?
If you were to engage this as-is or modified, what do you think the best way of encouraging these traits in the community?

[Dax Dupont]

You've demonstrated yourself as passionate and understanding in this election arc, I think everyone sees that. I'm a big fan of the config mini-events idea.

What event of yours are you the most proud of?

In regards to improving MRP:

In the first year or so of Manuel I tried to boil down the core traits that I think would mechanically enable good RP:
Style, Pacing, and Sportsmanship
Style - A skill sink to show off with and sandbag to give newer people a fair shot at participating in narrative.
Pacing - Keeping in mind a three-act structure to allow antags to develop something interesting and to set expectations on how things should develop.
Sportsmanship - this feeds into the two prior, it just underlines that there are more important things than winning. Give other people a fighting chance on the rulest where peak gameplay is not the focus.

I don't think this is something we can enforce so much as it's a set of virtues we should seek to put sunglasses on and have do finger guns so everyone knows that it's cool.

I think that this is both simple and effective, this sat in the rock tumbler of mind for a minute so I feel it's quite polished. But it's still missing something, lacking in execution or in need of some other adaptation.

So, given that we may be sharing a room together for the next 6 months:
What do you think of the traits, anything you'd change?
If you were to engage this as-is or modified, what do you think the best way of encouraging these traits in the community?

Honestly, my most liked and my personal favorite was running a round where xeno's invaded centcom and we asked the crew for a reverse ERT and other combatants. It was a lot of fun and a good reversal of roles. With some good music and a bunch of announcements begging for help, the crew did a really good job.

Honestly, all of those traits are spot on. I would also say style is also a way people carrying themselves outside of skill, Lady Penelope Dreadful is a good example of this, a very distinct style that often helps to aid RP on a small and sometimes large scale.
I think we should definitely also encourage people to really try and work out their characters or what who they really want to be.
We can't enforce anything but maybe we could work out some RP suggestions or tips/tricks to aid people in that.

In regards to pacing I always want to move towards longer more slowburn-y rounds, this would give time for more structures and 'chapters'.

Sportsmanship, this is definitely how I feel, SS13 often feels unfair to players and causes them stress, if we encourage more comradery and players not just trying to suck the most out of mechanics over the well being of the round that would be ideal, and is already mostly the case luckily.

Ultimately, the answer is resources and encouragement. We should be able to at least explain the spirit of MRP better and what is recommended outside of the rules.
Rules ultimately are lines you can't cross but having some guidelines and character building guides/tips would help at least the newer people.

I've been toying with the idea of some kinda of character bio channel as well for MRP, so people can post their backstories.
I would also like to engage community members with a strong style more to see if they have ideas for events or suggest events to run with them(without giving them gameplay advantages) to highlight distinct characters more as an example for others. A straight out of the hat example would be helping them running a magic show for instance.

Ultimately, this is going to be some trial and error and we'll need to experiment to see what works best.