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Thread: Staff Report - Forest2001

  1. #1
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    Staff Report - Forest2001

    Staff Report
    Your BYOND Key
    Smusha
    Your Character Name?
    Tanner 'Buzzsaw' Bowman
    Their BYOND Key
    Forest2001
    Approximate time and date of the incident
    22/04/2019 At around 7AM central time (or around 2pm GMT)
    Which Staff Protocols (//showthrea...-and-Protocols) were broken
    I would say that this particular incident was more of a matter of Code of Conduct being broken rather than Protocol. More specifically I feel like the first 3 rules found under Code of Conduct were broken in some way here as well as the last line of the 4th rule (- We are not a government repressing their citizens. Don't hassle players for literally everything. )

    If I do have to name Protocols as well I would say that Protocol 3 and 4 were not followed appropriately to a certain degree but not flat out broken by any means.

    I shall try to provide an explanation for why I believe those certain points found in the Code of Conduct were broken to the best of my ability below.
    Description of the incident
    I would like to start off by saying that I will also attempt to provide a descriptions of the events that took place a little bit before the incident that warranted the creation of this report. My aim is to offer the reader as much clarity as possible and as such I feel that not starting off straight with the problem is the best way of doing that.

    Yesterday I logged on to play what was going to be my first ever round of CM-SS13. (I logged on once the previous day but upon seeing that I had just missed the round start I chose instead to take an extra day to familiarize myself even more with the rules and mechanics of the game) When I got on yesterday the round was in progress and decided to take the time to make a good marine with a decent amount of backstory and effort put into the whole thing. After that was done I decided to hit Observe and spectate for the rest of the round in order to better familiarize myself with the map (I have looked at the pictures of all the maps provided on the wiki beforehand but I thought to myself that noting beats getting a hands-on approach).

    My exploration was cut short when I found myself playing as a newly hatched larva.( I had toggled the option of becoming Xenos once I could no be revived but did not expect it to take effect if I did not participate in the round at all)
    It would seem that my first ever round of CM would be through the eyes of a Xenos and not a Marine as opposed to what I originally intended. I waited to evolve and then chose to become a Defender. My next mission would be to find the rest of the hive in order to carry out our queen's orders. This proved a bit more difficult than I had imagined. I to have a decent amount of typical SS13 experience (hence my choice for starting off as a human) and thus I feel obligated to admit that I am ashamed at how overwhelmed I was by all the different Xenos mechanics (even after reading about them on the wiki). I would then spend what felt like the next 30-40 minutes trying to find the rest of the Hive. While walking in what I assumed to be the correct direction I decided to take advantage of joining quite late during the round (and being part of the winning side) to familiarize myself with the map and the important landmarks and hopefully find what I was looking for in the process. After those rather frustrating but educational 30 minutes I was familiarized with all of my abilities and had become an ancient defender. Shortly after I would manage to find everyone else after using a tunnel that I had missed the first time. I thought to myself that even though I was as green as it gets I could still serve the Hive as a meatshield (that was my original motivation for choosing defender in the first place). I managed to witness what were the very last moments of a couple unlucky marines getting killed by way more competent and powerful Xenos than I was and then the queen proceeded to ask everyone to roar. As the walls of what once would have been an FOB were being melted and the unconscious marines repurposed in order to bolster our already impressive numbers I noticed a line of the floor. I though that perhaps it was something decorative or perhaps some exposed wiring left behind by the marines. A couple of blinks later I would find myself crushed by both a marine dropship and the realization that I was an idiot. That line was not wiring or some high tech floor decoration but in fact was a marker designating where the dropship was going to land.

    I couldn't help but chuckle at how I spent the better part of an hour roaming around while attempting to find my way only to kill myself not 5 minutes later during our victory celebration. I decided to make the most of my untimely demise and tab out of the game and back onto the wiki to try and give myself more knowledge for what was going to be my first real round. I then heard a PM sound and tabbed back into the game. This is where the incident that led to the creation of this report began. The message read "What made you think suicide was a good idea?" (some words might have been different as I do not completely recall the exact phrasing and the chat swiped it away soon after). I thought that this question seemed rather hostile in tone but decided not to pay too much attention to it. I then PM'd the moderator in question back and explained to him that I did not intend to suicide and that it was my first time playing CM-SS13 and did not know what the landing zone looked like. The moderator then replied by telling me that a fellow Xenos attempted to drag me off the pad but I returned again in order to die. I then explained that since I had no idea that was a landing zone I also had no idea that I was returning to said landing zone and that I had spent around 30 minutes trying to find everyone and that dying by my own hand wasn't exactly the top of my priority list. (at the time I though that the Xenos that dragged me did so in a celebratory fashion as in my mind we'd just won and were just messing around while looking for the last few stragglers). The moderator then told me that he'll give me the benefit of the doubt and not do to it again.

    Normally this is where one such story would end. I however decided to PM the moderator back as I was rather irked by the tone of our conversation and by what I perceived to be a condescending and rude attitude. Perhaps up until that point our conversation was not as hostile as I originally perceived it to be. However seeing as the moderator's original message (which was rather distasteful) was responsible for setting the tone of the rest of our discussion I believe it was justifiable for me to believe so.

    The following exchanges between Forest2001 and I were what persuaded me to create this report. I PM'd him back asking if "Doubting and harassing players is the natural order of things on this server" (once again, exact wording might vary a little). Now, this was an honest question as I had also decided to give Forest2001 my own benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps he did not mean to be rude to me but was in fact keeping up with the military-esque theme of the server. To further clarify, I thought this was a "fresh recruit messes up and then gets chewed up by the DI" sort of thing. I know that thinking this might seem silly but I have in fact played on certain SS13 servers were some staff members chose to keep up the theme of the server even when conducting "official business" in order to keep the experience natural even out of character. I therefore chose to check and see if such was the case here and if I was getting annoyed over nothing. The moderator's response was "Excuse me? If you give me attitude it will get much worse for you". This response had just confirmed to me that in fact Forest2001 was just being rude towards me on his own accord.

    I would also like to add that as we all know there are millions of ways of saying the exact same thing. To exemplify instead of him saying 'Excuse me? If you get attitude like that it will only get worse for you" he could have said "Please do not address staff(or anyone for that matter) in a disrespectful manner. If you wish do discuss we shall do so respectfully." Of course, I do understand that there are less wordy and pompous sounding ways than the example I gave but that just furthers my point of Forest2001 having all the choice in the world in regards in how he chose to approach what I said, misunderstood or not. I also want to point out that I feel him trying to shut me up instead of at least offering to hear what I got to say is unfair. I know that staff members don't have all the time in the world to dedicate to every single player but once again, any staff can just say that they don't have time to debate/explain even if they would like to as opposed to threatening me with staff punishment for trying to right a wrong.

    In hindsight I will say that I can definitely see how my question could be misinterpreted as me mouthing off to a staff member and certainly not me just asking an honest question, that one is on me. I will however also say that no matter if I was actually being a dick to a Forest2001 or not he should always remain professional and keep his tone neutral. Being able to maintain composure and distancing yourself emotionally from even the most toxic of players is ,after all, the staple of a any good staff member.

    I then responded by saying that he was the one to give me foul attitude first and that I did not appreciate being threatened just for standing up for what I perceived as an injustice against me. I told him that I was just trying to learn how to play the game and that he should be able to see that I was green as grass by using his staff tools. He then responded by saying that he just said that he was letting me off but that if I want to argue he can "revert that". I was a bit taken back by what he said and I remember thinking "Huh? Does he intend on reverting his decision on letting a new player not get punished for a silly mistake just because I didn't want him to get away with treating me badly?" In my opinion there is nothing to revert there as doing otherwise would just be, to put it bluntly, a dick move. This response also seemed to conflict with the first rule found under Code of Conduct(indirectly as nothing was actually carried out) as it seemed he was using the power he had over me to make me shut up and threaten to punish me for making a mistake as opposed to just talking to me. By this point it should also seem obvious that rule two was also broken with Forest2001 failing to keep his cool and instead choosing to get aggressive with me. Finally I told him that I am not trying to argue, but only to talk and that I feel the manner in which he carried himself throughout our conversation left much to be desired from a staff member. I also said that this would be my last message to him as a gesture of good faith in order to show that I am not intending to get confrontational or escalate. Furthermore I would like to point out that my death was of no significant impact as the hive was full, most of them being ancients and having already won the round by the time I managed to goof up and off myself.

    This would be the end of our brief interaction. I then decided to not stick around for what I intended to be my first marine round and instead logged off with a sour taste in my mouth. I joined the CM-SS13 discord and messaged one of the Staff Managers as instructed by Forest2001 himself (evidence provided below). They helped me out with all the questions I had and gave me a few pointers including telling me to make this forum report as having this issue be handled privately could be seen as shady. This very same staff manager confirmed that staff members do in fact have ways through which they can check how new a player is. Personally I believe that Forest2001 should have checked that the first time I told him I was new and didn't know my left from my right foot as opposed to continuing to hassle me as if I was trying to lie to him and hide my true intention of turning myself into Xenos pancake with a USMC Rolling Pin Dropship.


    I would like to apologize for what is a bit of a wall of text. I trust that the people responsible for dealing with this report will find everything I have provided here to be of importance and not too cumbersome to sift through.

    I thank everyone involved in this matter for their time and effort.
    Evidence
    https://gyazo.com/5bd0c52257f59c5546c370065704eb58

    https://gyazo.com/1c399b4c904931cbef0f67597373e111

    https://gyazo.com/88d66116bc6628827206b9d6a71dc80e

    https://gyazo.com/4464869e69a51252cf3a857208682932

    https://gyazo.com/9bdd9145fa5c43d82096517db3749331

    I am missing a couple lines as I did not manage to get them before they were deleted. The staff manager that I spoke with assured me that this is not a big issue as the logs can be easily retrieved in order to cover and evidence that I am currently missing.
    How you would punish the accused
    I do not believe that I am in a spot which allows me to accurately answer this question as I am one of the parties involved in this situation. Moreover I am not accustomed to this community and the ways through which such matters are usually carried out. However, using my past experience from managing online communities I would say that forest2001 should be issued an warning and then following the conclusion of this report he should be observed by a more experienced staff member in order to make sure that the issue has been dealt with.

    I do not want to see forest2001 harshly punished or demoted and I also fully understand that even if I wanted to I would be in no position to make such demands as this situation just isn't of THAT much importance.

    In my opinion the ideal outcome of this situation is one where both parties involved become better than they were before this misunderstanding took place.

    I would also like to add that from our brief interaction and what I have seen posted by Forest2001 on those forums he is clearly a dedicated member of this community and has no problems following rules and protocol. However knowing, following and applying rules and protocol is only half of what makes a great staff member. The other half is knowing how to interact with people in a professional yet friendly manner. I believe that this incident leaves something to be desired from a member which is supposed to be one of the community's finest but it is certainly something that can be worked on. I believe that everyone (normal players and current staff team) only have to benefit from a member such as Forest2001 provided that this issue regarding communication is worked on.
    Last edited by Smusha; 04-23-2019 at 04:55 PM. Reason: Grammar errors.

  2. #2
    CM-SS13 Host ThesoldierLLJK's Avatar
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    PM logs

    Spoiler Spoiler:

  3. #3
    CM-SS13 Vice Host
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    Hi there, I had attempted to contact you just after the round ended but you were unavailable on the server, I freely admit I made a mistake in how I treated you. I face the consequences openly and hope you can forgive my attitude towards you.
    Charles & Arthur Edwinson
    Synth Percival | Artyom
    Yautja Kjhute Luar-ke

    Record:
    Spoiler Spoiler:



    Discord: forest2001#2001

  4. #4
    Manager Emeritus Grimcad's Avatar
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    It is true, Forest2001 Could have been more professional here. After a decision has been made by a moderator has been made they should not be changing it, unless the player is being a complete dick about it. Which while you were being a dick about it, you were not being too bad.
    For the record there was no assumption made here by Forest2001. You did in fact commit suicide. And if you consider it harassment for a moderator to PM someone and find out why they broke a rule, then yes it is their job to harass people. You are making a rather large assumption yourself about a Moderators ability to see a players play time. That is not something they can do in client. When a Moderator PMs you. I would refrain from arguing with them in the future.

    Resolved. Forest2001 will be spoken to.

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