This is the same post as I made in the
Community Bias thread.
As pointed out a thousand times by this point, there will always be bias. This can only be removed if we remove the human element from server-administration. As we unfortunately at this time do not have access to Elon Musk's secret AI development, we're left with having humans serving as staff-members. Humans are a good work-force but they have their quirks. They can get bored, tired, hungry, annoyed, angry or irrational. They are a buggy bunch of hardware, they can do a really good job.
Yeah, staff might have issues. Yeah, there's bias, but I personally think that our staff-team is really good. We're far from perfect and there's a lot of improvement that can be made, but the staff is still a pretty good bunch. Countless hours have been put in for the benefit of the community, not for their benefit. That's something that we can't forget.
As for community bias, and staff-members being close friends with some people is only natural. We're social, and it's a community because we all connect together (some better than others though). I can't ban the staff from having friends, nor can I sit on top of their shoulders everytime they're evaluating a situation that one of their friends might be involved in. I have to trust them to remain as unbiased as possible, and that they'll do the job properly. Sometimes, the quality of this can vary. Proving that a staff-member in question has in fact acted with bias is very hard to prove. The staff deal with a lot of people every day, and sometimes friends of the staff-member will be involved.
If the staff-member shows leniency or "mildness" in a situation where his friend is involved, then it's hard to determine if this was done because of the friend being involved, if the situation was messy and chaotic, or if the rules are not defined properly. There can be many reasons for a staff-member to show leniency, and not every situation is necessarily contaminated by bias. One of my tasks is to investigate cases where this might be a possibility, and it's a difficult thing. I can't act on my feelings, I have to act on evidence. If I am to demote someone for whatever reason, then I need to be able to present a valid and thoroughly investigated case showing that the staff-member in question did, in fact, go against the guidelines or rules. There have been several situations where I've been confident that a bias has contaminated a situation, without being able to act on it as a fact. If an SA-HR acts purely on only his personal opinion without facts or evidence, then the SA-HR will break all trust that he has with the team and/or the community, and the credibility of the position will be deteriorated.
Another thing that's been pointed out that staff are not the only ones who might be biased. The same can be said for players.
Admin X and Y might act and do the same, but players who are already negative towards Admin X will yell and criticize to their heart's content, while not raising a brow if Admin Y does it. An Admins actions and behavior is always under scrutiny, and it doesn't help if you have a bunch of people who will yell for the smallest thing.
We sometimes work in a very hostile and toxic environment, and it gets tiring quickly. We do what's right, not necessarily what's popular and that will turn some players against us. Sometimes, we mess up though, and we try to correct it to the best of our capability. Some players are quite hostile towards any form of authority, and if they show a hostile attitude towards us, then they can't expect us to treat them like our best-friends. Treat the staff with respect, and I'm 100% confident that you'll get a more respectful treatment back than if you were to treat us with disrespect, slander and toxic memes. Don't kiss our asses, don't be a brown-nose, but treat us like you want to be treated, and we'll do our best to return the favour.
This being said, everyone are able to contact myself or
if they have any complaints or evidence that they want to hand us. We will look into it to the best of our capability, but it helps if we get evidence and proper detail instead of "ADMIN X ABUSED ME IM DONE. FUCKING DEMOTE HIM AND FIX THIS NOW". Claims are claims, and the more evidence we're given the better.
I often hear that we never deal with staff and community-problems, but Overlewd and I sit in way too many meetings, way too many chats, digging through way too many logs and having way too many discussions for this to be true. We try to be as transparent as we can, but it's quite difficult when it comes to us dealing with a staff-member internally. The last thing we need is a public witch-hunt, more memes and people making fun of the staff-member in question because they were confronted and punished by us. The less interference, the easier it is for us to keep it clean and drama-free.
We do not sit on our thumbs not doing anything about complaints and reports however.
I'm sure there are many staff- and ex-staffmembers who can attest to me being a strict no-fun asshole in these serious chats. Those chats aren't fun, but they happen, and it's not like I say "woooopseee, you made yet another booboo, oh well, don't do that next time". I keep notes of all important staff-confrontation, so I always have an overview and notes to refer to when a staff-member has gotten enough chances.
HR speaks with staff-members daily about internal issues, concerns and such, and we're constantly trying to improve and work out the issues.
Quick thoughts about the following:
Admins spawning several cars in to sell them:
As pointed out already, there isn't a lot of difference between doing this and spawning in entities or props, besides the fact that the vehicles are naturally interactable. This doesn't really give a staff-member an unfair advantage, it really just makes things simpler. This is not abuse of power as I see it.
As long as this power is used to benefit passiveRP, and not aggressiveRP then I have no issues with it.
Preventing staff-members from being in clans to avoid bias:
This has been under consideration, and it's been a tempting fix for bias. Staff have always been biased when clans are involved, and they always will. No clan is really an exception here. FUMUKU, SAA, Cerberus, Aeris, Lionscrest... You name it. If a staff-member is involved then there's a big chance that bias will be an issue at one point in time.
Removing staff-members from clans would be a quick fix, but it would have consequences. Staff would be demotivated, demoralized, and they'd feel like they've been dealt with like a common minge. I know this because I would have felt this way. For many years, being in SAA was really the only thing that kept me around on FL. Clans was the only thing I actually found to be interesting ingame, and I don't blame others for feeling the same. If I take away a big motivator for old and experienced staff-members to stay around, then they'd drop like flies. We'd be able to replace them with other staff-members, sure; but they'd soon also grow tired and they'd have to be replaced.
Players are meant to have fun, but also Admins. If the admin-role was only about administrating then it'd be the shittiest position ever. Working for free without reward, appreciation or privileges. When is the last time you've complemented a staff-member for their work?
No work and play makes Jack a dull boy
If we were to note down all the complaints an admin gets vs compliments, then I think you guys would be surprised about how un-appreciated it is to be a staff-member. #SaveAnAdminGiveACompliment
*cough* Not to even mention how unrewarding it is to be a dev. They bury themselves in code for hours upon hours, and only get contacted about their work when something messes up. #SaveADevGiveAThanks
And Teachers? Jesus hell, they take so much work-load of our hands by answering the tedious questions, teaching players how to play this god-awful game that GMOD is. I'm honestly somewhat surprised that a teacher hasn't eaten a bullet out of frustration from dealing with some of you. #SaveATeacherThankThemForTheirHelp