Guide to Server Moderation
This guide is intended for people who are (or who want to be) staff members for the Space Station 13 community called Baystation. There are a number of other servers running modifications of our code and some don't change the defaults. Double check to make sure you're in the right place.
Overview
A Moderator is a junior staff member. Moderators support other staff members by handling common questions and smaller scale issues on the server and in Discord. They have access to staff channels, can use some administrative tools, and can involve more senior staff members if needed.
Some Moderators move on to Administrator, or put on extra hats like Developer and Species Maintainer. Others remain solely Moderators for their time as a staff member. It's a fairly low stress role.
Approach
Most of being a Moderator is learning as you go, and our trial period is intended to start that process off. Having a new name color doesn't mean you can't keep asking for help and advice. We understand! We were there too. With that said, there are some important expectations for people in the role:
- We expect Moderators to be knowledgeable – A reasonable portion of the role is simply answering questions other players may have about the server, its world lore, and game mechanics. You do not need to know everything yourself but you should be familiar with where to look things up or who to ask.
- We expect Moderators to be discrete – Handling issues between players can be difficult and both sides often want catharsis through knowing the outcome of their dispute. Unless it is markedly obvious ("they won't be back, put them in cryo"), or related to fixing a bug or understanding a mechanic, do not share information, game or personal, with players.
- We expect Moderators to exhibit good conduct – You don't need to be perfect at all times, but we don't allow recently banned people to apply for Moderator. Should we have a real need to ban you for behavior we may also discuss, depending on circumstance, whether you should keep the role.
- We expect Moderators to have fun – Staff stuff can be draining. You can always turn off your powers and just play. We also allow for long leaves of absence if life gets in the way, or things just feel stale. You won't be retained indefinitely, but months is fine so long as you tell us first.
Game Tools
As a Moderator, you have access to a set of buttons for the game server that let you investigate and solve problems. We thoroughly recommend running a local server to play around with them – even passing familiarity with what they look like is useful before an application.
Tickets
Tickets are a shared history of a conversation with someone who has sent an ahelp. Any staff member can "Reply" to a player's ticket. You can also use the "Take" option to assign yourself to it (and notify the player and other staff members that you've taken the ticket) before writing a reply. When a ticket is done, the player or any staff member can "Close" it. If the player sends a new ahelp after that, a new ticket will be opened. Besides showing up in chat, you can also open the Ticket Manager by pressing View Tickets in the Admin tab. This will show you past and current tickets and let you interact with them without hunting through the game log.
Admin Ghosting
Admin Ghosting is a way to temporarily become an observer without leaving play. This lets you go look at problems invisibly and then return to the game later. You can do this by pressing “Aghost” in the Admin tab. If you're already admin ghosted, pressing it again will return you to your body. You will also be automatically admin ghosted if you use the "JMP" option on ticket messages. This lets you quickly look at where the user opening the ticket is.
Player Panel
Player Panel is a screen that lists currently connected players and who they're playing as, as well as buttons to quickly open their Player Options ("PP"), Notes ("N"), current mob variables ("VV"), view their special role status ("TP"), start or continue a ticket ("PM"), narrate something to them ("DN"), or jump to them ("JMP") – the same as with ticket JMP. You can open it by pressing Player Panel in the Admin tab.
Extended Who
Moderators get more information from the “Who” button in the OOC tab. This includes who someone is playing as, whether they are dead or AFK, how many days have passed since they first connected, and a (?) button to open some quick links to start or continue a Ticket, open their Player Options, etc.
Player Options
Player Options is a per-user panel of assorted buttons and information. It lets you do most of what the other Moderator tools do, but all in one place. You can access it through Player Panel, Extended Who, or by right-clicking a mob and selecting "Show Player Panel". Yes, it's inconsistent naming.
Player Notes
Player Notes is a per-user history of notes left by staff members. We use this for noting good or bad conduct, account migrations, and bans (which are automatically added). You can access it, again, through Player Panel, Extended Who, and Player Options.
Toggle Paralyze
Sometimes, people need to be stopped. From Player Options ("PARALYZE") or by right-clicking a mob and selecting “Toggle Paralyze”, you can immediately put them into a sleeping state they can't be removed from until toggled again.
Kick
Sometimes, people need to be removed. As a Moderator you can't ban people, but you can kick them from Player Options. This is often enough.
Mute
Sometimes, people need to be silenced. You can toggle whether a player can use various game communication channels through Player Options. This is mostly useful for spammers.
Local Narrate & Direct Narrate
You can send custom messages and cues, either to a single person or to an area, visibly or audibly. Right-clicking them (or some point in the world) and using "Narrate" will let you pick from options, including how to style your message.
Send Fax & Check Fax History
Through the Special Verbs tab, you can send faxes to fax machines in the round ("Send Fax"), look at prior faxes sent in the round ("Check Fax History"), and reply to those. We generally avoid answering faxes that ask for game-useful information about the current round; answering "Are these real inspectors?" with a solid "Nope" doesn't do much for play.
DSAY, AOOC, and MSAY
You can hear and talk to the dead without being dead. Using dsay is the talking part. You can hear and talk to antagonist OOC without being one of those. You can hear and talk to other staff members privately using msay.
That all might read like a lot, but it's pretty simple to use once you get used to it!
Discord Tools
You can use normal Discord moderation tools, including timeouts, kicks, bans, and message deletion. Moderators are afforded about the same permissions as Admins, less a couple of channels. Being lower on the role totem, they can't moderate upward (except for the basics).
We have a special "MUTE" role that can be assigned to a user. Doing so puts them into the brig channel. In the brig, they can be talked to about why they were muted.
We also have channel tickets. People can use /tickets open <Message> to open a channel ticket. They get added to the channel and staff members can see and respond to them in private. Staff members can add other people to the ticket if needed using /tickets adduser <Target> and close tickets with /tickets close inside the one they want to close.