Making staff decisions with rule zero more consistent
Mar 26, 2018 2:41:30 GMT
jendestroy, prismavoid, and 1 more like this
Post by Zanril on Mar 26, 2018 2:41:30 GMT
Ah rules, governing us since the day we join simplex. I want to bring up one rule in particular I like to call rule zero since there isn't a number to it and its similar to to the term TV tropes gives it. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleZero
"Staff has the right to make judgement calls on things not explicitly covered above. You can make appeals on the forum. Rules apply to unclaimed builds and areas"
I want to focus on the first sentence of the above quote. This rule makes sense since you can't make a rule for everything. Too many rules is intimating for new players and difficult to remember.
So instead of making a rule to cover every single case that attempt to curb the rules rule zero allows staff to take a situation and give an appropriate punishment based on the severity of the act that's not covered by the rules
Such cases would be things like the following: Using an alt account to bypass a jail/ban. Speaking for someone that is muted. Abusing the /esethome command to set a home in someone else claim without their permission.
Since rule zero rely's on a staff member to make judgement calls its potentially prone to corruption, shortsightedness, bias, or maybe just over-punishment. If two staff members were given the same situation (such as if someone used a game glitch to gain an unfair advantage [you know,like dupe glitches]) how they both handle that situation would be different (maybe not by much, who knows). I think staff is reasonable in their decisions and some level of common sense is expected of staff when they deal out punishments using rule zero but do you really think all staff are going to react,handle and resolve a situation the same? Would someone like Veesters (damn I miss her) give the same punishment for someone exploiting a game glitch compared any other staff member?
I propose a fix to this. Keep the wording of rule zero as it is and record any case that any staff member uses rule zero to punish someone. So when that case comes up again future staff members will use the same punishment the initial staff member used.
If Meehan (the rule maker here) doesn't like the initial punishment a staff member gives he can modify it to his liking.
If you want to be more flexible with this you can have the initial punishment be used more as a guideline than a strict thing you adhere to.
If you are just here to swing by but not comment or maybe you just don't have enough time vote in the poll I created.
"Staff has the right to make judgement calls on things not explicitly covered above. You can make appeals on the forum. Rules apply to unclaimed builds and areas"
I want to focus on the first sentence of the above quote. This rule makes sense since you can't make a rule for everything. Too many rules is intimating for new players and difficult to remember.
So instead of making a rule to cover every single case that attempt to curb the rules rule zero allows staff to take a situation and give an appropriate punishment based on the severity of the act that's not covered by the rules
Such cases would be things like the following: Using an alt account to bypass a jail/ban. Speaking for someone that is muted. Abusing the /esethome command to set a home in someone else claim without their permission.
Since rule zero rely's on a staff member to make judgement calls its potentially prone to corruption, shortsightedness, bias, or maybe just over-punishment. If two staff members were given the same situation (such as if someone used a game glitch to gain an unfair advantage [you know,like dupe glitches]) how they both handle that situation would be different (maybe not by much, who knows). I think staff is reasonable in their decisions and some level of common sense is expected of staff when they deal out punishments using rule zero but do you really think all staff are going to react,handle and resolve a situation the same? Would someone like Veesters (damn I miss her) give the same punishment for someone exploiting a game glitch compared any other staff member?
I propose a fix to this. Keep the wording of rule zero as it is and record any case that any staff member uses rule zero to punish someone. So when that case comes up again future staff members will use the same punishment the initial staff member used.
If Meehan (the rule maker here) doesn't like the initial punishment a staff member gives he can modify it to his liking.
If you want to be more flexible with this you can have the initial punishment be used more as a guideline than a strict thing you adhere to.
If you are just here to swing by but not comment or maybe you just don't have enough time vote in the poll I created.
