SmallGreenAnt's Moderator Application

[SmallGreenAnt]

Server Moderator Application

Basic Information

Byond Account: SmallGreenAnt

Character Name(s): Caden Thomas, Object G88

AI Name(s): Observer

Discord username + tag: smallgreenant#9568 / Smallgreenant (I'm a simple man)

Age: 31

Timezone: EasternStandard (EST), UTC -5

When are you on Aurora?: Currently Mon-Thur - after 1600 EST, Friday - most of the day, Sat-Sun - varies

(Can idle/observe Mon-Thur on separate window at work to a degree).

Experience

How long have you played SS13?: Approximately five years on and off.

How long have you played on Aurora: Going on five or six months by now I imagine.

How much do you know about SS13 (Baystation build) game mechanics?:

Certainly not the most well versed but I have done a PR here and there for sprites and during that experience I have learned a few behind the scenes things. Additionally I've emulated the server on my box privately to test things for PRs so I've peaked behind the curtain briefly there as well.

Do you have any experience moderating for an SS13 server?: No.

Have you read through the criteria thread; https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4198 - and believe that you mark off all the criteria?: I have and believe I both understand and posses the merit within each keynote.

Have you ever been banned, and if so, how long and why?: No.

Personality

Why do you play SS13?:

Personally I enjoy the interactions and the creativity people bring to each new possible round. There are absurdly more advanced games out there but the limitations within this game push people to be interesting in other ways unlike any where else. 

Why do you play on Aurora?:

Quite simply because all the reasons I list above are best displayed by the community and administration alike here. Sure we aren't without our flaws, but Aurora is the best at doing what I am looking for.

What do moderators do?:

Moderators are the first line of defence against the greytide.

But more seriously, moderators are the triage center of issues as I see it. They handle the smaller squabbles or escalating the larger complications that naturally arise throughout each iteration of this game and providing information or direction where necessary.

What does it mean to be a moderator for our server?: You represent the administration of this community at it's most approachable level. You answer questions, you provide direction, you educate about lore, you resolve issues or point them to someone who can, but above all, you create an inviting environment to new and old to the best of your ability through your slightly elevated status.

Why do you want to be a moderator?:

Avery worded the moderator ping in Discord in a way that a man such as I couldn't back down from. Also, full transparency, I'd like to be more involved in the administration of this community and see this as a starting point and litmus test for where the powers that be think I'm at. 

What qualities do you possess that would make you a good moderator?:

Some of you may know I was in law enforcement IRL for about 8 years. During that time I was a patrol deputy, field training deputy, detective, and on our crisis intervention team. I mean to infer by that, that I have had to walk into another man's house and take over the situation, at times to save a life, at times to arrest, even at times have one come to an end. I don't mean to in any way to diminish the responsibilities of moderators here but simply demonstrate that I possess a fair amount of life experience that enables me to assist in a role that heavily relies on communication and the careful understanding and application of rules. 

How well do you handle stress, anger, or insults?:

I can absolutely guarantee that the lot of you cannot conceive anything worse than the myriad of insults or words I've endured in my years. Other than that, I know I have a few notes about my occasional sass in response to pings. I believe it's been effectively curbed and hope that is universally agreed upon. In regards to actual stress or anger, I've never had a situation arise from this game or community that has resulted in either.

Anything Else You Want to Add:

I recognize I am very much still in my infancy within this community and continue to learn each day. I also recognize that while I don't have any formal discipline I am not without sin. If you look at my age, my life experience, my complete lack of knowledge of some of the sub-culture and memes within these hallowed walls, I am probably not the guy you would imagine playing SS13 a few hours a day. And despite all that I feel as if I've still made friends with just about everyone I've met here and have had a positive effect overall where I am involved. I wish to expand upon that but won't be offended if it is unnecessary, I am not ready, or otherwise ill-advised. However, I ain't no bitch and Avery threw that challenge out hard, so here I am.

As you keep land mines out of my way, I'll probably only let you down once per round.

[Bygonehero]

Small green ant has helped me with several projects, and they continue to do so. What I get with working with them is the same feeling I get when working with other administration staff. To provide them with moderator is simply a natural extension of their abilities to help our community. big +1

Edited July 21, 2019 by Bygonehero

[Kaed]

He seems like  pretty responsible person, and he's helped out with contributions to the server before and he's bribed me by giving me cool sprites.  I don't have any reason to disbelieve he has experience with police work, so I feel like that might help him with keeping his chill during interactions. 

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

+1 responsible guy 

[Chada1]

There is practically no doubt in my mind that SmallGreentAnt would be a good moderator, they've been quick to help out with stuff since they arrived to Aurora, too.

[Scheveningen]

-1. July 13th, I witnessed both an IC and LOOC altercation between you and a surgeon because said surgeon wasn't moving at a fast enough pace to fix my character's internal bleeding (which honestly I wasn't in any real danger, my character's condition was pretty mild). Initially the rudeness from you was merely IC, but then you pretty much chewed the person out in LOOC for not speedrunning their job and insulted them, and said animosity bled out into IC. It got to the point where I had enough of that animosity and I reported it over adminhelp. After it was resolved you snarked at the surgeon's character ICly afterward.

And this pretty much progressed without real escalation on the matter that I could see. I was dragged to the medbay, the surgeon came along, took maybe 10 seconds to double-check over me in the scanner, to which you decided was too long and then you yelled at them ICly and dragged the matter out LOOCly. The hostility I saw was sudden and otherwise pretty unjustified. I very rarely see people insult others with a 0 to 60 escalation.

It's one thing to be a jerk ICly, another to be a jerk OOCly, and then it's a more complex mess to combine the two to essentially create extremely mixed signals of an unwelcome nature to a player and their character. I have a pretty good indication as to who the player was that you snarked at rather nastily, and I know them pretty well enough as a quality player in medbay that they 100% did not deserve that kind of reaction from you.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Scheveningen

[SmallGreenAnt]

4 hours ago, Scheveningen said:

-1. July 13th, I witnessed both an IC and LOOC altercation between you and a surgeon because said surgeon wasn't moving at a fast enough pace to fix my character's internal bleeding (which honestly I wasn't in any real danger, my character's condition was pretty mild). You pretty much chewed the person out in LOOC for not speedrunning their job and insulted them, and said animosity bled out into IC. It got to the point where I had enough of that animosity and I reported it over adminhelp. After it was resolved you snarked at the surgeon's character ICly afterward.

And this pretty much progressed without real escalation on the matter that I could see. I was dragged to the medbay, the surgeon came along, took maybe 10 seconds to double-check over me in the scanner, to which you decided was too long and then you yelled at them ICly and dragged the matter out LOOCly.

It's one thing to be a jerk ICly, another to be a jerk OOCly, and then it's a more complex mess to combine the two to essentially create extremely mixed signals of an unwelcome nature to a player and their character. I have a pretty good indication as to who the player was that you snarked at rather nastily, and I know them pretty well enough as a quality player in medbay that they 100% did not deserve that kind of reaction from you.

Thank you for your feedback! 

I believe I recall this incident where I rescued you from science and brought you to medical. Role playing concern for you, my co-worker's well-being, I did not receive any interaction from the individuals in charge of your care whatsoever. They wordlessly dragged you into the OR, where I sat quietly outside of in support of you, while they worked on you until they slipped and injured you. I role played ICly observing the injury and was finally given my first interaction from them LOOCly to 'not be an idiot.' I believe I was rather fair in responding in LOOC that since they had failed to provide anything to react to other than that mistake, I was simply reacting to that mistake. I was pinged immediately about providing the LOOC response and don't recall being otherwise toxic. I stated I was unaware if medical was simply overwhelmed or likewise in a position where reasonable RP would have been precluded but I do recall that from my moment of entry and thereafter, nothing of note or obvious chaos was transpiring. I acknowledged the recommendation to avoid providing LOOC critiques of lack of RP and I do believe after that ping had completed, the medical professional and I began actually positively role playing.

I believe after the ping had concluded and you were released from surgery, you ICly told my character to calm down, which at the time I thought was odd because you were under anesthetic, and I must imagine at this point, reacting to the LOOC incident ICly? I am unsure. I do believe however the only negative interaction you received from me after that was a /me described scoff much later in the round when you had returned to work from your medical procedure and said absolutely nothing to me of helping you and bringing you to medical as my character would have expected. I hope that wasn't misinterpreted as some kind of meta-grudge reaction to anything OOCly as I could not have possibly even harbored animosity towards you as I had no knowledge of your involvement in any of this until this very moment (nor do I mind now, for that matter).

As this is a heavy role play server, I believe we all can fall prey to wordlessly completing tasks, be it from overwhelming situations, wanting to minimize the wait of others, or simply due to the cumbersome nature of the UI. This is especially difficult for individuals in the medical department. However, respectfully challenging one another to give that extra effort to separate us from other servers is something I think should be encouraged.

In that same spirit, I respect your negative opinion of me but please note, that I had attempted to provide a realistic IC concern for a co-worker's critical state which was not rude nor rushed. The LOOC interaction originated from your friend, who voiced in LOOC, their displeasure with my reaction to what is a random chance to roll a failure on surgical procedures. My critique of their role play was in response to your friend's LOOC complaint of that aforementioned reaction.

Regardless, I have taken your advice to heart however and worked to refrain from providing any local feedback and will continue to put effort into improving.

Edited July 22, 2019 by SmallGreenAnt
sp

[Shadow7889]

-1. You show a tendency to overreact to the smallest of things. Would suggest you work on your temper before seeking out a staff position. 

That being said, I have seen you do extremely well in our community. I hope at some point I have the urge to recend my vote and apply a +100 instead.

[SmallGreenAnt]

2 minutes ago, Shadow7889 said:

-1. You show a tendency to overreact to the smallest of things. Would suggest you work on your temper before seeking out a staff position. 

That being said, I have seen you do extremely well in our community. I hope at some point I have the urge to recend my vote and apply a +100 instead.

Thanks for your feedback, boss. I'll do my best!

[Soultheif96]

I will echo both Shadow and Schevenigan's comments, a temper over what would be consider small would not be something we would want to happen in someone on administrative/moderation team, however, I would encourage a trial to check their temperament and course of action. 
 

I will keep my -1/+1 for now until I watch them on their trial should it take place.

[Yonnimer]

Hi, i'll be handling the interview. I'll contact you shortly over discord to plan it.

[SmallGreenAnt]

Thank you. Looking forward to it.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

https://pastebin.com/mr8mCqAt 

Here is the interview, it was conducted by Yonni.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Hey there. I've taken all of this feedback and finally decided on whether we will be granting you a trial or not. 

I've decided to deny you a trial, this time, due to the discord strike you received recently, and a few other things. However; I encourage you to reapply at a later date, once you feel that you have your temper under control, and don't have any outstanding staff encounters. 

Thanks for the application, it was very well written. I will be locking and archiving this within the next twenty-four hours, or so.

[SmallGreenAnt]

Thank for all for the feedback and consideration! Looking forward to more fun rounds and of course broadening friendships with all of you.