[Denied] Sputnik5927 - Moderator Application

[Sputnik5927]

Basic Information
Byond Account: Sputnik5927

Character Name(s):
Wolf Arges, Security Officer
Yangtze Xiaojian, Bridge Crew
Zhang Xiaodan, Psychiatrist
Mikhail Voroshilov, Shaft Miner
Shepherd Malric, Chaplain
Vladimir Khoromov, Merchant
TAKMAN, Security Officer
Harald Brytforda, Security Officer
Nick Armstrong, Scientist

AI Name(s):
None currently.
Discord username + tag: Sputnik#3401
Age: 18
Timezone: GMT+2

When are you on Aurora?: It varies day-by-day and depending on population. I guess I most often play in the morning and in the afternoon. I do leave Aurora on in the background a lot, waiting for a new round or for the manifest to fill up or empty.

Experience
How long have you played SS13?: Not sure. I think I've been playing SS13 for four or five years, on and off.

How long have you played on Aurora: I think I joined early August of this year.

How much do you know about SS13 (Baystation build) game mechanics?: Because this question is a little vague, I'm going to assume this is referring to variables, item functions, etc. I think I know those pretty well. Referring to Department mechanics, I know how to help myself.

Do you have any experience moderating for an SS13 server?: Yes. I have hosted and moderated my own SS13 servers.

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?: Yes.

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

Personality
Why do you play SS13?:
I was initially drawn to SS13 by stories of crazy devices, experiments, stories and the idea of being a character in a huge sci-fi space setting. Once I figured out the controls and UI, I was hooked. The detail and systems of SS13 are awesome, especially the way that NPCs work, the way that organs actually work, the devices you can create and the physics simulation. This game was made for me.

Why do you play on Aurora?:
I am a big fan of the "workplace" setting of Aurora, as well as the general personable atmosphere. I can actually talk to people and develop some real characters that matter, with rounds that tie together in a canon that everyone can influence. I never got that on other HRP servers.

What do moderators do?:
Moderators answer to ahelps, moderate the flow of events and make sure that everybody's having fun and following the rules. See the next two questions for poetry.

What does it mean to be a moderator for our server?:
It's volunteer work, for sure. It's not "fun" to have to deal with certain issues or to have to face constant scrutiny, criticism and maybe hostility from others. But that's not what you become a moderator for. You become a moderator because you think you know how to show new players the ropes, just as you had to and to resolve conflicts between community members that would otherwise become serious problems. To be a trusted individual for community members and, in the small view, to just keep a round steady - or get it back on track...

Why do you want to be a moderator?:
I have found myself seriously invested into this server and community. This is my new passion and I want to validate that. I want to be a part of the project, uphold the standards and mutual respect between members that should be expected on a high quality HRP server. I also think that I can help people get back in the saddle should there be problems of some kind, especially when it comes to OOC conflict or HRP questions.

I also want to mention that part of the motivation to join the staff team is Melaria, who I appreciate for her politeness and readiness to help. I've seen good admins and I've seen bad admins and it was refreshing and encouraging to see this kind of exemplary behaviour.

What qualities do you possess that would make you a good moderator?:
I am an experienced Server Owner that has managed communities for years. I can look at myself and situations from a third-person perspective and see what the best approach is. I don't provoke, I don't incite and I don't stir up huge drama over small things. This is not to say I let people walk all over me. My experience as a server host gave me a good eye for this. I understand that this is still a game and we are all here to entertain each other, am I wrong?

How well do you handle stress, anger, or insults?:
I can detach myself from this kind of thing very well, especially when I'm "on-duty" as a moderator. It's my job to handle it and still be able to interact with the members in question afterwards. I understand anger, insults, etc. very well and over my time of Admining I've come to be able to be professional in those kinda situations.

Anything Else You Want to Add:
Some people from the Barotrauma community may recognize me as Sputnik, the Host, Submarine Creator and Modder. Yes, it's me! I owned a Barotrauma community for a few years and those were some of the best times in my gaming life. So, I know how to deal.

Edited October 2, 2022 by ReadThisNamePlz
Typo

[Diggey]

On 29/09/2022 at 18:56, Sputnik5927 said:

I am a big fan of the "workplace" setting of Aurora, as well as the general personable atmosphere

This is a big personal draw for me as I can empathise with this a lot and I think it is good you enjoy and want to uphold this.

On 29/09/2022 at 18:56, Sputnik5927 said:

I have found myself seriously invested into this server and community.

investment in the community and such is a vital part of moderation that is often brushed aside by people

On 29/09/2022 at 18:56, Sputnik5927 said:

HRP questions.

Likewise. if there is a concern someone has with a mechanic or an interaction they are unsure about and need help and you want to be there to help that is really good.

No one wants a bwoink that goes "you can't do that" you want a bwoink that says "hey I saw [thing] and I wanted to ask you about that"

On 29/09/2022 at 18:56, Sputnik5927 said:

Barotrauma community

Anyone who has been on a Barotrauma Roleplay server knows how much agony that is :'D

 

Their roleplaying ability is pretty good and their conduct in OOC is very friendly and welcoming and overall not at all abrasive.

They commit to a bit and they show a good broadness of knowledge very regularly.

I hope this goes through. +1

[JormungandrButCooler]

Sputnik asked for feedback, so here it is.

I'm not going through what Sputnik has said in this post as what I'm worried about what isn't mentioned. Sputnik I feel has acted in a unprofessional and rude manner, though I don't wish to divulge too much information as these are things I've simply observed and heard lamented by players.

Incidents involve:

1. A Non-Binary Player asking to be referred to with they/them pronouns on discord, with Sputnik rebuking with She.
2. Misgendering Characters IC. Intentionally. 
3. Creepy Comments involving a specific character, 
4. Calling the server 'too neutered' in a discussion about IC Homophobia being banned (in a In-Game OOC discussion about old Tajara lore and how the server has gotten more LGBTQ+ friendly)

I'm being polite and I will concede I don't have proof for ALL of these, however, when I see Sputnik says they wish to uphold standards and mutual respect, from what I've seen and heard, I don't genuinely believe they intend to do such.

-1

Edited October 1, 2022 by JormungandrButCooler
too much information given in one of the incidents

[MrGodZilla]

I don't feel like Sputnik would be a good fit for a moderator. Their behavior, as far as I've noticed, is abrasive. As mentioned in the above post it's led to some incidents that I don't think having tacked onto a member of staff would benefit the overall standing of the server.

Outside of their behavior off the server, I've noticed a tendency for Sputnik's IC behavior to be incredibly aggressive and frag-focused. Nevermind that they got whitelist stripped as AI for being way too focused on security and antagonists, their security play as of recent is still a concern to me. TAKMAN is pretty much the quintessential fragbot who charges into bullets and has zero time for negotiations, and that's not really a character that fits the culture of the server where prematurely shutting down antagonist gimmicks is frowned upon. It's certainly not a character I'd expect from a member of the staff team.

I can't speak for Brytforda but Arges is pretty much the same thing. I can't speak for Sputnik's other characters because none of them come to mind and I only know his characters for the security shenanigans. Maybe I don't play enough but generally it's the negative attention that prevails when it comes to Sputnik's characters.

Beyond all that Sputnik's behavior on discord doesn't strike me as professional at all. They also seem to just embrace the fact that they're known for seeking frags and I don't see any change of this behavior anytime soon.

-1

[Hawk]

Building off of previous points here, I distinctly remember a round where TAKMAN basically charged down a techno, by themselves, who had just appeared, and had done basically nothing, insofar, especially nothing hostile, but TAKMAN shot them numerous times with a disruptor and cornered them in a maintenance tunnel, I genuinely thought they were an antag after this, maybe doing a rogue IPC gimmick and was surprised to learn at the end of the round that they weren't.

However my major concern would be:

Quote

How long have you played on Aurora: I think I joined early August of this year.

I understand there has been a previous time investment with other servers. but I think a lot of behaviour, particularly the frag-happy elements, can be tracked down to not playing Aurora for a long enough period of time, and that there should be more experience built up before going for a moderator position on the server.

 

-1

[Sycmos]

I do not believe the applicant displays the temperament or maturity to be trusted with the powers and responsibilities of a moderator position on our server, especially after spending such a short period as a member of the community. I would recommend that the applicant try again in a year when they have a better grasp of our community, and a more thorough understanding of what is acceptable behavior as a member of it.

[Sputnik5927]

Leaving these concerns unanswered is probably not a good idea, so I will attempt to answer or resolve these as follows:

 

A Non-Binary Player asking to be referred to with they/them pronouns on discord, with Sputnik rebuking with She. - JormungandrButCooler @JormungandrButCooler

What this was, was a screenshot of the in-game IC chat, in which somebody misgendered a character as "He", followed by several "They." messages, including on the discord chat. I then jokingly wrote "She" to satirize the chain of "They." messages. I never went up to a player and misgendered them in order to provoke some kind of reaction. That just isn't my style. Already spoke about the matter with Matt and came to the conclusion that it's a pretty touchy subject and can still have a negative effect on the character's player (who might identify with the character very much), so I won't be making jokes like that again.

Misgendering Characters IC. Intentionally. - JormungandrButCooler

Two issues with this assumption. I don't think that you're trying to accuse me of something I didn't do, but all I can say about this is that I just don't. Misgendering a character (such as saying "Ma'am" to the male CMO) has never been intentional, because I don't think it's an IC avenue to anything productive or interesting. I apologize if it came across that way. In the example, I took it as IC and corrected myself afterwards, because I didn't want to just void what my character said entirely. That is not me intentionally misgendering him just to correct myself. To the other character I can think of, there was a time where I was not aware of the character's pronouns and after I heard of it, any time I misgendered them IC was just a result of me typing quickly. Hope you can believe me on that.

Creepy Comments involving a specific character, - JormungandrButCooler

Although I'm not sure, this might be referring to when I found somebody's flavor text / character art questionable. This was very early in my time on Aurora and I recognize that I should've just moved on.

Calling the server 'too neutered' in a discussion about IC Homophobia being banned (in a In-Game OOC discussion about old Tajara lore and how the server has gotten more LGBTQ+ friendly) - JormungandrButCooler

To the best of my recollection, I never called the server 'too neutered' - what I do remember is saying that 'sanitized lore is the worst', referring to Unathi (and maybe Tajara) lore being changed to make the IC culture and characters less prejudiced. I also never pointed that opinion to the server becoming more accepting, because that would not only be dumb, but that kind of statement would also just be asking for trouble.

Just because I don't think that making alien culture more friendly to what I describe as "human sensibilities" in this context is a good idea from a writing perspective, does not mean that I promote hate or exclusion. I think it's important to distinguish that.

 

TAKMAN is pretty much the quintessential fragbot who charges into bullets and has zero time for negotiations - MrGodZilla @MrGodZilla

This would be referring to a certain burglar round. I tried to open negotiations with the two burglars in the machinist's workshop and I let multiple others take the negotiations spot, moving away to see if they could make any diplomatic headway. Unfortunately, the antagonists in this instance brickwalled us, saying their goals were "classified" - and it quickly became apparent that these negotiations were just a way to buy time while they were actively building their AI. In any case, the gimmick moved forward properly in my view and ended with the escape of one of the burglars. I would happily invite you to join more and talk to my characters when there isn't an active situation going on or when I am playing one of my non-security characters.

 

They also seem to just embrace the fact that they're known for seeking frags - MrGodZilla

I made my nickname on Discord "FRAGMAN" because I like to roll with the jokes being made. I don't especially enjoy hearing someone make (sometimes mean-spirited) jokes or jabs at the expense of me or my characters, but I'd rather go along with the joke unless it's something serious. Imagine if I made a big fuss anytime somebody joked about my characters. Same reason that people choose the name "The Federation's strongest Frog" or something like that. I do recognize that these jokes come from someplace of genuine criticism (sometimes) and I've been reviewing my actions in rounds to see how I could get rid of this notion in the near future.

 

TAKMAN basically charged down a techno - Hawk @Hawk

This was an unfortunate misunderstanding. Reading radio comms, it was my understanding that the gimmick was a test subject from the medbay and that the gimmick had already been happening for a while, so that the now-escaped test subject was to be returned. I followed them across Deck one, and then drew my disruptor when I had them cornered, on aim intent. I warned that if they moved, I would fire. When I came closer, they teleported into another room. Shot twice with my disruptor before people came along and I realized what the actual matter was. Resolved in admin PMs.

To this specifically, I want to note that I felt bad about this and was disappointed in myself for having slapped the gimmick so hard right out of the gate. I misunderstood the radio comms, especially because there was a suggestion of an "escaped prisoner". I was also kicking myself because I missed the opportunity to roleplay with the Skrell, instead having gone in with the mindset of "objective: arrest" - and consequently having shut down the scene between me and the Skrell. I rolled with it ICly and went to the machinist to get a fix-up, later apologizing ICly to the Skrell antag for having acted so aggressively. Luckily, the gimmick was able to continue and in my opinion was actually very cool. All's well that ends well, is the silver lining here, not to say that this wasn't a warranted mention of my behaviour. I would say that this was at least a learning experience.

Improvement of this kind of thing can be seen in the "Contact Unit" Technomancer round yesterday, in which my TAKMAN character made first contact with the robot and, despite having my character be stabbed twice with some kind of biopsy spike, I thought about how the round could progress best - and did not move to arrest or be hostile, rather opting to use their shared mechanical nature to drive a conversation and involve Science and the rest of Security in the gimmick. I'm personally proud of my behaviour in that round.

 

I found it important to answer to these concerns because the disparity between feedbacks is evident above. I want people to meet me and make their own opinion of me, without just hearing stories put through the "Telephone" game. I generally get along with people very well and I don't want my intentions or beliefs to be misconstrued or misinterpreted. An unfortunate result of my first few days on Aurora, which soured the general first impression of some.

Anyway, to being a Moderator. I don't take any personal grudges or opinions with me when it comes to moderation and, having studied the rules and guides on the wiki further for this role, I can do the job of a Moderator properly - yes, even when it comes to antagonists. Let me prove it to you.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Sputnik5927
Amendment

[DekserBecauseILostMyAccoun]

I know Sputnik OOCly, I'd like to say pretty well. I've had my problems with him overall but I don't like to hold grudges and I've largely moved past some of the mistakes he's made. I wont dive into any of them because you answered most of them pretty well.

Nonetheless you told me on discord that you've changed in the 2 months since you've joined and I want to believe that, I'd like to see you play some more over the next year before I give out a plus one. I wont add anything to this current app because I would prefer not to. I genuinely have faith that you can do a lot better than you have before, good luck Sputnik.

[Scheveningen]

Having bore witness to your in-character and out-of-character behavior, I would not recommend this person for staff, it would not end so well even with a trial in giving them a chance. From my perspective, someone would need to be active in a server's community for 3 months minimum and anything prior to that minimum would require being exceptional in every way even then to qualify as moderation/admin staff. For the brief time you have been here I have seen no evidence that would suggest you would be a good candidate for server staff.

[Captain Gecko]

Make of that what you will, but I feel like dropping this here! If it doesn't matter for this very app, then perhaps for the next one, anyways...

 

For what it's worth on a moderator application, I can definitely say that Sputnik is part of the better roleplayers in this server, and I'm not just speaking about writing skills. I've had the chance (?) to get targeted by one of his characters turned antag. He knew to read exploitables, which isn't that common, and knew how to properly roleplay with this. As he went, he even asked me if I was okay with this or that... He basically ensured that everyone involved had fun, and we had.

I do have reserves for a few of his characters and concepts, but putting that aside... For what it's worth for a moderator, Sputnik is at least a good player who happens to be very conscious and considerate of others.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Captain Gecko

[Zelmana]

I would rather like to see a more tenured player take any open moderator positions- simply put I don't think you've been around long enough. The short time you have been here I have seen some of the questionable rp or roundflow issues as stated in the other opinions above. I think with time I could submit a neutral response but until then I would suggest remaining a player and bettering RP. Sorry if this is too similar to Schev's opinion which I just now read.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Application Denied. I’ll dm you for further discussion.