Community Feedback- Duty Officers

[Hartburry]

Hi guys, my name is Hartburry and in case you don't know me here is a brief introduction; I have been on the server for almost a year now and am in charge of the Duty Officer program for this server. I also am a die hard Atmospherics player, you may have interacted with my main character, Hakra Drat, in the past.

I made a post awhile back starting a huge shitstorm about the server and it's treatment of newer players, you can read it here- http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1266

Now this post has nothing to do with that old topic. What it has to do with is the program I started after talking to Skull shortly after posting. With the help of Skull and the Admins I created the Duty Officer program and it has been going for a couple months now.

The focus of the Duty Officer program was to make it so command players had to answer to a higher power and didn't just have free reign over whatever they want. It was also to make sure that regular players could be given consequences for repeated bad actions which would last more than one round.

I personally have not participated in any DO actions because I wanted to keep a non biased head. I am coming to you all now in order to ask for some feedback. You can say whatever you want however I would like to ask that you stray away from individual incidents and focus more on whether you have seen a positive change in the server's atmosphere since Duty Officers were created.

I trying to decide where the program will go. With the summer coming up and our player-count only increasing the program needs to be ready and I need you all to help me by giving me some feedback.

[Guest Menown]

With a few exceptions, I've yet to see any /actual/ punishments handed out. People still do the same things they've had reports placed over, without any intervention.

[Guest]

While I like to think the Duty Officers themselves are supposed to work quietly and with discretion, it is true that there is often a lack of actual punishments being handed out. However, if you don't report it when it happens in IC, it doesn't get followed up on.

And the lingering Incident Reports that still exist within the board, either they don't get followed up on as their player doesn't stick around with that character or the contents didn't substantiate imminent intervention.

[Jboy2000000]

The only complain is that DO's will sometimes handle looking at ID's and letting people into ODIN proper, however, it doesn't happen often, and Ive only ever seen a DO be around when admins are doing their adminy things after the round's end, so most of the time, its just chair RP in the ODIN dock. I don't really care if a DO is around to let people in when its just 60 seconds until the next round starts, but if we're waiting 10-20 minutes for admins to talk to people, if be nice to go around ODIN a bit.

[Guest]

I know we're supposed to stray away from individual incidents, but as far as I am aware there has only been a single individual incident in which a DO actually did something.

EDIT: Actually, two. They once saved my Head of Personnel from being rump roasted by a cultist lizard and a very angry Kaipov trying to storm into the bridge.

[Guest]

...I don't think you guys get what DOs do at all, no offense.

[Guest]

Generally speaking, I think they're here to punish IC bad behavior in an IC way?

However, if they do that we wont have any more IC evil/rude characters or whatever, and we dont want that, so DOs cant do the thing they were made to do.

I mean, I am pretty sure Carton admitted he fucking murdered someone on an incident report, and he's still employed.

We need asshole characters, DOs were supposedly made to fight asshole characters. In order to keep asshole characters from being immediately exterminated, DOs cant actually do their jobs.

[Guest]

DOs exist to ensure SOP, station directives and corp regs are being followed, in an internal affairs sense. They punish violators behind the scenes and set precedents for certain incident reports.

They're not supposed to be obvious, they don't talk about DO developments unless it's on the head of staff board, and they usually are very restrained on what goes on that board and what does not.

[Frances]

I can agree with Delta. DOs are not visible active parties, but invisible ones. They deal with individual characters, and from an OOC perspective, either offer tips for said characters, or provide them with an IC incentive/justification to curb certain types of behavior. From my limited dealings with them, I've noticed that they're not the type to address the station as a whole or make big announcements, but much prefer to handle people on an individual basis.

The reason for that, if I had to guess, is that it's a bit unfair to have the DM of a game come in and make a godlike intervention ICly to tell everyone else how to play the game. (DOs pretty much have supreme power - they just don't abuse it). If you want large-scale change, you'll probably have to bring it yourself, by playing head roles or by trying to set a precedent in general as a player.

For example, the recent troubles with sec. There's a few major outliers the DOs have been looking at (well, a few of them aren't even big outliers or directly related to the problem), but if you're looking for someone to try to discipline and watch sec as a whole, you'll have to wait for a HoS to step up to the task.

[Hartburry]

For the most part the DOs and I have been quite passive with our actions. We have definitely had more than one incident where a DO has interacted with the station and we have also dealt out more than one long term IC punishment. For example; after the big Sue character complaint the DOs worked with Ana in sensitivity training. We didn't punish her and from my knowledge Sue had no complaints with our actions.

[Jamini]

My biggest issue with Duty Officers right now is that some of them... really need to brush up on the station Directives and keep more current in the Heads of Staff boards.

More than once I've seen DO's say something that is completely contrary to what is actually stated in a directive or regulation, or say something completely out of left field. For example: One particular DO stating that the Head of Personal needs to sign off on modifications that include the major hallways. (That is incorrect. The CE and captain are responsible for hallways, locker rooms, and maint. The HoP is in charge of the bar/holodeck/cargo.) What is worse, at least one person who is a DO was not aware of the job requirements (or lack thearof) of certain low-paygrade jobs.

Please, I strongly urge DO's to stay current on the Heads of Staff forum and on current Station Directives. You guys have an absolutely ridiculous amount of authority. Saying something that is incorrect in such a position will give such an incorrect assertion weight.

[Guest]

Honestly, while Heads of Staff, Captains and DO's should technically know all of it, people playing them cannot reasonably be expected to. Not sure how it currently works, but punishing anyones character for not knowing all of it could be slightly dickish from OOC perspective. I like the current mildness the DO's have, just wish it was OOC-ly more transparent, even though players have a habit of mixing their IC and OOC rumours.

[Guest]

'Well I didn't know' isn't really a reasonable answer. You either know the rules and abide by them, or you don't and don't, and receive consequences as a result of it.

Every action has an effect.

[Jamini]

My issue isn't DO's not punishing for an issue. My issue with not knowing directives and regulations is when they punish or dicipline someone for something that is not actually against a directive or regulation.

I.E. Making things up.

DO's hold more IC (and OOC) power on the server than command staff or normal staff. With that power comes more responsibility to be accurate and correct when investigating and making judgement calls.

[Guest]

Question! Do DOs have Head of Staff forum access??? Or just their DO forum and the admins working as liaison?

[Jamini]

Question! Do DOs have Head of Staff forum access??? Or just their DO forum and the admins working as liaison?

 

Many DO's have head of staff whitelist already/separately. I'm not sure of many/any that wouldn't have access to the forum.

[Guest]

My issue isn't DO's not punishing for an issue. My issue with not knowing directives and regulations is when they punish or dicipline someone for something that is not actually against a directive or regulation.

I.E. Making things up.

DO's hold more IC (and OOC) power on the server than command staff or normal staff. With that power comes more responsibility to be accurate and correct when investigating and making judgement calls.

That goes without saying, of course, but we can't expect the people to go out of their way to study fictional law.

Edited June 6, 2015 by Guest

[Guest]

My issue isn't DO's not punishing for an issue. My issue with not knowing directives and regulations is when they punish or dicipline someone for something that is not actually against a directive or regulation.

I.E. Making things up.

DO's hold more IC (and OOC) power on the server than command staff or normal staff. With that power comes more responsibility to be accurate and correct when investigating and making judgement calls.

 

In that event, assuming it is true, you report instances of that straight to Hartburry. That's complete irresponsibility on the part of the DO and they should know better than to make shit up and abuse the power their position holds.

[Guest]

Question! Do DOs have Head of Staff forum access??? Or just their DO forum and the admins working as liaison?

They do

[keinto]

I don't how the characters that have gotten replies to their incident reports have been handled, but Roy Wyatt has had two incidents reports against him, and neither the DO's or I have bothered replying to it. I'd like more punishments, and if people really want asshole characters untouched, then make the punishments not as severe, yet still be added into people's Security records. Propose the IC punishment to the player in question, and if they decide to go with it, great. If they don't, I don't know.