A Thought for All Staff: Removing Some Report Taking Bias

[Buggs]

Admins should not be allowed to rule on reports where they know the reporting/reported party extensively icly or oocly. For example, if you are icly dating the reported/reporting party you should not be allowed to rule on that report. I feel like this would help with keeping reports non-biased. Just a small suggestion that I believe would help as this exact instance has happened within the past week.

I'm not trying to call out specific people, but I have been told by people oocly that certain admins will put their nose where it doesn't belong if they know the people in the report.

[Ash]

This is actually already a thing, staff policy dictates we cannot take rule break reports that have conflict of interest. If you're below a certain staff level (Administrator) then it's actually extremely strict to ensure that it's impartially looked into.

The first obvious one is that we you can not handle a report for someone who's in the same faction as you. On top if this, it can also extend to people you're close with. In fact, we're not even allowed to make suggestions on punishments when a report needs a second set of eyes. For example I can not take any reports involving DOC members (on either side) as I am a member of that faction. This even usually extends to when alt characters of someone close is reported/is reporting.

If you think a staff member below Administrator rank is doing this then reach out to Aldarine or Kat the head and assistant head of player reports respectively (although I'm pretty sure they keep a very close eye on it as well as other senior staff).

Tl;dr Don't take everything you hear oocly at face value

[Buggs]

Okay I suppose I should change the title to all staff, including Administrator and above. Thank you for the clarification! I believe this should also extend to closing and locking threads that they have commented on. Again no personal attacks here, I appreciate everything you all do and sincerely thank you for your time.

Also personally I'm a huge fan of Solomon Cobb as a character.   (No brown nosing intended)

Edited January 6, 2022 by Olivia Can

[Ramo]

As stated as above, we have policies set in place that assist with combatting such things happening.

We hold it at high standards that each report is handled and concluded properly with no bias in place.

As stated you're free to reach out to the heads of Player Reports being Aldarine & Kat regarding a member of staff if you feel they've still held any issues against a player when it comes to conclusions.

As well we have the decision appeal section where players are openly available to appeal a punishment that was given to them where it is reviewed by the respective staff to which if seen as appropriate, said punishment is then voided off your record.

I can't see this policy extending to all of staff as it'd make handling reports 20x harder as some players have characters in multiple factions. This would lead to some reports not being able to be reviewed at all due to the consistency of COI at hand. 

It's why we have these tools accessible by players to combat such things to ensure they are not happening within the community.

[Buggs]

Noted! Thank you both

[Destuin]

Would be nice to have active or with criminal history staff solving crim based reports. It is easy to sit there and look at the book and decide that his is a rulebreak in some way. This is because a lot of these admins have never actually played crim. For example the recent report on wearing another gangs colours. Any crim RP'er knows that this has been done for as long as the server has been around. However an admin that has never played crim before might not understand this...

[jason]

1 hour ago, Destuin said:

For example the recent report on wearing another gangs colours. Any crim RP'er knows that this has been done for as long as the server has been around. However an admin that has never played crim before might not understand this...

We have punished for this since at least 2019, but I'm unsure as to the consistency of it. Any time I have seen it mentioned in staff conversations or in-game reports the answer has generally been to not do it.

[Aldarine]

The staff members that have posted above have very properly covered our policies on conflict of interest and the way of escalating concerns. You are more than welcome to reach out to myself or my assistant Kat for further follow up as we review the majority of, if not all, the reports that come in. 

As far as what @Destuin mentioned, I have brought up staff removing their own personal genre of roleplay from report contemplation and reaching out for more opinions as well as understanding that escalation and rationale can be very different from what they are used to. This has been improving as far as communication and being more open to other opinions but we can always do better and we will be trying more!

[Buggs]

9 hours ago, Aldarine said:

The staff members that have posted above have very properly covered our policies on conflict of interest and the way of escalating concerns. You are more than welcome to reach out to myself or my assistant Kat for further follow up as we review the majority of, if not all, the reports that come in. 

So I guess how do we prevent higher ups, such as yourself, from taking in game reports for their own faction/handling reports of their IC significant other? I'm just curious who handles the reports that conflict with yours/your secretary's natural biases?

 

[Aldarine]

Per our internal policies, due to the amount of time it takes to achieve an Administrator position, we are exempt from conflict of interest as noted above by other members of staff. That said, it is not uncommon in the slightest for even Administrators and above to reach out in staff channels about these situations so others can interject to which I believe almost every Administrator and higher can say they typically do. As always, there is then the appeal process where we still have to explain the justification for the outcomes as well. 

[Buggs]

Quote

Per our internal policies, due to the amount of time it takes to achieve an Administrator position, we are exempt from conflict of interest as noted above by other members of staff.

But... how can you all be exempt to something that your own rules says should not be done? What training do you all have that makes one able to put away biases where others member of staff don't? Especially when it comes to a person that your own character is ICly dating or if you're in the same faction?

That's where my suggestion comes into play and why it is still relevant. At this point I feel like even senior members of staff should know to back away and ask another member to deal with it, even from just the optical standpoint of how it looks to your fanbase, as there's no way, no matter what position of staff you're in, that you could remain unbiased.

[RAttlesnake7473]

11 hours ago, Mister Patel said:

bring back alexalex (jason steel)

[jason]

10 hours ago, Olivia Can said:

But... how can you all be exempt to something that your own rules says should not be done? What training do you all have that makes one able to put away biases where others member of staff don't? Especially when it comes to a person that your own character is ICly dating or if you're in the same faction?

That's where my suggestion comes into play and why it is still relevant. At this point I feel like even senior members of staff should know to back away and ask another member to deal with it, even from just the optical standpoint of how it looks to your fanbase, as there's no way, no matter what position of staff you're in, that you could remain unbiased.

We always have relation to each other in staff based reports. As someone who reviewed that report extensively, there is absolutely no bias within that ruling whatsoever. I can guarantee you that every single one of us who viewed and discussed that report all came to the same conclusion. She was not allowed to make that conclusion on her own, it was discussed with and ultimately decided by senior staff because there were staff members being reported.

This will now be locked and archived as it is very obviously not a suggestion, but rather a targeted post towards a member of the staff team based on a report outcome you were unhappy with.