Internal Affairs Paperwork Formats

[Melinda]

TLDR: This is all my paperwork scroll to bottom of you just want the formats.

I keep getting asked about my paperwork formats so I've decided to post them here. First time on the forums so hopefully this is the right place. I'll come back and fix these if I find out any of them are wonky, they haven't all had to get field tested yet so let me know if anything is wrong! Also of note, anyone using the inspection forms should research the appropriate SOP as conditions apply, some things are compliant at times and not compliant at others, this is not a universal "do the job for you" tool but it does help. Following is a description of each form and when to use it.

Breach of SOP report is for if an individual, or a couple people, are directly responsible for a breach of SOP, these can be stapled to department inspections or sent off on their own.

Criminal Witness Report is for those many pesky times someone knocks on the IA office window instead of talking to security, our job is paperwork so if someone wants to tell me that so and so kidnapped them and drank their blood then they better be willing to sit down and write it up.

Defense Statements are for when someone claims they had nothing to do with something, or had just cause, also for when you don't think the facts add up. If you witnessed an entire event, or have indisputable evidence, obtaining a defense may not be worth the additional fifteen minutes of process especially if its something that isn't going to result in major repercussions.

Interpersonal Complaints can pertain to SOP violations but are more generally involved with that rule under termination about being a total prick to everyone around you. Also for just petty stuff that isn't really against SOP but frankly should be so the person's boss should tell them to cut it out and stop doing that to people. Also sometimes by a miracle, a small interpersonal complaint at the start of a shift can be relevant to a huge escalation near the end and can pretty much seal someone's fate.

Sentencing Disputes are for when you disagree with security's brig decisions, this should never be used for "Well they got 2 minutes but I think they deserve five" unless you feel it actually contributes to the roleplay somehow (I admit, if someone kills a sentient animal that I've made my pet, I'm writing up a storm if that person gets 0 seconds for damage to station assets.) But for real it should be used for actual miscarriages of space law, improper use of modifiers, made up charges, to defend the genuinely innocent from incarceration, or when someone gets major trespass for walking into hydroponics, attempted murder for hitting someone once with a toolbox, that kind of thing.

Statement of Non-Cooperation is for when you need someone to tell you why they did something really stupid (Against law or SOP) and they basically tell you to screw off or ignore your PDA for no good reason. This should usually be attached to a: witness form, interpersonal complaint form, or breach of SOP report in lieu of a defense statement

Please note that all forms are to be stamped and properly signed with [sign], furthermore regarding the following: Inspection forms A through E are expected to be stapled to the "Inspection Cover Letter"

Onto inspections, read the fine print carefully before use.

Faxing single department inspections to the relevant department heads is advised, but in practicality I've found just stapling all five inspections to one cover letter and sending a blanket copy to the Captain and HoP is usually more than sufficient, no complaints yet. You should still absolutely inform the people responsible for each section of SOP about what they are doing wrong so they can fix it, and inform the department head so they can look into it before writing this report. If you inform them, mention under notes that you are going to do a followup in (insert reasonable timeframe), The goal is not to send the captain after every botanist who starts a dispensary. First tell the botanists to cease and desist, then alert the HoP, then fill out the inspection and mention you've advised them to stop and have already spoken to the HoP. Aside from that, Magistrate might want one because they're your boss, NTR might want one because they like to be kept in the loop and their job is about advising people who aren't supposed to make mistakes in the first place so it gives them something to read.

And then of course, there is an application form to become an IAA if any of this seems interesting to you that must be signed and stamped by the magistrate. DO NOT hand this in to the HoP without getting mindshielded first, magistrates have enough crap to deal with so please don't get one faxed by CC even if they should have overseen you getting mindshielded before sending you away

Finally its important to say almost none of these documents ever need to make their way to CC unless literally nothing is being done by anyone in the chain of command about things that actually matter like "Cargo ordered a ton of shotguns, HoP refuses to correct the behaviour, Captain says he's too busy but that's probably not good, and HoS says "I didn't approve that but huh. Neat."

Breach of SOP Report.TXT Criminal Witness Form.TXT Defense Statement.TXT Interpersonal Complaint.TXT Sentencing Dispute.TXT Statement of Non-Cooperation.TXT Inspection Form A, Cargo.TXT Inspection Form B, Engineering.TXT Inspection Form C, Service.TXT Inspection Form D, Medical.TXT Inspection form E, Science.TXT Inspection Form Z, General.TXT Inspection Cover Letter.TXT IAA Header.TXT IAA Application.TXT

Edited April 26, 2021 by Melinda
Didnt really make it clear that the formats are all at the bottom in the tldr

[CourierAsy]

Quality content

[Vallidian]

As an admin, I can say the examples found here needs some polish and updating.

Those IAA formats of yours are quality.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Vallidian

[Viz]

Have you considered putting them on the wiki? Vallidian linked it in their response.

[DevL]

God, I remember when i saw you on like your first round of IAA, you asked a seccie, one of the more veteran ones, what you do, and they said something very close to "just be a dick and get in peoples faces about SOP". And here you are, probably the best IAA we've had in awhile. Time to karma you every round till you get magi.

[henri215]

Do you think there has been more competent IAAs recently?

[Melinda]

5 hours ago, Vallidian said:

As an admin, I can say the examples found here needs some polish and updating.

Those IAA formats of yours are quality.

Personally I agree with you and I've heard that mentioned before about the wiki ones. I took a look at some of them and thought "This doesn't really say much."
Also Thank you, that means a lot to me.

4 hours ago, Woje said:

Have you considered putting them on the wiki? Vallidian linked it in their response.

There are two reasons I haven't: That would clutter things up a bit and I also don't know how. Still weighing it out it would be cool.

34 minutes ago, DevL said:

God, I remember when i saw you on like your first round of IAA, you asked a seccie, one of the more veteran ones, what you do, and they said something very close to "just be a dick and get in peoples faces about SOP". And here you are, probably the best IAA we've had in awhile. Time to karma you every round till you get magi.

So funny story, I was an IAA three or four years a go (Spent a few years not playing) and I was really good at the law part of the job but never really went on SOP inspections, usually just turned the office into a booze den and asked sec why the hell someone was brigged 10 minutes for "honk"
I've had magistrate unlocked since then but playing magistrate feels like having a target on your back, a lot of people like to fight the magistrate over the dumbest things and I'm stuck between not wanting to lose the rank, and not wanting to use the rank. I really appreciate your words but I'm at 50 karma and I humbly ask you save your round karma for other players who seem new and are trying to do great things as well.

7 minutes ago, henri215 said:

Do you think there has been more competent IAAs recently?

I mean, a lot of them still go SSD five minutes into the shift, but I've noticed there were some really good ones before I started playing IAA, there still are some really good ones, and I try to do the whole "So where should we start?" if I don't recognize one in order to gauge their understanding and lead them if they say they're new. 

[Viz]

2 hours ago, Melinda said:

There are two reasons I haven't: That would clutter things up a bit and I also don't know how. Still weighing it out it would be cool.

I mean I can do that for you and credit your ckey. Just figured you might want it for wiki contributor stuff or whatever if you wanna go that route eventually.

[Melinda]

1 hour ago, Woje said:

I mean I can do that for you and credit your ckey. Just figured you might want it for wiki contributor stuff or whatever if you wanna go that route eventually.

Hey yeah, I mean maybe you could pm me and walk me through it, is there some kind of reward for putting stuff on the wiki? 

My primary concern though is there is already a dozen things under Internal Affairs and this would make two dozen. IF there is nothing to gain from posting stuff on the wiki (if it translates to something in game or on the forums or anything really then yeah I'd absolutely want it, even if it's just a title or an icon or something like that) then you have my consent to post it and attribute it to Melinda Therrel (I assume that's all a ckey is? Idk pm me and we can talk)

[Viz]

Hit me up on discord maybe, Woj#2547

[Vallidian]

My biggest pet peeve about sending a fax as Central is that quite a lot of the example paperworks are outdated, as the fax system or syntax has been changed since those faxes were created.

Admins now have the ability in a yes/no dialog to add CC headers, which looks inherently different then the copy/paste fax headers, making faxes from CC shift from one format to another based on the admin sending them.

This alone bothers me because ICly you'd think Central would use one baseline format for every type of fax and stick with it.

[Singular]

I was lurking the forums specifically looking to see if you made this thread, since it seems you are not in the Discord server.

Those paperwork forms of yours are a joy to work with! I admit that it did take me a moment or two to understand the meaning behind the double negatives, but once it clicked, scrolling through your reports became a breeze, and the sheer attention to detail made me feel like I was breathing down the necks of every crewmember in every department, bureaucracy be scary like that sometimes.

I meant what I said about you making a great NT Rep, looking forward to see the kind of paperwork you'd cook up there.

[Singular]

4 minutes ago, Vallidian said:

This alone bothers me because ICly you'd think Central would use one baseline format for every type of fax and stick with it.

You say that, Vallidian. But I can assure you that the sound of receiving a fax from CC, no matter how poorly formatted or written, is what Procedure players keep coming back for.

That toner rattle is our victory fanfare, it's what makes all the paperwork worth it.

[Vallidian]

7 minutes ago, Singular said:

You say that, Vallidian. But I can assure you that the sound of receiving a fax from CC, no matter how poorly formatted or written, is what Procedure players keep coming back for.

That toner rattle is our victory fanfare, it's what makes all the paperwork worth it.

Unless it's an evil fax, or a lure for a BSA shot.

[Melinda]

1 hour ago, Vallidian said:

My biggest pet peeve about sending a fax as Central is that quite a lot of the example paperworks are outdated, as the fax system or syntax has been changed since those faxes were created.

Admins now have the ability in a yes/no dialog to add CC headers, which looks inherently different then the copy/paste fax headers, making faxes from CC shift from one format to another based on the admin sending them.

This alone bothers me because ICly you'd think Central would use one baseline format for every type of fax and stick with it.

That does sound like a bit of a headache, is that pretty much like the letterhead option on the paper trays? Also it would be a dream to write up some templates for CC but that's probably something you admins take pride in having complete license over.

I'd also like to confirm what singular said about getting faxed back, I don't care if its CC berating or threatening me, if my fax gets anything beyond an automated reply or a no reply then I feel like I've won the game. I'm a sucker for punishment that way. Just getting a "good work" response for writing a report that the wizard was in breach of sop by existing was enough to make my night no matter what the format was.  

1 hour ago, Singular said:

I was lurking the forums specifically looking to see if you made this thread, since it seems you are not in the Discord server.

Those paperwork forms of yours are a joy to work with! I admit that it did take me a moment or two to understand the meaning behind the double negatives, but once it clicked, scrolling through your reports became a breeze, and the sheer attention to detail made me feel like I was breathing down the necks of every crewmember in every department, bureaucracy be scary like that sometimes.

I meant what I said about you making a great NT Rep, looking forward to see the kind of paperwork you'd cook up there.

Hey thanks, yeah your words meant a lot to me, mad respect to you and it's great having NTRs who communicate with IAAs and like to read reports even if it is below their paygrade. I'm not going to lie though, NTR may have a way bigger responsibility and their reports have a much larger impact on the station, but I think IAA may be a more difficult job because you're not watching six people who should know better, you're watching everyone who isnt those six people and usually do not know better. Plus I get so many fun stories like when i got baldric demoted to clown for abusing the clown whereas I feel like every NTR story would end in a plain demotion from command, someone getting bluespaced, or a guest from centcomm showing up. I still want to give it a try anyway.

[Sirryan2002]

22 hours ago, Melinda said:

Hey yeah, I mean maybe you could pm me and walk me through it, is there some kind of reward for putting stuff on the wiki? 

I would be also happy to help you at any time with this, and there is a wiki-contributor role if you're interested in further contributing.

This is very well done paperwork, it's definitely one style of running Internal Affairs that's awesome and I'm happy that you shared your templates. I will say that regarding Central Command, you never ever should contact them for hiring an IAA(you should treat it like hiring a sec officer) and if you ever do need to contact them about the chain of command ignoring you, then a simple paragraph fax and maybe one page of evidence attached is appropriate. Sending text-walls/an overabundance of paperwork is an easy way to get a snarky or non-existent reply from Central Command.

All in all though, dedicated IAAs are some of the best players IMO, keep up the good work.

[Melinda]

4 hours ago, Sirryan2002 said:

I would be also happy to help you at any time with this, and there is a wiki-contributor role if you're interested in further contributing.

This is very well done paperwork, it's definitely one style of running Internal Affairs that's awesome and I'm happy that you shared your templates. I will say that regarding Central Command, you never ever should contact them for hiring an IAA(you should treat it like hiring a sec officer) and if you ever do need to contact them about the chain of command ignoring you, then a simple paragraph fax and maybe one page of evidence attached is appropriate. Sending text-walls/an overabundance of paperwork is an easy way to get a snarky or non-existent reply from Central Command.

All in all though, dedicated IAAs are some of the best players IMO, keep up the good work.

Hey thank you for your kind words! Yeah I want to do a bit more editing before I put it on the wiki, I've considered some ways I can improve it so that newer IAAs don't make mistakes or aggravate people unnecessarily.

As an aside I think you misread what I said. Naturally that application is to be filled out, given to the magistrate, signed and stamped, shown to the warden or HoS, person gets mindshielded, and then it is given to HoP and they become an IAA. The part about CC is that if an IAA is hired without a mindshield because of a signed paper by the magistrate, the magistrate is probably going to hear about it if CC finds out.

[Stokes52]

I've been wanting to play more IAA/paperwork/RP roles like this and I'm absolutely going to now. This is fantastic work!

[Crazyhair]

On 4/26/2021 at 7:44 PM, Singular said:

You say that, Vallidian. But I can assure you that the sound of receiving a fax from CC, no matter how poorly formatted or written, is what Procedure players keep coming back for.

That toner rattle is our victory fanfare, it's what makes all the paperwork worth it.

I can say that this is so true. I only come back to NTR because CC replying to my faxes warms my heart.

[Spacemanspark]

I need to respond to faxes more often tbh. 

[Viz]

On 4/27/2021 at 1:44 AM, Singular said:

You say that, Vallidian. But I can assure you that the sound of receiving a fax from CC, no matter how poorly formatted or written, is what Procedure players keep coming back for.

That toner rattle is our victory fanfare, it's what makes all the paperwork worth it.

And the lack of it is what makes us quit, unfortunately. 

[Spacemanspark]

Don't worry woj, I'll make sure you get fired every round

[Viz]

I have actually never been fired funnily enough.