Admin Complaint: Coolrune206

[Rurik]

Admin(s) Key: Coolrune206
Your ckey (Byond username): ruriks
Your Discord name (if applicable): ruriks

Date(s) of incident (GMT preferred): 09/04/2024, 7:15 AM GMT. 

ROUND ID: N/A. Discord #coding_chat

Nature of complaint: Misconduct
Links to all relevant ban appeals for any bans related to this complaint: N/A

 

Brief description: Coolrune, on the public discord in coding_chat, claims all balance team members are "antag mains" followed by then saying "most of the balance team abuses the mechanic that PR is trying to nerf" in reference to his own PR, the mechanic in question being a borderline powergamey strategy involving the cultist teleport spell (I don't believe it classifies as an exploit, but on the off chance it does I won't mention it here).  

Thus, as a staff member representing this community, directly shit talking and undermining the dev team in public, insinuating them to be biased just as a fallback in case his PR fails (at the time of writing this, it has not and seems to be up for TM).

Full description of events: Direct wording in screenshots below. 

Spoiler

Claim #1.

Blatantly false. Only one out of the current four balance members could be considered an "antag main" and that is Komrad. Even he plays plenty of other roles to validate his position on the team.

Spoiler

Claim #2

It would genuinely surprise me if any of the balance team members ever "abused" that mechanic, considering 3 out of 4 members I've almost never seen as cultist in the first place. 

I encourage checking the messages yourself, provided they remain up and unedited, to see the greater context of the conversation.

Neither of the above statements made by Coolrune are true, but even so it is nothing out of the ordinary. The dev team, especially balance, are used to passive aggressive salt, lies, and sometimes outright abuse directed toward them. However, this time it is not coming from a regular player, it is coming from a Game Admin. 

As former staff, I know well that we are held to a higher standard since we are representatives of the community. When one staff member acts out, it reflects poorly on all of us. When one staff member shit talks someone or salts, it creates an unintentional standard for the rest of the playerbase to behave as well.  Additionally, there is added weight to an administrators word or claim since due the their status it is more likely people will trust and/or believe them.

While the above issue is small and most likely just Coolrune innocently salting without really caring about the broader accusations hes making, nor the tone he's setting for interaction with the dev team, it matters nonetheless. 

Making these accusations, in public, as throwaway lines cause he's upset undermines any sense of unity between the dev team and admin team while also having the potential to be taken seriously by onlookers despite how "wild" he admits it to be. Furthermore the balance team includes people that aren't admins, and when an admin makes the claim you are an "antag main" (something that is always used in a derogatory manner, both by players and staff) and that you "abuse" mechanics he's trying to nerf (abuse automatically carrying a negative or at least "powergamey" connotation, regardless of the mechanic in question) creates unease.

For a non-admin dev team member it would be easy to feel like you're on a admin's shitlist from those two comments alone, which is the last thing we want fellow staff to feel.

While I doubt Coolrune intended it that way, the effect and interpretation from others players is the same. It is the kind of statements you'd expect from a jaded vet player, not a Game Admin. This isn't a behavior we want to encourage to others, nor, in my opinion, is it becoming of the higher standards we place upon staff.

That is all. Thank you for reading. 

[Abkhaz]

yes i agree with rurik rurik is right

[ColKev1]

If you have nothing of substance to add to an open admin complaint, please do not just comment on them to agree with the poster, we have reactions if you want to do that. 

[DoctorDrugs]

The first thing I want to say here is that I want to apologize for how long it took to get a response and a resolution to this admin complaint, there's really no excuse for how long it took to get around to this from us heads. I've had to look at this AC in particular multiple times due to how I felt regarding what was said knowing that I wouldn't be able to handle it in a proper way, that said I have taken so long to get around to this myself that my feelings have mellowed slightly.

For the first claim here, while that can be hand waved off as a joke it certainly can be taken as anything other than a joke and easily cause people to become upset over being labeled something they are not or don't even remotely consider themselves as such. It's also incredibly worse when the comment or "joke" comes from one of the admins and only ends up fostering an us versus them mentality which isn't how this works in a community project.

Now the second claim here, if coolrune had issues with specific players be it parts of the dev team or not he should've approached the players themselves, talked to the rest of the admins or spoken with one of the headcoders/headadmins regarding the problem. We shouldn't be tolerating anyone treating those who give their free time up to improve upon paradise in any shape or forum especially not from those who's responsibility for the role includes maintaining a respectful environment. Frankly this shouldn't have been said even in private let alone publicly like it was, if there was a perceived issue with how people were using a mechanic in the game that had the possibility for being exploited/abused or was being exploited/abused heavily it should've been addressed/brought up to the dev team or the headcoders to find a solution to the issue.

Consider this as with merit as I will be talking with coolrune about those comments and how people perceive comments and even jokes made by those in positions where other people tend to look up to as an example.

[Rurik]

Thank you for the response, and for looking into it. Feel free to mark as resolved.

[MattTheFicus]

Marking as requested.