ashton
Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2021
- Messages
- 6
Hey,
after a recent discussion in Discord about the lack of admin work done and being told 'just apply to be an admin!', here we are. The Pandacommunity MGE servers #23 (and secondarily, #07) are Europe's busiest MGE servers by far, regularly maxing out from afternoon to late evening hours. They are however a very toxic environment, with major abusers being a small handful of people, but racism and other toxic stuff thrown about pretty regularly. Cheaters are occasionally an issue, too, but not at all to the degree of, say, Valve's casual servers.
On to the official stuff:
Username: ash (ashton on these forums here, because ash is somehow always taken...)
Steam32 ID: STEAM_0:0:22231508
Your age: 30
Current playtime on relevant server(s):
3d19h on #23,
some neglible amount on its sister server #07
Link to your Sourcebans record
(If relevant) Who gave you permission to apply?
I talked to madact.
Server to are applying for:
#23 & #07
General online times & time zone:
I am usually online during late afternoon & evening CET, but that varies a bit due to work and real life etc.
Do you have a working microphone?
Yes.
Previous experience as Admin or Moderator:
I ran the European TF2 League for a while as head admin (so actually ran), which is also my source of the little experience I have with anti-cheat work, as the head admins work with the AC staff and have access to their otherwise restricted subforums. During my time at ETF2L I did plenty moderation of forums, handling cases of player abuse etc. I have moderated a German EVE Online forums for many years, long long ago, and I work with special needs kids in real life, which qualifies me the most.
What would you say makes you a suitable candidate?
I play MGE quite a bit, usually in short sessions spread across the day. I understand that MGE as a gamemode is a very competitive version of TF2, maybe more-so than actual competitive. It often brings out the worst in people, and different playstyles - ranging from loadout variations to positioning within the arenas to stuff that you might consider etiquette, e.g. not prefiring - clash regularly. People getting very upset is the norm, as much as one would hope otherwise, some just aren't mature enough to not lose grasp on their emotions over a video game.
I think any administration of the MGE servers in particular needs to know where to draw the line: Playing to win, playing as cancerously as you can or just playing for fun and airshots - those are all legit gameplay styles. Even though people might disagree here and claim their own style as the one-and-only, all ways of playing and enjoying MGE are valid. With the clear exception of harassment and toxicity in chat or voice: racism, homophobia, harassment and insults are all very much unacceptable.
I am unsure about the actual ban lengths and punishments, but in an effort to give people the chance to rehabilitate instead of using smurf/alt accounts and also to avoid depopulating the server by banning half the userbase I think a four-step increase in mute/gags ranging from day to week to month to an actual ban seems fitting. For especially egregious cases along the lines of harsh and repeated racism steps might be skipped. I would prefer simply taking away the chat - everyone can play and chat, but harassers can't be effectively toxic anymore. A ban should be the exception. Now, this assumes that people can use the MGE functionality to queue for the arenas while being gagged/muted - I am unsure how that works. Does being gagged/muted take away your chat entirely? Can you type but it won't transmit to the other users, but the server can still read what you wrote? (you use chat to add into the arenas).
Which leaves the question of cheating. I like swift permanent bans for cheaters. But I am not an experienced anti-cheat guy, I can only identify blatant cheaters. Do you have some kind of internal reviewing system to handle edge cases?
I hope that answers all questions you might have, if not, make sure to drop them in here or just find me on Steam.
Thank you for your consideration and continued hosting of the MGE servers.
after a recent discussion in Discord about the lack of admin work done and being told 'just apply to be an admin!', here we are. The Pandacommunity MGE servers #23 (and secondarily, #07) are Europe's busiest MGE servers by far, regularly maxing out from afternoon to late evening hours. They are however a very toxic environment, with major abusers being a small handful of people, but racism and other toxic stuff thrown about pretty regularly. Cheaters are occasionally an issue, too, but not at all to the degree of, say, Valve's casual servers.
On to the official stuff:
Username: ash (ashton on these forums here, because ash is somehow always taken...)
Steam32 ID: STEAM_0:0:22231508
Your age: 30
Current playtime on relevant server(s):
3d19h on #23,
some neglible amount on its sister server #07
Link to your Sourcebans record
(If relevant) Who gave you permission to apply?
I talked to madact.
Server to are applying for:
#23 & #07
General online times & time zone:
I am usually online during late afternoon & evening CET, but that varies a bit due to work and real life etc.
Do you have a working microphone?
Yes.
Previous experience as Admin or Moderator:
I ran the European TF2 League for a while as head admin (so actually ran), which is also my source of the little experience I have with anti-cheat work, as the head admins work with the AC staff and have access to their otherwise restricted subforums. During my time at ETF2L I did plenty moderation of forums, handling cases of player abuse etc. I have moderated a German EVE Online forums for many years, long long ago, and I work with special needs kids in real life, which qualifies me the most.
What would you say makes you a suitable candidate?
I play MGE quite a bit, usually in short sessions spread across the day. I understand that MGE as a gamemode is a very competitive version of TF2, maybe more-so than actual competitive. It often brings out the worst in people, and different playstyles - ranging from loadout variations to positioning within the arenas to stuff that you might consider etiquette, e.g. not prefiring - clash regularly. People getting very upset is the norm, as much as one would hope otherwise, some just aren't mature enough to not lose grasp on their emotions over a video game.
I think any administration of the MGE servers in particular needs to know where to draw the line: Playing to win, playing as cancerously as you can or just playing for fun and airshots - those are all legit gameplay styles. Even though people might disagree here and claim their own style as the one-and-only, all ways of playing and enjoying MGE are valid. With the clear exception of harassment and toxicity in chat or voice: racism, homophobia, harassment and insults are all very much unacceptable.
I am unsure about the actual ban lengths and punishments, but in an effort to give people the chance to rehabilitate instead of using smurf/alt accounts and also to avoid depopulating the server by banning half the userbase I think a four-step increase in mute/gags ranging from day to week to month to an actual ban seems fitting. For especially egregious cases along the lines of harsh and repeated racism steps might be skipped. I would prefer simply taking away the chat - everyone can play and chat, but harassers can't be effectively toxic anymore. A ban should be the exception. Now, this assumes that people can use the MGE functionality to queue for the arenas while being gagged/muted - I am unsure how that works. Does being gagged/muted take away your chat entirely? Can you type but it won't transmit to the other users, but the server can still read what you wrote? (you use chat to add into the arenas).
Which leaves the question of cheating. I like swift permanent bans for cheaters. But I am not an experienced anti-cheat guy, I can only identify blatant cheaters. Do you have some kind of internal reviewing system to handle edge cases?
I hope that answers all questions you might have, if not, make sure to drop them in here or just find me on Steam.
Thank you for your consideration and continued hosting of the MGE servers.
