Central Command RP Standards Clarification

[Shaw]

Admin(s) Key: @Esenno and in general
Your ckey (Byond username): @Shaw
Your Discord name (if applicable): Shaw (Dahk Grel)

Date(s) of incident (GMT preferred): 09/03/2020 10:00 PM (GMT).

Nature of complaint: Clarification Required/Feedback

Brief description: The admins who stand in as CC during rounds feel disconnected/Not up to RP standards as to how CC is supposed to be acting according to wiki/lore/etc.

Full description of events: 

On this particular round, as the magistrate, I decided to impose an injunction as part of a Civil Dispute upon a nurse who had been using a megaphone over common radio non stop since shift start. It was clear most of the crew found this to be annoying, and would not stop despite most of the crew voicing that they wished her to stop. I decided this would be a good opportunity to use the rarely used "Civil Dispute" section of Legal Standard Operating Procedure meant for grievances outside the scope of normal Space Law. Seeing as this grievance was affecting the entire crew, I decided to hold a public vote using the captain's communication console requesting all who wished for her to stop to simply say: "I"; instead of trying to jam pack everyone in the court room and ask for each crewman's opinion as that would've taken all day.

Upon seeing a good number of "I's" outweigh the "Nay's" I decided to go ahead and PDA the nurse a formal injuction which was along the lines of "Do not abuse the megaphone or else it'll be confiscated and you'll get a 5 minute sentence."  I thought this to be a fair and very minimal punishment should they decide to go against this injunction. Naturally they paid no mind to it and mocked me on the radio with the megaphone, so I had set their status set to search for sec to take their megaphone for breaching their injunction.

Around this time CC announces, "Clarifications on space law... So I was passing by our interns while they were monitoring the NSS Cyberiad's comms and laughing. Decided I'd listen in for a sec and... why are you worrying about a megaphone, Magistrate? It's not a space law issue it's just being annoying. Drop it before we drop you out of the station." 

This is where I get confused as to why Central would make a public announcement publicly shaming the magistrate's ruling for taking the appropriate channels and steps following Legal Standard Operating Procedure for a minor Civil Dispute? I'm seeing these types of announcements more and more often lately, where CC will have only partial information and use said partial information to publicly shame who they believe to be guilty parties. A few other examples I've seen which I can only describe as "low rp" of CC:

*A handful of perma prisoners had escaped perma and their statuses had all been set to execute because of their escape. A security officer had baton'd an escapee and took the chainsaw the prisoner had acquired to field execute them. CC makes an announcement along the lines of "Security, chainsaws are not a legal method of execution, you should know better." The officer in postround_chat said they felt so embarrassed and didn't want to play security anymore because they thought they had genuinely done something wrong even though according to Space Law they used the discretion they are allowed to execute escaped perma prisoners. 

*A captain had been ass faxing every department and I as magistrate, an IAA, and the NT rep all voiced that we disliked such conduct. We pulled the captain into their office to talk to them about it where the captain basically just said "so what? I'm going to ass fax you right now as you watch, I don't care". The NTRep wrote a complaint, I submitted a transcript of the meeting, and it was all sent to CC. But we never heard back from CC. No faxes or public announcements to discourage such impolite and unruly behavior for the captain of an entire station even though the grievance was attempted to be solved by the proper channels in house.

I know Paradise is not a HRP server but this type of behavior seems pretty lowbrow for an MRP server, where The Boss' Boss likes to take cheap jabs at anyone and everyone at every opportunity except for where it matters. I've seen half a dozen HoS'/Captains be ignored by CC when they are clearly breaking space law/SoP or just acting unprofessional/low rp for their position, but will shame/mock other players for even smaller grievances or in less important positions. 

What I hope this complaint will solve: 

If nothing else, for admins to take an extra minute or two when writing announcements as CC to reflect, "Is this something CC should/would say?" 

 

 

 

 

[Spacemanspark]

Don't post admin complaints during the round the complaint took place on.

[necaladun]

Hi there, and thank you for bringing this to my attention - although perhaps not quite in the way you intended.

First of all, I'd like to quote part of the Legal SoP Wiki:

Quote

Civil Disputes settle matters outside of Space Law. As such, Civil Disputes cannot be settled with Brig Sentences. The sole exception to this rule is when the Civil Dispute reveals an actual crime has been committed, at which point it ceases being a Civil Dispute and falls under the purview of Security and Space Law.

You cannot threaten people with brig time because their actions are annoying (The clown would especially agree here). You can only sentence people for things covered by space law. Getting people brigged for things that are not crimes is the exact opposite of your job - you're meant to be making sure that space law is properly adhered to. Having someone brigged for a non-crime is incredibly poor form (And potentially illegal itself), and shows that you didn't read the guide to civil disputes - it is said twice, with bold letters, that brig time cannot be a result of a civil dispute.

On 9/4/2020 at 8:35 AM, Shaw said:

This is where I get confused as to why Central would make a public announcement publicly shaming the magistrate's ruling for taking the appropriate channels and steps following Legal Standard Operating Procedure for a minor Civil Dispute? 

Hopefully the above clears that up - you did not take the appropriate channels or steps at all. The admins could have PM'd you or jobbanned you or various other options, instead they went with a slightly snarky message from the boss. Admins are highly encouraged to be snarky as CC, as the Cyberiad is not seen as the most "proper" of stations, more akin to a combination insane asylum/research center/home of the robust.

This is perhaps the most minor way to approach this - and personally, I think too minor. If CC are going to resolve a situation where the Magistrate is acting illegally, it should be a lot harsher. Someone who is abusing their position as magistrate to have people brigged for non-crimes needs a serious warning or possible jobban. However it's up to the admins discretion as to whether to go for a minor IC warning or something more serious.

When it comes to the other report mentioned, it's hard to determine the exact situation - but if CC are aware people are carrying out executions with chainsaws, they're likely to see this as unusual and attempt to dissuade it. A desperate situation where a chainsaw is the only method of execution available is the rarity, and if that was the case, then a crew announcement or fax to CC to clear this up is all that's needed. CC don't often have all the information, and the admins have to decide how much of the information they have OOCly applies to CC ICly. 

The second one mentioned - or more so, the lack or reply - is hard to comment on not knowing the situation. The admin simply could have been in the toilet and not seen the fax, been dealing with a bunch of ahelps, having their admins PMs filled with death threats and n-word spam, or a hundred other things. If there's a vital communication CC needs to respond to, an ahelp to ask admins whats happening with it is the best bet - it's pretty easy to miss a fax or two with the amount of things admins have on their screen.

 

On 9/4/2020 at 8:35 AM, Shaw said:

What I hope this complaint will solve: 

If nothing else, for admins to take an extra minute or two when writing announcements as CC to reflect, "Is this something CC should/would say?" 

Ultimately it'd be great if admins could take a good hour or so to write one up in full corporate speak with fancy formatting - however, as said above, admins often don't have the time to do that. It'd be great if they did, but with the sheer amount of work admins have, this isn't always possible. I'd be interested in ways to help this, but simply asking the admins to put in more time and effort isn't really a working solution.

 

As there was no wrongdoing (Except by OP), and I've commented on their feedback, I'll mark this as resolved.