Head Admin Changelog and Announcements

[schererererer]

In this thread, we will keep a record of major changes and announcements under the head admin sphere. You are welcome to post comments here, and to keep the thread readable and uncluttered we will remove non-changelog comments upon each update, as in the server-specific changelogs.

 

If you would like to privately speak to the admins as a team, feel free to send a message to admins@nerd.nu

[schererererer]

The following is an announcement from all the head admins, to make clear a refreshed policy on execution of the rules:

 

It has become clear that a long-lived trend of disruptive behaviors in the community have reached a boiling point. Call them what you like - trolling, drama, toxic behavior, rules lawyering, whatever - but stepping aside from the baggage these words carry, it is altogether disruptive and anathema to a healthy community, to the point where even bystanders have expressed they have left the servers because of it. The more laissez-faire prior approach to handling these problems has categorically failed; we will now handle them aggressively. Our rules are not changing here, but the leeway built into them years ago will once again be exercised to its full extent as it once was in what many call a golden age of nerd.nu. This applies across the servers and services, and to all people on them.

We also want to be clear that people should not be afraid to approach any head admin in regards to any rule or decision. All of us are more than happy to discuss things with you in private. However, if after talking to us and explaining your position our decision does not change, you would need to take a step back and accept this in order to continue to be a part of our community. Honest, respectful debate is welcome; escalating attacks against staff and inciting public disruption is unacceptable and will result in a temporary removal from the community.

[schererererer]

Mumble Moderation Policy

 

The moderation of chat on mumble can be a tricky matter, with more obstacles to reviewing what has transpired, particularly in voice chat. We encourage players to try to document any incidents of harassment or violation of community rules and forward this information to the head admins (who can all be found at admins@nerd.nu). Even if you are unable to supply physical evidence, please report these incidents when they happen so we can identify problems as they occur.

[schererererer]

Nerd.nu Backlog System

 

In the interest of preparedness, we are accepting all manner of maps, spawns, arenas, and the like for the future! This collection of resources will ensure we're always ready for a rushed event, arena night, or map reset in the event of an emergency. We may also draw from this even when we aren't in such a rush - this community is supremely talented at building amazing things.

 

In the future we intend to integrate this backlog system into the nerd.nu website itself for ease of submission, but right now you can still start by getting in contact with an admin to suggest your work and send it over via email, dropbox link, etc. Just make sure to label it well so we know exactly what it is and to whom to give attribution!

[Mrloud15]

Alt Account Banning Policy

 

We are changing our policy on banning alt accounts, and you can read about the new policy below or here. The rules have also been updated to reflect this change.

• A minimum of 2 weeks will be added to the original ban length for every account used to evade a ban on any of our servers.
• Any accounts used to evade a ban will be banned for the same amount of time as the original banned account.
• Admins reserve the right to add additional time depending on the circumstances.
• Only appealed bans will be lifted.
• At the time at which an appeal is allowed or afterward, a player may appeal for their other accounts to be unbanned, and if the "main" account is unbanned then the alts are as well.
• Unbanning of all alt accounts will be done by an administrator or higher.
• At the discretion of an admin, alternate accounts could remain banned if we believe that the person appealing isn't the actual owner.
• Bans for the alt accounts will include the name of their "main" account.

[jchance]

Updated Ban Appeal Policy to remove ambiguity and specifically outline what to do if you have information relevant to an appeal.

 

https://nerd.nu/forums/topic/2865-ban-appeal-policy/#entry21999

[schererererer]

Due to time constraints from school and work, thrawn feels she is unable to dedicate enough time to the position and has decided to step down as a head.

 

For future reference, the current head admin lineup is: cyotie911, Dumbo52, jchance, Mrloud15, and schererererer.

[schererererer]

A Community Interaction Policy clarifying and codifying what is unacceptable on nerd.nu services, as well as specified penalties, was released and is available here: https://nerd.nu/forums/topic/2908-community-interaction-policy/

[schererererer]

The following are notes from the December admin meeting:

1. Swift review of action items from last meeting (copied from here: https://nerd.nu/foru...er/#entry21741)
   1. [complete] ask djt about newspaper if ok having admin column - aggregate changelog stuff | Mumberthrax
      1. Needs admin to be person of contact
      2. No update for a while
   2. [complete] License Key Update on the forums | Deaygo
   3. [complete - posted in head admin changelog] start a thread collating all the material going into that. :D mumble screenshots/recording rule/policy stuff in nerd.nu/rules | schererer
   4. [in progress] write up guidelines for bans, specifically including alt evasion - give 1wk for admins not at this meeting to comment | mrloud
      1. Done for alt evasion, jchance working on extension to full guidelines
      2. See Section 2.2
   5. list of old bans to review for mass amnesty - deaygo
   6. get new additional head admins | all head admins
      1. Have added jchance, looking into adding another head admin within the next couple of months - @Heads
   7. wiki (confluence?) - documentation on tech stuff, etc. | techadmins
      1. Gitlab set up
   8. issue tracking | techadmins
   9. private repo for techadminreqs around mid-december | slide
      1. Choose a centralized place for them - @techadmins
   10. making a post in pmc/website to track submissions for "backlog" | slide
       1. Have a public post in Head Admin changelog suggesting to submit things to admins directly, @slide working on integrating into website
   11. [complete - posted in head admin changelog] make public post about a backlog system, always open to submissions for events, games, spawns, maps, etc. | schererer
   12. [in progress] overhaul of training materials, reference guide for moderators | schererer - continue working on this @scherer
       1. Can incorporate banning guidelines into this
       2. Things like xray would have links to private mod chat where needed
   13. [in progress] make discussion post for alternate minecraft servers in admin forum, a week or two later move to pmc | schererer
       1. Move https://nerd.nu/foru...ecraft-servers/ to pmc - @scherer
   14. [complete] make discussion post for outsourcing non-mc servers/games to community in admin subforum - schererer
       1. Would probably need new hardware
       2. $75ish a month for a new machine
       3. See Section 17
   15. post to discuss "event strikeforce" in admin forum - ideally have a framework in place after a month - slide
       1. Waiting until E admin search was over
2. Discuss revising prehistoric ban policy guidelines: [Link]
   1. Could incorporate into a hidden part of the Mod Guidelines?
   2. Lead work on revising public version for a more frank moderator-visible ban policy - @jchance, working with @scherer
3. How we should structure a community meeting for January.
   1. Staff unmuted, open floor at end of meeting
   2. Open thread for players to submit topics for meeting and comment on them - @Dumbo
4. Should we have regular staff meeting between mods and admins? If so how often should we have them and how should they be run?
5. More events on the servers, mazes, arenas, speed builds, etc.. 
6. Growing the community (events)
7. Discuss adding an event admin as an additional "server admin" role, with the same permissions that come with that position
   1. Leading event server, planning events, coordinating players and mods, etc.
   2. No outstanding objections, after discussion
   3. Should communicate with other admins to find best balance of events across the servers, in domains of
   4. Candidate: [Redacted]
   5. Post in admin chat for meeting non-attendees to comment - @Mrloud
8. Charity events - Where we run an event like a donation drive, but we are raising for a charity instead of for the servers. Something to look into? (Done in the past)
9. Finances summary
   1. Paypal setup - @Deaygo
   2. Need a donation drive soon
   3. Work out finances before announcing donation drive event
10. Place to keep track of alts and who they are unbanned to?
    1. Need to have 'appeal' for each alt - tracking them is almost pointless
    2. Manually tag known alts (with reasoning) on the staff side only, integrated into website - @slide
11. Mass Ban Amnesty - list coming in the next few days - @Deaygo
12. Advertising plan
    1. https://nerd.nu/foru...58-advertising/
    2. Need budget for it before a campaign can be planned out
    3. Revisit at next meeting, hopefully start early next year
13. Ban Policy (temp bans?)
    1. In the plans for MCBouncer
    2. Update policy to include temp bans (see Section 2.2 - @jchance and @scherer)
    3. https://nerd.nu/foru...n-systempolicy/
14. Dealing with Problem players who bring down the community and push people away from playing
    1. See Section 15 - fair and well-defined
15. Discuss a new community interaction policy jchance has been working on: https://nerd.nu/foru...policy/?p=22214
    1. Clarification and standardization of warning points system, et al.
    2. Would need a few technical changes
    3. Give a week to comment, then decide to roll it into a bigger post.
16. Discuss post rev-27 Survival
    1. https://nerd.nu/foru...rev27-survival/
    2. Discuss with S admins later when they're all (or mostly) available

17. Continue discussing officially expanding to other games; reference poll here: https://nerd.nu/foru...oll/#entry22146

    1. Make thread asking for suggestions of specific games people want - @Deaygo

18. Also server admins could bring up / make posts in mod nom subforum about what they're looking for moderator-wise right now (level of need, hours of need, etc)

    1. Take note of timezone distribution, make a simple statement in a week or so - @all server admins

19. Engage with the community more, let them know what we're doing

[Mrloud15]

Added LadyRavenOwl as an Event Admin.

[schererererer]

Financial Status Summary

 

• Current funds: $1600

 

• Current total server cost: [$308 per month], [$1850 for six months], [$2772 for nine months] or [$3700 for one year]
  • Primary server cost (C, S, P, E): $238 per month
  • Secondary server cost (website et al.): $70 per month
• Cost to add a new server for additional minecraft gametypes or non-minecraft games: $70 per month
  • [$420 for 6 months], [$630 for 9 months], or [$840 for a year]
  • In total: [$2268 for 6 months], [$3402 for 9 months], or [$4536 for one year]
• Potential paid advertising costs are quite variable and flexible - this will be adjusted to match the outcome of our next donation drive - (please contact us if you have specific suggestions on avenues for advertising with good value)

Sometime in the coming few months we will have a donation drive event to continue covering the costs of running the server, fund any expansion, and/or fund any advertising, depending on how much we raise. Donations within the past 6 months (over which we did not have a donation drive) are listed at nerd.nu/donate, where you can also donate even outside of donation drives.

[schererererer]

redwall_hp and Dumbo52 have moved to tech admin, and LadyCailin has stepped down into an advisory role.

[Mrloud15]

A Head Admin uservoice has been setup at https://nerd-headadmin.uservoice.com/ for general suggestions and feedback. For more immediate issues/concerns, please contact a head admin directly.

[jchance]

Based on server and modreq activity the following mods are being moved to inactive:

1. Bestor
2. betajippity
3. CaptainViridian
4. dan1son
5. Darkskynet
6. emptyafternoon
7. muldoonaz
8. NEVAstop
9. palmeirl
10. PolarTux
11. Speializedowns
12. TheKingDuff
13. VarukaSalt
14. Vortex_Oxide
15. WickedCoolSteve

These mods have not logged in to the game (based on nerd.nu/usage) or completed any modreqs in the past several weeks.

 

Mods who are moved to inactive for lack of activity may contact a head admin at any time to be retrained and have their permissions restored if circumstances change or they return to playing minecraft on nerd.nu.

[schererererer]

Brought on SwitchViewz as Event Admin and ExcessiveToker as Creative Admin.

[Mrloud15]

c45y and Barlimore have been remodded and are both awaiting in game training.

[schererererer]

Reconfigured the forum board structure, and added the Suggestions subforum to replace the uservoices for suggestions and feedback.

[schererererer]

Rules have been fully updated and streamlined to convey the same information with less text. Nested bullet points increase readability, allow players to skim 'top-level' bullet points for the essence of the rules.

[schererererer]

Skrapssparks has been remodded and retrained.

[schererererer]

The Ban Appeal Policy has been modified to include the following: "If the banning moderator has not responded to your appeal after 48 hours you may make a post (bump) in your appeal to bring attention to it. At this point (48 hours of no response), any staff member may attempt to contact the banning moderator and if no response is received in 24 hours, said staff member may take over to expedite the appeal."

[Mrloud15]

Draykhar has been moved to active mods and has been retrained. 

[Mrloud15]

You can now change your display name by going into "Profile Settings" and clicking the "Display Name" tab. Changing your display name will not affect your log in details.

 

All nerd.nu rules still apply including:

• No harassment or excessive trolling
  
• No bigotry / hate speech
  
  • This includes, but is not limited to, bigotry based upon ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and religion.
    
  
  
• No spam or advertising
  
• No posting personal information (i.e. doxxing)
  
• No impersonating other players, particularly staff
  

[Guest Former Staff]

Jchance has been moved from the head admin team to the moderator permission group as per his request, this way he can focus time on more personal issues.

[Guest Former Staff]

The ban appeal policy has been amended to include a section for note appeals.

 

 

Further Note Appeal Details:

 

Similar to ban appeals, once a note has been added to you then you're welcome to appeal this if / when you wish. Where the notes are deemed valid and end up staying on your account for the meantime, please consider allowing a few weeks / months before re-appealing.

 

Each note appeal will be handled by the staff member who issued them, provided they are active. Otherwise should that staff member be inactive / no longer on staff then if the note directly refers to activity on a specific server then a respective server admin can handle the note appeal. The head admin team will aim to oversee all note appeals issued from inactive / past staff.

 

For the staff member handling the note appeal, we would ask that you are fair. Please consider the length of time that the note has been active for and whether the note still reflects the behaviour of that individual. Where possible, we do not want to see notes remain for lengthy periods of time.

 

Should anyone experience issues with the outcome of their note appeal then you are welcome to approach a head admin. Provided the staff member has followed the guideline in the above paragraph then we will support their decision.

[Guest Former Staff]

Published our publicly viewable Tech Issues page with collaborative effort from Tech Admins and staff.

 

For anyone interested too, you can follow my publicly viewable page for my own tasklist here. I don't add everything to this particular list but I hope it gives you some idea of what I'm doing.