"Woohoo being administrator would be awesome! I get a lot of cool features, people respect me and I can help people with my abilities!"
This is what is going on in all of your minds, am I close? I probably am. But I'm about to change your minds on the roles of administrators the way you think we are, and the way we actually are.
I'm writing this because I'm bored. I'm writing this because I want to give you guys a chance to peek into our minds and see the world trough our eyes. Only then you'll realize that being administrator is a WHOLE lot different then you think.
Features of being administrator.
Being administrator gives you a lot of cool features.
- You get access to classified information.
- You get to work in a team of other administrators
- Players look up to you.
- You get to use tools to assist players in the community that other people cannot use, such as the godstick, and any other admin command
I probably forgot a lot of things, but that is beside the point.
When you are not an admin, or you just managed to become one, the first things that come up to your mind would be:
"Awesome! I finally got admin! Now I get to use all these awesome features!"
But in reality, it's not awesome at all. I mean, sure it's cool that you can see information that makes your job easier, but what is so cool about that? Why would you be cool if you can see someone's IP address, or anything else that you can come up with.
It's not useful other then doing your job. You are highly restricted to use any of these information for other purposes, because that would get your demoted again.
So in short say: Is it really cool to have limited features? Or is it just considered your piece of tool as you are doing a simple job?
When I become admin, I would do <X>!
Now this is one of the biggest important subjects of being an administrator.
Lots of people think it's easy to be an administrator. A good example of this is from myself.
A long time ago, I was playing on a WoW private server which was quite popular. I was friends with a few of the Game Masters (Admins) back then, and they all complained about annoying work with Tickets.
Tickets were like report messages of people with problems that GMs could handle. I thought: When I ever become GM, I would do every single ticket very fast, and prove myself to be a good GM!
Here, it's exactly the same story with ban requests, appeals, and in-game reports. People think it's such an easy job and promise that they would do them all! But trust me on this, that you won't keep up with this promise after like a week of being admin. You'll realize that it's boring work, takes up a lot of your time, and you don't gain anything with it at all.
But oh no! Don't make those players unhappy! Don't let them think you are a lazy bad admin that doesn't do his job! Keep on working! Do those damn ban requests, appeals, and respond to every single admin request in-game.
Thinking about it, you'll soon realize that you are not someone players look up to. You are seen as a slave, that is doomed to do what people request you, else you are classed as a lazy bad admin that doesn't do his job.
You would be so busy with your job that you have barely any free time left to roleplay yourself. To actually enjoy the servers as a fellow player. (Because you still are a player, just one that has the privilege to assist players that need help.)
And if you finally deal with every situation, you can finally go enjoy your free time... For about 20 seconds.
Nicknero1405 (admin chat): admin to me please!
Oh god, there you have one again.
How many times do you have to explain that people are required to use a proper format to request your help? How the hell are you going to help someone if you don't even know what he needs help with, or where he is.
Specially on OCRP, 80% of the time someone cries out for your help, it's just a player that is stuck in the map. Most of the time, he appears to be right behind you, about 50 feet away. And then he expects you to teleport to him and unstuck him within 5 seconds?
Nicknero1405 (admin chat): admin plx to me! I'm stuck for like 20 minutes now! god damned!1!11
Yep, seconds are minutes now. But at least you know what he wants. But where shall he be? Are you willing to drop everything you were doing, may it either be RP, or running a store, or in the middle of a raid, just so you can teleport to him, unstuck him, and run all the way back to where you were?
Would it be much easier to use observer mode, noclip to him, unstuck him, and automatically teleport back to your old location?
Nicknero1405 (admin chat): Admin, I'm stuck inside a wall near the paint shop.
YESS!!!! Finally someone that knows how to make requests! Now quickly go in observer, free him, and go back. There! Done, within 5 seconds! Everyone happy.
*sigh*... Just wish it was always like this, but you rather get used to it, as expect the first example to be the most used one...
Administrator rules
Yep. The most feared few lines of any administrator.
Did you ever had trouble following the huge list of rules set for OCRP1.5? Then just stop reading here, leave this thread and forget about becoming admin.
Admin rules are there. Ready to be shoved up your ass by any player that likes to loophole.
Break any of these rules, and you can pack your bags for a single ticket off the administrator team for the rest of this community's life.
Honestly, it's not hard to follow these rules. But there are certain people that make it hard. People that go around attempting to screw with you, provoking you to react on such a way that you eventually by accident break the legendary rule 1: "Be nice to everyone. No matter who they are, or what they are doing. No exceptions."
What does this mean? Simple: Act like a sack of dirt that takes any troll, flame and curse upon you, without doing anything back.
Certain people make you mad, and you want to yell at them? Forget it. Dare to say "Shut the fuck up" and you shall be packing bags.
Who cares if the player you said it to is the biggest douchebag ever, and how hard he is being an ass to you. Break rule 1, and you are gone.
You don't have to be admin to try this out. Go ahead, try for yourself. Try to be nice to EVERY SINGLE person you meet for the next 7 days. Would you be able to make it to the end without using any curse word? Yes? Damn liar you are. It's inhuman to not use any curse word for a whole week. You can't help it that you are in a bad mood at times.
So tell me, you still think Administrating is an easy job?
Demands and responsibility.
As admin, you are required to be active.
This wouldn't be a problem for some of you players out there, but that is easier said then done. You are currently enjoying our servers and forum. You have nothing to worry about. You have nothing you have to stay focused to.
As admin, you will no longer enjoy our servers the way you are right now. You are in the servers, doing your job most of the time. You have to worry about every single player in the server. Watch over them, stay in focus and respond to any rule break you see.
All this work, will make you tired. Very tired. Administration requires lots of physically attention and it will change your mood soon enough.
It's not fun to be admin. It's hard work, and you don't get anything in return. You don't get paid, you don't get exclusive stuff. That would be elitism and unfair. After all, you are just a player. A player with privilege. (As I said before.)
You should be happy as a regular player. You get to enjoy all our work. You have nothing to worry about. You have no requirements you need to meet part from following a list of rules that isn't hard as most of them are common sense anyways.
We work very hard, just to make YOU happy. We have less joy in our job, and we have a shitload of requirements we need to meet or else we would lose our job.
So you may think: "What exactly would make me so tired, and bored?"
Well that is easy. As administrator, you are required to know the entire rules list as good as possible. You have to be responsible for admin situations where you have to make a decision. You have to come to a solution when two players are arguing with each other.
The easiest way is to listen to both sides of their story, and find out the truth. This is usually somewhere between both stories, because everyone would change the story so it sounds in their own good.
Lets make a funny example, shall we?
We have two guys, and you as third party. The two guys are neighbours which don't really like each other.
Guy1 finds a bag of trash in his garden. Guy1 thinks Guy2 dropped it there, so he picks it up, and drops it in the garden of Guy2.
Guy2 finds a bag of trash in his garden. Guy2 thinks Guy1 dropped it there, so he picks it up, and drops it in the garden of Guy1.
Wait, don't this end up as an infinite loop? Sure it does. But how would you solve it?
You find the bag of trash. You don't care in what garden it is. You pick it up, and put it in the trash can. There! Problem solved! Guy1 and Guy2 both happy, and you just solved a situation in a responsible and nice way.
So, knowing all this. Be honest now, did you want to be admin here? Did you thought it was cool to be one? After reading this, will you think about it ones more and actually think it's not that cool to be admin at all?
Feel free to reply with your thoughts, ideas and comments about this post.
Cheers, Nicknero1405
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Nicknero on January 09, 2012, 01:00:10 PM