Head of Staff Complaint - Koenigsegg - General Conduct

[MojaveWanderer]

Your CKEY/BYOND username:TheMojaveWanderer

Admin's CKEY/BYOND username:[b]Koenigsegg[/b]

Details of complaint: I'm starting this out by saying this is not a hit piece against Koen. I respect them as staff, and they've made many good decisions in the past, and having worked with them for a time, I respect their judgement. I'm not one for malice, and this isn't me whining about someone being mean. This is -not- a popularity/dick waving contest. This is a genuine issue I feel Koen has when dealing with the player base.

That being said,

Koenigsegg has been staff for as long as I can remember, and I think that this is a relatively new issue in the grand scheme of the server as a whole. They're rude, ban on first offense, try to justify less-than-chill actions, and have even gone on record saying they don't care what the players think. This is disturbing for a number of reasons, and I would be willing to attribute the slow death of Halo SSE at least, in part, to the actions of Koenigsegg. I'm aware this is a very strong claim, but I hope I'll be able to back it up well enough.

With that preamble out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. I'll be listing off the issues I have with Koenigsegg, how they can improve, and hopefully, how we can prevent this with future staff. Here we go.

Part One: Mediation.
It's no secret to anyone Koen does not mediate well. They tend to go in with the intent to ban, and usually don't examine logs very well. The point of an admin should never, ever be to hand out bans, as your role as a moderator is just as important, if not more important. I know it can be tempting to smash the big red button when someone is being less then agreeable, because I nearly did it many, many times - especially when dealing with the URF. But banning people - often on first offense - is never the best option unless they are very obviously griefers. By overusing the ban function, it not only dissuades people from playing on the server, but it gives us a "Baystation" reputation -  The running gag about being banned for doing literally anything wrong even once.

As I mentioned before, this is not just a complaint list, as I also have solutions to offer. Simply put, there needs to be either a grace period, or better use of the note system- something I noticed Koen did not do while I was staff was religiously use notes on players. This means nobody knows who's a first timer who's confused and unsure of the rules, or what their roles entail - or someone who seeks only to cause trouble for the staff and playerbase for their own personal jollies. So, all in all, here's what we have.

1. Better Mediation, sorting out issues without using the big bad hammer of justice.
   
2. Less Banning, not banning on first offense or with subpar evidence.
   
3. Better Use of The Note System, as this will allow your fellow staff to better sort out who's an asshole and who's an asshole to a somewhat lesser degree.
   

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Continued due to word limit.

Part Two: Attitude.
Koen can be less than agreeable at times, as many players will tell you. They seem to have a hot temper, and added to the previously listed items, one can see how this has been a point of distress for a few of us. They do not reason with players, are unwilling to accept being wrong, and even handle admin situations relating to themselves - a pretty nasty practice for any server, let alone one with a war setting and set factions. This has lead to accusations of meta-communication, meta-gaming in general, favoritism, and meta-grudging. While I will not confirm or deny any of these, as I have not made these claims, I will bring my own claims to the table.

This is a snippet of OOC chat from a recent round where Koen bombed several vital locations on the colony as a lone insurrectionist, injuring civilians and destroying machinery. I'll be commenting on every one of these panels as I post them, and will note ahead of time that these may not be in order, as my evidence storing prowess leaves some to be desired without a doubt.
Koen admitted to random bombing as a URF regular, attacking civilians.

They stated it was okay, as it was giving people some action.

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I mentioned there were other ways to get action, and they instantly wrote off the entire server population as being here for Leiben-Style PVP, having no interest in roleplay. I responded, stating that with or without admin, I managed to create interesting events as Johnny Reno which brought the URF, UNSC, Civilians - and even the Covenant, in a few rare cases, - together.

They correctly call me out for my rigidness, which is a fair complaint. I tend to have issues being flexible when it comes to uncomfortable situations. Yet, it still detracted from the point of the conversation. Not pictured here was what lead from the second to last message to the last message, where Koen mentioned they didn't remember me running any "events". I responded that just playing the game was enough to bring people together, if you did it right.  As far as the bombs themselves go, I've no reason to believe he spawned in the parts to make them, or anything else that would constitute abuse of power. There were plenty of missing items which he used to make them- oxygen tanks, wires, assemblies and such.
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All listed logs above.

The concise version of this section is as follows.

1. Koen did not follow the wishes of both in game high ranks, as well as the general sentiment of the faction leader of the faction they were playing at the time - the URF.
   
2. Koen attempted to defend themselves through the lens of calling random bombings an "event".
   
3. They resorted to attacking me personally, stating that I was quote, "Too afraid to deal with a situation you are not prepared for.", despite such a situation never coming to pass had they not acted out like this. It's like shooting the president and being confused when the secret service tackle you.
   

How this can be fixed? Simple again.

1. Koen needs to take more time before acting - think before you do something that could negatively effect the round of someone else, especially a civilian. Civilian players are often new, so the way you treat them will form their overall opinions on the server.
   
2. Koen needs to be calmer in a-helps, complaints, and other such things. See the second on moderation for more details.
   

Part Three: Devil's Advocate.
I would -never- post something here I didn't have fact checked. I am not here to slander Koenigsegg, as I hope I've made clear. I'm here to possibly help someone who's been around for a long time, longer than I have, improve how they act as staff. Koen, for all I've said here, is a great person to talk to, and was very helpful in getting me started in terms of learning admin commands. Without them, I likely wouldn't even still be around to make this complaint- which, to me, is a perfect segue in to what I feel is the core of this long ass college length paper of a complaint.

Koen, while a good member of staff, has a few issues which need to be resolved for them to act at their full potential as a member of Halo SSE's staff.

Part Four: Final Remarks and Addendum.
I want to once more make it clear that I am not trying to slander anyone. I wouldn't take the time to write this up if I wasn't sure the issue could be fixed. Koen, you're going to read this, and respond to it, I've no doubt. You've a right to defend yourself, and I'll happily listen to whatever you have for me. But whatever this ends up as, I want you to understand I've nothing personal against you, or any other member of staff. Besides Stingray. Fuck that guy.

Now, the hot topic. Why did I say Koen is contributing to the death of HSSE? Banning at first contact, curt and brash responses to players, and inability to step back and see things as a whole. This all makes players take one look at this server and then run for the hills as fast as stumpy 2D legs can carry them.

And finally - many people wanted me to add in cases of admin abuse. I did -not- do this, simply because they do not exist. Koen, to my knowledge, has never abused their power in game to harm someone else, or help themselves. They've also, to my knowledge, handled an adminhelp against who they're playing themselves, leaving it to other members of staff.

Koen, my guy. You're great. Please, don't take this as an attack on your personality or who you are. You've always been a great member of this server's community, for better or worse. But this trend of activity I've seen since I've returned is worrying - and rather than bitch and moan in discord like literally everyone else, I've decided to actually make a proper complaint so things might actually get done.

Thank you for reading through all this. DM me at Mojave#1640 for more information, or ping me in the Halo SSE Discord. Note that I do not have access to any faction room outside of the URF regulars. That is all.