Combat Moderation Guidelines

Well, I ended up with two lists in the end! First is a distillation of all the input from everyone, the second is a bullet list of activities by Taog Ra that I just adopted as a whole for all moderators. Special thanks go to thyri, Garrgon, Xaz and especially to Dove and Taog.

Here they are, comments and input always welcome:

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** Imperial Ar Combat Moderation Guidelines
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** - Overall Guidelines
- Calm the situation down before anything else if it is out of hand!

- Be Neutral, if you cannot handle the situation in a fair manner, do not attempt to mod! Call in someone else!

- Avoid if all possible modding situations that involve people that you are close to!

- Avoid if all possible modding situations that you have some emotional attachment to!

- Be 100 % up to date on the latest weapons/cheats and methods of figuring out how cheats are done

- Have that list of legal weapons for your sim memorized.

- Never give your personal opinion on the fight/outcomes/people involved in the combat in any manner ooc or in roleplay.

- ONLY go in and mod when you are called for by the roleplayers/combatants, otherwise do nothing.

- Be totally impartial, you are there to only enforce the existing rules.

- Get straight to the point, ask "what sim rule is broken "from whoever called. You don't coddle egos, you don't listen to bad mouthing emotional outbursts, you go straight to the reason they called for you.

- When you have verified a sim combat rule has been broken, bluntly inform them of the penalty and enforce it. If it's not, state how and why, and determine from the two parties how they want to pick up the combat from that point.

- Ask for logs from all parties involved and any other witnesses if possible.

- Look over the logs, ask questions until you fully understand what happened and what the complaint is.

- Don't rule if you're confused on the issue!

- Once you make your ruling and are confident in it, stick with it!

- If a party is not happy with your ruling, let them know they must accept it or leave. Make notes to supply to Admins but do not offer to escalate the situation, the Admins are busy and trust your judgment enough to make you a moderator.

- If any party begins to be belligerence and threatening OOC, boot them from the sim.

** - Non-raid additional guidelines
- ALWAYS try to preserve RP and try not to invalidate RP unless absolutely necessary.

- Try to determine a point in the RP where the event can be resolved and carried on after the dispute is settled.

** - Raid event additional guidelines
- When a raid is coming, check with other combat and other mods on the sim and choose who will be the mod for this event. If you're the only mod in the sim...YOU'RE IT!

- If you're chosen to mod a raid event, remove yourself from the field of play, remove all weapons and meters.

- Identify yourself as the mod for the even by group tag or some other means.

- Find a good viewing area to scan all events going on.

- Use your radar and expand your viewing area to scan events as much as possible so you will have first hand account of what is going on.

- When a raid/war is coming, check how many the a sim, check the incoming raiders, check the weapons on them, check their numbers.
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And from Taog:

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From Taog Ra - a simple bullet list of activities to outline the process for Moderators to have as reference so that we all handle issues in the same way from start to finish.

KEY THINGS TO REMEMBER:
Firstly, do NOT be overzealous as a Moderator when it comes to Moderating issues.

Involving yourself in someone else's roleplay that you happen to witness can be tricky and requires a lot of careful thought before you disrupt it, and be especially careful not to involve yourself directly in an OOC disagreement unless you are asked to!

When there hasn't been any request for that type of help your best intentions can be seen as both intrusive and insulting to those people involved. Unless it is a situation that involves OOC griefing or a blatant violation of sim rules or LL ToS, just let the roleplay happen on its own. So long as all parties are consenting to it, then there's no need for a Moderator to interfere.

Having said that, here are the steps I think should be followed in a logical order if and when your help is asked for as an Admin or Moderator:

**** If it is griefing and not a sim resident:

Simple: Immediately BAN & EJECT then. Then quickly go into the land options and find objects belonging to that Avatar account and return them.

Complaints or RP moderation can get tricky. The short and sweet of it is this. Do NOT make any decision or even offer an opinion until you have received notecards from everyone involved to make a sound, logical, and impartial decision.

Here are some steps I recommend people to follow:

1. You are contacted by anyone with a complaint....

Is another Admin or Moderator already working on this issue? Ask/find out in the Admin group channel. IF "Yes", STOP. Let them finish handling the issue.

2. Set your GM meter to AFK or OOC to remove yourself from roleplay. This makes it visible that you are not directly involved in the Roleplay.

Remember: YOU CANNOT MODERATE YOUR OWN ROLEPLAY!

Going AFK or setting OOC or TP'ing off the sim in the middle of a roleplay is a BAN offense as listed in the sim rules, but this is our home and we're not going to BAN our Admins or sim residents. So remember this and do not attempt to mod your own roleplay, and do not set a poor example to people visiting the sim.

3. Request a TP from the person who has 'summoned' you for assistance in Moderating the issue.

Again, do not bust into a disagreement until asked. If they do not send you a TP, then odds are your help is no longer needed or the situation has potentially escalated to a point where NO Moderation is possible due to flaring tempers and OOC disagreements. Let those involved "invalid" the roleplay themselves.

4. Determine if the issue/problem is OOC only, or roleplay (IC) only.

4A. If OOC: Notify both parties that LOGS of any IM exchanges and local chat exchanges will be required from EVERYONE, not just the person who called you/complained to you.

If any party refuses to provide IM exchange logs due to ToS violations, then moderation crashes to a halt. Your job is done. Let them sort it out on their own.

4B. If IC: Gather the NC logs from all parties involved in the roleplay.

NO Moderation can be conducted until you've received evidence from every person directly involved in the incident. Do not bother or concern yourself with the he said/she said details. It's a matter of seeing it to believe it and without FACTS, no impartial, logical decision can be reached.

5. Review all provided NC Logs.

Again, until you have gathered all the facts (log files to review), no moderation can take place.

Pay close attention to details in the logs. If you find timestamps on the log entries do not match or the words are different.. someone has altered the log file for whatever reason. If more than 2 people are involved, then compare all 3 logs to try to determine who is responsible for the altered log file. DO NOT get into a finger pointing contest as to who did it.

Simply say: "I cannot Moderate this Issue. The logs appear to have been tampered with. You will have to sort this out yourselves."

If you have identified who tampered with the log, then at your discretion, contact them in IMs, and DO give them a Temporary Ban.

6. Try to find the point in the roleplay where things "broke".

6A. Option 1 -- RESUME RP. Continue Roleplay from the point where it broke down. This is typically the best answer in terms of Moderation but more than likely you would not have been contacted if this were possible.

Explain to all parties where you believe this break in Roleplay occurred and suggest they simply resume roleplay from that point.

6B. Option 2 -- REWIND. If signifant roleplay happened beyond the point where you believe the roleplay exchange broke down, you might suggest a REWIND to that break point.

This may be extreme and require everyone to "Rewind" the roleplay and story all the way back to the point one of them entered the sim landing point. This usually happens when the Moderator is called in for a RAID roleplay that went all wrong from the start. i.e. No scouting, no roleplay at all, someone was bored and just wanted to Raid, etc.

6C. Option 3 -- INVALIDATE THE RP. This should always be the absolute last resort.

At times you will have to recommend an Invalid call because OOC tempers are too high and no compromise can be reached. If, during your Moderation of roleplay issues, the tempers are flaring and getting the better of people, try to suggest a 3-5 minutes break to get a drink. Get yourself one, even... have a smoke, whatever. After 5 minutes, see if tempers have cooled.

If one or more parties involved have not provided you with NC Logs, and you cannot fine a reasonable place for RP to resume, then call Invalid.

7. Make your Decision and communicate it to ALL parties involved.

7A. Your 'decision' is more a very strong suggestion or recommendation on how to proceed from the point where roleplay or communications broke down.

We cannot force people to adhere to our suggestions in terms of their roleplay stories. We can, however, require a "Fade to Black" of events, enforce sim rules or Eject & Ban people who refuse to cooperate and who cannot keep their tempers under control.

7B. If a compromise cannot be reached, then go back to #6. Take a 3-5 minute break to clear your own head and get a fresh take needed.

7C. IF a Ban resulted from your moderation, NOTIFY all the other Admins.

7D. Notify anyone banned it is TEMPORARY.. 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 3 days.. whatever you decide. They can request the ban be removed from YOU... If not, we can expect they probably won't be coming back to the sim for Roleplay anyways.

8. LOG your Moderation of the issue to a NC. If people have provided you with NC Logs, then place them inside your Moderator LOG NC. Do NOT throw away your Moderation logs in the event someone escalates an issue to Taog or Killy.

9. Send out a Group Notice in the Admin Group so that Admins and sim owners who are offline can see your Moderation Log in case there are additional complaints.

Last but not least.. make every effort to avoid getting involved in any personal issues or disagreements of others and that's especially of concern with regard to other full-time members of the sim. We make it a point to ask others to be mature and resolve issues amongst themselves, and we should not add to those issues by getting into arguments amongst ourselves.
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