[GM] Staff Authority and its extent.

Personally, I feel that GM's Managers should have the power to administrate over anything that happens over mumble, the forums, and the game servers. That means if X is repeatedly harassing Y on Orange, over mumble, or using the forums - then yes, they should be liable for punishment. When games are involved, I'd say the situation can either be one of two:

1) It is a game where you can select who you are playing with.

Eg: League of Legends, Borderlands: In this case, if two players don't get along, they simply should simply just mutually decide to stop playing together, unless excessive harassing is present from one side.

2) It is a game where you cannot select who you will meet.

Eg: Minecraft: When all of the players and placed into one server, it can be easy for a player to track and repeatedly harass another player, which should then IMO be looked in to. (Please note I'm not actually saying this stuff happens in Minecraft, I'm just using it as example as to when all the players are in one basket).

Moving on: I think if X harasses Y through other means, eg. social media, then I don't believe GM should be liable to punish X. However, I think it's more than fair to say that X will be putting himself in a very bad light and that would leave other GM members free to also go to that social site and collectively tell X to shut the fuck up. If this persists though, I believe management should take steps to punish or remove X from the community, as if X builds the reputation of a bully for himself he may not be wanted in the ranks of GM. Treat every case individually - don't put up a set of guidelines.

All that being said, I just think that the most important thing to distinguish is that there are two sides to every argument - just because X and Y are fighting and Y approaches the management first, it doesn't mean that X is harassing him. Personal shit happens, and that should also be acknowledged.

 

I feel that if somebody who is active (could be a community member or clan member) within our community who is bullying another member (again community or clan) outside of our servers forums etc should be punished with our boundaries.

Example
If I were to bully Savage, on the 2B2T Minecraft server we play on, and then still be on the GM forums and Mumble, I should be punished.
Now I don’t really feel the need to write down every example because there are many possible ways things can happen. Either way, I bullied Savage and could take away his pleasure of being on GM. This in my eyes is not acceptable.

Now the punishment could be different, depending on how badly I acted. It could be from a good talk, temp ban or maybe even perma ban.
If I showed regret and openly apologized to Savage for my wrong doing all should be fine. If I do not, then other actions should be taken.
I understand that some may say, but we are not responsible for what people say and or do outside of our community. That is true. But as said above, if both people are active with GM and one is causing the other so much grief they would rather just leave, something should be done. We should protect those who are being bullied and they should not be the ones who should leave.

 

Also something I'd like to note - wherever, and whenever the GM tag is being worn on ANY game, that GM member is liable for his behaviour. If any member is hopping from server to server wearing the GM tag and acting like a total dick to everyone, or spewing racist/homophobic/etc terms or the like, then he is giving a very bad face to this community and should be considered for having his rank revoked.

 

That should not matter. It could have been any other server or game. If I as a member of this community make his beging here a living hell I should be punished.
If Savage came to you saying he no longer wants to be here because of me being an absolute cunt, on another server) are you going to say: oh well thats to bad but there is nothing I can do for you?

 

It does though - being in anything related to GM means that we are expected to act cordially with other member and follow [GM]'s rules. If we don't we are punished. Venturing into servers unowned by GM and instead by, let's say, MG: we have no power over anything that happens there.

I know I'm sort of playing devil's advocate here, but you wouldn't make his being here a living hell, you would be making it hell on the MG servers. If you were to cause the same trouble on GM servers though, then THAT he can be punished for.

 

Ok forget about 2b2t.. Like I said it could be any other server.

 

If the intent of the server is to harass people and all, then it isn't really bullying, unless Savage (in this example) gets picked on all the time from the moment he joins to the moment he leaves. In such a case, it would either spill over into other servers / the forum / Mumble, or if there is no evil intent, Savage would say that he can appreciate a joke but that this has gone too far, and the harassers would stop in that case. Either way the situation gets solved.

But, yeah, what Hellreaver said in his first post. With the caveat that the social media thing will eventually lead to some kind of punishment. Because it'll spill over and people will react to it, which creates a negative mood, which can be talked about or such. People shouldn't be allowed to bully someone.

 

In example of Gels they did make her life a living hell with the result of her leaving us. How is this ok? How is it that the people who have done this can still be here free to do the same to others?

 

Hellreaver would be in the wrong to do so. Hellreaver was on a server which is not GM, thus it is up to him to report it to the moderators of that server if he is being harassed.

Nothing should happen. Kazza is paying her own good money to take out Queen, it is simply gameplay mechanics.

I feel GM members should be free to defend Mystia on his profile. If this persists and Spuds' true colours as a total asshat (love you xoxo) continue to show, then action should be taken against him as he is incorrectly representing this community.

The thing about these situations is that the two people involved would already have to have fallen out with each other, as being that much of a cunt to people has got to have some motivation behind it. However, there's only so much we can do.

 

I feel in any case that if somebody is being bullied that is affecting them wanting to be here, something should be done.

But to answer the examples.
1) Yes, if this affects Hellreaver wanting to be a part of GM.
2) In this case I think you mean that nobody knows about it?
3) Yes, again if Mystia feels he can (example) not join a certain Mumble channel because Spuds is there.

EDIT
I switched the names sorry

 

I'm reall sorry, but I simply just don't understand how this is justifiable.

DayZ is a purely hardcore PvP environment. You make it sound like people don't have a chance of fighting back. If Harvey decides to hunt me down and repeatedly kill me to steal my loot, fuck it, that's the nature of the game. I would expect a swift demotion if I used my admin powers to get back at Harvey for simply playing a game as intended on a server not even GM's.

 

Because it's not about the game. Like I said:
I feel in any case that if somebody is being bullied that is affecting them wanting to be here, something should be done.

In the case of Gels I find it horrible to think we let the people who did this to her be here and free to do the same to others.

@Lord HellJack
Even if it happened on another server its something that affects people within our community. People we want here. If we are to condone the people who make others leave.. well..

 

Well you as a manager should be neutral. When being a manager you are not here to like or dislike people. That a certain few don't like somebody that's fine, you don't have to and in general that does not cause any issues. Nobody has to be like by everybody. But if somebody is bullied away under your watch I would really ask myself if thats something you want.

But I don't understand why taking action now is something that seems to be difficult. Were the people who trolled Rioter and Gamerdile not spoken to? Even if they did bully them here on the GM forums a lot of it was outside of it and still counted.

 

I think the best thing is to handle it on a case-by-case basis, enforcing a strict rule for something like this will just lead to people being more sneaky or underhanded in the way they harass people which could end up being a more insidious scenario than would have originally played out, having some sort of guidelines and then discussing things as a group if a problem such a someone being harassed comes to light, with bullying or any sort of harassment each case is fairly unique and should be treated a such, there are many shades to the extent of which someone can be wronged and I don't think that you can have a fixed position when it comes to things like this.


EDIT: on the point of someone being given shit just because you don't happen to get along with them is ridiculous in real life let alone on a forum where you can specifically choose to ignore people and act as if they don't even exist.