RetroMC Staff Policy Manual
The RetroMC Staff Policy Manual (RSPM) is designed to outline the responsibilities and actions of staff members. While currently in its draft stage, the RSPM is intended to eventually serve as the primary high-level reference document for all staff.
Amendments to "policy points" of RSPM should only be made by a Server Operator and are generally subject to discussion among other staff members.
Staff members are welcome to grammar check, change formatting and add links, without the approval of an Operator as long as the meaning of the RSPM isn't changed.
In instances where a staff member needs to deviate from this policy, they must seek approval from an Operator. If applicable, this situation should prompt a proposed amendment to the RSPM for future reference.
1. Ban Transfer Policy
A ban implemented on either the Discord platform or the RetroMC server does not automatically apply to the other. RetroMC staff have the authority to "transfer" a ban to the second platform, as determined by specific circumstances. Due to the manual nature of transferred bans, these transfers should only be carried out when the ban on the opposing platform is permanent.
2. Documentation of Ban Evidence
When issuing a ban, the staff member in question must provide evidence on the JBans platform. If a player lodges an appeal against a ban and there is insufficient evidence to justify the ban, the ban is deemed invalid and player pardoned.
2.1 Handling of Sensitive Evidence
When potential evidence is deemed sensitive and cannot be presented publicly on JohnyBans, a LVL2 ticket with the evidence is to be raised on Discord. This evidence is then to be stored in the RetroMC archive managed by Johny, with an appropriate note added to the ban in question.
3. Ban Appeal Process
All players have the right to appeal against a ban. Staff should accept a ban if they believe there is a "reasonable" chance the player won't re-offend.
3.1. Decision Making
When choosing to accept a ban appeal, staff should consider the efficiency of provided tools such as LogBlock, JGriefAlert, JVillage. Most of the time, it is impossible for staff to know if a player is likely to re-offend. Due to the above tools, staff are encouraged to give players the "benefit of the doubt" and take into account previous offences on the server, alongside, history including playtime when deciding.
A player with multiple offences with 10 hours should be treated differently than a player with a thousand hours.
3.2. Pardon Types
These are the following ways a player may be pardoned.
3.2.1. General Pardon
A ban appeal can be accepted if a majority of staff members vote to pardon a user. A staff member should permit a reasonable amount of time to permit discussion and allow enough staff members to discuss the issue.
3.2.2. Issuer Pardon
The staff member who issued a ban may choose to invalidate the ban.
Operators have the authority to reverse this action.
3.2.3. Operator Pardon
An operator may choose to unilaterally accept a ban appeal.
4. Transference of Ban from Other Servers
Players are not automatically banned from RetroMC if they are banned on another server. A player's ban may be "transfered" in accordance with 4.1. If the player is banned on another JBan server, a moderator or higher authority can initiate a ban transfer. If the player is not banned on another JBan server, an operator must approve the ban transfer.
4.1.1. There is a reasonable belief that the user on the original server and RetroMC is the same person. If the person on RetroMC is a cracked user, they should have their password reset instead.
4.1.2. They are assessed as being of poor character and are likely to break the rules on RetroMC. A primary factor for determining if this is true is the extent of damage they did to receive their original ban and how many times they have been banned previously across JBans servers. If it is a ban for minor griefing or something similar, that isn't sufficient enough reason in of itself.
5. Use of Beta Evolutions Mode (/authme betaevo)
This mode is reserved for high-risk situations and should be used for short durations. As it requires players to use a modded client, impacting the player count negatively, it is considered as a raid response tool. Activation of this mode can be done by a moderator or higher authority, and the activation must be communicated via Discord staff chat.
6. Confidentiality and Need to Know
Staff should use common sense when discussing information from private forms regarding RetroMC, BetaLands and associated services. Closed source plugins, internal files, and documentation are not to be published unless authorized by an Operator. Documents such as ban appeals and staff applications should be considered to be personal information and, therefore, shouldn’t be distributed without the express permission of the originator.
7. Staff Conduct
Staff are expected to be familiar with the Staff Onboard Guide.
7.1 Actions in other communities
A staff member can be dismissed from RetroMC as a result of poor behaviour in other communities.
Example: A staff member raids/"attacks" another Legacy Minecraft Server.
Changelog
All changes to the RSPM are to be documented accordingly.
| Date DD/MM/YY | Change | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 26/06/23 | The initial version of the RSPM has been drafted. The intent of the document is to serve as the overarching staff policy document. This document is meant to outline the Operator's intent alongside providing authorizations on various actions. |  |
| 27/06/23 | Removed header from the first line of the page, and thus, the table of contents now match up with the section numbers. Author names are now clickable & direct users to the respective author's user page. |  |
| 04/07/23 | Added avatars of respective authors into the changelog. | |