Last Warning to All Administrators & Staff

T

taferrara

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Jul 30, 2013
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Founders, Server Administrators, and Staff:

It has been brought to my attention today that there has recently been some inadequate behavior on the Battlefield 3 server #18765. Sadly, the reports I received were not regarding players on the server but instead, the reports were regarding server admins. If you did nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. I will not name those involved -- know who you are.

The reports in question involved inappropriate team-switching of players, inappropriate team-switching of the admin(s) themselves, and lastly, teamkilling by the very admins who deemed the rule not to teamkill.

Team-switching of players should be strictly prohibited unless you are 1). balancing the server, 2). fulfilling a player's request (such as being with a friend). If neither of the aforementioned requirements have been met, you have absolutely no reason to be switching a player to another team. It doesn't matter if they break a rule; if they break a rule, you tell them not to. You have the ability (by the Game Server Administrator Rights Policy) to give all players a warning and you are required to kick a player a minimum of two (2) times before banning them. Those are the standard policies who violate the rules. Nowhere in the Game Server Administrator Rights Policy does it state that teamkilling and/or team-switching is an acceptable punishment for individuals found violating the rules.

In regard to admin team-switching, cut it out --- completely. Switching teams to help out another team that might be losing is one thing. Yet switching teams to the winning team simply so that you can have an extra win on your soldier's statistics page is unacceptable. It's a game. If you lose, get over it. There's plenty of other things in life you should be worrying about; if "gaining a loss in a game" is one of your worries, you have bigger problems at hand. Team switching is enabled in the first place to allow players to switch teams to join fellow players and make the game a more fun experience. If you're going to use it for purposes such as switching teams to the winning team, use that. Don't use the In-Game Admin to switch yourself. That is considered abusing your administrative powers, per the Battlefield 3 Server Administrator Terms of Service that is managed and maintained by Electronic Arts.

Luckily, there are only a few admins who were involved with the incidents in question. However, this is my first and final warning to you all. Beware that all actions you use within the Server Administration Tool (both in-game and in the game menus) is logged by master server logs. These logs are not accessible by customers, but they do exist. And I do check them. So any stories you want to throw at me, you might as well forget about them. I make decisions solely based on log files. Log files do not lie; admins on the other hand, may.

If you do have an overwhelming need for power, inform me immediately and I will remove your administrative privileges from the server. Believe it or not, such an incident wouldn't be a punishment, but rather a better decision by you. Further, you can gain them back by requesting them later, assuming you feel adequate enough to obtain them. Such a decision will do you better in the long run, versus keeping them and losing them permanently because you couldn't keep your head straight.

Perhaps you do not feel the importance of being a server administrator and using your rights within the confined limits. If you work and understand the value of a dollar, you would think twice before abusing your privileges on any public service. Elevated privileges takes responsibility. If you don't have it, admit so and move forward.

Again, this is my last warning on the subject matter. Fuck up again and you'll be off the administrative list by me.

Regards.

 
For the record, I think the server was empty recently partially because of the map rotation being frequently altered.

 
Such a service that's been running smoothly for weeks and weeks on end doesn't die for so long due to a simple change in map rotation. It's due to the cause of irresponsible server admins. If one can't see that, they have problems.

Simply put, server admins need to be professional, courteous, and respectful. The particular admins in question have been courteous and respectful in the past. I've seen these admins send messages to individuals after kicking them, describing the reasons for getting kicked, especially at times where it's to make room for an admin or VIP user. But what these admins are lacking is professionalism. It's unprofessional and completely unacceptable to teamkill someone simply because they teamkill you. If someone teamkills you (on purpose), the responsible thing to do is warn them once and kick them for any subsequent occurrences. It's not about "exacting revenge" or anything childish like that. If you think that way, you've got a childish mind and don't deserve to be an admin.

That said, I will be enforcing the rule mentioned above. Anyone found to be excessively exacting/obtaining revenge for an intentional teamkill will be removed from the admin list -- by me -- immediately. No exceptions, no excuses. You choose what you do; no one presses the buttons on your controller for you.

 
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I understand the professionalism. But I think it's pretty normal for some people to get revenge on an intentional teamkiller every now and then. On the PC, you can type "!punish" and it will kill the person who teamkilled you. That's not an option on consoles though.

Accidents of course are a different story, but purposeful teamkills just cause admins to want payback. Just my 2 cents.

 
Payback is essentially the same as revenge.

Further, I used the word "excessively" for a reason. Teamkilling someone who purposefully teamkills you once or twice (at most) is understandable. But to do it more than such is unacceptable. The particular admins involved in this incident teamkilled several times and finally kicked them. Honestly, what's the point? You got your payback after killing him the first time. Consecutive teamkills are a waste of time and simply demonstrate a sense of irresponsibility. If someone is stupid enough to teamkill you again, kick them out. If they come back and repeat their old ways, ban them. It's that simple.

A server admin is supposed to lead by example and demonstrate courteous, respectful, and professional behavior. Acting like a ten year old because you want to exact your revenge or "obtain payback" is the act of an irresponsible nitwit.

You want an example? Keith50070 (PS3). When losing, he moved top players of the opposite team to his team and then moved himself to the other team. On top of all the things you've pointed out in the other areas of this community, it shows that he's irresponsible and mentally challenged, at the least.

 
You got a point.

 
u got a point there and im js but if some little cocky fucker comes in the server and tk me on purpose not only will i shoot him back and kill him once but if he does it again after that i will kick him if he comes back and disrespects me and tks me more i will ban him permently so ya

 
That's reasonable and rather understandable behavior. No problem with that.

But if someone purposefully teamkills you on two or more occurrences, it makes more sense to simply kick them. If they continue, it's something a simple ban will fix, at least on this particular server.

I believe you get the point. As I said, I don't have issues with what you said. Sounds fair and reasonable to me.

 
I will tell every one what happened. Yes i am the Terrence is talking about. 

It Started with our team being base raped and stuck near C on Metro. I admit to TK someone 5 times However the circumstances leading to doing so i believe may not be acceptable but is not something to remove an admin for. Especially considering the circumstances There was a guy standing in the hallway in front of some crates where i like to hide sometimes. Note: i found out later that the guy standing there was saying fuck it im going to eat some ice cream to iceman. However i did not know of this till 2 days later. 

Anyway i told him over the mic 2 or 3 times to please move and to do something. bc he did indeed have a mic and he was on team chat however i did not hear him talk i did see a mic indicating symbol flashing as if there was a little bit of noise in the background. Note he was not in the deployment as i found out iceman said he was in the deployment eating ice cream. 

He did not move nor did he do anything. Instead of kicking him i TK him bc there was only 5 people on both teams and i didnt want to kick one person and risk killing the server. Then 5 min later in the deployment he found me and TK me. Another guy revived me and he tryed TK me again but i TK him b4 he TK me. Then i revived him and TK him while downed so that the other guy cant revive him. I said over the mic its done do that again and i will kick you. 

About 15 or 20 min later passed i honestly forgot all about the guy. Then out of know where while still in the deployment headed to C. He is now an assuault and TK me then he revives me and tried to TK me again. However i killed him b4 he TK me again then i revived him and TK him again so the blue guy next to me cant revive him while i enter the start menu and kicked him out. 

Iceman got all bent out of shape and said your giving us a bad name yata yata yata. Then he left. A few people start joining. I eventualy decide im going to switch teams bc i have not been online playing BF3 for 2 and a half weeks i didnt want to fuck up my K/D bc my team is incompetent. 

That will explain what happened and will also explaing that the server being empty was not due to me being an "abusive" admin bc how can i be an "abusive" admin if i wasnt there.

However Terence did make a good point about the server not being empty bc of the map rotation. That might not be the only reason why the server is empty. That being said i think we need to investigate and see if anyone in the past week or two was exiting abusive behavior rather than looking at me bc i have not been online during those weeks. 

 
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From what it seems, you teamkilling him lit a fuse that pissed the guy off. But at the point where you said "it's done", he should have stopped. Any event occurring afterwards should've been an automatic kick by you. I am aware however that upon death, bringing up the menu can be next to impossible dir to the mechanics of the game. Adding revives to the picture makes it worse. So in such a case, if you are getting teamkilled and revived, either let them go on with it (since they will get kicked after 5 total teamkills) or if you get a chance, kill them once again, and while they're dead, kick them. Finally, promptly explain the kick to any other admin in-game to prevent potential confusion.

 
That is what i did. I said it was done and the next time he did that i would kick him. Bout 15 min later he found me again and TK me i was about to kick him but he revived me and tried to kill me again but i killed him b4 he can kill me then i revived and killed him so that the blue guy next to me cant revive him then while i had the chance i kicked him from the match.

 
Terrence replied to this but also pointed out something else.

I split his post onto a new topic titled "English Conventions". See that for more details.

 
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