1. Responsibilities

The job of staff is chiefly to moderate the server, both on Discord and BYOND.

Staff are expected to be active. Consistent inactivity is grounds for removal.

Handling tickets is mandatory; if you are unable to do so, deadmin.

Staff are expected to have integrity. Members of staff can not handle tickets involving themselves. This does not apply for mass grief or similar situations where the entire server is affected.

2. Events and Permissions

Staff members (excluding eventmins) should minimize their interference with the round. This includes, but is not limited to: excessive use of narrates, sounds, possessing objects, and spawning mobs.

Staff should not spawn items for themselves, nor should they use aheals outside of an administrative capacity. Items spawned outside of tickets should not grant mechanical advantages.

Events are not the responsibility of staff. While staff can host them, they are to be cleared through the eventmins.

Staff, when playing as event characters, should not engage in activities unrelated to the event. This means things like clearing dungeons. If the character has been approved for play outside of events, this does not apply during those times.

3. Answering Tickets

Staff members must handle tickets within a reasonable timeframe. Tickets must be answered within thirty minutes. If there are other tickets to be prioritized, inform the player that staff are looking into it.

Staff are expected to be professional in tickets. Avoid being accusatory when answering a ticket; instead, ask about the situation. Most incidents should be approached as if it is a misunderstanding rather than bad faith, as to not incite players.

If you are unable to remain professional in a ticket or must leave, ask another staff member to handle it.

4. Punishments

Punishments will be applied in increasing severity for repeated offenses. Based on the context of a situation, ban length may be increased. Before applying a punishment, check the player's notes.

When applying a punishment, the rule(s) broken must be clearly laid out. Notes should be applied for any rulebreak or warning; they are to be objective and avoid being excessive in length.

Watchlists should be applied when a player must be spoken to, but is currently offline. They should also be applied in the event a player disconnects mid-ticket and does not return.

Positive notes may be applied when a player shows exceptional behavior.

5. Staff Behavior

Staff are held to a far higher standard than players. If conflict arises, staff are expected to remain professional.

On Discord, staff must have their ckey in their name followed by whatever nickname they want. Abbreviations and variants of the ckey are not allowed; they must be exactly as they are in-game.

In the event insults are thrown, staff should refrain from responding in kind and step away if they can not handle the situation.

Communication and understanding are expected from staff. If there are questions or concerns about something, voice them.

Staff are to keep player information confidential. Do not reveal ckeys or character names of players.

6. Age Check Guidelines

Age checks are to be conducted when staff suspect a player of being underage. They are also performed for any new staff members. Privacy in age checks is of the utmost importance.

Age checks are to remain in direct messages on Discord between the staff member and player. If you do not feel comfortable conducting an age check or are otherwise uncertain, refer the player to another staff member.

Reasons to age check a player include, but are not limited to: low literacy, hypersexuality, repeated immersion breaks, or long-term play. Staff should carefully consider when an age check is necessary; performing age checks on random players may scare them off.

For players suspected of being underage, it may be prudent to inform them that this is a 16+ server. Ask their age and/or date of birth. If the player admits they are underage, apply a permanent ban.

When giving a player instructions for an age check, send them this:

Provide a photograph of valid government identification (ID, passport, birth certificate, driver's license, etc.) with everything censored except your date of birth along with a paper that has your ckey/Discord and current date written on it or this Discord conversation in the background of the picture.

When sent the picture, ensure the date of birth matches with what was entered on the Discord server and/or ticket. If the criteria are not entirely fulfilled, have the player repeat the process. If dates of birth do not match, apply a permanent ban in-game and on Discord.
Use the Command Function on Discord to ban them with this command: /ban [DISCORD ID] [Keep All Messages] Underage

Since Zephyr has the age-check database up, we can use the bot to log age-checks instead. The commands are as follows:

/project-hoard age-check-repository verify-member user:@Poots13 age-checked:True
/project-hoard age-check-repository get-verified-status user:@Poots13

The first is to enter someone into the database, with the second to see if someone is in the database.

7. Intrusive Age Checks

These are mainly for persons confirmed underage and appealing.

If the person's date of birth did not match, or you otherwise suspect them of having faked their last check, you may ask for their face to verify it matches the ID. Compare the same type of identification with the picture and look very closely at the information. Use your best judgement--if you do not feel the age check is legitimate, do not accept it.