Staff Abuse

The Problem:

Staff abuse is a growing problem in the minecraft community. With the amount of servers increasing everyday as it becomes easier and easier to host a server, good staff becomes more and more spread out. What we are left with is server owners frantically trying to pick staff from the few people they actually have on the server. This leads to bad staff who are not mature enough to handle the responsibility that comes with being a staff member on a server. Luckily there are a few ways you can restrict the chances (and ways) that staff can abuse powers.

The Ban Hammer:

The dream of all players is to wield the mighty ban hammer on a popular server. The problem though is how many players can have that privilege and not abuse it. One of the worst things a servers rep can have associated with it is abusive staff and banning without a good reason is a perfect way to get yourself on the fast track to a failed server. A few ways to avoid this is make your staff work there way up. Do not give your first staff rank ban privilege. A good alternative would be giving them a kick and mute option. This means they can enforce the rules but can't quite do any serious damage. When they do rank up higher, after you watch them and trust them, I would suggest giving them temp ban. After you have watched them for A LONG TIME and you trust them with your servers whole reputation and enforcement of rules then of course they can finally use the players dream weapon. The Ban Hammer.

Shut Up I Am Higher Then You:

I like many others have run into mods and sometimes admins who like to use the hierarchy to give them an advantage in a flame war. In one extreme case I was muted by the mod and then taunted giving me no way to respond back. There is no clever trick to this other then making a staff member contract which says somewhere in it that you will demote them for swearing or abusing your powers to another player. Remember that staff do represent your server unlike any other player and what ever that staff member says will reflect on the server.

Item Spawning:

A very common and unfair version of staff abuse is item spawning. Whether or not what they spawn is big or a big deal it is still unfair and should be handled as such. Something as small as a few diamonds could make the difference in a fight. This is most likely th easiest thing to restrict from staff. Don't let them have option for gamemode or any item spawning commands. It is not needed at all and if it is used it can really only be used for and abusive purpose.

The Best Way To Restrict Staff Abuse:

1. Only recruit more staff if you actually need more staff because you have alot of players. Do not recruit staff just because they have played for a long time.

2. Don't recruit them because you are friends with them. A good friend does not always make a good staff member. You should recruit staff based on maturity, not on your personal friendship.

3. If a staff member abuses their power it should be an instant demotion. You need to show that your not messing around when you say no using your powers unfairly.

4. Make sure you fully trust the player who you will be giving staff to.

5. Communicate through a chat program such as skype or teamspeak because that grows trust and loyalty much faster then chatting through the game can.

6. Recruit mature players. While you shouldn't directly take the 15 year old over the 12 year old I would suggest looking at the 15 year old a bit more seriously because they will most likely be more responsible. That doesn't mean don't look at the 12 year olds application and talk to him seriously because there are some young kids who are mature for their age. As there are also 15 year olds who are immature for their age.

Conclusion:

Staff members are becoming more abusive as time goes on due to either lazy owners or just the fact that less and less people are willing to restrain themselves from the temptations that being a staff member brings. However they reflect the server they come from so server owners should take action and remove them from their rank not only creating a little less admin abuse in the world of minecraft but also making their server look better.

My Final Shoutout:

Server Owners, stop recruiting players you hardly know to be staff on your server. It really is a very poor choice and will make players leave your server due to abusive admins. At least watch the player interact with the other players before you make them a symbol of your server.

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