I got my dev to make a HUD element that will sit on the screen (small wont be distracting) listing online staff and their ranks. Seems the best way for players to know what staff are online and who without having to resort to a command.
I went back and had a look at what happened and it was not Pex or Essentials or the spawn plugin i use but rather only Worldguard having some fun with me. So if anyone else is having the same issue with not being able to edit the world even when assigned * permission it might be worldguard.
I found the problem i am pretty sure it was world guard having a fit but in the end i re configured worldguard, essentials and PEX and it solved everything but took me ages lol
I went back and had a look at what happened and it was not Pex or Essentials or the spawn plugin i use but rather only Worldguard having some fun with me. So if anyone else is having the same issue with not being able to edit the world even when assigned * permission it might be worldguard.