[Report] Illegitimate Moderation Intervention?!!

[Lunatic Goofballs]

This was very difficult. I'm hoping to make something constructive come out of this.

If this kind of confusion can hit a moderator, it can hit anybody. And let me tell you; I was left much more confused than Kryo was over the whole event. Nobody playing this game should ever experience my level of confusion. And many players experience more.

[Gest]

Unless it was overly egregious you weren't ever likely to remove the mod, free labor is free labor after all, but I was "misinformed" is a pretty flimsy explanation. Can someone explain what the misinformation was? The below is quite vague.

-The misinformation was based on outdated information on how the system works. (Which was?)

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Unless it was overly egregious you weren't ever likely to remove the mod, free labor is free labor after all, but I was "misinformed" is a pretty flimsy explanation. Can someone explain what the misinformation was? The below is quite vague.

-The misinformation was based on outdated information on how the system works. (Which was?)

My understanding(thanks to a crash course from a few of the other mods; especially Mall) is that when the founder's nation lapses, regional control automatically activates for the Delegate. But when the founder's nation is reactivated, that control isn't automatically deactivated and no notice is given. So it's possible for a founder and Delegate to be completely surprised when their region suddenly becomes a juicy target.

[Reploid Productions]

To help stop some of the unfounded speculation, these were the general results of the investigation into this incident:

• Kryozerkia's actions were not intended as malicious.
• Said actions stemmed from assuming a game glitch on account of not realizing that the region had in fact become vulnerable enough to make a raid possible, assuming as a result that WA endorsements weren't being counted properly. (In actuality, the delegate's endorsement count had been slowly declining, as nations that CTEd and refounded didn't check to make sure they had re-endorsed the delegate; plus the aforementioned slip where the delegate HAD been given access to regional control.)
• Kryozerkia's actions were the result of the aforementioned misunderstanding of the situation in the region and a lack of knowledge of a poorly-documented decade-old past precedent regarding suspected game glitches and R/D gameplay. (Said precedent being a game glitch in 2004 that cost several delegates, most notably Francos Spain their delegacies. After mods moved to fix a raid that should not have been possible barring said glitch, the official word from the Powers That Be on it was "Don't try to fix glitches that enable/prevent a raid or defense. It's a random Act of God. Also, point the admins at it, kthx.") Said precedent was basically not documented anywhere on the current forum, and it predates Kryozerkia as a moderator by considerable margin.
• At no point did Kryozerkia utilize her moderator powers directly against the raiders (warns, bans, deletions against those nations) who invaded the region; her actions were limited to resetting the raided region to it's pre-raided state.
• The primary issue is the self-moderation of the region. Her actions in fixing what she mistook for a legitimate game glitch were decidedly against moderator conduct guidelines, no matter how well-intentioned those actions were. While distressing from a purely player standpoint, the situation was not time-critical, and it would have kept until Kryozerkia could flag down an uninvolved moderator to examine the situation and/or one of the techies to verify the presence of a suspected game glitch.

While the full gamut of consequences, including the possibility of partial or full demotion were on the table during the course of the investigation, the final decision was that "Kryo dun fucked up, but it was pretty clearly not a malicious rampage against all things raider." The final result with input from the Boss Himself was that Kryo would not be demoted, though her actions are going to be under careful watch by the rest of the team and by [v] for the next long while to ensure that this was the one-off mistake it appears to be. Plus the entire team and the admin did run her pretty badly through the ringer in the mod lair in the process.

The circumstances surrounding this case also highlight a very clear problem with how the game transmits certain information to players, (especially those who are not active in gameplay mechanics and thus may not be paying attention to those details) both about the existence and risks of R/D gameplay and about regional mechanics. Several suggestions of varying technical complexity are already being tossed about and chewed on for ways to improve in this area so that players are less likely to be caught unawares.

There may be a followup post from [violet] on the matter. I'm not sure. She may decide that the rest of us have sufficiently explained the situation.


~Evil Forum Empress Rep Prod the Ninja Admin
~She who wields the Banhammer; master of the mighty moderation no-dachi Kiritateru Teikoku

[[violet]]

Covered well above, but yes: there was a serious protocol breach, in that Kryo used her mod powers in an inappropriate way. Mods aren't permitted to use their powers to benefit themselves in-game, which is effectively what Kryo did when she altered her own region.

We don't expect mods never to make a mistake, because they are volunteers, not paid staff, and personally I think they deserve some understanding for the work they put in to keep this place running. So since Kryo acknowledges the error, and it was an isolated incident in a long and distinguished career, I don't support a suspension or dismissal.

We run a very open and transparent moderation system on NationStates, and hold our moderators to account far more than on any board of which I'm aware, because it's important to us that players not only trust in the moderation system but can actually see that it's working. Everything Game Mods do is logged, and I mean everything, and these logs are viewable by admin and all other Game Mods. We investigate every allegation of misconduct, even when it's uncomfortable; a few mods can vouch for that.

This is a really rare example of actual misuse of game mod powers--not the first, but the first in many, many years, and, I hope, the last for many to come.

[RiderSyl]

NS players that have been on the game much longer expressed to me what exactly what you said, [violet]; that this is a really rare example of actual misuse of mod powers.

I'm okay with the lack of demotion in this case. I hope this is truly a one-off mistake, and Kryo is able to learn from this incident.

Thank you sincerely for how y'all handled this. Best-case scenario, you guys don't have to handle another actual case of misconduct any time in the future.

[Chester Pearson]

Does a "formal reprimand" have any actual consequences to distinguish it from, say, being completely meaningless?

Much like the admonishment that was issued, when a certain (legal) proposal was yanked from the queue.

My understanding(thanks to a crash course from a few of the other mods; especially Mall) is that when the founder's nation lapses, regional control automatically activates for the Delegate. But when the founder's nation is reactivated, that control isn't automatically deactivated and no notice is given. So it's possible for a founder and Delegate to be completely surprised when their region suddenly becomes a juicy target.

Except that Ardchoille is the founder, and never CTE'd. Ard has left executive power in the hands of the delegate since I have been around, so I don't buy the "surprised" excuse. At least we got an actual formal apology over this one though, so that is something I guess?

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

I personally think this was handled well, with the removal of powers until a further investigation, followed by said further investigation, and complete transparency and an apology on completion. How many sites out there wouldn't have even bothered to look into it that much, and especially would have released a detailed explanation on conclusion? This isn't a common thing, and it was handled quite seriously. I'm sure if anything similar happens in the future, it'll meet an equally close scrutiny, with less leeway for "oops," but when it comes down to it, nothing like this has happened in a loooong time, and people make mistakes. Here, it was not following proper procedure for cases one is involved with, combined with a mistaken view of what happened. In the end, the in-game damage was only a single tag, and the capability for damage was transferred to the mods themselves - but only if this had been handled poorly, which it was not.

Everybody makes mistakes sometimes, as you should know, and not very many of them make a full and public apology and undergo a week of scrutiny, interrogation, fate-discussing, and investigation by their peers following the offence committed. That took guts, and I'll take that. The mod team here as a whole is very receptive and open, with all manners of check and balances to cover any mistakes, and pave new ground together. This never, from the start, seemed openly malicious too me. No one would knowingly and purposefully break the rules in that way, knowing it's get reported and investigate, unless they fully and truly wanted to lose their position for good. We've gotten an apology from Kryo and an explanation from three game mods, a forum admin, and the game admin herself. I don;t think there's much more to be asked for without sounding blatantly out for blood.

-Souls

[Evil Wolf]

Except that Ardchoille is the founder, and never CTE'd.

Not actually true.

61 days ago: Regional Founder The Free Toy With Every Meal of Ardchoille ceased to exist.

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

Except that Ardchoille is the founder, and never CTE'd.

Not actually true.

Yep.
61 days ago: Regional Founder The Free Toy With Every Meal of Ardchoille ceased to exist.
At which point delegate automatically becomes executive, and has to be turned off again if you refound the founder

[Chester Pearson]

Not actually true.

Yep.
61 days ago: Regional Founder The Free Toy With Every Meal of Ardchoille ceased to exist.
At which point delegate automatically becomes executive, and has to be turned off again if you refound the founder

Three Weasels has had executive power for over two years, and Kryo knew that. But like I said, we actually got an apology on this one, so things are looking up.

[Todd McCloud]

I appreciate the transparency in all of this, and I'm cool with the explanation / results. o7

[[violet]]

Some unrelated discussion moved to here.