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Admin Best Practices

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Admins are put in place in order to ensure a fun gaming experience for everyone. As such, admins should attempt to follow a few general practices whenever exerting their power:

  • Know how all admin commands work. Depending on what mods may be running on the server, all admins should be familiar with how each and every command operates to avoid making any mistakes.
  • Warn often, act once. The idea behind having admin powers is so they can be used only when necessary. For this reason, when dealing with those who lame or otherwise break any server rules, it is preferrable to give the offenders ample warning so that they are fully aware of their offense. When you finally do use your admin powers, you should only have to use them one time to get the message through that the player in question needs to change his or her conduct. If the player is a rational individual who understands the language you are using, their actions should take immediate reform. Malicious players do exist, though, so when dealing with them...
  • Keep your cool. Too often a player enters a server with malicious intent, and the admins present become so offended that they lose their tempers and begin to behave irrationally. When dealing with players of any sort, it is always important to remain calm and collected. If a player knows you have admin and continues to offend you, then obviously their goal is nothing more than to see you get angry. There is no need to give them this satisfaction, though. After all, you are the admin; you have much more control over them than they do over you. Thus, when faced with intentionally irritating players, stick to your normal steps of warning, then taking action, but don't overreact. Forcing a player to leave a server could just provoke them to return, but if you can convince a player to leave of his own will, then he will likely never return to bother you again. At times, though, you have no choice but to expel players from your server, so make sure you know...
  • There's a time for kick and a time for ban. Sometimes, in spite of all your efforts, troublesome players just don't go away. They may resort to methods like quickly reconnecting to the server to bypass an admin command placed upon them, and they may continue to misbehave regardless of what you do to attempt to convince them otherwise. Since your goal as an admin is to ensure fun for everyone, when all else fails, don't be afraid to kick a player from the server. If the player attempts to reconnect, do not immediately kick him again, but wait to see if he will continue to misbehave. Upon witnessing your ability to kick, an unruly player may calm down and show more respect; if this is the case, you have won the battle. If, however, the player returns to attempt to cause more trouble, then use kick again, or ban if you are able to. There is no need to repeat the warning and punishing process again to a player who has already been through it all and was still kicked. If you have access to a banning command, it is preferrable to use it only after you have used at least one kick. However, if a player connects and exhibits potentially dangerous behavior, there may be acceptable cases to use immediate ban, even bypassing the normal warning systems (player attempts to or threatens to crash or flood your server, player displays highly offensive language/verbal abuse to other players). Just keep in mind at all times that your job as admin is to make sure everyone has the greatest amount of fun possible.
  • Don't go admin crazy. This does not just apply to anti-lamer commands, but to other commands as well. For example, many mods have admin powers that grant the user all Force powers or all weapons and ammo. These abilities can be fun when used in a good and organized way, but using those powers to your own advantage can make the entire server less enjoyable. Using Force or weapons against another player who does not have them is usually considered unfair and proves nothing. Even giving out these powers to other players can sometimes cause the server to lag, so care must always be taken with every admin command used.
  • handling trolls. Trolls are simply people who attempt to bring attention to themselves by causing poor and/or unacceptable beaviour...as an admin, trolls should be ignored only if they follow the rules...if they do break any rules, they should be punished normaly.