![[E] BumpyBob0007](https://mc-heads.net/avatar/Steve/128)
Welcome to Dev Diary #4. Today will focus on beginning the process of updating and rewriting permissions, and updating current staff guidelines expectations.
The last time permissions were fully updated was when Main was released. Some of the ranks in it have been completely rewritten since then, but the last time the entire system was fully up-to-date with no outdated or unnecessary permissions was over five and a half years ago. Even then, a lot of the ranks were based on the ranks from Agharta. There are likely permissions that we use today that have been in the system for close to, if not over a decade at this point. To give a few examples - you can find videos on YouTube of people on Minetown from 2011 using familiar Craftbook mechanics, and the oldest bans in our current database are “Pre 1.2.3 Imports” (1.2.3 being an update released on March 2, 2012). These are the same plugins we use today, and likely contain the same permissions as well.
Sure, there’s plenty of plugins that we have used for years, and a lot of these we will continue to use moving forward. If it ain’t broke (and it’s a well made plugin with useful functionality) don’t fix it. However, there are also a lot of plugins that have (or will be) removed from the server. For the ones that we have already removed (in some cases years ago) their permissions clutter the database, serving only as a reminder for the plugins we once had. Do we use LWC? No, and we haven’t for over three years. That doesn’t mean that it’s permissions aren’t still in our database. Removing these unused and outdated permissions are a problem that we will be fixing before release on every rank in our system. This week though, our focus was on staff permissions, and to update those permissions, we need to look at staff guidelines.
Existing Staff Guidelines
Our current documentation for staff is…let’s just say, vague. It’s sort of a running joke among staff members about the complete lack of documentation on our current staff ranks. This is something that we will be fixing for the update, but in order to create documentation we needed to figure out what exactly each staff rank does and what they should have access to. This may seem simple, and for some ranks it can be. However, for other ranks, this can be challenging. What exactly is the difference between Trial Mods and Mods? What exactly should all staff have access to? What exactly should a Mod have, and what exactly should be reserved for a Mod+. These are all questions we looked to answer this past week.
Before we get too far into that, there is a fallen rank we must pay respect to. Please pause for a moment of silence for the helper rank.
Myself as a Helper, running Spleef. February 6, 2016
The helper rank has been with us for a long time. I don’t remember if it existed all the way back in Classic (though I believe it did), but it at the very least has been around since early in Agharta. There are a few current members of staff who began as helpers, such as myself (see screenshot above). However, Helper really wasn’t all that different from Trial Mod, and we ended up promoting most Helpers to Trial Mod at some point anyway. So, it was with a heavy heart that we decided to get rid of the rank.
Once that was done, we moved onto developing our new guidelines for each rank. We thought about what each rank should have access to, and developed our guidelines based on these discussions. In the end, our new guidelines are:
Server Administration:
Manager:
Responsible for keeping the server running, and serve as both admins and owners. They have the final say on issues and full access to everything related to the server.
Moderation:
Mod+:
Responsible for handling issues that can’t be dealt with on a moderator level. They also help the management team in preparations for larger events or with miscellaneous other things. They inherit all moderator permission, but also have the ability to give out money and all forms of keys. They can access creative mode and have the ability to give themselves all other permissions. This is done so that they can do whatever needs to be done in an emergency when no manager is available.
Mod:
Responsible for handling general moderation duties on the server. They inherit all trial mod permissions and duties, and handle most public-facing staff duties on the live server. They have full ban and mute permissions, full access to coreprotect, along with the ability to take money and items from players. They also have the ability to create, move, or remove warps as well as the ability to modify blocks at spawn and in other people’s claims.
Trial Mod:
Responsible for a reduced set of moderation duties as a mod in training. They handle simple moderation duties, such as responding to tickets, handling disputes, and dealing with misbehaving players. They can temporarily ban or mute someone and have the ability to inspect and lookup activity in coreprotect. They also have the ability to vanish and full teleport permissions.
Content creation:
Dev:
Responsible for maintaining the software that is running on the server. This includes creating new software for events, etc., and updating old software. When there is a software issue on the server, they are responsible for fixing it. Sometimes their duties include coming up with concepts for new software too, so that the server stays innovative. Note that the integration of the software that the developers write is done by managers, because developers themselves do not have access to the live servers.
Build Team:
Responsible for designing and constructing server builds and projects. They work with management and the developers to develop projects and are given access to world edit and creative on the build server to facilitate these projects.
Misc:
Event Team:
Responsible for planning and running events on the server. At times, they may work with management and the build team to develop special events, such as those associated with lore seasons. They can force teleport players to themselves and vice versa, along with all base staff permissions. They also have access to create events in discord, and send announcements (alerts) on the minecraft server.
PR:
Responsible for managing the server’s social media and voting site accounts. They work with management to promote the server, and are tasked with marketing the server to potential new players. They have access to base staff permissions along with all social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube) and voting site accounts.
After developing these guidelines, we went through each rank and completely rewrote permissions based around these guidelines. This was a full rewrite from scratch of existing staff ranks, so everything will be nice, fresh, and up-to-date upon release of the new map. There is certainly more work to be done, such as creating the documentation for staff. Yet, at the very least, our guidelines are ready to go to help make the experience on the new map better for everyone.
Remember, this was simply for staff ranks. There are many other permissions that need to be updated, and we will be going through each and every one to make sure they are all modernized and up-to-date. We will go through the same model for these ranks as we did for staff, with a goal of making our system as consistent and streamlined for everyone as possible.
The last time permissions were fully updated was when Main was released. Some of the ranks in it have been completely rewritten since then, but the last time the entire system was fully up-to-date with no outdated or unnecessary permissions was over five and a half years ago. Even then, a lot of the ranks were based on the ranks from Agharta. There are likely permissions that we use today that have been in the system for close to, if not over a decade at this point. To give a few examples - you can find videos on YouTube of people on Minetown from 2011 using familiar Craftbook mechanics, and the oldest bans in our current database are “Pre 1.2.3 Imports” (1.2.3 being an update released on March 2, 2012). These are the same plugins we use today, and likely contain the same permissions as well.
Sure, there’s plenty of plugins that we have used for years, and a lot of these we will continue to use moving forward. If it ain’t broke (and it’s a well made plugin with useful functionality) don’t fix it. However, there are also a lot of plugins that have (or will be) removed from the server. For the ones that we have already removed (in some cases years ago) their permissions clutter the database, serving only as a reminder for the plugins we once had. Do we use LWC? No, and we haven’t for over three years. That doesn’t mean that it’s permissions aren’t still in our database. Removing these unused and outdated permissions are a problem that we will be fixing before release on every rank in our system. This week though, our focus was on staff permissions, and to update those permissions, we need to look at staff guidelines.
Existing Staff Guidelines
Our current documentation for staff is…let’s just say, vague. It’s sort of a running joke among staff members about the complete lack of documentation on our current staff ranks. This is something that we will be fixing for the update, but in order to create documentation we needed to figure out what exactly each staff rank does and what they should have access to. This may seem simple, and for some ranks it can be. However, for other ranks, this can be challenging. What exactly is the difference between Trial Mods and Mods? What exactly should all staff have access to? What exactly should a Mod have, and what exactly should be reserved for a Mod+. These are all questions we looked to answer this past week.
Before we get too far into that, there is a fallen rank we must pay respect to. Please pause for a moment of silence for the helper rank.
The helper rank has been with us for a long time. I don’t remember if it existed all the way back in Classic (though I believe it did), but it at the very least has been around since early in Agharta. There are a few current members of staff who began as helpers, such as myself (see screenshot above). However, Helper really wasn’t all that different from Trial Mod, and we ended up promoting most Helpers to Trial Mod at some point anyway. So, it was with a heavy heart that we decided to get rid of the rank.
Once that was done, we moved onto developing our new guidelines for each rank. We thought about what each rank should have access to, and developed our guidelines based on these discussions. In the end, our new guidelines are:
Server Administration:
Manager:
Responsible for keeping the server running, and serve as both admins and owners. They have the final say on issues and full access to everything related to the server.
Moderation:
Mod+:
Responsible for handling issues that can’t be dealt with on a moderator level. They also help the management team in preparations for larger events or with miscellaneous other things. They inherit all moderator permission, but also have the ability to give out money and all forms of keys. They can access creative mode and have the ability to give themselves all other permissions. This is done so that they can do whatever needs to be done in an emergency when no manager is available.
Mod:
Responsible for handling general moderation duties on the server. They inherit all trial mod permissions and duties, and handle most public-facing staff duties on the live server. They have full ban and mute permissions, full access to coreprotect, along with the ability to take money and items from players. They also have the ability to create, move, or remove warps as well as the ability to modify blocks at spawn and in other people’s claims.
Trial Mod:
Responsible for a reduced set of moderation duties as a mod in training. They handle simple moderation duties, such as responding to tickets, handling disputes, and dealing with misbehaving players. They can temporarily ban or mute someone and have the ability to inspect and lookup activity in coreprotect. They also have the ability to vanish and full teleport permissions.
Content creation:
Dev:
Responsible for maintaining the software that is running on the server. This includes creating new software for events, etc., and updating old software. When there is a software issue on the server, they are responsible for fixing it. Sometimes their duties include coming up with concepts for new software too, so that the server stays innovative. Note that the integration of the software that the developers write is done by managers, because developers themselves do not have access to the live servers.
Build Team:
Responsible for designing and constructing server builds and projects. They work with management and the developers to develop projects and are given access to world edit and creative on the build server to facilitate these projects.
Misc:
Event Team:
Responsible for planning and running events on the server. At times, they may work with management and the build team to develop special events, such as those associated with lore seasons. They can force teleport players to themselves and vice versa, along with all base staff permissions. They also have access to create events in discord, and send announcements (alerts) on the minecraft server.
PR:
Responsible for managing the server’s social media and voting site accounts. They work with management to promote the server, and are tasked with marketing the server to potential new players. They have access to base staff permissions along with all social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube) and voting site accounts.
After developing these guidelines, we went through each rank and completely rewrote permissions based around these guidelines. This was a full rewrite from scratch of existing staff ranks, so everything will be nice, fresh, and up-to-date upon release of the new map. There is certainly more work to be done, such as creating the documentation for staff. Yet, at the very least, our guidelines are ready to go to help make the experience on the new map better for everyone.
Remember, this was simply for staff ranks. There are many other permissions that need to be updated, and we will be going through each and every one to make sure they are all modernized and up-to-date. We will go through the same model for these ranks as we did for staff, with a goal of making our system as consistent and streamlined for everyone as possible.