How to be a good admin and a role model for other players!

How to be a good admin and a role model for other players!

Before you start Reading this, I want you to know that all of the content is made by a guy named Scorn™ (Days till in NZ: 7) and he have given us the right to show this on our website. All credit should be given to him, not to us as we are only editing it for our own use. All examples comes from Scorn experiences as an Administrator and what he has learned.

These rules and strategies have helped me in so many ways. I learned how to be a likeable admin, while still being good at my job. I learned how to be dedicated, without affecting my own life. I learned how to be strict, without being feared by all. I also learned certain tricks on how to do my job well. I shall share these tricks with you too.


Section 1: Earning Respect

As an admin, your job is to ensure that all legitimate players can have fun without sacrificing the fun of others. It is YOUR JOB to keep Minges, Griefers, Trolls, and Hackers away. However, that's only part of what you need to do as an admin.

As an admin, players look up to you. However, that isn't always a given. Sometimes, you will do something to f*** off someone, and he will never forgive you. Here, you will learn how to get those people to forgive you.

Firstly, try being really nice to new players. Greet them, get to know them, make yourself more than just an admin... make yourself a friend. Take interest in what others have to say, and what others do. You may not necissarily be interested, but you must make it look like you are.

Also, don't mistake respect for fear. When a player respects you, they will be more willing to associate with you. They will seek you out, to work with you. Take DarkRP for instance. Hitmen will rarely have a hit on you, and players will be interested in basing with you!

However, if they fear you, people will avoid you. They would be more willing to accept being under constant harrasment by rule breakers, and other unwanted guests. You don't want that.

Lastly, try to avoid letting the stress and frustration get to you. Sure, you may get ****ed off a lot, but I assure you, that you must make it look like you are very calm. Save that anger for when a minge comes on, or a guy who threatens to DDoS the server. Let him catch your anger on YouTube. Everyone else will laugh with you, and treat you like a guy who just got laid.



Section 2: Public Relations

The key behind any good admin is his or her behaviour. When you are on the server, or on rival servers, you are representing your server. You must set an example at all times. You need to show that your server is mature, and friendly.

Lets take an example from a scenario that presented itself to one of Trigger Gaming's Head Admins, NomadX. One day on the DarkRP server, he was in his gun shop, minding his own business, when he received reports of NLR being broken, RDM, Self Supply, etc.

So what did he do? He didn't just get mad and start torturing people... no. He pulled the kid behind it all to the side, and asked him: "What's going on?" Now this kid was coming up with all sorts of crazy excuses, and NomadX was simply knocking them all back, until the kids said his final goodbye: "Yeah well suck my d***." Even with this insult, NomadX remained calm. Even with the kid running off to break more rules, NomadX simply attempted to continue the conversation, and when it was clear that the kid had no intention of playing by the rules, NomadX calmly places a 3 day ban on him for Disrespect, and multiple rule infringements.

So what can you take from that? You can learn to treat insults and scenarios like that better. Remember, words mean nothing when you choose to ignore them. Lets practice.

What would you think if I said to you: "Your mother is a ***** who would suck your d*** just for $10." Are you thinking about permanently banning me from your server? Well you shouldn't be. You should be thinking about anything BUT the insult I just made, as they are just words. They mean nothing. Remember, I don't even know your mother!

In conclusion, over-reacting is the worst thing you can do on any server.



Section 3: Effective Strategies

An admin isn't an admin unless he does his job right. And people will respect you and admire you for doing your job right. So ask yourself this: How do I do my job right?

This will differ depending on what you administrate. Here are tips for a TTT server.

#1: Minge parties. They tend to have a few similarities amongst themselves. You can usually spot them when they connect at the same time, when they have similar names, and when they are all on each other's friends list. They don't usually talk with one another, and the really bad parties may have one or two guys that has a mic that loops back what they hear, so listen to that person's mic to see if you can hear anyone else from the server or anything else from the server on their mic. They also tend to know extremely well who the traitor is, but will avoid attacking each other.

#2: Dedicated trolls. Some players tend to take pride in being a troll, and will put that kind of info out for all to see. Immature names that contain excessive hash tags, symbols that closely represent letters, and memes in their names, profiles, and avatars are all indicators, as well as private profiles.

#3: Sleeper cell players. These are players that seem legit for the first 30-60 mintes, but blow it all at the last minute to cause Mass-RDM before finally leaving. These guys are almost impossible to spot, but I know how to see them coming. These guys will ususally avoid becoming attached to the server, or associating with anyone else. They will stay alone, not talk, do their own thing. Sure, a lot of players may do this, but I have yet to see a Sleeper Cell Troll NOT do this.

For Roleplay, here are your hints:

#1: RDMers. Speciically, the ones that join just to kill everyone they can. They generally immediately go Gun Dealer, Civil Protection, Guard, or any other job that can get guns. Sometimes, they will go gun dealer, buy a small house, load it with guns, then change jobs to something with a more friendly appearence. Keep an eye on the medics and hobos too.

#2: Prop Minges. Watch your console for these ones boys. They tend to do little tests when they join, to see what props are available, what tools are available, and what damage they can do with them. You need to be weary of these guys if your server allows the use of precision or stacker.

#3: Metagamers. Look out for groups of people with similar names, who group together, and seem to work effectively without communicating. Also look out for guys who switch around different jobs together.

#4: Trolls. They like to take up your time with ******** ********. Such as toll gates, asking you how to do basic sh** (Dont treat keypads and fading doors as basic sh**, some people really don't know how to do those), and they may talk in wierd accents or misuse /advert and /ooc. They may also rush buildings to buy the rest of the doors that a player is just about to buy, and then claim its his. Be weary of those guys.

#5: Rule benders. These ass**** will read through the motd, just to pick out the tiniest little loophole or typo, and attempt to use that to make a mockery of you. But remember, rules are not black and white. Common sense prevails at all times.

For sandbox:

#1: Minges. They spawn random props they dont get rid of, they spawn unusual contraptions, they spawn dupes mostly, and they usually fly about with a gun out rather then a toolgun or a physgun. They shoot anything that looks nice that isn't made by them. They try to grab everything with their physgun. They get in the way, they shoot anything they dont understand, they shoot other players... etc etc etc.

For other gamemodes, well, its more or less the same as this.




Section 4: Resonable Punishment

Naturally as an admin, you will have to deal out consequences to rule breakers. But you must be reasonable. Your bans, kicks, slays, they have an effect on everyone, even if they are not involved. When banning, keep your times very reasonable. It its just something thats been getting on everyone's nerves, but isn't specifically against the rules, I would recommend less than a day, especially if its a repeat offence. This tells other players that you can be understanding. That you are not a hard-****, but you do not tolerate rule-breakers and general griefers at the same time.

Remember, permanent bans are drastic measures. Don't use it unless you need it. People who repeatedly break as many rules as they can, or attempt to crash the server, or even threaten the safety and fun of other players; These are all players deserving of a permanent ban.

Jailing can be fun too... but remember, don't over-do it. Jailing can be seen as a sign of a bad admin. If you rocket slay someone, repeatedly slay them, ban/kick them for "Funny/Ironic" reasons, jail them over and over, or just generally torture them, you can easily come across to players as somewhat of a "Badmin". (Bad Admin).

Remember though, banning is a job. Do not let your anger control your bans. If someone has been screwing with you, give him a day or two. But ultimately, if your server owner has prepared ban policies, follow those.



Section 5: Personal Feelings

On any server, after a while even the best of players can turn sour at a moments notice. Too often I have had to ban a friend because they have grown unruley and mischevious. These bans can often be the killing blow to any admin, and I've even seen admins fall into severe depression over this, including myself. I shall explain this with a bit of a story.

Just a few weeks ago, the server I currently Administrate, "Trigger Gaming", encountered a bit of a shake up. A lot of staff left, and took a destructive way out. This was a concern to me, as I had trusted these guys. They had become my friends. And they went and backstabbed me, undoing all the work I had put into the TeamSpeak 3 server, and creating a new server.

They screamed hate at me on skype, on steam, and on the forums. They hated my guts. Apparently I was the reason they did all this. Apparently I was too stuborn, too self-rightious, too much of an ass**** to them. This hit me hard, as I thought I was doing a great job. I fell into a deep depression, and let the server I administrate fall into disarray for a week. This was not good.

I guess what I am trying to say here, is that you must be ready to turn on your friends, or more importantly, be ready for them to turn on you. Try to understand this, as when it happens... no amount of cold-heartedness can prepare you for that.



Section 6: Commands and when to use them.

As an admin, you will have a lot of commands that you can use, but there is always a time and a place for them. Lets take a TTT scenario for instance.

In "Roleplay", all an admin really needs is kick, ban, goto, and teleport. You don't need to be able to give yourself weapons, set your role, ignite yourself, noclip, etc. In fact, its rather abusive to noclip to out-of-reach areas and to teleport your friends there.

I'll admit, ignite and jail can be fun. Very fun. But remember that you are setting an example for all the players. What would you think if you went on a random server and saw admins flying around while dead and on fire?