RULES FOR STAFF OF VIACRAFT

[Ember Lumen]

Congratulations, you made it! As a new member of the staff team your job is to mostly moderate chat and report back to your higher staff members. If you have a question about something contact your Staff Manager. The easiest and fastest way to contact staff is through our discord server, because the forums will take time which would not be good in an emergency situation like if the server was being attacked with spam bots or multiple people attacking the server at once, etc. This is just one of the reasons why we require all of our staff members to have discord and if possible have the app on their phone so we can call them if they're out-of-game or away from their desktop. If you fail to connect to our discord server within 1 week after being accepted you will be demoted. (https://discord.gg/2gVjPmS6ne)


Disciplinary Policy: If you did something wrong as a staff member you will receive one strike against your rank, after 3 strikes you can be fully demoted. Depending upon the severity of the infraction, your staff manager will decide for how long that strike will stay against your position.

This thread applies to ALL staff members; high and low! Some of these things should be obvious. However not to all people, especially those who are young and have no real world experience (e.g. job, sports, etc). So I'm going to explain in detail how you are suppose to conduct yourself as member of our team.

STAFF HANDBOOK & CODE OF CONDUCT​

- Integrity - Trust - Reliability - Respect -​

This code of conduct gives instructions and rules of how a Viacraft Staff Member should behave and interact with players, other staff, and superiors.
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#1: General Conduct Policy​

(SH 1.1)

Please try to remain professional at all times when talking with players about problems, issues, or questions. If you do something that could be considered taboo, offensive, morbid or generally inappropriate, apologize. We want staff that will treat our members well and kindly (especially new members). Rude people make new players leave. So if you continue being disrespectful toward players and customers after being warned you will have your rank removed and possibly punished. Its not our job to have to tell you to act more like a staff member. If a Manager or higher tells you to stop, you stop.​

(SH 1.2)

Know when to be professional/formal and when to be chill/casual. Although the lines between these two can be fuzzy; We are serious when talking with players and assisting them when they need help. But that doesn't mean you have to be formal 24/7; As in, you're allowed to be casual and joke with fellow staff members and friends. We want to keep a certain level of professionalism here. Use correct punctuation and grammar whenever doing something serious, like player support. NEVER use any derogatory language when dealing with support operations.​

(SH 1.3)

Stay cool when under fire. Heated arguments and conflicts in the community are more common than it may seem, its best to handle these situations with a calm and collected attitude, even if its another staff member you are having an issue with. I've seen many minor conflicts escalate into a huge situations that could end up with someone getting hurt, permissions revoked, or even worst.. blacklisted. If a situation directly affects you and it makes you furious.. Its best either talk it out or to just leave the situation and go to higher ups to deal with it while you cool off.​

(SH 1.4)

You must do your job. If we see you just hanging out loafing around and generally not being helpful (as in, there is a situation right before your very eyes and you do nothing about it) you will be demoted or receive one strike. You are staff! You're suppose to help. If you don't do your job, why should we keep you as staff when that spot can be filled in by someone better or more professional?​

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#2: Anti-Corruption Policy​

(SH 2.1)

Do not bully or harass players, especially new players. By this we mean disrespecting them, coercing, or entrapment; trying to get them banned right away even though they didn't do anything wrong or trying to intimidate them. This makes players feel unsafe and uncomfortable, and will make some leave. If you are caught doing this your rank will be removed immediately. We want a mature but friendly staff team.​

(SH 2.2)

You must follow the Community Guidelines and apply it to all situations as a staff member. Do not think that just because you're a staff member you can do whatever you want. Get familiarized with the laws of the community/server @ https://viacraft.net/rules.​

As an Enforcer you are required to follow, uphold, and enforce the Community Guidelines. You are required to punish rule breakers according to what the Community Guidelines say with correct amount of punishment time. If you fail to follow and enforce the Community Guidelines, you will be given a strike or demotion depending upon the situation. It is highly recommended that you check the rules every week as we update them often. Some discretion is allowed if it seems like an honest mistake or if a player's actions are not that damaging to gameplay. Always discuss deviation from the written rules with an Admin.​

(SH 2.3)

Do not go straight ahead and ban someone just because of allegations or suspicion without proper evidence gathering. Go into /vanish and inspect the player for about 20-30 minutes. If you see him cheating try to record him so the Appeals Judge or Admin can decide rather he is guilty or not. If you can not record him than contact staff members who can.​

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Keep in mind you don't have to record xray hacks, as the Management can prove rather they are guilty or not via logs then inspect their mining pattern. If you see someone xraying, write down the coordinates of where the xray happened, then ban the user according to the rules. Put the coordinates in staff chat so higher staff can investigate. Keep in mind that you MUST know for sure that he is xraying because false bans can get you demoted. Staff Managers and Directors are allowed to ban a player on the spot without recording.​

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NEW:​

ALL staff that are punishing a player for cheating are required to type /replay start <name> this will start recording all players on the server up to 30 minutes, until all players logoff, or you type /replay stop <name>. I recommend naming the recording after the player that you intend to ban. It is case sensitive, so be sure to reply to the punishment in the staff discord with the EXACT name of which you typed.​

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Because of the complexities involved with video recording and advancements in Minecraft server technology; It is no longer mandatory but highly encouraged to record as a form of verification because the replay plugin may lag or other unforeseen issues may occur causing the log to be lost. Never recording (e.g. with OBS, GeForce Experience, etc) will affect your ability to promote and receive benefits. Realize that you are putting your position at risk by not doing BOTH server side and client (you) side recording because if there is an issue with the replay and the admins cannot find any other convincing evidence you will receive a strike for failure to follow official procedures/processes.​

(SH 2.4)

Don't abuse commands and privileges. If Admin finds you're abusing any of your permissions for non-staff purposes or exploiting players with it you can be demoted instantly and will be banned from applying for staff forever.​

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For example, staff are allowed to bypass region permissions for both player claims and admin made dungeons, and you use /egod and /vanish to raid it. You are in violation of this policy and GR-6.​

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Do not think you are "clever" by trying to use "special commands" or doing things you think aren't view to Admins because I can assure you that it is. Everything is logged, even signs. We will find out if you did something wrong. This staff team is run by stern technical experts and professionals with years of experience who seek to find the weakness and weak of mind in every new staff member they grant the privilege to be on their team.​

(SH 2.5)

Dishonoring the honor system. The honor system is where you have permissions that could be easily abused such as tampering with what a staff member did, using annoying commands on staff, senselessly trolling other staff, teleporting to powerful players to sell their base coordinates, etc. This will result in your rank being put in a limited state or demotion along with 1 strike depending upon severity (Staff Manager's discretion).​

(SH 2.6)

Conflicts of interest. While it is not against completely against policy to be staff on other servers and communities. It may be used against you depending upon the type of community or server. For example, if you are staff on a server that promotes anarchy, cheating, and exploiting you may be deemed unsafe to have access to certain info or staff functions. Discretion will be used if you are a part of said community for a good cause i.e. to gather information about how to prevent said exploits. If you are staff on a competing or blacklisted community, you may be denied staff altogether. These things also apply to your social media content. For example, if you frequently post "exposing" videos or stream content that would count as Server Disruption on Viacraft, you will be deemed too high risk to be a part of our staff team.​

(SH 2.7)

If you have Discord Nitro, you are required to boost the Viacraft public discord server. And yes, both boosts. This is not up for debate.​

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#3: Insubordination and Retaliation Policy​

(SH 3.1)

Respect the decisions of those above you. I've seen many situations where a staff member thinks that they are entitled to their rank and permissions or tries to talk smack in chat about how he/she should have been promoted instead of someone else, complain about being demoted, or try to argue with the decision a higher staff member made. Generally, this is very rude to the leadership team and will most likely lead to you being demoted fully. We make people certain ranks/roles for a reason; not for your pleasure or wants. We promote those who we see fit and we demote those who we think is not responsible enough for the privilege. We place people at ranks and positions that we are comfortable with, not what you are comfortable with. Being a staff member is not about power/commands. Its about helping people, you are working for the network and the betterment of its community.​

(SH 3.2)

Do not to sass, talk-back, or rise up against your superior(s). Do not create riots or retaliate. Always trying to argue with us instead of doing what they were told, etc. This is considered mutiny and is extremely rude toward the leadership team and will result in punishment up to and including an immediate bad conduct or dishonorable discharge. We've seen what can happen when this is left unchecked or if we are soft about this. Its not funny nor cool to attack the authority of your superiors or talk bad in chat about them. In short, we don't want drama, we don't need people on our team who have narcissistic problems or lacks meekness and humbleness. We are a TEAM, and we need you to act like a team member. If you have a problem with being a staff member then kindly submit a resignation letter to an Admin and they will move you to a lower rank, peacefully.​

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Sure, every workplace will have its fair share of drama/gossip but the problem is when that turns into derogatory and hateful insults toward other staff members. General toxicity. Drama/gossip hurts people, it can cost people financially and ruin their reputation. It kills the staff team/workplace morale. Its happened in the past and it will NOT be tolerated. If you have nothing good to say, nothing that will help the staff team or community, then don't say anything at all.​

(SH 3.3)

Do not be dishonest. This is where you lie or be deceitful to Admins/Directors. Lacking integrity; saying things in bad faith or withholding information from Leadership.​

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Examples of this include but are not limited to:​

• Lying about what a staff member said/did to gain an advantage over them in someway or to push them out the staff team. Retaliation is a form of harassment and will not be tolerated.
  
  
• Finding a bug, exploit, or unintended game feature and failure to report it to Leadership.
  
  
• Failure to act in the spirit of the law and always showing contempt.
  
  
• Never keeping promises.

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#4: Activity Policy​

(SH 4.1)

You must be active and active on all our platforms. (Ingame, Forums, and Discord) This is one of the most important requirements that we require out of all our staff. We can't urge enough how important this is because we can't have inactive staff members cluttering up our staff team, who are inactive, generally never on, or join once every week. Due to this all staff are required to meet the minimum requirement of 7 hours every a week, which is 1 hour a day across a span of 7 days. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean you have to be on everyday, (Although that would be greatly appreciated) you just have to meet the 7 hours per week minimum requirement. For Example: You can spend 3 hours on Sunday then 2 hours on Monday, then 4 hours on Tuesday, etc.. Doesn't matter how many hours you spend on which day, all that matters is that you have 7+ hours of playtime on the server by the end of the week. If you fail to meet the requirement 2 times in a row, you will be demoted. If you need time off, contact an Admin and explain the situation. Moderators can obtain up to 3 months of time-off if their reasons seems honorable and important irl. Off time has to be approved by a Staff Manager.​

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Keep in mind that 7 hours a week is the MINIMUM requirement, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you go well above and beyond the call of duty.​

(SH 4.2)

Failure to respond to an Admin after 2-4 days. If you do not respond to someone from the Leadership Team after you have been messaged repeatedly via Discord you will receive 1 strike against your rank. This mainly applies if we see you online and not responding as this counts as ignoring/disrespect to your superior.​

(SH 4.3)

Do not go away-from-keyboard or idle in-game for long periods of time, that will make players think you're there to help but are actually not. If you need to go afk/idle for an extended period of time, e.g. more than 10 minutes, you should go into /vanish or logoff.​

(SH 4.4)

Staff Meetings. A staff meeting is where all the staff members get together in a voice chat on our discord to discuss recent events, ideas/improvements, and how everything is functioning. These meetings are held whenever they felt are needed; you will be alerted via the staff channels about when a meeting is going to happen and what time to be there. If you fail to visit a staff meeting without giving a good reason why, you will be given a verbal warning from an Admin. If you miss the next meeting you will be given 1 strike against your rank. Being active in staff meetings will help prove yourself worthy of being promoted.​

(SH 4.5)

Life issues and the job. Every now and then someone will be going through hardship in their life. Such as losing a love one, bankruptcy, foreclosure, etc. Many times a conflict between them and the high staff happens due to confusion. We've seen staff get out of control, act crazy, and sometimes take it out on us by being disrespectful or trying to act bad in chat when such a thing happens in their life and they expect us to know why even though they didn't explain the issue to us. This only causes chaos and drama for Management as they will assume that you are acting this way because you think its funny or cool to make high staff look bad or your going against us, which will ultimately end up with you being both demoted and permanently banned. So please, if you have any issue which may affect your performance on the job talk about it with Leadership. Acting up will only do you more harm than good. We are more than willing to give you as much time off as you need or lighten the activity requirements for you if its for honorable reasons.​

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#5: Confidentiality Policy​

(SH 5.1)

Dissemination of information. Do not leak/share DMs unless otherwise told to by an Admin. Do not gossip or spread information that was said to you in private. This only causes drama for everybody in the staff team. If you have an important private discussion with a superior then you gossip, spread, or leak it to other people in a private message who are not suppose to know or are not involved, you will be demoted fully and will not be trusted with anything told to you in private anymore. Its called private messages for a reason... They are meant to be kept private! Sometimes a manager only wants to let one person know something. If we wanted other people to know we would make it an announcement. As the saying goes.. Loose lips sink ships. Use common sense; have an operations security mindset.​

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Do not DoX anyone.​

Do not share secrets to the function of Viacraft such as plugins or knowledge about commands players wouldn't otherwise know.​

Do not share login details to ANY accounts associated with Viacraft unless otherwise given permission by Leadership.​

Do not share bugs and exploits with non-leadership staff.​

Do not invite anyone to the Staff Discord without express Admin permission.​

INFORMATION & ADVICE​

As you earn more respect from the managers and your peers/coworkers you will find that your job gets easier and more friendly. The higher rank you are the more trust you will be given. Respect those who have higher ranks than you. They earned that position, it wasn't just given to them. They are at that rank for a reason.

We will try to keep staff notified on any changes to policy but it is ultimately your responsibility to stay informed (e.g. rereading at least once a week). If you have any questions about anything on this page feel free to ask your Staff Manager for assistance. Have fun and welcome to the staff team!


Written proudly by Visionary Director,

Ember Lumen​