Official Notice - Development Team Strike

[Tachyon]

I do not speak for the strike-group as a whole in this post, but from my own, personal, perspective on the matter. I am only addressing Garret Jax's post. I also do not intent to attack anyone or sound derogatory, excuse me if I do.

(...) The Admins, no matter what they finally decide to do, will still need the authority to enforce rules and protect gameplay. By setting this precedent of striking until you get what you demand, you undermine the authority the Admins need to perform their function. Without this authority, the Server will collapse upon itself and devolve into anarchy and very quickly, death. (...)

While I agree that the initial post made by Durandal is not a good example of how these terms can be worded, or a strike-like movement to be initiated, that is no reason to dismiss the core objective/intention behind it as undermining the administrations authority to, in justifiable context, regulate players actions on the server.

The very reason why the sanctions in question caused this uproar is that the presentation thereof made it look like abuse of power, especially in light of a recent post concerning transparency of admin actions as well as the internal "legislation" behind sanctions. As a result, other members of the staff, in this case the development team, decided to use this as opportunity to remind the administration that the power wielded by the administration also comes with the responsibility to do so within justifyable borders.
Far too vague statements and the, alledged, refusal to present actual evidence to the offenders suggests that this responsibility was not honored in any way or form.

None of the developers that are part of this strike, as far as I am aware, have any intention to become administrators themselves, or to prevent an administration team to perform their duties in the future.

What will happen if this strike continues? Well, it's already starting to happen. Demands are being made for information that the Community is not entitled to have. If I were still Admin, there is no way I would agree to pass on confidential conversations to satisfy each and every Community member. First, there is no way to make everyone happy about each decision made by the Staff, and it would become impossible for the Admins to perform their jobs if they had to take the time to justify each and every decision that's made. Bottom line, the only people that are entitled to evidence leading to a person getting banned, is the banned player himself. Therefore, Demand#1 is unreasonable and outside your right to possess.

This whole list of demands is problematic. Where does it end? Until the Devs are satisfied? Until the whole Community is satisfied? I understand your complaint, trust me, but you are becoming just as 'guilty' as the Admins here, when you act outside your authority and make demands that you are not entitled to.

The demand is extremely badly worded, like all of them. They were drafted rashly, infact some people that are part of the strike were not around when it was done, hence why it sounds more like blackmailing, rather than basis for discourse. It's seems eerily similar to how some of the administation's decision looked to us. Truly awkward.

The same goes with the demand for the thread to not be moderated. The Moderators need to do their job, if it is called for. The entire Server and forum needs structure to function appropriately.

I suppose the intention behind it was to prevent the thread and its replies, ones that are critical against recent events, to be unfairly silenced.

Aside from this list of demands, and resulting strike, there are some other issues that need to be discussed. For one, any thought of replacing this staff with another "more competent" one, needs to be dismissed. I've seen enough members put on the Green jacket to know that different people will not change the dynamic of the how the server operates. I could go in length about how each new Green starts with energy and ideas to make the server better, gets pummeled by the Community a few times and then is fearful, then stops presenting ideas, then stops caring and then quits. It's happened to me before. It happens to everyone to some degree. New players will only inject even more inexperience into the Staff. We need to keep as many experienced staff members for the sake of the server.

Developers get flak just like the administration does, sometimes more, sometimes less. We're in the same boat in that regard. However I guess this was a reminder directed at the community as a whole, not us, and I can certainly relate to a degree.

What about this specific situation? How can the Community satisfy their sense of justice and get the Admins to take another look at things? Well, Tunicle has already stated that the Admins are reexamining the matter. I would strongly advise you to give them time. I would be willing to bet that the evidence pool that brought them to this decision is probably pretty scant. There is also human pride to consider. It will take them time to swallow it. This set of demands would piss me off and make me want to unplug the server. I suggest you give the Admins a week to come forward with a course of action they deem wise. (...)

And what would have happened without the community/staff uproar? It's unlikely that the administration would have reconsidered their decision if it wasn't for a third party that pushed for it. There is no denying that, incase the sanctions get revisited on the basis of insufficient evidence, the actions that pushed for such a result were in some form justified.

As a final note on my reply, while I disagree with the manner in which this strike was executed, I am still very much in favor of making sure that the offenders see sufficient evidence for their bans, which, to my knowledge, they did not; regardless of my relationship with any of the offenders.
Normally bans do not call for strikes or any similar action, however, it calls for the ultima ratio when the integrity of the guidelines set by the same administration are obviously violated.