Staff Bits Linking Handles
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@catzilla I agree with the principle, but you don’t need a player handle to link alts on a game. You can do it with tags.
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@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
ETA: I would also play anything @tsar made so long as it’s Janitor: the MUSH. I’m still waiting @tsar
We were janitors once!! And you threw it all away!!!
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@Faraday This is good to know! I’ll definitely look into it next time I try build a game.
I do enjoy all the features of Ares but that COFD plug-in got me so confused and I eventually gave up lol.
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Player linking bits I think is a whole topic in and of itself with different ramifications than staff bits. Staff bits have an implied power aspect and control difference.
I don’t even think it’s done for ill will, but it can still be jarring. If you think person X is this cool person that you have been playing with, spawning ideas with, cracking jokes with, and maybe sharing RL information with – and then you find out they are someone else. It’s a trust issue. It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, but it can disillusion a person. If that happens, sadly every thing done on either alt becomes suspect. Then it starts the brain worm of what else weren’t they upfront about. These kind of small choices have large and lasting impressions.
As a player, you absolutely have a right to complete privacy for your comfort, protection, or preference. As an admin on a game, you have a bit less. You don’t have to disclose your personal information ever, however, you do have to disclose you are the CEO of the game that others are playing. Like stated before it’s the implied trust part of it.
That’s at least my thoughts, doesn’t mean it’s right, but it’s my opinion.
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I don’t mind on principle if admin don’t link to a prior Ares handle, but I do think they should always be up front about their PCs played in the game they are staffing. If they create a new Ares handle for the game so all the bits are linked, cool, but at the very least put the PCs on their admin page so everyone knows who they are playing. Especially when (in the case of NP) the policies say “our goal is to be fair, transparent, and consistent, which may not please everyone at all times.” – lol
Personally I admit that I get a little wary if I don’t know who a staffer is, that’s true, but I also get people wanting a clean slate or separating staffing from playing. Still… I have been to a game I didn’t know was staffed by a certain problematic player until I got there, and then the game was unsurprisingly terrible… so I get the reasoning behind it.
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There are definitely good reasons for not linking an AresMUSH handle to your account–there are creepers and assholes and rumormongers aplenty in our little hobby.
So I agree that no one is beholden to creating a last handle that goes beyond games, someone else’s safety is more important than my comfort.
But I will admit that I feel a great deal more comfortable when I recognize the handle of staff on a game and I know who I’m dealing with. It allows me to start out in a place of trust (or to avoid the game entirely if it’s someone I’ve had a bad run-in with in the past). If they have a handle that I don’t recognize, I will start out in a place of neither trust nor distrust. There should always be room for new folks to come into the hobby and start up a game, but for me at least, it always makes me feel a little better to recognize a handle that I know and trust on the staff list.
I also think that staff should always have their player bits linked to their staff bit. As others have pointed out, there’s a power imbalance there, and unless it’s recognized and called out, it can get treacherous. Sure, it can be nice to go “off duty” and pretend to not be a staffer for a while playing a “hidden alt,” but it’s also disingenuous, because you are a staffer, and you’re seeing things through staffer eyes the whole time, and can bring in the weight of staff whenever you want (either through yourself or one of your fellow staffers).
Formerly known as Seraphim73 (he/him)
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@Roadspike said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
ut it’s also disingenuous, because you are a staffer, and you’re seeing things through staffer eyes the whole time, and can bring in the weight of staff whenever you want (either through yourself or one of your fellow staffers).
Yeah, it’s always felt icky to me to be “undercover staff”.
I think it’s better for a game when everyone knows who everyone’s alts are, staff included. It just avoids a bunch of particular kinds of drama, and it boosts trust.
And to clarify, when I say that folks don’t owe anyone their OOC identity, I meant across games. Forcing people to share alt info within the same game is different IMHO.
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@Roadspike said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
Sure, it can be nice to go “off duty” and pretend to not be a staffer for a while playing a “hidden alt,” but it’s also disingenuous, because you are a staffer, and you’re seeing things through staffer eyes the whole time, and can bring in the weight of staff whenever you want (either through yourself or one of your fellow staffers).
While I definitely agree, there also needs to be a bit of non-staff player responsibility here too to give staffers who are not active on their staff bit a chance to actually play and relax. In my experience we’ve gotten better at that, on the whole, in the past few years but that hasn’t always been the case—hence, at least partially, the desire to have “plain clothes” alts.
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@pixiedustflyer Spill the teeeeeeea
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I’m ambivalent on this.
On one side, I like to know whose house I’m visiting. On the other, people have plenty valid reasons for not leaving a trail of crumbs for stalkers and abusers to follow.
On Keys, we have no policy on the subject. It’s never been an issue that I’m aware of. But then, my handle is registered for anyone to see. Maybe it’s more the game runner than the rest of staff that needs to be recognisable. They are, after all, the person with the power to pull the plug.
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Every single time I discovered that a staffer was behind an unmarked player character I felt a sense of violation. I felt like players were automatically presumed to be guilty of something so bad it mandated a system to allow them to be spied upon. Distrust as a default.
I absolutely believe staff deserve to play on the game they help run. I absolutely also believe that they are to be held to a higher standard that should not make them afraid to reveal who they are. If they want to play without that pressure they can go to other games or they can find other outlets or just become a regular player. Nobody forced them to be staff.
Please consider my remarks in light of the notoriously OOC masq-heavy WoD games which make up nearly all of my MUSH experience. And thank you to nearly all staff of the games I’ve been on, because the majority of them were open about these things and their hard work and trust made the fun for me and countless others possible.
