____ _ _ / ___| _ __ _____ ___ __ | | __ _(_)_ __ ___ \___ \| '_ \ / _ \ \ /\ / / '_ \| |/ _` | | '_ \/ __| ___) | | | | (_) \ V V /| |_) | | (_| | | | | \__ \ |____/|_| |_|\___/ \_/\_/ | .__/|_|\__,_|_|_| |_|___/ |_| --- Some guidelines and the expected roles of Penguins --- PENGUIN CLASSES AND ROLES General Note All ranks of penguins are expected to promote Snowplains and encourage newbies to log on. All ranks of penguins should be prepared to fulfill the role of the lower ranks if there are no penguins of that rank who can, so you should read about the ranks below you too. If you are unsure about anything, ask someone on the [PENGUIN] channel. Or the [ADMIN] channel, for that matter. Chocolate Penguins PRIMARY ROLE To help newbies where possible, including granting residency and helping with the problems and questions of new residents. See the 'Guidelines' section below for more information on assisting newbies. DEALING WITH OFFENSIVE NEWBIES Firstly, you should always try just talking to the newbie, whether they are being offensive, or have chosen an offensive name. Only if this fails, should you then use a polite warn. Inebriate may also be used to counter verbal abuse or swearing. If you aren't given a choice of new name, rename them to something harmless. If you do not get a positive response, then use drag to get rid of them. If they persist in reconnecting, you will need to get a higher rank to block the site for a while. DEALING WITH OFFENSIVE RESIDENTS If possible, let a higher rank deal with them. If the higher ranks are not aware of the problem (eg if you are the only penguin in main), make them aware of the problem on the PENGUIN channel. If there are no higher ranks available, deal with them as you would a newbie - try talking, then use warn and inebriate if this fails. Royal Penguins PRIMARY ROLE To help everyone on the talker. Unfortunately you will also have to ensure its smooth operation by dealing with offensive residents. It is useful to sit in the main room (particularly if there are no other staff in there) and keep an eye on things. Often residents will ask for help in main, and people often spam/cause trouble in other ways in main. Royals are also there to help Choccies, and new Royals, to do their job. DEALING WITH OFFENSIVE RESIDENTS First of all you should ask the resident to stop being offensive. Only if this fails should you then use a warn. After that, the measures to take depend on the nature of the offensiveness. Inebriating and walrussing are useful to combat verbal abuse and swearing. Yoyo is a useful command to give spammers a taste of their own medicine. Jailing someone should be used to give them a cooling off period if they persist. (If you jail someone, you can talk to them in the jail by jailing yourself. Do remember to set a time limit on this so that you don't end up connecting to the jail!) If the offender persists despite your attempts to stop them, they need to be got rid of :). You can drag them, or better still sneeze them which will ban them from logging back on for five minutes. You can banish them permanently if they keep logging on and causing trouble. Sometimes two residents will blame each other for things, and it's not clear who's at fault. In this sort of situation, advise the residents to use block and/or ignore, and try to keep out of it as much as possible. Tell the other staff so they know what's happening. Don't use block yourself, (except in exceptional circumstances) as staff should be aware of all that's happening in case someone needs help, or is causing trouble. If people get upset when you tell them off, try to stay calm. Let the resident make as much of a fuss as they like, so long as they don't break other rules. Obviously this can be difficult to do, so if you find you're about to explode at someone, get another member of staff to deal with it. In general, if you have to deal with a situation which involves your own friends, get another member of staff to deal with it. This keeps things on an impersonal "professional" level. Also get other staff to deal with people that you can't stand, as you'll tend to be biased against them. EMAIL ADDRESSES You need to help choccies when newbies set a duplicate or otherwise invalid email address - remember that choccies can only see the domain part of the email address, not the userid. If you're unsure about an email address, try fingering it. If you can't finger it, try using the 'host' UNIX command on the site if you have it, then finger the mail server that it gives. If you can't do that, you're into difficult territory, but if you know how you can telnet to the mail server and try to verify the email address. Ask a higher rank if you're stuck. MULTIPLE CHARACTERS If you suspect a newbie of being the same person as an existing resident, let the penguin channel know. Make sure the person assisting knows to be careful and that they should try to find out what's going on. Once the situation is resolved (or when you've done what you can) post to the Penguin newsgroup explaining what happened. If you suspect two residents are the same person, post your proof (or suspicions) to the Penguin newsgroup so everyone can keep an eye on them. King and Emperor Penguins PRIMARY ROLE To administrate the talker, help the other penguins, promote (and demote) penguins, and where it is necessary be there to make a final absolute decision. GUIDELINES Duty Go off duty if you really can't fulfill your role as stated above. Please don't go off duty while you're assisting a newbie, or just after granting residency (at least wait until the email address and password have been set satisfactorily - use confirm), unless you arrange for someone else to take over. If you go afk and a newbie is likely to try to talk to you, please set an idle message too. If the penguins aren't generally busy and there are others around of your rank or higher then you may go off duty for short periods to rest if you wish. For longer periods, consider logging on as your second (see below). If you find you're off duty as much, or more, than you're on duty, please consider whether you really want to be the rank you are. Also if you find you cannot log on as much as previously PLEASE consider standing down. If you expect the circumstances to be temporary, send an email to snowadm@snowplains.org to let us know the situation, and we'll keep it in mind. (You don't need to let us know any details - something as vague as 'Something's come up and I can't spod as much, I'll be back when I can' will do.) Demotion for this sort of reason is not a punishment, it's purely to allow us to have a smaller number of staff, while still getting the job done. Depending on circumstances you may be repromoted once you regain access. Seconds All penguins are allowed a second character, but the admin would appreciate knowing what the second characters are in order to avoid confusion over duplicate email addresses. We would appreciate it if you only logged on as a second if the same conditions apply as for going off duty. Assisting GENERAL OVERVIEW Please always use the assist command before helping a newbie, so other penguins know that someone is helping them. Only assist a newbie if you have time to do the job properly. Bear in mind how long it takes with some dozy newbies! (or dozey, if you're called Marble). Equally, if you are the only member of staff on then assist for as long as you can. If you have to leave a newbie while you are assisting, try to find someone to take over, or at the very least explain to the newbie that you have to go. Perhaps offer residency. Chocolate penguins have priority on assists, but sometimes Royals and above like the chance to have a go at a newbie. Live and let live. TACTICS FOR ASSISTING Try not to push too hard for residency at first. We don't want lots of residents who never log on after their first time, or lots of troublesome ones. Be there to show them the commands and answer their questions. A possible recipe for assisting might be to welcome the newbie and ask if they need any help. Help them if they desire, then leave them for ten minutes. If they're still around, check they're still OK, and ask if they're interested in residency. If they aren't (yet), that's OK, just keep checking up on them and ask periodically, or wait for them to ask you. Force This command is intended mainly for showing newbies and residents commands easily. It can be fun too, but don't overdo it please - we do check the logs and we can demote. Remember forces go to the [PENGUIN] channel and are logged. Warn Please make the warn message explicit enough to understand the reason for the warning by reading the logs at a later date. Try to keep joke warns to a minimum :) Drag, Sneeze, Splat The reason must be explicit for drag (see Warn, above). It goes to the [PENGUIN] channel, the person being dragged, and is logged. Kicking people off the talker is NOT to be abused. It gives a very bad impression of Snowplains if it is. Fun Yes, we know what that three-letter word beginning with F means. And the four-letter one, but that's a different matter. Having stated all these guidelines, we're not here to stop you enjoying yourself! Some commands can be fun (eg inebriate) if not overused. If they annoy people, then they are being overused. Try to use your common sense and discretion in this, and all other matters of privilege. YOUR VIEWS We're willing to listen to your suggestions and comments on these guidelines, and we may bend the rules occasionally if asked nicely :). However, if you disagree with them, discuss it with us, don't just ignore them. Please. We make every effort to keep staff issues and friendships seperate. WRITTEN AND APPROVED Berry, Jarel, Marble, and Rillaith. 9th May 1996. REVISED Berry, Jarel, Marble, Pling and Rillaith. 13 Dec 1998.