Staff Guide

Welcome to the DemocracyCraft Staff Guide! This guide contains all staffing policies, tips, and tricks that is used in day-to-day operations. By making this guide public access, our playerbase is informed of the expectations and procedures our Staff are subjected to.

If you are a new hire, first off - congratulations! We’re excited to have you onboard with us. Seeing the table of contents/how long this document is may appear scary at first, but try to remember we don’t expect you to memorise everything. We give you this guide so you know where to refer to when you need help, in addition to your peers.

With enough time, you might end up contributing to this guide!

For Senior Administrators

Console

As a Senior Administrator, you are able to access both the server console and files. To be added to the panel, mention a Manager or Owner in your personal channel, to receive your invitation! You will mainly be using this to configure plugins, fix bugs, and add new features.

Note

There is no one set way of learning how to do these things.

Trial and error, along with general observation goes a long way in helping you form your own way of doing these things.

Tip
Be sure to log any player-facing changes in #changelog, and any internal changes in #internal-changelog. This way we have an accurate record of who’s done what!

For System Administrators

Resetting the Nether and End

In most instances, a Nether and End reset will occur once every 6 months, typically during our quiet hours. This time frame tends to be 10pm EST - 5am EST is the optimal time for this reset.

Steps

1. Try to make an announcement in #server-announcements one week away for the desired data.
   • Make a follow up announcement at least 48 hours before the reset as well to give players a reminder that this is about to happen!

1. Turn on the whitelist via /whitelist on to ensure those pesky players stay out of our way.
2. Delete both Reveille_nether and Reveille_the_end using /mw delete <world>.
3. Recreate both Reveille_nether and Reveille_the_end using /mw create <world>.
4. Using /gamerule, set keepInventory to false, announceAchievement false, and showDeathMessage to false.
5. Merge inventories between the worlds by running /mw inventory merge Reveille Reveille_nether Reveille_the_end Wilderness NewHamilton.
6. Have a staff member check that keeping inventory is off, and that death messages don’t show in the Nether and End respectively.
7. Link nether portals correctly via /world netherportal destination Reveille_nether Wilderness and /world netherportal destination Wilderness Reveille_nether.
8. Run /mw gamemode survival Reveille_the_end and /mw gamemode survival Reveille_nether in Console (without the slash!).
9. Turn off the server.
10. Open Reveille_nether/paper_world.yml and add below _version the following from the "Nether Configuration" (Engine Mode 1)
11. Open Reveille_the_end/paper_world.yml and add below _version the following from the "End Configuration" (Engine Mode 1)
12. Start the server.
13. Open the server back up by removing the whitelist. (/whitelist off).
14. Announce the change in #server-announcements!

For Administrators

How to manage Billboards

We use a plugin called ImageMaps to allow us to implement images in-game via item frames. This plugin is currently how we’re able to make billboards!

Here is an example of a pasted image.

Steps

1. Upload your image to an image hosting service such as Imgur or ImgBB
2. Download the image in-game by running /imagemap download <filename> <sourceURL>
   • Replace <filename> with an easy to identify name, without any file extensions such as .png.
   • Replace <sourceurl> with a link to the image, this should include the file extension such as .png.
3. Place the image in-game by running /imagemap place <filename> [frameInvisible] [frameFixed] [frameGlowing] [size]
   • Replace <filename> with the file name you selected in Step 2. Please add the file extension featured in the <sourceurl> you used earlier.
   • Replace [frameInvisible] with “true”, no quotation marks. This ensures that players do not see the default item frame texture in empty spaces of the image.
   • Replace [frameFixed] with “true”, no quotation marks. This ensures a clean removal of the image by punching the item frames in creative.
   • Replace [frameGlowing] with “false”, no quotation marks. This the frames are not glowing.
   • Replace [size] the height (A) and width (A) in the following format: AxB
     • i.e. for a 2 by 2 image, it would be: 2x2
4. Admire your work!

Administrative Commands

These are useful commands to know with your position.

General

• /tps- check the ticks-per-second (tps). The go to command to check for server lag. /whois - useful for finding a players IP if you wish to ban their IP.
• /socialspy - able to see players private messages.

Crates

• You can replace players' crate keys by running /crate key give <user> <crate> .

For Moderators

Here is everything a Moderator needs to know!

Managing Players

Players are tricky business but shouldn’t be feared - after all you are one! Here are some guides on scenarios and managing behaviour.

See also: Punishment Guide

How to check for Alternative Accounts

Players are only allowed one account on our discord, forums, and in-game. This is for a few reasons; mainly for ease of identification and punishment as well as for economic reasons in game. Players who join and show as alternative accounts should be alternative accounts tested.

Information
Players who have alternative accounts will receive all of the punishments associated on their main account. The alternative accounts should be banned.

1. Assessing

When someone first joins the server, our punishments plugin automatically runs a check on them (the same thing can be achieved with /alts <username>). This scans their account to see if there are any other accounts that are playing on the same IP as them. Once you do /alts, something like this will come up. If there are two or more green usernames (which means that they are both online at the same time), check #automod on the DemocracyCraft Discord server to see if someone has already done an alternative accounts test on them. If no one has, then you need to conduct one. See below in Testing.

If you run /alts on someone and they have one green username and one or more grey usernames, that means that an account with the same IP has logged on before. Check #notes to see if they have passed the alternative accounts test before. If they haven’t, make a note in #notes. You can also check both accounts’ command histories by running /co lookup on them. If one account has transferred all of its money to the other account, it is pretty safe to say that they are alternative accounts.

Testing

If both accounts are online you can first try conducting the movement test.

1. You can warp yourself and the other players to the testing area using /staff-alttest <player1> <player2>
2. Once both players are there, inform them that their accounts have been flagged as suspicious and that you need to conduct an alternative accounts test on them.
3. Ask one player to run on the pink line and the other on the blue line.
4. You then look to verify that both accounts are making independent movements from one another (they are both moving at the same time).

If they fail the test in one of these listed ways, you’re allowed to ban one of the accounts permanently for having alt accounts;

1. One of the players is not moving or moving every so often
2. Only one player moves at a time
3. One is uncooperative with the test (not responding to anything)
4. One or both accounts log off and do not return after a while.

However, if the players pass, you can run /staff-notanalt <username 1> <username 2> and it will remove the warning and add a message in the #automod channel of the main discord.

You can also return players back to spawn using /staff-sendtospawn <player>

Additionally, you could go into /spectator and /staff-tp <player> <reason> to them to further investigate/watch their movements to verify that they aren’t alts. Consult with fellow staff members if you're unsure.

How-tos

Managing disputes

As a staff member you will sometimes be required to handle delicate situations. We run on a few principles to assist staff making decisions in these scenarios.

Solve problems as early as possible at the lowest level

Unfortunately arguments and disputes are not like wine and don’t get better over time. They get worse. It’s really important for all parties that we jump on any situation early and solve the problem pacifically.

Steer clear of drama

Some players have a tendency to incite drama and you will come to learn who they are quite quickly. Be compassionate but keep a mind on players’ motives. Usually, what happens out of the server and its’ server related channels isn’t for us to deal with unless it’s quite serious and relates to our platforms. i.e. bullying enabled by our Discord server.

Evidence

Sometimes players can get a little invested or tell white lies (i.e. not telling you the whole story where they may have also been at fault) when presenting to you with a report. Make sure you collect evidence to support claims, regardless of the amount of people wanting a player banned for example.

There are two sides to every story

There will always be a personal bias in every story. Person A’s story will always be slightly different from Person B’s story. It’s important that you assess both sides to come up with an educated guestimate of the truth which is usually somewhere between the two stories.

Wild Regioning:

DemocracyCraft utilises a plugin which enables players themselves to create their own Wilderness claims without the need for Staff. Make sure to review Wilderness Claiming, essential information is documented there!

Players are still only allowed ONE wild claim. Use /listclaims <username> to see information about a player.

Other relevant commands:

• /ignoreclaims Use this to bypass claim protections of the claim you're standing on.
• /deleteclaim (Use this to delete the claim your standing on even if you're not the owner, region claim blocks will be returned to the owner of the claim. - be careful in using this command!)

If you're unsure with anything always consult with fellow staff members

For Everyone

Note taking

In order to keep comprehensive notes on our players that are easily accessible, we use the discord channel #notes. Search for the player’s full username, before creating a thread. (You can use in:#notes playername.) In these threads we record evidence and general notes about players behaviours and punishments.

How and when to action warrants

Warrants are a legal writ that allow for only enforcement agencies to break the law under certain circumstances. I.e. trespass, take items, gather evidence. This is a function that requires Staff Support.

Warning
If you are involved in a case/investigation or have a vested interested in the outcome of a case/investigation, please recuse yourself from getting the information for the warrant.

Eligibility

A warrant is only enforceable if it is has been approved by a Judge or Justice. Agencies seeking to exercise warrants will need to provide proof that the warrant was approved appropriately. Warrants generally need to be served within a 48 hour window before they expire. - Noting that Staff tickets take more than 48 hours to process these requests, as long as the warrant was posted in a staff ticket prior to the warrant expiring, we can still provide the information post-deadline.

We can search through logs, but excessive requests (i.e. searching multiple days will be denied). - No more than 48 hours and some topics/key words that we can search for within that timeframe is generally seen as acceptable. - Beyond this it is up to the staff member taking the ticket.

Protecting Staff Information

Staff do not have to comply with legal orders - there are no punishments for not providing the information. If something seems off about the request, please raise it with your colleagues or senior staff. It is best to take a more cautious approach rather than accidentally giving away information that shouldn’t be given away. Warrants need to dictate what information they are seeking. We will usually search for this information and give that information to them only.

Who can request what

Animal and Villager Death Logs do not require warrants provided they are being requested by a member of the Department of Homeland Security that is a Sergeant or above. Everything else requires a warrant!

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