Admin??

[Musicmaker621]

So I have been playing BZFlag for several years now, and just registered last year, but I have two questions, that I am hoping are not silly ones.

1) So I have heard that the general rule is you are not allowed to ask to be admins for servers. The question that comes up in my mind then is If you are not allowed to ask, how do you become one? I have made it a goal of mine to try to keep peace as much as a non-admin can on a server, but keeping your cool and trying to stop obnoxious/rude players doesn't usually work when you have no authority. And that brings up my next question.

2) How do you start a poll? I have many a time been on a server where there are no admins or cops on. Ironically, when there are no admins or cops on is usually when the rude/obnoxious players get on and start flaming. And if there is no one on who knows how to start a poll, or just won't, then everyone is stuck, and people usually start to leave. So if someone could tell me if there is a way a non-admin can help in this way, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for your time!

[JeffM]

You become an admin when a server owner asks you to help them. Asking means you are trying to push your authority onto a server you do not own.

[blast]

When on a server, run the following two commands for information about polling/voting:

Code: Select all

/poll?
/vote?

That will give you help information about how to run those commands.

[I_Died_Once]

I'll go out on a limb here and add my two cents (I know, its not worth that much...)

If you have aspirations to be an admin on a server, then having the desire in and of itself to be admin will likely stop it from happening, short of hosting your own server. It is highly frowned upon to go around asking "Hey, can I be admin on your server?!?!?! Ijustloveithereohmygawd!" as moderating a game, regulating players and play is more than having a little symbol next to your name. People who do this are much more likely to kick and ban people for frivilous, personal reasons. Asking shows a degree of immaturity, and its just lame lame lame.

I know that on most servers, asking will automatically disqualify you from ever being admin, even if you do it in the sweetest of ways and with the purest of intentions.

The only advice I can give to those of you so desperately wanting to be admin somewhere, anywhere... hush. Never ask, offer, suggest - never EVER discuss YOU and ADMIN together in the same sentence. If you imply that you want it, you're showing you're not admin material. Aside from that - play a lot, don't troll or be a pain in the rear (in any form) and maintain a positive (but not smarmy) attitude, and if the need for new admins arise, you might be surprised at who's name gets looked at. Don't have sour grapes if you get passed over, that'll jack up your chances come next time.

Even then, adminship can be revoked as easily as it was granted. So if you do get that cozy job of running /lagstats and patrolling the language filters, tread lightly - people like to accuse admins of abuse - so don't go out and be a jackwagon because mommy and daddy didn't give you enough attention as a toddler. Logs can be a damning thing.

Also, its like this - the player base is dwindling as it is - the longstanding ever present problem of there being "too many chiefs and not enough indians" continues to plagues us more now than ever. Be content, have fun, and shoot every noob you can and don't toil over such petty issues.

[Iskskskks]

To vote press n or m and put /poll ban " " & to vote press n or m /vote no
Hope this helps!

[Musicmaker621]

Thanks so much for answering everyone! It helped a great deal.

[Tanx]

There is one another thing about being admin, its not as good as you might think it is. Actually the only thing I love about it is the admin chat, which can get downright hilarious at times. Other then that its more like a chore, and people are looking up to you. but on some places, its less tiresome. When I was running my own ports off of the old mofo server, since I imposed a no language allowed rule, it became more tiresome. operating a server is even more annoying then admin. the @ doesn't matter remember that. I know some people who don't have one, command more respect then those who do. but also with the decreasing playerbase, the admin staff may be equally depleted. I know my own groups suffered this fate, and I'm sure others have had the same problem. asking to be one is basically telling the world, you aren't mature enough to be one, you need to be able to live without being one, before you can be one. Some of the admin's reputation that got them their admin post had to build that trust over years. Its a honor, yet its like work. You have to always make sure you're acting right. I know I revoked someone's adminship because of a compliant of abuse, which was validated by the logs. one mistake could cost you your post. But the best admins are the ones who aren't like a robot, but are able to be fair, just, and human all at the same time. Its a rare mix, which is quite lacking. Someone probably won't just hand you the highest admin group they have, I know I wasn't. first group for me was cop, from that you being to learn what's a good punishment. Like for unfair caps, ban isn't always the best answer, I, myself prefer a kick forcning that player to play on the team they just capped against. Its a learning game, you will make mistakes that is gauranteed, and you'll learn from them. I know I did. That's why in cases where its not obvious who's telling the truth to get both sides, otherwise you are missing half of the puzzle. If you keep that up, sooner or later you'll mess up. When you do, correct it, apoligize, then move on. At first it feels special, but eventually it wears off, then you want something more, but its just a game though. You won't find total satisfaction in a game. In my view its more like a job, not some special honor. I was surprised when I found it more stressful then when I began creating maps, it wasn't until around 45 or so maps down the road that the stress died down, still stresses me though

People will look up to anyone with an @, if you lose the @, its not likely you'll get it back. But once you become an admin, its very, very, Very difficult not to offend anyone, almost impossible, its easy to do that as a player, but if you're going to be an effective admin, be prepared to offend someone. You will probably make an enemy or two. I've been fortunate, I haven't had to make any enemys that I know of. mostly because I'd been only admin as of later years, as bz's population has dwindled so has the troublemakers. Only a few troublemakers remain, swissboy being the biggest offender, but he's small compared to the troublemakers that used to be around. Nowadays adminship is basically just to keep things fair. Getting people's trust takes time, but in a second you can lose it, possibly forever. I'm actually less inclined to put people in my groups who gain adminship quickly. I'm quite wary of those people. You just don't know who they really are. The biggest example of this was a player (which I will not name, but I'm betting some will know who I'm refering to) that gained adminship in a bunch of places very quickly, I kinda liked him as well as the rest of the players, he was always helpful, especially on the forums. I had him in my groups as well. I had fixed his links in his first map, and I had helped him along in mapping onward as well. He even hosted a few of my maps, like M.I.S.T. II for example. Then it became known he had cheated, to which he apoligized. I took him out of my groups when I found out, and I encouraged him to see this through, apparently by that time it wasn't the first time he had been caught, apparently a few weeks before he had done this and apoligized as well. Yet somehow he retained his @ at some places through it all. I've never been trusting like that since. I don't want to see that happen again.

Don't tread too lightly, or you won't gain anyone's trust. being willing to put yourself out there and let people get to know you, they won't give you anything just because you have an @ at your own server. I was like that once, I treaded really lightly, then I began to get more involved in bz, and built trust along the way. Plus it was quite fun making all those maps, I got enjoyment at seeing them played, not because of popularity, but becuase I knew that I had provided someone's entertainment for that day, I had served others, also popularity, but serving the other players with the maps was much more pleasing. Even to this day I get enjoyment from that, the buzz I got from the popularity only gives me a slight smile, but the enjoyment I get from serving the other players gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Its that that caused me to be so prolific with maps, but now there's basically no hosters, so whats the point?

being admin is basically like serving others, you are there for them, they are not here for you.

[blast]

I always say that being an admin is like cleaning toilets all day because you have to deal with all the crap.

[Musicmaker621]

Thank you very much Tanx. That really helped me greatly. And who says that video games don't help anything in real life? I mean you have to gain respect, play fairly, and just be a good all around guy/girl. I would say from playing a few games in my history that I have learned one or two lessons that I can apply to real life, and BZFlag is no exception. I am saddened by the fact that the player base is dwindling, as I have watched it dwindle in year or two I have been playing, but, it is just one of the facts of life I guess.