Staffing Guidelines

Core Staff Rules

These core staff rules apply to all members of staff, regardless of rank or status. While maintainers are not staff, many of these rules also apply to them, if said rules are applicable in the context of their role.

0. Training

It is important that new staff go through the rules with someone in training, rather than having someone read the rules alone; that way if they don’t understand something that is part of the rules questions can be answered regarding misunderstandings. (doing so removes the need for precedents because staff should know how to apply the rules to different scenarios).

There are two kinds of training a new staff member receives: event, and moderation. Event training is given to eventmins or moderators that wish to learn how to run, and run, events.

0.1 Moderation Training

Moderation training is fulfilled by a Head Admin (Headmin). Headmins are expected to teach potential moderators:

• How to use common staffing verbs, such as, but not limited to: Aghost, Jump-To-Area, View-Variables, Create-Command-Report, Spawn-Panel, Player-Panel, etc.
• Where to find the rules, interpretations of rules, Headmin rulings, etc., including asking the potential moderator to read and understand the rules in full themself.
• How to conduct themselves to fellow staff members, including maintaining positive relationships, refraining from holding grudges, harassing, consistently slighting, etc., fellow staff members
• How to conduct themselves in-game and reflect the staff team. This usually involves being respectful, refraining from forming negative relationships, and following the rules that they will hope to uphold.
• How to conduct themselves on the discord, through following the discord rules and maintaining positive relationships with staff and community members.
• How to conduct themselves within tickets, through clearly explaining problems and solutions to players, and clearly explaining punishment(s) and appeal time(s), etc.
• How to handle the misconduct of another staff member, through reporting it to a Headmin or a staff member one rank above the staff member who committed an infraction
• It is also expected that Headmin provide information regarding hierarchy, staff punishment, appeal times, ban types, holistic punishment, etc.

0.2 Event Training

Event training is fulfilled by a Head Event Admin (Head Eventmin) or by a Head Admin (Headmin) in their interim. Head Eventmins are expected to teach potential eventmins:

• How to use common eventing verbs, such as, but not limited to: Spawn, Spawn-Panel, Storyteller-Panel, Dynamic-Panel, Create-Command-Report, Create/Launch-Supplypod, Trigger-Event, Set-Security-Level, etc.
• Where to find the rules, interpretations of rules, Headmin rulings, etc., including asking the potential Eventmin to read and understand the rules in full themself.
• How to conduct themselves to fellow staff members, including maintaining positive relationships, refraining from holding grudges, harassing, consistently slighting, etc., fellow staff members
• How to conduct themselves in-game and reflect the staff team. This usually involves being respectful, refraining from forming negative relationships, and following the rules that they will hope to uphold.
• How to conduct themselves on the discord, through following the discord rules and maintaining positive relationships with staff and community members.
• It is also expected that Head Eventmin provide information regarding hierarchy, staff punishment, appeal times, ban types, holistic punishment, etc.

1. Responsibility & Power

As staff, the consequences of your actions fall completely upon you, and you alone; you will be held accountable for whatever consequences arise due to your actions. Examples of this are: handing out antagonistic roles, spawning in hazardous creatures or entities (such as xenomorphs or vines), leaving an event that you started, etc.

Although these things can or can not necessarily incur in breaking this rule depending on context, if they cause problems, you will be blamed for them, and suffer the appropriate consequences. Adminbus is only fun if other people are having fun. Staff are expected to act as game masters and refrain from doing things solely for their own enjoyment. Please make sure to coordinate any actions you make that could affect the round with the rest of staff. It helps to avoid problems and take care of them if they happen.

1.1 Power use

• You may not, under any circumstances, var-edit (variable edit via View-Variables) items for yourself or others in-round in a way that would provide an advantage (including quality-of-life) to you or others, unless such is in response to a ticket where you, yourself are uninvolved, and the var-edit does not circumvent intentional game design, the server rules, or the fun and enjoyment of other players.
• You may not, without special permission, spawn significantly round-impacting antagonists (heretic, wizard, or any antagonists currently not in rotation);
• You must not remain adminned (and must de-admin/deadmin) while you are playing in-round as a member of Command, Security, or as an Antagonist. If you are the only available moderator, this rule may be circumvented.
• You must not spawn in any items for yourself, under any circumstances, outside of the Central Command Z-level. If you require an item, you must ahelp as a regular player and another staff member will deny or accept your request.
• You must avoid handling the tickets of players you dislike or like. Consistent deviation in punishment toward specific players is grounds for administrative action.
• You must not, under any circumstance, handle, or attempt to handle, a ticket that involves yourself. Regardless of if the ticket is not warranting punishment, it is strictly forbidden to take tickets that are:
  • Regarding yourself;
  • Regarding a situation you were personally involved in;
  • Regarding a person (or persons) that you have interacted with significantly through the course of the round.
• The above is not exhaustive, and staff members are expected to use due diligence when handling tickets. If you believe you could be involved, there is almost no circumstance where you should neglect to hand the ticket to another staff member.

1.2 Duties of Care

• You must report issues of Server Safety to the wider staff team.
• You must ensure you respect the Server Safety rules.
• You must ensure that you handle sensitive situations with care, and avoid causing unnecessary stress or harm to both staff and players
• You must ensure that sensitive and private information remains confidential; this includes all staff conversations, and all messages or media posted in staff channels.

2. Respect

As a member of staff, you are expected to be respectful. You are expected to speak respectfully when discussing important matters, you are expected to respect the words and decisions of other staff members, and you are expected to act in respect to your own rank and role. As a part of the staff team, we are all expected to be able to speak cordially with one another, regardless of the circumstances; arguing, fighting, acting snide, aggressive, malicious, or otherwise speaking maliciously when interacting with other members of staff is grounds for administrative action.

However, converse opinions, and debates are welcome. SPLURT prides itself in having a varied staff team with varied opinions, and small disagreements are encouraged. Staff members are permitted to present opposing opinions, alternative explanations, etc., regardless of the circumstances.

2.1 Administrative Conduct

• You must not defame, bully, harass, or libel players or staff, either privately or publically, through any medium.
• You must not shame players regarding their preferences or server playtime.
• You must ensure that you provide players appropriate information, whether this regard punishment, appeal procedures, or general help queries. Laziness is not an excuse to fail to perform your duties.
• You must avoid 'dog-piling' in staff channels. Dog-piling is when multiple people 'dog' (talk negatively of) a single person, even if all the involved persons are not necessarily fully-informed.
  • Avoid personally insulting players in staff channels. This avoids tension if they become a staff member in the future, and reflects better on you as a person.
• Avoid using your administrative tools to seek out and then use information that, while 'harmless', may be considered sensitive. For example, ERP logs of a player.
• Avoid discussing sensitive information found through your access to logs unless necessary.
• Members of staff are permitted to use their permissions in friendly ways, such as spawning a plushie in the hand of a person they know, but if a player requests this to stop, you must respect their wishes.

2.2 Inter-Staff Relations

• Staff are expected to behave civilly toward one another, despite any personal tensions.
  • Personal qualms should be resolved privately and not discussed or brought as a point of contention within staff chat
  • Exaggerating, falsifying, or falsely presenting information about a fellow staff member to form a complaint is grounds for dismissal
• Staff should avoid inflammatory discussion. While debates and opposing opinions are welcomed and encouraged, insults, condescension, excessive rank-pulling, or arbitrary big-dick contests are not permitted.
  • To this end, while staff hierarchy on SPLURT is not strictly enforced, it should be important to recognize that those above you have their roles for a reason. Higher ranks come with higher responsibilities, greater trust, etc.

3. Civility

As a member of staff, you are expected to behave accordingly, both in and out of tickets! This should be needless to say, however, handling tickets carelessly, in any way, completely violates this rule; For example speaking rudely to ahelpers/players, ignoring or otherwise leaving tickets unanswered, acting dismissively towards ahelpers'/players’ issues, or otherwise disrespecting the very players we are meant to serve all violate this rule. If you do not wish to handle tickets, you must de-admin yourself.

This rule also covers your attitude towards the community as a whole, along with individual players; incessantly insulting the playerbase, the community, specific players, etcetera, thusly violates this rule. As a staff member, we expect you to have interest in your duties, and look for the best for our station, since you represent us as a whole when you’re either on station or in our discord.

• SPLURT does not moderate the interpersonal relationships of staff members, unless this would constitute a violation of Server Safety rules.

3.1 Malice

• You must not increase a punishment in response to a player making a complaint, contest of punishment, or for discussing their punishment.
• You must not bait a player into breaking the rules, including through IC actions.
• You must not unduly discuss the punishments of other players, especially if said punishment is not public
• You must avoid misrepresenting information or input on the punishment of other players where bias is evident. If you dislike a player, you are expected to avoid contact with them from a moderation standpoint.

4. Maintenance & Activity

SPLURT is a community dedicated to erotic roleplay, and staff members are expected to help maintain an ideal roleplay environment. This means you should refrain from actively disrupt the round and its environment through your intervention. Try and keep your interventions within our roleplay standards and the general mood of the round. Generally, be a game master, and make it less-than-obvious you are interfering with the round.

Each round is different and its environment and mood can vary, especially with different storytellers and for planned events, but it is important to avoid the round to have a sudden change of pace that disrupts its natural flow.

Additionally, staff members are expected to be present and active to perform their duties. This ensures that there is no loose power laying around.

4.1 Intervention

• Avoid spawning antagonists that are unable to spawn on the current storyteller, especially as non-event staff.
• Avoid triggering events that make the round needlessly unfun or unfair for players, such as a supermatter surge early into the round.
• Avoid disrupting player roleplay without reason, such as nonsensical subtle-PMs or direct-narrates.
  • This may be done in good faith so long as a player has not raised a complaint.
  • Admins should use their discretion as to what is "funny" and what is "annoying".
• Avoid reviving players that die repeatedly and consistently ask for AdminHeals (AHeals).
  • AHeals are offered at-will of the staff member handling the situation, and players are not entitled to any.
• Avoid teleporting dead players to medbay unless it has been more than 15 minutes since their death.

4.2 Activity

• Staff members should ensure that they remain active while not on leave.
• A member of staff can be considered inactive if they do not log onto the SPLURT game server at least once within the last 30 days.
• Inactivity is grounds for demotion or removal.
• Staff members are expected to be active on the discord server, including taking discord tickets and age verification tickets.
• Special circumstances may change the above. You are advised to speak to your head (Headmin, or Head Eventmin) if you have any queries about your activity.

5. Integrity

As a member of staff, you are expected to maintain the privacy and safety of all community members, and the community itself. Which is to say, you are expected to keep all information you discover as a staff member private, regardless of the circumstances. For example, sharing other players' Ckeys, notes, personal information, etcetera, is utterly against this rule; as is sharing the details of any tickets, contents of staff channels, etcetera, you might come across, in OR outside the server and discord. You may come across agevetting situations, you are REQUIRED to keep personal information about users to the utmost respect deserved, violation of which WILL see you punished by staffers and Discord TOS for privacy violation.

Likewise, you should not perform any actions that could endanger our community (Server Safety violations). Examples of such actions are violating Discord or Byond’s terms of service, inciting drama or competition between servers, knowingly allowing underage players into the community, etc.

5.1 Accountability & Transparency

• SPLURT has made moves to become more transparent. This includes revealing bans to the public (redacted for privacy) and revealing staff guidelines (this page) to the public.
• You must not misrepresent the truth, deceive, or lie to other staff members, especially with malicious intent and where the situation regards the punishment of another person (player or staff).
  • This includes taking appropriate accountability for actions you, yourself are responsible for.
  • This includes not attempting to displace blame onto other players or staff.
• You must hold other staff members accountable for their actions. Intentionally failing to report the misconduct of another staff member can lead to you being accountable for the same offense, at the same severity.
• You must not form cliques with fellow staff members or players, where you discuss sensitive information (defined prior) or discuss fellow staff members or players; or where you plot against, construe misdeeds of, or otherwise target or discuss fellow staff members or players. Put simply, don't be a bad actor.
• You must not lie or withhold the punishments of members of staff unless an Administrator or above has agreed to keep the punishment private.
  • This chiefly applies to staff complaints. Punishments do not need to be publicized, only disclosed to the complainant.

5.2 DM Moderation & Complaints

Following a unanimous staff vote (17-0) on 10/04/2026, the following is now prohibited:

• Taking, discussing, or handling complaints on players, staff members, or any SPLURT-related topics in direct messages or anywhere outside of a discord ticket visible to all staff;
• Issuing warnings or punishments, or discussing warnings, punishments, or bans (as part of active moderation decisions, not actions taken in the past).

This means staff must abide by the following:

• If a staff member is directly messaged by another community member (player, staff) regarding a SPLURT-related complaint of any kind, they must refer them to make a discord ticket.
• Staff members must conduct, discuss, and issue all moderation actions on either the game server or discord server.
  • Failure to do so is grounds for the punishment to be rendered null and invalid. This means that decisions or actions taken from a complaint made in DMs can lead to said decisions being summarily overturned with prejudice; with respect to the staff hierarchy.

This rule applies to staff members of all rankings (Head Admins, Administrators, Game Moderators, Head Eventmins, Eventmins, Maintainers, etc.) and to all kinds of complaints.

6. Enforcement

Your duty as a member of staff is to ensure the following of our server’s rules and standards. It’s important that you have a good understanding of our rules made for players to follow, so in case you have any questions about any of our rules, it is your responsibility to ask the rest of staff before enacting the rules. This rule covers staff responsibilities such as applying proper punishments for rule breaks, properly handling tickets related to rulebreaks, acting on any situations you notice break the rules, etc.

We do not aim to be always surveiling everyone’s actions in the server, and we typically wait for smaller issues to be adminhelped, even if we notice something. Unless something is a repeat behavior, it can be good moderation to let players roleplay in the fashion they wish to do so. Essentially, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

However, it is still your responsibility to act upon situations that diminish our server’s enjoyment and experience. Any situations that are visibly wrong and causing notable issues should be handled by staff. This does not extend to inconveniences or minor issues experienced by players, which while you may assist with, can also be marked as IC issues.

6.1 Application of Rules & Enforcement

• You are expected to know the rules that you are enforcing. This does not necessarily imply that we expect every staff member to know every nuance, but it does state that if you are punishing a player, you must know and be able to cite the rule you are using to do so. Failure to do this can result in nullification and/or administrative action.
• You are allowed and expected to use your professional judgement, especially if you rise above the rank of Game Moderator. If rules are vague, you should apply them in a manner that is most intuitive to you and the wider staff team.
  • You should additionally seek to remedy gaps or ambiguity within the rules by informing the wider staff team or the person(s) responsible for amending the rule(s) in question.

7. Consequences

The consequences for breaking staff rules, and other forms of guidelines, vary greatly depending on the severity of the offense; furthermore, the punishment to be given is ultimately decided by the responsible head (Headmin, or Head Eventmin).

Whilst they may choose to include other staff members in the process, this is not necessary. The current punishment system in place is the black mark system, explained in the black mark document.

8. Player Governance

Staff members are here to enforce the rules, but they are also here to ensure server safety, community health, roleplay quality, and a number of other duties. This section covers roleplay quality, and has a very narrow scope. If any number of players are violating any non-server safety rules, they are all roleplaying according to our MRP (or MERP) standards, all participating members are participating consensually, and there has been no credible complaint made by a participating member, then staff members should not unduly intervene. In short, players are afforded the governance to conduct their own roleplay so long as it respects the server's roleplay standards, and the consent of other players; even if this constitutes the violation of one or multiple rules, and so long as these violations are not related to server safety. To this end:

• Players who are violating the rules, but are roleplaying to an MRP standard, and have not had an AdminHelp made regarding the rules violation should be allowed to continue roleplaying without OOC admin intervention.
• Credible complaints made by a party either directly involved, or affected in some way (other than simply witnessing the rulebreak) must be actioned upon.
  • IC admin intervention is permitted, so long as the staff member in question engages personally with the roleplay. For example, it would be frowned upon to demote someone over the rule breaks through simply sending a fax, but it would be acceptable to enter the round as a code GOLD ERT to investigate.
  • If an uninvolved, unaffected party (such as a witnessing ghost) adminhelps, staff reserve the right and discretion to choose to either allow the roleplay to continue or intervene. The below is not applicable in this situation.
• Staff have discretion, despite this guideline, to ticket players who have not been complained about, but staff doing so accept all responsibility and understand that players have a strong basis of appeal through the grounds of this guideline.
• Server-safety rule violations are exempted from this rule, and should be actioned regardless of circumstances.

Event Team Standards

Members of the event team (trial eventmins, eventmins, and head eventmins) are event-only members of staff intermingled with other staff, responsible solely for running events on the SPLURT game server. The following guidelines only apply to members of the event team, and should not be referred to by members of the moderation team. Event team members are still beholden to the core staff rules.

0. Community Engagement

As a member of the event team, one of your primary duties is to engage with the community. This should be both through playing as a general player yourself, and through in-round events.

1. Staff Interaction

As a member of the event team, it is important to recognize your unique position. Event team members are hired for different reasons than members of the moderation team, and as such, these guidelines dictate their interaction with the wider staff team.

1.1 Participation in Moderation Discussions

• Members of the event team are prohibited from participating in discussions that pertain to any of the following, including voting or creating votes on such matters:
  • Punishment decisions, including to apply revoke, repeal, grant an appeal on, or decide the length or severity of any punishments both theoretical and actual;
  • Quality Control ban proposals, decisions, unless the eventmin has been personally afflicted by the person in question who is proposed or decided to be or not to be Quality Control banned;
  • Staffing Guidelines ("Staff Standards") violations, or any punishments thereof.

1.2 Participation in Policy Discussions

• Members of the event team are permitted to partake in all policy discussions, such as amendments to the core or event team staff standards, event guidelines, moderation policy, or in-game policy, but members of the moderation team take priority in policy discussions.
  • Members of the event team may make votes, vote on, and propose matters of their own accord.
  • If an administrator+ requests that a member of the event team, or the event team as a whole to withhold from a policy discussion, then said member, or the team as a whole are obliged to do so.

2. Event Classifications & Guidelines

There are three types of events that members of the event team are expected to run: Major Events, Faction Events, In-round Events (also known as "buttonpushing").

2.1 Major Events:

A major event is any event that is expected to satisfy any two of the following four criteria:

1. Requires the use of a PR(s) on the GitHub in order to run;
2. Impacts the station as a whole, and may or may not extend to ghost roles;
3. Is likely to have an impact on the performance of the game box;
4. Is likely to have more than five volunteers or thirty total participants.

• If applicable, members of the event team must ensure any PR(s) on the GitHub pass all checks (excluding linters);
• Members of the event team must ensure that the event is announced at least 48 hours prior to its scheduled time;
• Members of the event team running major events must receive permission from an administrator, head admin, or head eventmin;
• Members of the event team hosting or co-hosting a major event must be present for the event round in its entirety;
• Members of the event team hosting a major event must credit any co-hosting volunteers or staff, and any volunteers.

Members of the event team are permitted to disrupt any round that would delay a major event by more than 30 minutes through calling the shuttle early, or if voted for by players, more "fun" means.

2.2 Faction Events:

A faction event is any event that does not satisfy the criteria for a major event, but is still likely to involve the general station, or is restricted to a specific ghost role or group of ghost roles. For example, spawning in a custom .dmi meteor outside the Persistence, or in Ordnance, that they (the persistence) or crewmembers will interact with.

• If applicable, members of the event team must ensure any PR(s) on the GitHub pass all checks (excluding linters);
• Members of the event team may run faction events without approval;
• Members of the event team hosting or co-hosting a faction event must be present for the duration of the event;
• Members of the event team should respect the current chaos level, unless players pass a vote allowing the member of the event team to increase the chaos beyond expected levels;
• Members of the event team hosting a faction event must credit any co-hosting volunteers or staff, and any volunteers.

2.3 In-Round Events:

A station event is any event that does not satisfy the criteria for a major event, but is likely to impact (and is restricted to) the general station. For example, spawning in a custom .dmi meteor in ordnance that crewmembers will interact with.

• Members of the event team should avoid overly targeting or favoring specific players;
• Members of the event team must avoid creating in-round events that benefit themselves;
• Members of the event team may run in-round events without approval;
• Members of the event team may not cause or summon any round-ending events, with respect to the likelihood that spawning said event may end the round (for example, kudzu is extremely unlikely to end a round);
• Members of the event team must respect the current chaos level, and may not attempt to create or pass a vote allowing the member of the event team to increase the chaos beyond expected levels.

Additionally, OPFORs are also included as a kind of In-Round event. OPFOR applications a member of the event team approves are their sole responsibility, and these are treated as an in-round event for the levels of expected impact. Any awry actions an OPFOR applicant takes that are reasonably foreseeable from the content of the OPFOR are at the fault of the event team member, and they are liable to be punished according to the staff punishment process.

3. Event Guidelines

Members of the event team are expected to make events for the community and its players, and when running any of the three above kinds of events, they must follow these guidelines. Violating any of the above guidelines, or these guidelines, is liable to punishment according to the staff punishment process.

3.1 Self and Community Service

• Members of the event team are prohibited from running faction or in-round events that are "self-serving" to them either through social, material (in-game), or otherwise unspecified benefit.
  • This does not extend to major events, but members of the event team must not make themselves the focal point of an event.
• Members of the event team must avoid in-round events that pertain to their specific role or duties, if they are currently playing as a character in the round.
  • For example, it is prohbited for a security officer eventmin summoning aliens (xenomorphs).
• Members of the event team must ensure that the players participating in their event are enjoying their event, and it is the responsibility of the hosting (and co-hosting) members of the event team to orchestrate their event as such.
• Members of the event team must welcome constructive feedback where appropriate.
  • Toxicity from players or staff should be reported to the appropriate persons.
• Members of the event team should avoid making events too chaotic, and should cater to both the extended and gamer populations of the server.

3.2 Server Philosophy

• Members of the event team must ensure that they respect the lack of round-ending (or "station-destroying") antagonists for in-round and faction events.
  • This does not extend to major events.
  • With permission from an Administrator, Head Admin, or a supermajority player vote (66.6%+ in favor), faction events may involve round ends.
• Members of the event team must avoid interrupting the roleplay, erotic or otherwise, of other players for both faction and in-round events.
  • Foreseeability applies.
  • This does not apply to major events.

Maintainer Team Standards

TBD

Staff Hierarchy

0. Hierarchy

The current staff hierarchy is as follows:

1. Roles, Responsibilities, & Functions

The SPLURT staff team is not tall in nature, and instead relies on a liberal distribution of power with some hard limits. Generally, staff are encouraged to act as equals until rank becomes necessary or relevant, either through duty requirements (an administrator is above a moderator in an appeal, for example) or when it comes to making decisions.

1.1 Management Team

These roles are responsible for the overarching administration/management of either the server or a specific server function. While not listed for redundancy's sake, all staff are beholden to all rules in these guidelines.

• Mosley: Mosley is not a typical part of the hierarchy, but manages server architecture/functionality, donator issues, and many functions related to server maintenance, including the GitHub.

• Head Admins: There are two Head Admin slots on SPLURT. Head Admins are the ultimate authority and power on all matters, for all other staff members. Their duties include:
  • Making final rulings unable to be overridden unless by the other presiding Head Admin;
  • Handling staff complaints on Administrators or other Head Admins;
  • Managing overall server direction through policy-setting and ethos management;
  • The opening, screening, shortlisting, selecting, and closing of staff applicants & applications;
  • Promoting Trial Moderators, or ruling that they have failed their trial period;
  • Promoting Game Moderators to Administrator;
  • Handling PR or server visibility concerns, including handling major server-safety concerns;
  • Setting, writing, and implementing major server policies, such as the Staffing Guidelines, Space Law, or the Standard Operating Procedure;
  • Setting, writing, and implementing discord policies;
  • Discussing balance, changes, etc., with other staff members;
  • Ensuring that the rules are enforced by other members of staff;
  • and The delegation of power.

1.2 Moderation Team

These roles are responsible for the general maintenance of the discord and game server, and moderate the general community.

• Administrators: Administrators are the highest-ranking non-management role. They are above both Head Eventmins and Head Maintainers on moderation matters. Their duties include:
  • Overseeing Game Moderators and providing guidance where necessary, especially when input or feedback is requested;
  • Management of the discord and enforcing the discord rules;
  • Creating staff discussions, providing input on staff discussions, and deciding on staff discussions (where appropriate);
  • Participation in the Administrator Forum;
  • Handling tickets that have been escalated from moderators either as part of an appeal or contest (see 3, 4 of the "Staff Complaints & Appealing" section);
  • Screening, discussing, and overseeing balance changes with or without the Head Maintainer, involving Head Administrators where necessary;
  • Corroborating with other Administrators to ensure all rules, regulations, and guidelines are clear, concise, and able to be understood by both players and staff, including making amendments where rules are unclear, unwritten, or poorly written in some way;
  • General game server moderation, including handling tickets regarding rule-breaks, player complaints, and other miscellaneous tickets;
  • Ensuring that the rules are enforced by other members of staff;
  • Handling staff complaints against Game Moderators or Trial Game Moderators (see 1, 2 of the "Staff Complaints & Appealing" section);
  • Ensuring server safety, community safety, and community engagement (ensuring players want to play);
  • Representing the player base on balance, rules, policies, or changes thereof, and acting as a voice for the player base and their opinions thereof;
  • Handling age verification tickets when other staff are not able to do so.

• Game Moderators:
  • General game server moderation, including handling tickets regarding rule-breaks, player complaints, and other miscellaneous tickets;
  • Providing input on staff discussions;
  • Creating and handling discord tickets where necessary;
  • Overseeing and assisting Eventmins if they request assistance;
  • Representing the player base on balance, rules, policies, or changes thereof, and acting as a voice for the player base and their opinions thereof with respect to input from Administrators;
  • Ensuring that the rules are enforced by other members of staff;
  • Handling age verification tickets.
• Trial Game Moderators:
  • All duties of Game Moderators (above), excluding age verifications;
  • Sricter adherence to SPLURT staffing guidelines is expected for the duration of their trial period.

1.3 Event Team

These roles are responsible for hosting events on the SPLURT game server.

• Head Eventmin: There is one Head Eventmin slot on SPLURT, but an administrator may take the role of Interim Head Eventmin in the absence of one. Their duties include:
  • The opening, screening, shortlisting, selecting, and closing of event staff applicants & applications;
  • Handling staff complaints on Eventmins and Trial Eventmins;
  • Promoting Trial Eventmins, or ruling that they have failed their trial period;
  • Approving major events (events impacting >50% of the current active station population);
  • Running their own events.

• Eventmins: Eventmins are our event staff. Admin abuse rules are enforced more liberally on Eventmins, as they are expected to mold the experience for other players through the use of their administrative tools. Their duties include:
  • Running both minor and major events;
  • Ensuring the quality and degree to which their events can be enjoyed do not negatively impact the experience of players;
  • Ensuring events are not overwhelming for players;
  • Ensuring players are informed of major events and when these events will be happening;
  • Reporting moderation concerns to moderation staff.

†While Eventmins are not required or expected to do age verification, they may choose to do so. This does not extend to Trial Eventmins.

• Trial Eventmins:
  • All duties of Eventmins (above);
  • Stricter adherence to SPLURT staffing guidelines is expected for the duration of their trial period.

1.4 Maintainer Team

The maintainer team, and its members, is the only team not forming part of the SPLURT staff team. As such, they are only beholden to the maintainer guidelines.

• Head Maintainer: There is one Head Maintainer slot on SPLURT. Their duties include:
  • Fixing issues posted on the GitHub;
  • Handling balance concerns or complaints raised by members of SPLURT (staff or players);
  • Managing administration-related PRs;
  • Feature implementation, coding, and spriting.

• Maintainers: Maintainers ensure the codebase remains up-to-date, without bugs/exploits, and also make feature/code/sprite contributions to the server. Their duties include:
  • Fixing issues posted on the GitHub;
  • Ensuring PRs are balanced, with consultation to Administrators and Head Admins;
  • Feature implementation, coding, and spriting.
• Server Spriters: Server spriters are volunteer individuals who are only expected to contribute solely to sprites. They may occasionally be compensated for their work. Their duties include:
  • Sprite implementation, coding, and spriting.

Staff Complaints & Appealing

A staff complaint is different from an adminhelp about a player who also happens to be a staff member. All members of staff can be noted or banned in accordance to the rules. A staff complaint refers solely to a complaint on the conduct, behavior, actions, or acumen of a staff member.

1. Complaint Handling

Staff complaints are distinct from a contested punishment. A player must make any complaint clear by stating that they are making a complaint against a staff member (or staff members) and must specify who in particular.

Complaints against a Game Moderator or Trial Game Moderator may be handled by an Administrator.

Complaints against Eventmins or Trial Eventmins may be handled by the Head Eventmin.

Complaints against Administrators or the Head Eventmin may be handled by a Head Admin.

Complaints against Maintainers should be raised to Mosley.

Complaints against Head Admins must be brought to another Head Admin. If there is a simultaneous complaint against both Head Admins, then the complaint must be brought to Mosley.

Complaints against Mosley should be made to the general staff team.

2. Complaint Process

When a complaint is made, a complainant should be encouraged to provide their complaint in full. The involved staff member may only do two things at this stage:

• Ping a person who may handle the complaint (see above);
• Ask the complainer to state their complaint.

It is forbidden to begin to argue or debate the complaint without acknowledgement that the complaint is being handled by a person able to handle the complaint.

When an appropriate person acknowledges the complaint, they must:

1. Ask the involved staff member for their side of things;
2. Compare this with the complainant's account;
3. Consider whether the complaint is valid by assessing our above staff rules and, if yes, continue to step 4. If no, skip to step 6.
4. Assess the impact and intent behind the staff member's actions;
5. Decide an appropriate punishment for the staff member and apply the punishment, convening with other persons of the same rank if necessary;
6. Reveal the outcome of the complaint and how this outcome was achieved to the complainant before closing the ticket.

2.1 Staff Punishments

Appropriate outcomes to a staff complaint, or appropriate staff punishments involve:

• No action. The staff member either hasn't done anything wrong or is receiving a verbal warning.
• Black marks. The staff member is issued warnings through the black mark system.
• Demotion. The staff member is found to have committed grave misconduct and is demoted.
• Suspension. The staff member is found to have committed grave misconduct and is suspended for a fixed period of time.
• Dismissal. The staff member is found to have committed gross misconduct and is immediately dismissed.

3. Punishment Contestation

Any note or ban may be appealed, with the exception of QC bans (where no appeal time is given) and age-related bans (where no appeal time is given). Verbal warnings that did not result in an admin remark may not be appealed.

Players have a right to appeal the:

• Severity of a note;
• Length of a ban;
• Severity of a punishment (note vs. ban);
• Removal of Permissions (mentorship);
• and The grounds of punishment (whether a punishment should have been issued at all).

If a player is contesting a punishment or ban, they should do so before their ban or note expires, or within 30 days (whichever comes first).

The staff member who issued a punishment is the first person to handle a contest of punishment. They should re-review the situation, their reasons for punishment, input from other staff (if any), the actions of the player, and any other relevant information. They should then review the player's grounds for contesting the punishment before deciding to either stay (reject) or grant (accept) the contest.

A granted contest of punishment leads to:

• The note or ban being removed entirely;
• The severity of the note being lowered;
• The ban being exchanged for a note;
• The length or type of the ban being lowered;
• or The permissions taken being reinstated.

A stayed contest of punishment leads to:

• No further action.

It should be noted that a successful contest of punishment means that the minimum appeal time for the given punishment is removed, and the lowered ban length (if applicable) must be served in full.

4. Appeals Process

Players and staff members have the right to appeal any decisions made by a member of staff. SPLURT uses a linear, vertical appeal system. Appeals follow a simple process:

1. You may appeal to one member of staff above the rank of the staff member who took the appealed action.

2. If you are unhappy with the decision of the person who you appealed to the second time, you may repeat the first step.

3. Appeals may only be made to one member of staff per rank (Game Moderator, Administrator, Head Admin.

3.1 Exceptions may be made to this rule to allow two members of staff per rank where appropriate, but this is at staff member discretion/choice only.

4. An appeal cannot mention a staff member by name, and the rank role must be pinged. For example, instead of pinging @toastewoofs for a complaint, you must ping @Administrator.

This means that if you appeal the decision of a Trial Game Moderator, you may appeal a total of four times (including the original appeal to the initial member of staff; see below) before a final decision is made.

• You may not appeal to another member of staff of the same rank at any stage of appeal
• You may not attempt to appeal to a specific member of staff
• If you are appealing a decision made by a Head Admin, you have one mode of appeal to the second presiding Head Admin.
  • You cannot appeal the decision of a Head Admin unless the original decision being appealed is by a Head Admin (see graph above).
• Mosley is not involved in the appeals process.

Punishment Guidelines

A punishment is a note, ban, or restriction placed upon a player. Before any punishment is issued, a player must be brought into an AdminHelp in-game, or a discord ticket.

The punishment should be applied at the end of a ticket (or when you have made your final decision), but may be applied after you have informed the player of the punishment and the reasoning behind the punishment if it is a discord ticket.

1. Note Guidelines

There are five severities for notes:

• None: Reserved for admin remarks in the literal sense, or antagonist tokens. Unless an antag token, none severity notes should be made private.
• Minor: Low-impact (affecting zero to one players), fringe, or first-offence breaches of the rules.
• Moderate: Medium-impact (affecting one to three players), unambiguous breaches of the rules.
• High: High-impact (affecting three+ players), unambiguous breaches of the rules, or a breach of the rules with clear, malicious intent.

Note that the above is not comprehensive, and staff are encouraged to apply notes holistically.

• Repeated breaches of the same rule will result in notes or bans being escalated in severity or length.

When deciding the severity of a note, a staff member should consider:

• The other admin remarks a player has (notes/bans) and what these remarks are for. If they're irrelevant or excessively old, they should be paid less attention.
• The scope of the rule violation. Did it affect a significant amount of players? How strongly did it affect them?
• What was the intent of the player? Were they distinctly unaware of the rule? Did they intend for things to violate the rule in question, at the severity it did?

Once again, the above is not comprehensive, and staff are encouraged to use their professional judgement.

1.1 Note Expiry & Secret Notes

Secret notes, excluding notes intended purely to convey information to other members of staff, are currently not practiced on SPLURT.

Note expiration is used holistically, but should only apply to moderate or minor severity notes. An expiring note typically means that a staff member wishes to convey that the infraction was not deserving of a permanent note. For example, punishing a behavior that strongly impacted a small number of people but is likely to be learned from.

• A minor severity note should expire 1-3 months after the note was issued, if you choose to set an expiration date.
• A moderate severity note should expire 3-6 months after the note was issued, if you choose to set an expiration date.

2. Ban Guidelines

SPLURT practices lenient punishment, and bans should be reserved to appropriate length and type to best support a player in changing troublesome behavior. The end goal of banning a player is not to get them off our hands, but to try to make them learn from their mistakes. American Psychologist B. F. Skinner famously coined this system of punishing someone in an attempt to condition out a behavior as operant conditioning.

There are two types of bans, role and server. Server bans are reserved for rule violations not tied to a specific role. Bans can be loosely appropriated by their severity:

• Minor Severity: A second or third offense of the same kind (escalating from a note) or an offense done with clear malicious intent but would otherwise be a minor note;
• Moderate Severity: An offense that has shown a disregard for, lack of understanding of, or unwillingness to understand the rules; or an offense done with clear malicious intent but would otherwise be a moderate note;
• High Severity: An offense that has shown a disregard for, lack of understanding of, or unwillingness to understand the rules AND has impacted one or more players in a highly disruptive manner; or an offense done with clear malicious intent but would otherwise be a major-severity note;

Bans for the same rule violation should linearly escalate up the scale (see below). Players with bans across varying roles should be considered for server bans.

*Low, Moderate, and High severity follow the same stringency and criterion as notes.
†Prior Applied Permaban: The permaban must be relevant to the ban being issued (i.e., a permanent security role ban for a potential further security role ban)
‡Quality Control (QC): Staff reserve the right to issue a QC (quality control) ban at any stage of this process.
‡‡Same Rule Violation: A further ban accrued after a player has received a one-week ban can result in a one-month ban being issued, skipping a 2-week ban. 

• • After a one-month ban has been issued, a player is eligible for a relevant permanent ban (role/server depending on the type of ban)
  • When server-banning a player with a role-ban, staff reserve the right to server-ban one ban step under their highest-level role ban. For example, a two-week role ban makes a player eligible for a one-week server ban.

When choosing the type and length of ban, there are also other things a staff member should consider, such as:

• Whether the relevant bans a player has are current (newer than 15 months old)
• Whether the bans are relevant to the current type of ban being issued (if not, apply it as their first ban)
• Whether the violation a player has committed is locked to a specific role
• In the case of server bans: whether the player has role bans across several roles
  • In this case, staff members may use their professional judgement to issue an appropriate ban timer
  • For example, a player with two-week bans in science, engineering, and research would be eligible for a one to three month server ban, but not a permanent ban (which would come next)

2.1 Ban Logging

All bans should be logged in both the private staff channel and the public ban log channel. There is a separate process for both. The private staff-only ban log should be uncensored, contain all relevant information, and follow the template pinned in the ban evidence channel. While images are not necessary, they will be helpful should the player appeal your ban.

Public, player-facing bans should be logged as per the following example and guidelines:

Toastewoofs/toastey has issued a 1-month server ban for [CKEY] for: Round removed another player, [CHARNAME]/[CKEY], who did not have RR preferences set to yes, and after a history of targeted harassment toward this player. Has been warned that further infractions may lead to a permanent ban.

• All CKEYs, including CKEYs inside the note itself should be redacted with square brackets containing the word "CKEY", capitalized. For example: [CKEY]
• All character names should be redacted with square brackets containing: "CHARNAME", "CHAR", "CHARACTER", or "CHARACTERNAME", capitalized. For example: [CHARNAME]
  • If character details (describing the physical appearance of a character) should be included, they should follow the same guidelines but the word "name" is replaced by "DETAILS". For example: [CHARDETAILS].
• While bans should be posted immediately, if they are not, dates and times should not be added.
• The round ID should not be included.
• The length of ban should be included.
• The type (server, role) should be included.
• Staff members should include the CKEY and Discord username of the issuing staff member at the beginning of each log. Typically, this is also the CKEY and Discord username of the person posting the log. This should be done in the format "CKEY/Username" followed by "has issued a".
• There should be a colon (:) separating the ban information, and the ban reason, for clarity.
• Staff may use their discretion to censor any identifying information where necessary, but ban details must remain unmarred.

In summary, it should follow this format:

CKEY/Username has issued a X-(day(s)/week(s)/month(s)/year(s)/permanent) (server/role) ban for [CKEY] for: (reason).

2.2 Ban Appeals

All players have a right to appeal their bans after a given time, unless they have already made a punishment contestation. This is known as a 'good behavior' appeal. This is distinct from when a ban is contested (refer to section 3 " Punishment Contestation" & 4 "Appeals Process" of Staff Complaints & Appealing).

Bans have different minimum appeal times depending on their original length. Staff members may use their discretion to set the minimum appeal time:

• One day: Contest-only.
• Three days: Appeal after one day.
• One week: Appeal after three days.
• Two weeks: Appeal after three days to one week.
• One month: Appeal after one to two weeks.
• Three months: Appeal after two weeks to one month.
• Six months: Appeal after three months.
• First Permaban: Appeal after three to six months.
• Second Permaban: Unappealable.

An appeal should always be handled by the member of staff who issued the original ban. When a ban appeal is made, they should generally try to consider:

• Player conduct after the ban either on the discord or game server (whichever applicable);
• The likelihood the player will repeat their offense;
• The severity and intent behind the original action;
• The honesty and sincerity of the appeal, and whether a meaningful amount of effort was placed into making said appeal.

Players will be expected to recognize why they were banned and indicate that they will not repeat the infraction committed. Players will also be expected to be honest and truthful in their appeal in offering explanations of their behaviors or proof that they have learned from their mistakes. Staff members have the right to accept or reject any appeals for any reason, except where an appeal is rejected through a negative bias toward the player in question.

• Rejected 'good behavior' appeals may not be contested unless there is an accusation of bias in the decision-making process by the handling staff member. In such case, it follows the standard appeals process.

• If a player seems to be arguing the grounds of a ban in their appeal, staff members reserve the right to escalate the appeal to a contest of punishment if one has already not been made. Otherwise, the appeal should be rejected due to the player not demonstrating understanding of their infraction.

Players may only make a 'good behavior' appeal once per ban. After a ban expires, it may no longer appealed as a ban appeal, and should instead be appealed as a note.

3. Discord Punishment Guidelines

Discord punishments should be issued be issued holistically and with respect to the intent of the discord rules, not necessarily the letter. Discord punishments must follow a linear scale, unless a Server Safety violation is committed, where the punishment should instead be an instant, permanent ban. Minor infractions may result in any number of one- or three-day punishments.

1. One-day punish role.
2. Three-day punish role.
3. One-week punish role.
4. Two-week punish role.
5. One-month punish role.
6. Permanent punish role.

When an offense is committed, the offending content must be deleted, and the offending person must be brought into a ticket to explain what the offending content was, what their punishment will be, and to address any further questions they may have.

• Discord punishments are the only punishment where the punishment may be given out before a ticket is made.

4. Do Not Interact (DNI) Orders

As of 06/03/2026 (DD/MM/YYYY), following a vote in the staff channel, DNI orders are no longer enforced or created for players, including DNIs between players and staff. Harassment or metagrudging should be punished as per the rules.

Staff Procedures

1. Staff Meetings

A staff meeting is an established date and time where all staff will convene on the discord to discuss any issues on the itinerary for said meeting; or to bring up new points to discuss, also. Any member of staff can request a meeting, but only Head Admins and Mosley may set the dates and times, and establish that a meeting is going to happen.

Not all decisions require a staff meeting, but a staff meeting must be held if:

• A proposed decision will impact the wider playerbase;
• A proposed decision will fundamentally change gameplay;
• A proposed decision is conceivably controversial in nature.

Changes that only impact staff do not necessitate a meeting, as these changes typically may only be enacted with permission from Head Admins and/or Mosley.

1.1 Meeting Conduct

• During a meeting, all staff should be given a chance to speak their piece on any given topic.
• Staff members should avoid speaking over one another; they should ensure that the above point remains true and should let staff members speak their points in full before attempting to speak themselves;
• Staff members should remain constructive in their criticisms of proposals or any relevant discussion;
• Staff members should avoid side tracking discussion, such as through streaming irreverent content while the meeting is taking place, using soundboards, screaming randomly, etc.
• Staff members should not use meetings to raise complaints about other staff members, as this can lead to dogpiling and make other members of staff uncomfortable
• Staff members should remember that staff meetings include all staff, including Trial staff and Event staff; and potentially, maintainer staff.

2. Suggestion Handling

tbd