TF2 Server Operators / Admins

Should we and a Server Ops user group and forum?

  • Yes and why

    Votes: 11 91.7%
  • No and why

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • Total voters
    12

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
In response to this thread:
Server Operators member group?

Throwing around making a:

1. Custom User group. "Server Operators"
2. Creating a forum for "Server Operators" on a view only group. This will allow server map lists to be shares, ban lists, polls opinions ETC, this forum will be viewable ONLY to Server Group Members, Site Moderators, Site Admins. discuss what you need with other Server operators in confidence.

Would this be a tool used by Server ops?
 

l3eeron

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Jan 4, 2008
593
88
I voted yes....

sometimes you want to discuss things that might hurt other people's feelings. It's a way to get things done while avoiding a flame fest.

Plus, like it was mentioned in the other thread, not all server ops want to be known as server ops...
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
before i vote, what would be the criteria for allowing someone to view the forum? can anyone just register and say they operate a server and have access?

maybe have them perform some type of verification? if so, what kind of verification? a temp server title change to verify the owner?
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
Validation is key.

From here already we know who is a server admin.

Any "new" members who are a server admin and would be interested would send a PM to a Mod/Admin with filled in set criteria in a formate such as.
---------
-Name:
-Server Name:
-Server IP:
- As part as a validation that you are a server Admin, it is required that you have access to upload/change maps as well as control of server console.
to test this, set a time with a tf2maps.net Moderator/Admin to join your server, to prove the above.
-------

Whiped that up and certainly subjected to change, IMO it doesnt need to be so in depth, a simple viewing of console: "say" may be enough, or we can trust peoples good word as well.

idea's anyways =)
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
7,135
6,056
well we've only got one group of servers, no one else has any so there is no point having a server operators group, its merely the 'red admins' and myself. We have an admin subsection of the board which can be seen by any registered member (I think) that is mainly for posting things the admins should see or admin dicussion, there almost certainly is a hidden 'red admin' only subsection that I cannot see where they discuss the runnings of the server and I know that there is a hidden section for the runing of the map lab server.
Having hidden sections that only those that need to know about them is a good thing but seeing as so many people here have their own or acess to a server it seems like a good idea to add in a 'server opperator' subsection somewhere but I wouldnt necesseraly limit it to only those with their own servers. Keep the area seperate by having it as a subsection by all means but it'd probably be better to have it publicly viewable (allowing posts and that)
Having said this, there should be a hidden section for running of the TF2maps.net server that only those that need to able to see it and a public section for the running of any server anyone happens to have.
I'm not sure how you'd enterpret this answer so I wont leave a yes/no vote for now.
 

Shmitz

Old Hat
aa
Nov 12, 2007
1,128
746
Would be a nice way to incorporate Colt's people to our site. Give them a reason to register here and participate. Instead of having it be all server ops, perhaps limit it to the admins of our servers, or at least those who associate with us.

I don't think limiting it would be a good idea. It should be as open and accessible for server ops as the WIP forum is for content creators. There could be an additional forum/group for tf2maps.net specific server admins, but in terms of community building I think the more public one should come first.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
So far the consensus here is.

1. DO make a usergroup for server admins.
2. DO make a forum, but DO NOT make it private.
 

Arma

L1: Registered
Mar 11, 2008
10
3
Hi,

Admin status at coltsplayground can be defined in a few ways.

Firstly you have 3 levels of ingame server admins managed by mani admin. The first of those two levels are given to players who come to the playground game servers, enjoy playing and are generally decent people then reg on the forum and contribute. The third level is generally reserved for people who manage the config's of those servers from a .cfg / maplist / mapcycle perspective, that group includes all the red (forum) admins and youme and jimbo who manage a server each.

Lastly the red admins who manage the game servers on 2 different boxes at a server level and the forum and webserver/domain admin. Additionally for the forum management we undertake all sorts of request and try to keep out forum members happy where we can.

To facilitate this there are red admin sections split into a couple of categories which contain subsections to the areas which they govern, it also contains all our shared information when we need access to.

The game admins also have their own section to put up server requests and issues for the tf2 servers.

The lvl1 admins who aren't red have their own sections where appropriate.

So that's us, here's some of the things that you'll find out if you decide to add in that section / user group.

On the positive side : You'll have a private area where you can discuss various issues, such as server issues, request mechanisms, individual player actions, recommend new admins etc,

On the negative side : Users will see a definitive hierarchy structure and some of them wont like it, they'll be suspicious of content they cant see and paranoid that your all discussing them behind their backs. In practice of course this really doesn't happen, most of my opinions of users are formed by watching players on servers and their forum 'tone'. the other thing that might in some circumstances happen is that some of your admins might not be too adept at handling their new "status" and that will need to be managed too, though in practice a short and frank conversation will normally resolve these type of issues.

Hehe sometimes when I think back about these things I wish that I'd put in more thought about something before announcing it so that people don't have 'wild expectations' about what we wanted to achive but ah well, them's is the breaks

BTW the negative look larger than the positives here but in my opinion they really aren't, there's so much more to be said about a group of admins coming together as one :)

In answer I would say do to both...
 

Colt Seavers

L6: Sharp Member
Dec 30, 2007
288
82
To add to arma's ^^^

All the TF2Maps.net admins have been enrolled in the admin groups at the playground forum, given access to the TF2 Admin section on the coltsplayground.net forum and had pm's with me.

The section is closed to others. Admins on the server have to sign up to the playground to get their powers enabled - because we like all admins to know each other and I need to keep a central record of steam id's ;)

I'd say a group to denote who is a server admin from tf2maps, on this forum, is a good idea - so people know who to contact. However, I'd say a section is a bad idea - you'd be better off sharing our tf2 admin section so we can all be guarenteed of hearing each other ;) The other thing to say is whilst i try to visit this site daily, i'll sometimes forget, so dealing with admin business is best kept centralised to keep it coherent.

It also contains lots of information about the server 'philosophy' and will clue you up to what we are trying to acheive, and it's my hope that all our server admins read this stuff to give them the background (I had a goal when setting up the playground - keeping the server distinctly enjoyable friendly places to be, and its therefore important that we are all working as one ;)

I really don't intend to look at the two sites admins as two groups - its not practical - you're all just part of the large team of Playground Admins :)

so my vote is a yes - group, and a no-section as it already exists. There is no reason to make any server admin section public - since its a section that should only be used for things that are necessarily private to admins - the rest should be posted in, on our forum for eg, the TF2 Chat section - or upcoming events section. The difference is I guess, we're a forum set up for running servers, whereas you are set up for mapping. I'd still like to discourage the idea of a segregated admin community though - rather, the team is one big happy family ;)*



Colt
 
Last edited:

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
Except the group being proposed isn't for TF2maps.net admins, it's for all server admins who are members here on TF2maps.net.

i think shmitz hit the nail on the head.
i think a forum for server admins in general would be quite nice. have tips/tutorials/suggestions/etc posted in there could be great help to those members trying to setup a tf2 custom map server.
 

Apex_

L3: Member
Jan 23, 2008
122
14
I'll say yes. As of now there really isn't a place I can go to on the forums to talk about server related things. Sure, I could post in the TF2 discussion but a forum primarily focused on sever talk would be ideal.

I'm all for a forum section for server admins, and will gladly join up if it comes to pass.