Administrative Responsibilities

[Greg Munt]

Yesterday I was harassed and victimised on a Circle derivative. (I wonder 
what it is about me that attracts this behaviour? Anyway...) This 
consisted of repetitively summoning me, repetitively killing me, creating 
newbies with insulting names, and using them too, to kill me. 
Additionally, they used their clients to spam me with tells for 
approximately 20 minutes. There were about 5 or 6 people involved.

The administrators of said mud do not log anything. Initially, their 
reaction to my complaints was to say that they could not prove that it 
had happened, and so could not do anything about it. I stated to them my 
beliefs:

  Communication and human relationships are the two things on which the 
  success of all muds depend. They also - inevitably, without any 
  deliberate attempts on the part of the administration - cause 
  development of a society. All societies require rules for their 
  members to abide by, or chaos reigns. ("But chaos is good!") Chaos in 
  which harassment and victimisation is legitimised by inaction. Chaos 
  in which pain, suffering and emotional trauma result.

  ("I came here to get away from mud politics.") Politics are generated by 
  communication and human relationships, something which has been agreed to 
  be required by a successful mud. Therefore, the fundamental 
  existence of politics within a successful mud is implied by the features 
  that make it successful. Politics cannot be prevented within a society which 
  has social rules. It has been agreed that the lack of social rules 
  results in a chaotic society whose main attributes are legitimised  
  harassment and victimisation, causing pain, suffering and emotional trauma. 
  That muds are an Internet medium, and not 'real life' does not mean 
  that so-called victims do not suffer in a real way. This is because 
  communication and human relationships, although played out in an 
  'artificial' medium, still do cause 'real' feelings in the participants.

I also presented my expectations of an administrator's responsibilities, 
in this repect:

  The position of administrator carries certain responsibilities. If you 
  do not want to get involved in mud politics, in dealing with social 
  problems, do not accept an administrative role, on *any* mud.

  ("You misinterpret my role here. I am concerned only with maintanence 
  of the server and its database.") It is common - one might say 
  essential - for a successful mud to maintain an administrative hierarchy. 
  Those at the very top of this hierarchy need to maintain interests in all 
  things that might influence the success of the mud. Since communication 
  and human relationships are fundamental to this, those at the top of the 
  hierarchy need to be concerned with these things. They do not need to 
  deal with them, however. They may certainly (and perhaps should, so that 
  they may concentrate on things that their skills best suit them for) 
  delegate some of their responsibilities towards attempting to prevent 
  social problems. Specifically, towards attempting to prevent users to 
  become emotionally traumatised by chaotic individuals, and thus leave the 
  game, decreasing the muds popularity. This, however, does *not* mean 
  that they may dicharge their responsibilities to other parties. Members 
  of the top level of the administrative hierarchy, should only delegate. 
  They are fundamentally responsible for the entire game, including any 
  society which may develop. (Note that I did not imply 'creation' of any 
  kind of society.)

  Remember: for evil to flourish, good people need only do nothing.

I was told that my attitudes were not shared. That users must deal with 
things, or leave. I was also told that there was something wrong with me, 
if the activities of certain other players caused me distress/trauma in 
real life. So, I left.

My question: should mud administrators neccessarily feel any 
responsibilities, in the manner of which I have described above? Are they 
simply maintainers of the server and its database, or does their position 
*demand* that they take an interest in social issues too? Should players 
expect protection from social problems - such as harassment and 
victimisation - from administrators? If protection is not offered, are 
players reasonably entitled to deem the administrators unworthy? Do 
administrators have any responsibilities to the users of their software?

Note: last year, Martin Keegan may have contacted you, regarding a 
project entitled The MUD Documentation Project, or The MUD-DP. (Also 
known as The Mud Pool.) This was something being discussed by myself 
(who acted as editor of submissions), Martin Keegan, Matt Chatterley and 
Niklas Elmqvist. I am considering putting certain ideas generated by these 
discussions (gathered from the 80-100 emails-worth of discussions that I 
have archived) into action. Niklas (now a former member of this list, but 
soon to return) has already agreed to become a contributor. I actually have 
a link to the intended site in my design docs, on the web (see sig). If you 
are still interested in participating, please let me know. Anyone 
else, who was not originally contacted, who are interested in this, please 
contact me directly, and I will attempt to complete a definition of the 
project's 'Mission Statement', which may turn out to be quite different 
to that planned by the original MUD-DP (narrowing of focus, mainly).

Also, by permission of the list owner, I'd like to ask if anyone has 
knowledge of the IT industry in the Bahamas. I am engaged to a Bahamian, 
who eagerly wishes for me to move there, but I am concerned as to how 
this will affect my career (or even if there is a chance for any kind of 
IT career there). My experiences are 15 months work placement with 
Mainframe Cobol/DB2, 18 months of hobby C++, and n months of commercial 
C++/DB2 on AIX (I was offered a job yesterday) - this may also involve 
experience with Oracle, VB, Uniface, Win95 and NT. I may also be assisting in 
the development of quality procedures for the company. (Although they do not have any 
business reasons to become accredited by any organisation, at this time.)

If you could help, I'd really appreciate it. I may be away for a few 
weeks, incidentally, because I'll be going to the Bahamas for a week or 
two, before I start my job.

--
Greg Munt, greg at uni-corn.demon.co.uk   "I'm not bitter - just twisted."
http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk/ubiquity/