Staff Bits Linking Handles
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I’m going to expand on a thought I had in the Neon Protocol thread.
I think it absolutely should be considered best practice for staff bits to have an Ares handle linked. I honestly don’t care if your average player has one linked, but staff feels different to me because of the power dynamic. It feels intentionally shady and I don’t see any legitimate reasons for it. To me, this feels like an entirely separate discussion from whether or not staff should disclose their PCs.
Apping into a game is an investment of time and energy, especially if you don’t half-ass it. People should be able to decide whether or not they want to invest that time and energy and if they are willing to have an unavoidable relationship with that staffer due to the nature of how games are run.
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@InkGolem said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
I think it absolutely should be considered best practice for staff bits to have an Ares handle linked.
I agree. How would you see this translate into non-Ares games?
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In my opinion, if you hate me then it’s best you’re able to identify me and the game I run. I don’t want people on my game that hate me. You don’t want to be on my game if you hate me!
I understand that some unlinked staff may feel differently, for privacy reasons, or for whatever reasons, that is their choice. But for me personally, healthier ecosystem all around if people can go “ah, him, that motherfucker, what a tool” and steer clear.
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I can see privacy reasons mattering more for players. Staff are different. They have control over the game and you can’t avoid having to interact with them and be subject to their decisions on their game. I honestly can’t see any good reason for staff to hide their identity, and to me, that’s a red flag and a reason to avoid a game entirely.
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It’s been so long since I played a non-Ares game that I don’t think I can reply meaningfully. I leave that to folks who still play in that world.
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Out of curiosity I’m wondering if folk have ever had the opposite reaction of ‘ah him that motherfucker what a tool’, like maybe ‘ah him i love his themes/style/atmosphere i will check it out’.
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@Yam Absolutely. Blu and Road, I think, have a great reputation in that regard, as does Tat. Clockwork.
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@Yam For sure.
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@Yam I would play any damn thing @KarmaBum slapped her name on, like even if it was cardboard box: the mush
My two cents? If you don’t have a handle, you have something to hide, and my brows immediately raise. I feel that way about everyone, players or admin, but I give players way more grace because I know not everyone wants to slap their handle on right out of the gate and sometimes it’s nice to have a haven alt.
ETA: I would also play anything @tsar made so long as it’s Janitor: the MUSH. I’m still waiting @tsar
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@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
If you don’t have a handle, you have something to hide, and my brows immediately raise.
As the creator of the handle system, this kind of bothers me. The system was never intended to pressure people into identifying themselves across games. There has been enough stalking, creeping, and other shenanigans in the MU community (and the internet at large) that I don’t think anyone owes anyone else their OOC identity. Ever. Staff included.
That’s why even Ares games have a built-in alternative method for alt tracking that doesn’t require a player handle.
It’s meant to be a fun tool for those who choose to use it. I’m not a fan of it being held against those who don’t.
(Also in practical terms a creeper can just make a new handle, so I’m not sure what it gains you really.)
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I think people lean towards the concept of interacting with someone that has been… kind of vetted in some sense, at least within communities. For better or worse.
It’s true that you can make a new handle though. I think there might be intrinsic value in handles that people recognize.
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@Yam said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
Out of curiosity I’m wondering if folk have ever had the opposite reaction of ‘ah him that motherfucker what a tool’, like maybe ‘ah him i love his themes/style/atmosphere i will check it out’.
For me it’s more a positive than a negative exactly because people can just make new handles if they’re actually trying to hide. There are staffers where I’m excited to see when they launch a new project even if I may not have time to play it.
I found the Neon Protocol people having no handles odd, I’ll admit, because just to make your life easier when you’re both staffing and playing, why not (reader, it turns out their reasons Why Not were pretty bad)? But I found a handful of things about that game odd, so it was not a part of my life.
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@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
My two cents? If you don’t have a handle, you have something to hide, and my brows immediately raise. I feel that way about everyone, players or admin, but I give players way more grace because I know not everyone wants to slap their handle on right out of the gate and sometimes it’s nice to have a haven alt.
okay while i think what’s going on specifically on NP with staffers apparently being super weird about their own alts and pretend-interacting with them and stuff is very weird and offputting.
but i think the idea that someone is immediately sus for simply preferring privacy is — not it. the “what do you have to hide” argument about people’s right to privacy is consistently a bad one.
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@Roz I definitely feel like everyone deserves a right to privacy and was being too overbroad. I don’t expect people to link their handles, I have played games where I don’t link my handle, and I don’t think it’s something that should be required.
I HAVE seen multiple cases of bad actors hide without handles or change their handle to hide, so that eyebrow twitch is mostly just a ugh, what if this is secretly someone I know is a bad actor?? But that generally works itself out, handle or none.
As far as staff having a handle, I prefer to play on games where I know the admin. I do think staff alts should be tagged.
Hopefully that clears things up.
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@Faraday said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
If you don’t have a handle, you have something to hide, and my brows immediately raise.
As the creator of the handle system, this kind of bothers me. The system was never intended to pressure people into identifying themselves across games. There has been enough stalking, creeping, and other shenanigans in the MU community (and the internet at large) that I don’t think anyone owes anyone else their OOC identity. Ever. Staff included.
That’s why even Ares games have a built-in alternative method for alt tracking that doesn’t require a player handle.
It’s meant to be a fun tool for those who choose to use it. I’m not a fan of it being held against those who don’t.
(Also in practical terms a creeper can just make a new handle, so I’m not sure what it gains you really.)
I never have a handle!
I don’t have anything to hide. It’s just a combination of a) I’m lazy and I don’t really like metaconnections between games, and b) I enjoy being able to have a little bit of a “fresh start” in a new game, where I can settle into a character without people bringing up previous characters.
Opinions may differ, but I don’t believe I’m a problem player–some people might avoid me, for sure, but I’m happy to tell anyone who I was in conversation or whatever, if I remember, but I do like it to be information I choose to share with people as opposed to information that is just automatically linked to me.
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@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
As far as staff having a handle, I prefer to play on games where I know the admin. I do think staff alts should be tagged.
I’m 100% on board with this as well.
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@Faraday said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
As far as staff having a handle, I prefer to play on games where I know the admin. I do think staff alts should be tagged.
I’m 100% on board with this as well.
I’m also in full agreement with this as well for staff. If a game is staffed by people I’ve played with before, there is a higher degree of trust given even before fully checking out the game. If I also see people I recognize and have enjoyed playing with in the past also on the game as well, that’s another point to the game as well. Like @bear_necessities mentioned, I also fully understand why some people don’t want to link themselves due to privacy and personal safety reasons. There are pros and cons to linking and not linking, each person will have to weigh them and decide for themselves.
That is also why I always tag my characters with my handle. One, it let’s people know who I am who have played with me before. If they enjoyed RPing with me in the past, chances are I always had a good time since fun RP is usually a two way street. If they didn’t like RPing with me, I don’t take it as a personal slight but it also prevents the other person from wasting their time and feeling disappointed after finding out who I am.
Lastly, it’s also fun to run into people that you haven’t interacted with in a long time who you wouldn’t recognize if they didn’t reach out to you because they recognize your handle or the history of games you’ve played on.
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@bear_necessities said in Staff Bits Linking Handles:
My two cents? If you don’t have a handle, you have something to hide, and my brows immediately raise. I feel that way about everyone, players or admin, but I give players way more grace because I know not everyone wants to slap their handle on right out of the gate and sometimes it’s nice to have a haven alt.
I also don’t link my handle, though I admittedly tend not to play on Ares games very often or very long.
If people want to know who I play, I’m generally willing to tell them – when asked directly. But I want it to be a conversation. I’ve had two different instances of two different men behaving in ways that are genuinely Not Okay that carried on over the course of actual real life years. After that, I’m just not comfortable having that sit out there publicly, oblivious to who may be accessing it. I want to know who’s asking and why. And if the answer is so they can avoid me, then that’s okay, too.
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I prefer Staff disclose their PC alts for a number of reasons.
- It’s a sign of trust. Staff is showing players who they play as, so players can hold those PCs to the same standards staff is expecting from the non-staff players.
- It can help me navigate the tricky social aspects that come up when I have an OOC issue with another PC bit. If that PC bit is a staff member, I would prefer that my request to resolve the issue be taken by a different member of staff to give the issue a third party perspective. If I have an issue with the PC of the headstaffer, then it lets me know that if I can’t resolve the issue, I need to find a new game to play.
- It gives people a good idea of how active the staffers actually are in the game.
