We have a detailed policy that admin follow on Conflicts of Interest
This is our first line of defense against COI on the staff. The staff are very aware of COI, and consistently call out COI when they see it, and also self manage and stay away from puppets or requests that are COI, per our policy.
The COI policy has been updated to detail the coded COI system and when and how it should be used.
If a conversation about COI is enough, I want us to be able to leave it at that. That is the preferred method for handling COI on staff, as there is a huge amount of grey area when it comes to handling things for players. For example, handling a puppet where a player wants to buy a weapon that will be used against the puppeting admin's alt and where the determination of if the player is sold the weapon is up to the admin, that isn't kosher.
At the same time, the same admin handling a different puppet for that same player to get a cyberware reinstall after death, where there is no decision to be made, and it is just a routine install, is acceptable.
We want as many GMs as possible to be able to pick up a puppet if they can. If we are too rigid in our COI rules players could be waiting weeks to get something fairly straightforward done, simply because the GMs who are normally on at the same times as the player, are in a faction with that player, or in an opposing faction with that player on their alt.
That's why we have escalating levels of acceptable COI based on tenure and admin level. We have to be able to trust our staff in the same way we have to be able to trust our players.
That being said, there are times where it is beneficial for an admin to mark themself or another admin as COI for a specific player. This will codedly enforce the COI rules in a black and white fashion that does not take shades of grey into it.
Having a coded system that supports this is a great next step and I have spent some time coding a COI system that allows admin to mark themselves or other admin as COI for a player.
There are two levels (currently):
Minor COI
- cannot check the players @stats
- cannot see the details of a puppet request from the player
- cannot complete puppet requests for the player
- cannot see player notes
Major COI
- everything from minor COI
- cannot answer xhelps from the player
- cannot slide to the player
- cannot handle service requests for the player
An admin can mark themselves as COI, and can change their COI level from minor to major, but cannot change it from major to minor, or major/minor to no COI.
An admin can update another admin's COI (increase/decrease/remove) if that admin is the same level, or higher level than the admin who is COI.
Support GMs cannot change their own or other SGMs COI (aside from marking themselves as COI).
If an admin that is COI attempts to use the commands mentioned above an alert is generated that other staff members can see, and the command fails, telling the admin they are COI.
The system as it exists now is an MVP (minimum viable product). It will be expanded on as we gather feedback and info on how it is working.
