This handbook is here to guide you in the expectations of your role here in The Cactus Patch along with how to proceed with enforcement of the rules and how to better define rules.
Thank you for reviewing the Staff Handbook.
These are subjected to change at any time and a ping will happen after the rule changes.
(Sometimes, we need a quick read on things.)
- Leaving To Avoid Punishment
- Examples of Rule Breaking
- Staff Rules on Admin Abuse
- How We Define Our Rules
- Permissions Sheet
- This spreadsheet lists the in-game, exiled, and cedmod permissions for all ranks.
- CedMod
- This is the Moderation Panel, most moderating things related to the Secret Laboratory Server should be done here due to CedMod being able to do more and be able to document everything better when compared with ingame RA (Remote Admin).
All staff applications should be posted in
#staff-apps.
- Minimum age they should be is 16.
- Have activity of at the very least 10 hours in the last 3 weeks
- (This can be found on CedMod, by opening the activity tab of that player.)
- No ban or mute history in the last 3 weeks.
- Have a microphone and able to clearly communicate with others.
- Been a discord member for at least 2 weeks.
In addition, the applicant must have one currently serving staff (excluding Trial Moderators) sponsoring them. To sponsor an applicant, simply reply under their post that you endorse them.
The staff application will then categorized into different timezones, and sorted by the applicant's hours of activity in the last 2 weeks.
After the applications have been validated, categorized and sorted, a vote will
be held in
#staff-app-voting.
the title of the vote should be the current date, and the answers should be
formatted with this format:
<steam name> (activity in the last 2 weeks / time zone / age if available / sponsor).
The answers should also be sorted by each applicant's activity in the past 2 weeks.
For Example:
**title**: 2024-09-27 moderator application voting
**answers**:
- Person A (69.42 / est / @sponsorA)
- Person B (50.20 / pst / @sponsorB)
- Person C (20.12 / cst / @sponsorC)
- Person D (20.00 / utc / @spondorD)Moderators from junior and up are eligible to vote for the next staff, and multiple votes are allowed. The maximum amount of votes from a person should be the same as the number of max applicants accepted for this current month.
For the hours, I'll be using the base of 30 for all month calculations. 24 * 30 = 720 | 720 hours in a month.
- Trial Moderator
- 15 hours minimum playtime on the server per month.
- Junior Moderator
- 20 hours minimum playtime on the server per month.
- Senior Moderator
- 25 hours minimum playtime on the server per month.
- Managerial Roles
- 25 hours minimum playtime on the server per month.
If a moderator meets the requirement of the next rank as described above at the end of the month, they would be eligible to be promoted to the next rank. If they fail to meet the requirements of their current rank, they will get demoted.
Handling reports does not partake in the requirements of moderators. However, resolving (not ignoring) each report can be exchanged for 1 hour of playtime.
Handling reports can be substituted up to 10 hours of playtime.
Staff Members are allowed to request an Admin Abuse strike appeal every 3 months and requires a 2/3 vote on a poll from managerial team and Owner.
Staff members must post a hiatus message in the
staff-hiatus
channel whenever they wish to go inactive.
Moderators can be inactive/on hiatus up to a maximum of 3 months. However, every month that you are inactive, you will lose 1 rank, with the lowest rank being Trial. If you would be demoted further, you will be removed from the mod team and will have to reapply to rejoin.
- Medical Emergency involving surgery and surgical recovery.
- Mourning of lost loved ones.
- Unexpected Grounding. | Depending on what they did to get grounded.
These are the guidelines we expect members of the moderation team to follow and hold close.
While we are happy to have everyone on the Team, after a few incidents, we have felt the need to put in place a Staff NDA. This way, we can protect staff members from the worry of exposure if for example, a staff member was breaking down in a staff only channel. It is none of the community's business until said staff member makes it so. This NDA is to not hurt an individual and/or to target an individual, this is mainly to protect the entire Mod Team as a whole from worries, leakers, etc.
We believe that DMs and relations between our Staff Members and the contents should stay private and secure, we had an incident where that was not as such and thus, we expect Members on the Staff, Managerial, and Ownership to respect the wants of people and other Staff Members and to always assume that DMs should stay under lock and key until they become borderline harassment, NSFW, etc.
The Punishment for not respecting the privacy in DMs, Staff Channels, and Staff Categories will result in an investigation that requires 3/4 Majority and if evidence of wrong doing has been presented, a vote of 2/4 will be the minimum requirement to begin an active investigation. Any Managers with biases inside of the panel is expected to declare their bias and to drop from the panel, when a manager drops from a panel we will appoint a trusted retired staff member to take the spot. If a bias shows once more, Cactus may take the slot on the panel. If all members of the panel turns out to be biased, the investigation will continue with the hope and checks to ensure bias is not apparent in their decisions and to bring in an outsider opinion if necessary.
Failure to remove ones-self from the panel while having bias will result in a demotion and an investigation of their bias to see how the panel could've been affected. All panels must be record by two parties or more. In the event of a manager being under investigation, Senior Staff will be drawn for the panel to prevent bias and to give Senior Staff the experience needed when they reach a Managerial role or need to fill in for a Manager on Hiatus or in the event they go AWOL.
If you post in staff channels that you do not care about being shared outside, please state that you are fine with it being shared outside into the community. If not stated, please assume everything is private.
Exception to Staff Leaking: Publicly counting staff hours and talking with the community while drafting up new or revisiting old staff policies. This way we can gauge the thoughts of the community, show them what the staff experience is like, and to show transparency between staff and the community to prevent a split between the two groups in the community. If doing public hour counting, you must do it in a VC with another Mod in said VC, along with marking the VC Status as "Mod Hour Counting" or something humorous to the same effect.
Breeding and/or Spreading drama will result in punishments depending on Severity of Drama (Example: X starts an entire fight with the community giving bad name to mod team):
-
Temporary forced hiatus for up to a few days.
-
Demotion
-
Termination
And will be forced to give an apology to the affected parties.
-
Arguments getting out of control. | Minor
-
Causing Massive splits in the community, rumors, harm, refusing to respect parties and individuals. | Major
-
Bringing up drama that deserves to be completely private and should not be used against others. | Major
Drama will always happen, our number #1 goal is to not pick sides and to maintain the stability of the community while also trying to minimize the impact of the drama.
1. Cheating and exploiting | (We require proof and/or three eye witnesses.)
- Perma Ban. (50 years)
- Should have video proof to send to Northwood Studios.
(If there's not enough evidence, please watchlist the player and watch 'em in Overwatch to prevent them seeing you spectating them and to keep you out of spawnwaves.)
2. Racist, Discriminating, and Offensive Remarks. | (Will stack with every word said.)
- First Offense: 14 days
- Second Offense: 30 days
- Third Offense: Perma-ban (50 years.)
2.5. R-Slur Guidelines Due to Leniency of other servers about the R-Slur.
- First Offense: Warn
- Second Offense: 30 days
- Third Offense: Perma-ban (50 years.)
3. Toxicity | (Verbal and in game actions)
- First Offense: Determining impact 1-7 day(s) ban.
- Second Offense: Determining impact 7 - 14 days ban.
- Third Offense: Senior Mods will lecture them along with a month ban.
4. Harassment | (Threats, Sexual, and Mod abuse)
-
Minor Harassment: 1 - 3 day ban for normal players and 5 - 7 days for staff.
- First Offense: Only one warning.
-
Sexual Harassment: Depending on the severity 30 Days - Perma (50 years).
- First Offense: Only one warning depending on victim's wishes.
- On rape threats: Perma ban once proof or three to four people come forward about the reported actions.
-
Mod Harassment of Players: | (This also includes actions that intentionally cause performance degradation that are outside of an event.)
- First Offense: Warning.
- Second Offense: Warning with the threat of demotion.
- Third Offense: Demotion.
- Fourth Offense: Removal from the mod team.
5. Baseless out-of-game accusations
- First Offense: Depending on severity a warning to 4 day ban.
- Second Offense: Depending on severity 5 days - 14 days.
- Third Offense: Bring it up to Senior Mod for their choice of action.
6. Staff and/or Player Impersonation
- Staff and Player: Warn and ask to change the name.
- Second Offense: 3 day ban.
- Third Offense: 7 day ban.
7. Mic Spamming | (Music in Spectator chat, loud white noise on intercom.)
- Player asked to stop by other players.
- If they don't stop, issue a warning, and an explanation on why they're getting warned.
- Mute for an hour if it keeps going on.
(Use CedMod Mute Manager instead of the ingame RA.)
8. Abuse of the Reporting Function | (We do not count cases where it says one got voided or is voided.)
- First Offense: A Warning.
- Second Offense: 3 day ban.
- Third Offense: 7 day ban.
9. Guard KOS and KOS of Cuffed Personal is not allowed. | (Cross fire cases and high stress cases do not count.)
- Warn on first offense and set to spectator.
- If player is already warned in the past week, issue a 1 day ban for each KOS.
(We need witnesses and/or video evidence.)
(D-Class wearing SCP-1344 (Goggles) are allowed to be KOS-ed.)
10. NSFW | (Content that is 18+)
- In a jokingly fashion is allowed.
- First Offense: 3 days ban
- Second Offense: 6 days ban
- Third Offense: 9 days ban
11. In-game Exploitation of Positions That Give an Advantage
- First Offense: Teleport player out to someplace safe with a warning.
- Second Offense: Watchlisted and kept out of the round.
- Third Offense: Banned for 2 - 6 days depending.
(If the player has killed others, set to spectator. If the player wipes an entire spawnwave, keep them in tutorial and put them in the tower by the escape tunnel for the rest of the round then force spawn a new wave of what got wiped.)
12. Teaming That Leads To Death of Teammates | ( We do not count the opening of 914 for the SCPs for no one would know who is behind the blast doors.)
- First Offense: A warning.
- Second Offense: 1 Day - 3 Day ban depending on severity.
- Third Offense: 4 - 7 Day ban depending on severity.
13. Camping for 5+ Minutes. | (This rule applies to camping for humans that are in Nuke Silo, Intercom, and escape tunnel + room.)
- Public Broadcast of the Player's position.
- If they continue to camp, issue an informal warning. (Tell them in-game that they have to move.)
- If they still continue to camp, you should teleport them to another room followed by a public broadcast of their position.
- If it keeps happening just teleport them on top of an SCP and/or enemy spawn wave then keep 'em in spectator.
14. Intentionally Voiding Players
- First Offense: Warning
- Second Offense: 3 Day ban
- Third Offense: Double it everytime after.
15. Team Sabotage
- First Offense: Warning
- Second Offense: 7 Day Ban
- Third Offense: 30 Day Ban. | Double every offense after.
If a player leaves the game to avoid punishment, their punishment scaling increases to the next rank.
For example, if a player gets put in an admin sit for NSFW (first offense), and they leave the game during the admin sit, their original 3 day ban gets increased to 6 days ban. (Along with upscaling their rule offense tier.)
When doing an LTAP report please mark it as LTAP as well for if it happens again we can bring it up to the third offense.
Admin abuse is the abuse of power; that is to say, Admin powers being used in a way that they are not meant to be used/they don't actually have permission to use in the way that they are being used.
In addition, to the usage of any permissions granted by being a moderator and/or administration to cause an effect that harms the natural flow of the game including but not limited to granting items or buffs to players, spawning in player(s), or causing a change in the natural flow of the game. Without a proper event round being greenlit by Senior and Up.
Below are a bunch of examples that are subject to change and get added on to later in the future...
-
Having a player running around handcuffed with a speed boost and ghostly.
-
Sizing down and/or up running around as tutorial and not being in the way can directly affect gameplay.
-
Spawning useless items like flashlights, janitors, lanterns, etc.
-
An event round that a majority of players have agreed to.
-
Being a distraction while enemy factions are around other players.
-
Killing a player for the funny and not respawning them as the same class and/or giving them an item for their time.
-
Providing advantage to admin and/or player.
- Forcing events on to the server without permission.
- Any rank that is lower than Senior needs permission from a Senior and higher to host an event.
- Always poll everyone if they want an event. | This goes for ALL Staff.
- Changing the outcome of the round. / Game interference
- Favoring a certain player/team and assisting in them in the game.
- Retaliation on players who reported / asked you to stop.
- Example: Constantly killing a guy over and over after they asked you to stop.
-
Lagging the server.
-
Anything Alyx has done.
- Spawning 500 grenades and blowing them up.
- Noclipping around blasting loud mic-spamming.
- Blocking SCP attacks and human players bullets.
- Playing in God Mode KNOWINGLY.
- Constant targeted harassment of players after they have requested you to stop. | Once they tell you stop, you stop.
- Elevator Harassment.
- Constant teleportation.
- Etc.
- Minor Betrayal of Staff Team.
-
Exposing a Northwood Global Mod that has their tag hidden.
-
DDosing the server and/or intentionally crashing the server.
-
leaking private information such as Steam IDs and IPs.
-
Caught Hacking and Exploiting.
-
Major Betrayal of Staff Team.
-
And Finally... A lack of common sense. | Trust your gut and use common sense then you can not mess up.
Toxicity - This term typically describes individuals who exhibit a consistently negative demeanor, frequently expressing dissatisfaction, spreading unwarranted negativity, or engaging in disparaging remarks about others.
Mic Spamming - The act of excessively using a soundboard to create disruptive noise, amplifying one's microphone to an uncomfortable level, and playing music despite repeated requests to cease can be described as disruptive behavior that negatively impacts the auditory experience of others. | We do not allow blasting of music in spectator chat and intercom.
NSFW - This term refers to internet slang commonly used to describe online content characterized by explicit nudity, sexual themes, extensive profanity, and elements typically associated with pornography.
Camping - A term used most frequently in first-person shooter video games, "camping" refers to the act of hiding or otherwise remaining in a hidden, obscured, or safe location to avoid harm.
Team Sabotage - We define Team Sabotage as the act of willingly or knowingly committing an action that leads, directly or indirectly, to the death of a teammate. Examples include willingly and knowingly locking down checkpoints and blast doors on teammates, killing oneself as a zombie, killing the entire friendly team with a grenade, or locking a teammate in a room when they lack the proper card to exit.
There are currently 3 Manager positions: Moderation, Human Resources, and Public Relations.
The Manager of Moderation is in charge of editing the scaling as described
above, mediating conflicts among moderators, and handling
admin abuse reports posted in
#admin-abuse-reports.
In addition, the Manager of Moderation is also responsible for moderating the Discord Server.
The Manager of Human Resources is responsible for reviewing staff applications
posed under
#staff-apps,
evaluating moderator performance at the end of each month, and handling
promotions and demotions, according to the requirements and
progression section.
The Manager of Public Relations is responsible for ban appeals, cheating reports, ban on moderators and the Secret Laboratory community inside of The Cactus Patch.
Plugin Developers are a low adminstrative entity that have the permissions to test plugins via item control and map control.
Title says it all, this is Cactusman himself and he is the highest ranking administrator.
This type of administrator is here as technical support for the random crashes The Cactus Patch may have and to help resolve any conflictions between plugins as the ones used on The Cactus Patch updates.
Credit goes to La.in_ (Server Admin) for the draft of rules we built this on, along with the combined contrabutions from nathang2609 (Server Owner), scout1115 (Senior Mod), deviousarg (Junior Mod), and Xuluzin (Junior Mod) to polish them up. Great thanks to the future Staff Generation that have assisted in the polishing of rules on April 14th, 2025, Gomblim (Trial Mod) and JessicaJess (Junior Mod). If you use this for your rules, please credit the Cactus Patch.
These rules may change in the future.