Admin

The Admin is a species native to space whose popularity as a food and lack of breeding habits has caused their population to dwindle over the last few years. They are usually sighted in small groups, testing new features, forming gangs, or breaking out of solitary confinement.

Standards & Practices

Structure

The Goonstation administration is sometimes described as having a "flat" structure, because each admin is on equal footing with every other admin, and while different ranks have access to different things, there is a lot of overlap. In addition, there is no separation between developers and admins.

In most SS13 communities, the people who enforce the rules are different from the people who develop the game, i.e. admins and developers are separate. In some places, there is further segregation in form of different types of admins who only have jurisdiction over one or some area(s) of the community, e.g. only the forums, only the Discord, or even only the wiki. Not so on Goonstation. Developers are also administrators, i.e. they answer adminhelps, punish rulebreakers, and generally manage the community, and someone who is admin in-game is also admin on the forums, wiki, and Discord.

Similarly, there is no "Head Admin" or "High Council" who has more power than others or gets the final say regarding policy and other admin-related affairs. When it comes to creating and changing rules and policy, granting Mentor and Head of Security status, bringing on new admins, tackling community issues, and similar matters, every admin has equal say, regardless of experience or area of expertise, and decisions are often done democratically. Some people consider the server host or admins with years of experience higher than other admins, but this comes more from prestige than formal policy.

Likewise, there is no "Head Coder" whose decisions can override the other devs. Every Developer has equal power when it comes to game direction.

Ranks

Because Goonstation has no separation between admins and coders, the number of admin ranks is pretty small. There are three (technically four) ranks: Administrator (with the sub-rank Secondary Administrator), Developer, and Host. Besides the broad strokes of the Admin Guidelines, there aren't a lot of regulations about what each rank gets or doesn't get, so the powers each one holds are driven by practicality rather than policy. For example, there is no rule specifying only the Host can manage the server's Patreon, but it stands that they would be deeply interested in a fund to pay hosting costs anyways, and it's not like policy specifically prohibits other admins from being interested.

There are also Inactive Admins, essentially admins in a sort of soft retirement. An Inactive Admin doesn't get any powers in-game and can't access the admin-exclusive subforums. They still have access to the admin-related Discord channels though and have a limited selection of Discord administration tools.

There are also a lot of unused ranks hidden in the Goonstation code, including some joke ones like Goatfart.

Administrator

Enforces the rules of the Goonstation community. Naturally, they get plenty of moderation tools and other useful powers within Goonstation servers and its associated forums, Discord, and wiki. Admins can be identified on the forums, Discord, and game's OOC chat by their iconic orange-colored names.

There is also Trial/Secondary Administrator, a sort of "admin in training" if you will. They get less toys in-game than other admins, partly to help ease them into the admin position, partly to limit the damage they can do when new. Otherwise, they have same authority and powers as regular Admins, and on the forums, wiki, and Discord, they are treated as standard Administrators.

Developer

Aka, Coder. Controls the Goonstation source code and thus game direction. Developers get a lot of debugging tools in-game for testing/monitoring code, and on the GitHub, they can see and edit the "secrets" submodule that contains most of the game's Secret Content, merge and close pull requests (proposed changes to the game), and push to master (directly modify the code without needing pull requests). Since they also enforce rules, they also get moderation tools and similar in the game and on its forums, Discord, and wiki, with a few more powers than admins in some cases. In Goonstation's in-game OOC chat, they get an orange color, but on the Discord and forums, they get a distinct amaranth red.

Host

Handles the server, wiki, forums, Goonhub, and Discord infrastructure. On top of having Developer powers (and by proxy, Administrator powers), they also get a lot of server-side utilities, like backups for the forums and data on daily player counts. Within the game and on the Discord and forums, their name is green like forest leaves.

Admin Guidelines

Each and every admin must follow the Admin Guidelines, regardless of rank.

Who is admin?

A list of all the current admins and developers can be found here. Notice that Mentors, Mediators, Head of Security whitelist members, and GitHub Triage members are not admins, even though they are considered figures of authority.

How do I become admin?

The admins make you one. To elaborate, if admins have someone who they think might be a good admin, they discuss it among themselves, hold a vote about it, and if it passes, that person gets an offer to become admin, which they can freely accept or refuse. Unlike with Mentor, Head of Security, and similar positions, there is no regular cycle of admin induction, and the criteria for being a good admin is intentionally vague because it is highly subjective. Do not expect to be "rewarded" Admin for a contribution or act, and not being considered for admin or not being given an offer is not necessary a bad sign.

A common misconception is that if you have been with the Goonstation community for long enough, you are guaranteed/entitled to become admin. This is simply not true. Admins expect people who are familiar with the community, of course, but time spent with Goonstation is just one of many factors involved in the decision to make someone an admin. In fact, nothing guarantees becoming admin, and the sooner you dispense with the notion that you need to fulfill some magical requirement(s) to become admin, the better.

There are admin applications (located in this subforum), but they are a thoroughly different beast from applications for other positions. With the Mentor, Head of Security, or GitHub Triage member positions, you must fill out the relevant application, which is public and requires community input. To become admin, filling out an admin application is completely optional, as it is more for demonstrating interest in becoming admin than anything, and said application is visible only to the applicant and the admins, with "campaigning" for adminship and mentioning one has posted an admin app being forbidden.

Admin Toys

OW! IT BIT ME!

Wounds caused by Admins are usually fatal. You are probably going to die. Usually, within seconds. Admin bites can cause symptoms including death, space yeti bites, your butt falling off, moderate to severe gibbing, axe murderers, spontaneous cluwneing, and in some cases, giant armies of lions, owls, horrible abominations from beyond space and time, and walruses.

Adagio for farts

If you're hearing songs playing, and it isn't something a Radio Host could play, chances are admins are playing some music through the DJ Panel, which accepts both files and YouTube links. Admins have a taste in music. It is neither good nor bad. It is both. It's the Schrödinger's Cat of not-so-easy listening. Never turn admin sounds off, you don't want to miss the songs of their people.

Special antagonists

The admins have at their disposal a terrifying menagerie of critters and psychos. Once every so often, when a round grinds to a halt, all the antagonists are dead, calls for the shuttle are refused, and no fun can be found anywhere, an admin might make a pseudo-antagonist to set things right. These are almost always admin-controlled, but once in a very long while a normal player is given a special antagonist role, usually because an admin fucked something up and is making it up to somebody. Beware, though, begging for a special antagonist role is a great way to get turned into a cluwne with the name "BEAT ME FOR PRIZES". Or banned, if you keep doing it.

While on paper the admins could conjure up all sorts of horrors, certain entities have become a station staple. These include:

• Omnitraitors - While they may look like any (relatively) harmless member of the station, these crew members have the powers of every single antagonist role at once. If you see a monkey werewolf wizard running around spitting acid and body-slamming people while spooky bats orbit them, you should probably find somewhere else to be.
• The Admin Bus - All aboard! A short yellow school bus, the Admin Bus is both a pun and the physical incarnation of a bored and capricious admin looking to spice up a round that's going on entirely too long. It does not brake for anything, smashing clean through any wall, door, object, or crew member in its path. Victims of an Admin Bus driveby can count themselves lucky if they're only sent flying and ignored as the bus continues its merry rampage, as the driver can stuff their victims into the infinitely huge trunk. There is no escape from within unless the driver wills it, and your only consolation is that you can talk to your fellow victims as the Admin Bus drives full speed into a black hole.
• The maetcho Maenn - You thought you knew how to wrestle? You thought you were hot shit? Think again. The metchu menn is the embodiment of wrestling, birthed straight from the Elemental Plane of Wrestlemania. A Maetzo mun is instantly recognizable by his manly hair, tiny purple pants, cheetah-print vest, magnificent sunglasses, and constant audio clips of stream-of-consciousness mumbling and ranting. He is, barring exceptional circumstances, an unstoppable force of nature thanks to his mind-bogglin' array of wrestling moves, nearly all of which spell certain, gruesome death for any poor bastard in arm's reach. He can burst through a wall, parry lasers out of the air, yank the c-saber out of your hands, rip off your limbs, suplex you across the entire station, and make you explode into a cloud of blood with the sheer power of his steely gaze. If you hear a distant "OOOOOOH YEEEEEEEEAH" echoing through the halls, your best option is to pray that your death will be swift and entertaining.
• The Floor Cluwne - You'll know it when you see it. Or rather, hear it. If you see it, it's already too late for you. Not real. Some say that this can appear as a result of admin shenanigans, but it just does not exist in the code. Nope.
• Cyalume Knight - Totally not a expy of a Sith from Star Wars. Instantly recognizable by their distinct red and black hood and robes, Cyalume Knights are masters of the c-saber and can choke people from a distance and conjure lightning from their hands. Horribly unbalanced, but that goes without saying for these kinds of roles.

Gallery

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