Admins have many options to choose from. They have cheats, commands, can change the map and the nations. But more importantly control the server they are on, in order to make it run effectively.



There are many things an admin can so. I will not go into Polls in this guide, however I will say that they can be good and bad, in a sense that it means everyone has a say, at the expense that some can get wrongly banned or kicked.

All these actions an admin can do have affect the game and the players positively, or negatively depending on the person who uses these.

Sometimes, cheats are important for RP games. For example, if someone is hurt for no reason, they need to be healed, or they may be a doctor

However, sometimes admins become childish and start cheating for their own fun, e.g using ban hammers.

In my opinion, ban hammers should not be used to ban someone, and shouldnt be used to kill someone. Banning in general is the last resort, and this makes it some kind of event.

So in short, use cheats if you want to spice up a game, or use it for an rp, however don't use it to punish a player, as this is disrespectful to a player.

You may be thinking:

"What is this doing here, this isn't important."

Well this is why it is.
An admin must be patient with the players around him/her. There will be some who are trolls, some who pressure you to make rash decisions, but also others who will follow the rules. But not just the players affect the admin, but also the admin team. This team is the heart of the server and should work together in all their decision making. Its no use one person banning someone, then another unbanning them. Working together as a team is important!

It is also important for an admin to be good at explaining things. It is important for admins to explain to a player what he/her is doing wrong. Always refer to the rules (which should be on the server) in order to explain how to play the game.

Also, listen to both sides of a player, and don't take sides. Even the most loyal player on a server can be break the rules, so don't take any sides, and take every case fairly as if you are a judge, Because that is what an admin is. A judge who watches over the public and decides who is in the right or wrong and what the punishment is. Always be fair with your players as well.

Ensure you are polite and helpful for the player and try not to offend or make fun of someone. This will put a negative light upon the server, and may even take some people of the server.

This is pretty self explanatory. Its where you freeze someone, meaning they are unable to move. This can be used to stop an offender and be used to talk to them without them walking off, or attacking you.

This option NEEDS to be used more as this is the way an admin can stop mayhem and talk to the people involved. And, if needs be (whilst frozen) you can teleport someone away from the action and talk to them. This is important, as communication with people is a how a great admin does things on his server.

I know this may not work with servers such as groupfighting, but for rp servers, it is incredibly important. There are alternatives to this as well such as slaying, but this can annoy players, as if this is in a battle, they then have to wait the whole round to respawn.

Slaying is where you can kill a player with just a click of a button (therefore self explanatory). This is mainly used in groupfighting servers, as freezing can't be done as it ruins the flow of the game. However, on many occasions, after the slay, the thing a person did was not explained, so when the person does the same thing again, they are kicked or banned.

Slaying should therefore be used if: someone is in the wrong class (rp); RDMing (killing with no reason- basically should be called murder tbh); or teamkilling.

After slaying an admin, an admin should themselves die, and discuss with the offender why they were slayed. If this is a simple thing like wrong class, a simple slay is ok. If someone constantly does this, freeze them and tell them again and if they dont comply, then kick them. Banning them is just wrong in this circumstance.

Slaying can be annoying for a player, especially in a battle. It can be used by an admin to troll a player (normally fun) but other times it isn't used correctly.

Kicking. No I don't mean kicking a football, I mean kicking/removing someone from a server. The problem is that the offender can come back onto the server. When someone is banned, they are instantly kicked.

Using the kick should therefore be used if a person doesn't listen to an admin after the admin has explained the rules either when they are frozen or have slayed them and then talked to them in death chat.

If after you have kicked a person, they come back on and are better, encorporate them back into the game, Don't insult them. If however they continue, further punishment will have to be taken (see the last resort).

Some people kick very quickly, others don't use it at all and prefer to ban instead. Using the kick effectively is normally the ultimate punishment a person has to face. It should be very rare for someone to be banned however.

After all over things such as kicking, freezing and talking to the offender, if they continue to not follow the rules, you are left to the last resort

Remember, this is the last resort, and should not be used straight away. Always use kicking first!

Timed Ban: This is an hour long ban which is used to prevent someone coming back on to interupt your game. This normally prevails as no person would wait an hour, sitting their waiting to get back on your server. In fact, by the time they can come back on, you, the admin and the people around you may not be on the server! So if you really want to ban someone, Use this ban!

Perm Ban: Now then. This ban is shrouded in controversy, and seperates the men from the boys in adminship. You may think, if you perm ban it means you're doing your job. That is wrong. The less perm bans you use, the better an admin you are. But remember, you can still use it. If a member of the server is constantly abusing the rules, being incredibly offensive, or is a constant offender (after the time ban) you the admin have a right to perm ban. That right can be abused, and everything mentioned before must be repeated After a Timed Ban.

Before you use any of these, freeze the offender, explain why you are banning the person in admin chat, and discuss why! Banning someone with no explaination is horrible. Some may say "You know what you've done," but sometimes this is not always the case.

Examples of silly perm bans (state yours in the comments if you want)

• Getting Perm Banned on a groupfighting server for commentating battles.
  
• Perm Banned for something you didn't do.
  
  

I know that not all servers are linked with steam, and not all have a steam group, however this section are for those that are. These are mainly for rp groups. A great example is the Campaign RP which I had the pleasure of being a part of.

Being a Forum Admin means that you must be a good debater, rper (depends on group) and organiser. In these groups, you mostly have to deal with different people who have been banned and want to get unbanned.

If you are dealing with someone trying to get back onto the server, they should most of the time be able to get back onto the server, as they have taken the time out of their day to apply. I myself have had to do this (not saying which server) and what was most annoying was how the admins were not massively cooperative as I took a lot of effort into trying to get myself unbanned. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that see things in the point of view of the player, as without them their would be no fun

Also, I have seen a bit of "censorship" in some of these groups. Some of it is worthy of this as they are unrelevant comments. However, not all are worthy, and admins should have some sort of rules for their groups. Admins should try not to delete comments unless it is a clean up, as some of these may be important.

Well, the responsibility of being and admin also comes being right in the drama of rp groups (and others). There have been countless arguements between-not just players- but admins as well; which is very suprising. Admins should be a team, not a collective of induviduals. The first thing to do in this situation is not to label false insults on each other. Also the best way to deal with this discussion, without it, it is a pointless squabble between two parties.

But if there is a serious arguement happening, listen to what the others have to say, and try to find a resolution to the problem, as the arguement just highlights the weaknesses of the group for the many, and this is where people can take advantage of the server.

Admin arguements are very complex as ordinary players can't really comment as it is all normally in a private discussion. So be careful what you say, as your words can be used against you.

Ultimately, being an admin has a large responsiblity, and no matter who has that responsiblity, it is your duty to ensure all players are justly. If an admin does break some rules, and are being abusive with their power, all server "groups" should have and admin abuse section where players can drop their evidence (screenshots and chat logs (press l) are the main ones).

You may not bother listen to things I have said in this guide, as you may "already know all of these things," but do the majority of the community a favour, and stop being a dictator, and start being a democrat.

Thank you for reading, any questions on this guide will be answered by me, or by other people, you never know.
I hope you learn something from this.