staff idling on rc.
 

what is the rule on this? when i was first et on unholy nation it was a big deal. like if i went afk for even twenty minutes i'd be disconnected. and i remember bell (or maybe houdini) warning havoc that if he idles again he'll get removed from gp chief. now i see rc names like "i'm afk dnd" or whatever. did the rule change or do people just not care to enforce it?

HoudiniMan enforced it the strongest of all people. Bell and I enforced it, but not as strongly as HoudiniMan (20 minutes afk wasn't a total bother, but hours on end were). These days it just seems server-specific with management dealing with such enforcement. You only start to notice global enforcement of it when they actually disconnect hordes of people doing it, so I'm guessing that's not happening with Tig. You'd have to get his input on this, though.

what i hate is how UN sets up their jail level to disconnect you after 10 minutes of not moving.

There's no reason globals should be enforcing RC idling, that's just silly. Fortunately, Tig doesn't seem to do that anymore :).

It is up to individual server management to decide their own rules with idling on RC. I wouldn't recommend doing it because it's good to be there to answer player's PMs, but it's entirely up to the server.

Hello, my name is Ray, and I'm an RC idler.

All day, Everyday.

^ Just one example of when globals should step in.

I remember seeing Angel on Era and I'd often check her /playerinfo which would return her idle minutes as anywhere in excess of 5000 before anyone did anything about it, if at all. 5000 minutes... that's DAYs at a time. UN is a magnet, though, for way worse. At that point, it's obvious management doesn't intend on doing anything about it, or even keep on top of it considering half the people I consulted when I was a global didn't even know about the /playerinfo command.

The problem in this case is inactive staff, not RC idling. As long as RCs are marked with an Away guild (or similar) to notify players, it can be useful to be able to review RC and see what took place while you were gone.

Perfectly understandable, I meant the last line more or less as a half-joke :p

There are times I have idled for days on end, but at the same time while idling on RC, I've had some of my better ideas for whatever server I help out on whatever server I happen to be helping.

As long as they don't use staff tag and end up on the staff list I don't really see the big deal with idling on rc, they pay for the server and should be able to do whatever they want as long as its legal without some global ass d/cing them :P

I believe they are referring to the tabbed servers, not UC servers. I don't ever recall a global going onto a private server and telling anyone they can't idle.

It'd be nice if RC idle time (if it is correct me) was accessible via script. Would make disconnecting/marking the AFKers easier.

I just don't see the point in leaving RC on overnight and such. Why stay on RC? You're not helpful to anyone, and can give the impression you ARE useful when you're not. Meh, just more people trying to show off how much time they have "logged in."

I agree with Dusty. There is no reason to idle on RC. Sure it is nice to see what happened while you were away, but there are other ways of doing so. It is so frustrating when i see a hacker or something on a server (UN) and have to PM 8 people to see who is actually there.

i don't see the point of "RC idling" but at the same time i see no problem with it. worry about more important issues plzthx.

I personally don't like to see RC's idling (unless its for a very short time). Thats just how I was raised on Classic to believe though. I feel if you're on staff you should either be there or not be connected.

I do idle on RC 24/7.

When I get home, if the RC window is open and I can read the scrollback, then I join in the conversation and develop.

If it isn't open, then you probably won't see me on Graal for a week.


There should certainly be no global enforcing of this, ever. It's entirely server-centric. Making a global intervene in this sort of thing is a good way to unnecessarily flex muscle and pit yourself against the people you're suppose to be helping the most.

I'd also like to go on to say that no server should disallow idling on RC. Having an environment with no 'hostility' is extremely critical for development to happen. Forcefully disconnecting people is not a good way to do this. (I personally stopped developing on Classic for a couple months just because I was continuously being disconnected by another staff member at one point.)


Regarding the "you should be there to help" issue, there is an away icon for a reason. If that isn't satisfactory, rescript the playerlist to not even show RCs that are away.

And helping is almost entirely secondary to making sure there is actually content to help with. No criteria about support should overrule one that makes developing more enjoyable.


I've always felt that the RC "no-idling" rule was one of those backwards criteria that fall under "making life harder for developers" and I'd like to see it phased out.

To me rc is a private chatroom for the staffs not some stupid support desk for noobs, you have staffs on tag for that.

Second

Basically what WhiteDragon said.

I need to rep him sometime later tomorrow, but brb afk on rc.