Hi everyone.
It was recently brought to my attention that there has been a staff complaint against our Operations Manager, Karbz. This complaint was from saz, an ex-manager. I'd like to provide transparency on the situation.
I was not immediately made aware of the report, and as a result a lot happened before I even knew about it.
I have delayed putting this post out because I've been busy with other stuff. This was due to be posted about a week ago, so apologies for that.
The report contained numberous accusations ranging from insignificant to major. I'd like to break these accusations down, give Karbz' view, my view, and what actions (if any) have been taken.
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Accusation #1 - Gifted cash and property purchase
Karbz gave himself millions of dollars in cash (over $100m).
This money was then partly used by Karbz to purchase a property ($7.5m).
This was evidenced by staff logs and transaction logs.
Karbz
This is not disputed; this happened. In regards to the gifted cash, Karbz says he was testing a bug relating to the upper cash limit, but did not realise the limit was enormous (over 2.14 billion, in theory).
*For the “gifted/spawned” in cash, I was attempting to break the upper cash limit (bug testing), as I know there are people out there who “genuinely” have $100m total cash in their wallets/banks. I wanted to see what would happen if cash was set above this limit, I consulted with Mike about what the limit was where he replied that it was over $2b – I essentially gave up at the $100m mark as I would have been there for nearly 20 years typing a command. Occasionally, you need to go to extremes to create a bug or to break something*
The properties that were purchased, were sold back to the bank and I cleared my entire wallet/bank – this includes cash that had been genuinely earned from missions etc. I have one property left, to which was genuinely purchased prior to this incident happening. Any cash, or properties that have been illegitimately purchased have been sold, and all funds wiped from my account.
Mike
I can attest to this, that Karbz was testing something (albeit testing something silly, which should have been tested on the testing server). He asked me about it when he was doing it. He reset his money afterwards.
As for the purchasing of properties with this cash, that's definitely not on, and Karbz knows this.
Conclusion
The effects of buying properties with illegitimate cash has been stressed and won't be repeated.
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Accusation #2 - Forced rule breaking by other players
Karbz, on an undercover account, used an Operations Manager restricted command to force innocent players into using commands, leading staff to believe they were originating from the victim player themselves, resulting in the victim being punished for something they didn't actually do. This was evidenced by staff logs.
This included submitting player reports (forced players to /report other players) with light homophobic remarks in them.
Karbz
Karbz admitted to me that he has done this in the past to simulate players breaking rules, to see how players and staff react, while he is watching them undercover.
*I often forced players to break rules by forcing commands – Yes, this command should by no means be used in the manner to which I was using it. However, I was testing online staff to see their responsiveness and how they handled situations. If a player was punished as a result of this, the punishments were swiftly removed, and the staff member notified that the player did not do anything wrong. - I will in the future these methods of ‘testing’ staff will not be happening, and I apologise for any confusion that this caused within the staff team or players. *
Mike
I was very disappointed to know this was happening. In particular that innocent players were being forced to perform rule-breaking actions just for the purposes of seeing how staff react. Innocent players should not be messed with like this.
In regards to the light homophobic remarks, I have made it clear to Karbz this is not acceptable and should not happen again in any circumstance.
Conclusion
I have made my feelings about this method of undercover work strongly known to Karbz and other staff. All staff will be expressly forbidden from doing this going forward, and any affected players should receive a sincere apology.
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Accusation #3 - Simulated cheating
Karbz was simulating cheating by means such as turning on explosive bullets, and giving himself weapons.
All players were given $50k compensation afterwards.
This was evidenced in staff logs.
Karbz
Karbz admitted to doing this, and said it was done to see how players/staff react to a cheater on the server, while he watched while undercover.
**Explosive bullets:**
Another feature, only available to my level within staff was “explosive bullets” I was using this to simulate being a “cheater” on the server to see how effectively staff were dealing with these issues and how quickly player reports were being made – I was often impressed by the response time of staff, but it often took quite a while for reports to be made. These “explosive bullets” are quite weak, and often actually did more damage to me than to players that they were being used against.
They only did instant damage to vehicles, causing the vehicles to instantly catch on fire. Players affected by this were given compensation, if you believe that you may have been affected by this and not received compensation, please reach out to me. I do have a list of players, that I still need to offer a compensation payment.
Mike
Just like the previous point, I made it known to Karbz that this isn't acceptable. Not in situations where innocent players either get dragged up into it. It's disruptive to their experience, and could lose us players.
Conclusion
I forbid this method of undercover work in future.
Also randomly giving everyone on the server $50k for no reason is not something I want to see. Especially when we caused the situation in the first place..
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Accusation #4 - Treating players equally
Mike
I don't know what the true accusation is here. Perhaps when you make a staff complaint you can actually explain the accusation instead of just pasting in 20 screenshots of random Discord chats...
Karbz says this is related to managers being dismissed. We have discussed this privately and there has been no wrongdoing identified.
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Accusation #5 - Harassment, insults, and general toxicity
Karbz was seen, on his undercover account, using foul language, hurling personal direct insults to players, and harassing individuals. This was evidenced by staff logs, global chat, and private message logs.
Karbz
Karbz admitted he was simulating being a rule-breaker on an undercover account in order to see the responses from players/staff.
Mike
As before, I've made it clear to Karbz this is not acceptable. I don't care if you're undercover trying to monitor the response of players/staff to a rule-breaker - we should not be making the server a hostile place in pursuit of this. This will not be tolerated in the future.
Conclusion
Karbz has been made aware this is not acceptable and should not happen again.
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Accusation #6 - Coverup
It might appear the staff complaint topic about Karbz was hidden from public view as a coverup; this is not the case.
Mike
This report was initially posted publicly on the forums, but it was decided to move the topic into a management-only board while it was under review by myself. The reasoning behind this (and this is not an isolated case of this happening, it is standard procedure for staff complaints) was because of the 'innocent until proven guilty' mindset we hold. We should not allow a member of staff's reputation to be tarnished before the situation has been investigated, in case it is just a misunderstanding, or it's blown out of proportion.
The second reason for the topic being hidden was that 99% of it was leaked chat/logs. There were leaked DMs, leaked confidental staff chats, and leaked staff logs. Leaking these is in contravention of the staff terms and conditions which all staff agree to when joining the team. We don't know if the leaks came from active or past staff. We've always had problems with leaks, and always will, it's inevitable and cannot stopped. But, if we do have an active member of staff that is leaking convos, know your days are numbered. Staff that do this will always have other traits which make them unsuitable to stay staff for long.
In conclusion, I am not taking any drastic action against Karbz (e.g. demotion/dismissal) but have expressed my deepest disappointment in learning of the things that have been going on, and don't want to see a repeat of it. Karbz has been keeping MCNR running every day for I-don't-even-know-how-long now. I owe him a lot. He takes an enormous weight off my shoulders and I can't think him enough. He's around whenever I need him, and I feel that I can count on him. That even further fueled my disappointment in this situation.
I will be announcing some clarification and rules/guidelines to staff going forward regarding the use of undercover accounts to monitor players/staff, as it's been very much a free-for-all until now. We won't be discussing this publicly of course.
If anyone has any follow up questions regarding this case, feel free to message me and I will do my best to respond when I can.
Thank you,
Mike
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A message from Karbz
I would firstly like to apologise for my behaviour that was recently made publicly available on the forums, this behaviour was not acceptable and nor do I condone this behaviour that I was displaying. Being the Operations Manager, is not exactly the easiest of tasks when not only do I have the entire server to watch over, but also a team of 20+ staff members as well.
I should be leading by example, and not behaving inappropriately where our other staff members may think “if Karbz is doing it, I can as well” – So, with the sincerest of apologies I do humbly disapprove of my behaviour and can confidently give my 100% back up that you will not see the type of behaviour from me again.
I have let down Mike, I have let down the staff team, and most importantly let down the community and possibly tarnished the reputation of the server. I will however be going forwards, remaining as the Operations Manager be ensuring that this situation or any similar situations or staff members who are wrongfully punishing players will be dealt with swiftly and accordingly.
If you have any concerns, or would like to ask me any questions about any of the scenarios please feel free to reach out.
