Editing CommunityAdministrationNetwork/About

{{CommunityAdministrationNetwork}}

==Overview==
The Community Administration Network is an independent organization of server owners and administrators who have chosen to group together to provide the best possible play experience to BZFlag players.

'''Please note'''
The network is just in it's conceptual stages at this point. Please post any questions, comments, or concerns to the talk page. Also if you are a server owner that would be interested in being a member please also post that to the talk page, we are very interested in knowing who would like to participate.

==Organization==
The Network is made up of servers whose owners have chosen to provide the network administration staff the ability to manage and enforce a specific set of rules on their servers.

Information for users playing on member servers can be found on the [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Players]] page.

The network is made up of the following groups:

===Server Owners===
These are server owner/operators that have chosen to participate in the network. The owners have agreed to the rules for servers and have been accepted into the network. They run the CANAdmin plug-in as part of their server setup. Information on the requirements and expectations of server owners can be found on the [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Server Owners]] page.

===Field Agent===
These are users chosen from the community to do the day-to-day admin actions on network servers. They are normal players that have agreed to the terms and rules for CAN Field Agents. They use the CANAdmin plug-in on network servers to perform their administration actions. All actions by all agents are logged by the network for review. Information on the requirements and expectations of Field Agents can be found on the [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Field Agent]] page.

===Core Administrators===
These are a smaller group of administrators that in addition to the abilities of the field agents, is responsible for arbitrating disputes between players and field agents and for adding or removing field agents when needed. The Core administration team is also responsible for approving and reviewing the servers that make up the network.

===Network Administrator===
The network administrator in addition to being a Core Administrator, is the one person responsible for the entire network. He/she creates the rules to which all other administrators and server owners agree. The network administrator has the power of veto over any action of the other agents but must provide a reasonable explanation, or face the other administrators and agents abandoning the network (making it pointless).

==CANAdmin plug-in==
The network administrators make use of a special plugin that server administrators install to allow network administration. This allows agents to apply network wide warnings, kicks, and bans to users that violate the network rules and regulations. The network agents are only able to enforce the network-specific rules on servers and by default do not have any additional administrative permissions or abilities on any server. A server owner may choose to give network agents additional abilities, but it is not required for network membership.

==Rules==
The network has a very specific set of rules that it applies to servers. This rule set is expected to be a small subset of the rules on any one server. CAN Administrators will only enforce these specific rules by default. Every administrative action (warn, kick, and ban) will be logged with the rule number to which the violation applies, as well as any applicable logs or records needed.

===1) No Cheating===
Users must not use modified clients to gain an unfair advantage over other users. This includes any modification that changes the behavior of a player tank from the release version of the game, or any modification that provides additional information or reaction time to the game.
Examples include (but are not limited to):
* God Mode (un-killable)
* Auto-Aim
* Seeing Stealth or Cloak.
* Jump Modification
* Speed modification
* Tank hit size modification
* Shot end modification
Additional items may be added based on the observations of the administrator. If a user is experiencing network or software problems that may appear to be cheats, then it is up to them to work with the Administration staff and/or the project development to rectify the issue as soon as they are warned. The administration staff will be more then happy to work with the users to determine the cause of any software- or network-related issues. If the issues are network-related and cause the disruption of play with other users, network administrators can request that the user discontinue play on a specific server until such time as network conditions improve. The administrators are expected to speak to the players about the behavior before taking any action to determine its cause.

===2) No Exploiting===
Users must not use in-game features or flaws to gain an unfair advantage over other players. This includes using game features or bugs to create artificial lag spikes, tweaks or changes to the input system, or the operating system / drivers to create positional discrepancies or speed changes. If the administration staff asks a user to discontinue an action that is causing a problem, the user is expected to refrain from that action. This includes the use of external applications to modify the game's internal state or network data.

===3) No Griefing===
Users must not engage in behavior that is disruptive to the play of the game. This includes actions such as intentional team-killing, intentional or repeated genocide of one's own teammates, or capturing your own team's flag in a CTF game.  Griefing also includes message spamming, whether private or public.  The administration team does understand that isolated accidents do happen and are required to issue warnings before taking actions.  Users warned of a particular offense are expected to take care to not repeat the actions, even if they were accidents in the first place.

===4) Minimum Language Rules===
Users are expected to adhere to a set of [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/DisallowedWords|minimum language rules]] that disallows a set of very specific words when using public or team chat channels. Users are also expected to refrain from attacking or making disparaging remarks about another player's race, religion, gender, disability, ethnicity, employment circumstances, or sexual orientation.  The in-game chat is primarily for discussion about the game while playing.  Users who are warned for language violations are expected to discontinue use of the offensive language, and continue to play in a civil manner.  It should be noted that individual servers can and may have more strict language policies in place that they administer locally. The minimum language policy applies to any content that is displayed to other players including user callsigns, in game e-mail addresses, parting messages, as well as all public and team chat text.

===5) No disruption of public services===
Users are expected to not take actions that would disrupt any of the network's or project's public services. This includes any websites or forums, IRC channels, or servers operated by the network itself, or the 
BZFlag project. Actions of this nature are very serious and will not be taken lightly.

==Recommendations==

===Global Registration===
It is highly documented that all users must be globally registered and identified when they play. Unregistered users will be tracked by there IP, hostmask, and other data. Unregistered users may not dispute any administrative action on the network. Unregistered users will not be white listed to get around any IP range or host mask bans that may be in place. It is assumed that honest players will have no problem with registering for the game. Any network agent will be glad to help users get registered with the BZFlag global login system

==Common Questions and concerns==

===Questions===
====Does the network do range bans?====
Yes, the network can and will do IP range bans for dynamic IPs. When possible a BZID ban will be used, but some situations require a range ban. Registered users can be given a white list based on there BZID and be allowed to play on IPs in a banned range.

===What the Network Is===
This is a list of items that describe what the network is meant for:

====The CAN is a group of people:====
	The network consists of people - people that the server owners have chosen to trust to enforce a set of rules. It is run by people for people. People are human. It is assumed that people can and will make mistakes on both sides. Mistakes can be fixed as long as both parties are willing to work at fixing the problem in a civil manner.

====The CAN is reasonable:====
	Administrators are more then willing to listen to anyone who has been kicked or banned, as long as the user is willing to work with them in a reasonable manner. If a user has an issue that can not be resolved with an administrator, they should take it up to the next level of administration as indicated in the organization section above.

====The CAN keeps records, lots of them:====
	The CANAdmin plug-in will track all actions done by administrators, and can provide them for review if needed. These records are kept independently of any logging or tracking that server owners choose to do, and are intended to be used by network staff only. This provides a set of checks and accountability for all actions, as well as records of the reasons behind any action.

====The CAN is a team:====
	Network administrators work together. Any administrator can work on any problem, regardless of who the issue started with. Administrators are encouraged to work together, with other administrators, and players.

====The CAN works with leagues:====
	Since the field agents don't have any control over gameplay commands, and the CANAdmin plug-in doesn't use any of the host servers administration functions, there is no reason why a league server can not also be a CAN member server. The network rules should be compatible as a subset for all leagues.

===What the network is not===

====The CAN is not your mom====
	The network does not exist to arbitrate small disagreements in playstyle or behavior. It will not make Billy stop touching your flag. It does not exist to decide what is or isn't fair in games. The rules that the network enforces have nothing to do with gameplay or any specific game ruleset. The CAN will not and cannot do such gameplay actions as resetting flags, balancing teams, or changing server variables.

====The CAN does not take over a server.====
	By default CAN administrators do not have access to a server banlist, groups, passwords, users, or any other abilities. All network actions are applied by the CANAdmin plug-in and do not affect the server settings in any way.

====The CAN is not a democracy.====
	The network is a service provided by its administrator and trusted staff. Server owners can choose to allow the CAN onto their servers, or they can choose not to. The network is not designed or run by any sort of committee. It is run following the specific rules set forth in this document.

====The CAN is not the master ban list.====
	While some of the network administration staff are also part of the BZFlag project, the network itself is not. Network bans are not part of the global master ban list that is applied by default to all public servers. Actions against the project itself may result in CAN administrative action, but the reverse is not always true.

== See Also==
* [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Server Owners]]
* [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Field Agent]]
* [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Core Administrators]]
* [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/Players]]
* [[CommunityAdministrationNetwork/CANAdmin Plug-In]]