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Aug-30-2004 11:29

There has been a bit of an epidemic of thefts from agency equipment lockers lately. Although there is some access control provided by the current agency rank system, it is clear that the current system is not restrictive enough. I've had to spend a fair amount of time lately trying to clear up the server and network stability problems, but providing adequate security for agency lockers is now my top priority after keeping the game up and running.

With that in mind here are some options that I am currently considering adding. If you are currently or were previously an agency member, I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Transaction Log for Agency Safe - Keep a list where Directors can see who has put money in, and taken money out of the agency safe. This might be a feature agency's have to purchase.

2) Transaction Log for Equipment Locker - Keep a list where Directors can see who has stored and retrieved items from the equipment locker. This might be a feature agency's have to purchase.

3) Officer/Director Locker Storage - Allow users to flag certain items as only being able to be removed by Officers and/or Directors. This might be a feature agency's have to purchase.

4) Marking Equipment as "Agency" Items - Allow Items to be marked as belonging to an Agency. Only Officers or Directors would be able to sell an agency item. Nobody would be able to logoff or quit an agency while using an agency item. I have some concern that doing this would take a LOT of programming time. If it is the prefered solution, I could do it, but it would take much longer to do than the other options.

5) A "Thief" flag - Allow Directors to mark ex-members as Thieves, so that other agencies could be wary of bringing them on. This would be easy to do, but I really don't like the idea very much. It seems likely that it would eventually be abused.

Aug-30-2004 16:00

! and 2 are great! a fee for it is also ok (will give us something to do with our money). not sure it will help with thiefs but will be very helpful to know what belong to whim and what is hapening with our money. in case a thief do come by, we can use this log to show it to you ben and u can decide what to do.
i'm not sure i get 3. do u mean only officers and directors could wear that stuff or that only those would be able to sell it? i'm for only restricting selling and leaving agency with stuff. i dont like to restrict agents from using it.
4 is really good idea. i hope u can find the time for that. it would be good to combine with 1 and 2. we got robbed twice, once by a director. if we had the log we could be sure for curtain instead of accusing innocent people first and dividing the agency.
i hate idea 5. i think it could be used in a very wrong way. dangerous!

Aug-30-2004 16:07

How about deleting the option for someone to quit the agency. And they can only be kicked out by a director? Simple, the director only kicks someone out when all the equipment is where it belongs.

Aug-30-2004 16:48

Argh! I just typed in all my wonderful wisdom on this subject, and my typing must have taken just long enough to get me logged off as inactive. So now it's gone! Grrrr.

Aug-30-2004 16:59

I am in favor of the 'blacklisting' because if the negative elements have to keep making new agents, they'll tire of that quite rapidly, I think. Plus, they won't accomplish anything and eventually lose interest in the site and go wreak havoc elsewhere. Also, I feel there is a high level of integrity in the directors I've seen so far, and I think that trend will prevail. Those with natural character flaws don't seem to have their agents around very long, so I think we could trust the directors not to abuse the blacklist. Also, the Directors Lounge I have been advocating would be much more than just a place to blacklist agents.

Aug-30-2004 17:13

Requiring permission to leave an agency is not an option. I certainly wouldn't want to be help in an agency against my will. In small agencies it is definitely a possibility that no officer or director would log on for days.

I'm still trying to figure out how to keep people from holding onto agency items when they leave. I guess I would just add a timeout where "agency" items would automatically return to the locker. That opens up a can of worms though, for instance, how long would an item take before automatically returning, and what happens in that situation if the locker is already full.

Aug-30-2004 17:45

An idea for number five:

How about the director/s of the agency that want to 'blacklist' someone, they have to contact Ben (somehow), and tell him of 2 things:

1) The name of the detective

2) Why they should be put on a blacklist

Then, after being blacklisted, when a DIRECTOR OR OFFICER (and only director and officer) clicks to see that detectives stats, there could be in red letters "blacklisted for (whatever)"

This would make it so not everyone can see if they are a "thief, scandal, ect."

Not too sure if that made any sense.

Aug-30-2004 18:08

I'm sure there are more problems than I am aware of, but it sounds like #4 and #5 are too extreme and add a very negative atmosphere to the game.

What if an agent finds himself or herself in an agency they don't enjoy after being a detective for a respectable amount of time? (Afterall, people pay for the right to join an agency.) That detective hasn't done anything wrong and has the right to leave with whatever equipment he or she has earned. The equipment is only in the locker because of the agents earning and depositing the equipment.

I know that some new detectives have taken advantage of the trust factor of the 'open' locker, but maybe instead of "Agency Equipment", a detective wouldn't be allowed to leave with any items more valuable than what he or she would have been able to earn on his or her own based on the level of experience.

I definitely think the idea of blacklisting is unfair. Whether there are unfair directors in the ranks now or not ... chances are there will be a director at some point who would abuse the system either intentionally or unintentionally.

I think being able to buy the ability to monitor the safe and locker is more in keeping with the feel of the game. Ben can call it an "Alarm Feature" that alerts the detectives when something is removed or added from the locker and safe. This seems to be a much more reasonable alternative than #4. Running an virutal detective agency has some of the same risks as running a real business. There will always be people who are untrustworthy and try to take advantage.

Aug-30-2004 18:19

I think it would be nice to receive notice when another agent opens up one of your saved cases, too. I know that Ben added the 'security' feature that an agent couldn't open a case above his or her experience level, but a nice pop up message (like when an agent helps out by analyzing evidence in the lab for you) would be a handy feature.

Aug-30-2004 18:54

I like the idea of a pop up message saying, for an example, "Bella Luna (just picked a name) has opened your case, 'The Mysterious Case of the Disapearing Locker Equipment.'"

Aug-30-2004 18:56

#1 I like a log on the safe - Its nice to credit who's putting money in as well as out.

#2 - wouldn't stop anything, and would be very long list for big agencies. Not useful.

#3 - if you mean that only directors could remove the item from the locker - that makes it useless as community property. If you mean only directors could sell it - that would be ok.

It would be nice to know WHO got the item originally. Sort of a monogram feature. I'd be happy to pay for that too. maybe if you paid to have something monogrammed, only you could sell it. and the monogram could be read if someone challenged where you got something?

don't know how to deal with folks who drop out of the game with good stuff they should have left, or (conversely) folks who leave stuff that we need to get rid of to make more room.

don't like the blacklist.