Forum Moderators

[Schillaci]

I swear on all the spirits, or whatnot, of all the people that I have loved, in one form or another, that have died, that I am not referring to any of the moderators here. Yes, in the past I may have had conflict with each and every one of you. And yes, there have been decisions that each and every one of you have made that I have found to be absurd, idiotic, but most of all heavy handed.

But for the most part I believe you lot to be, if not consistently reasonable, then wanting to be consistantly reasonable.


I know some of you will say that it is not forum moderators, but that it is I who is unreasonable. You may say that, you would be wrong though.


You know, the Internet is a vast place, and to be honest I don't really get around it that much. Here's what happens. You get connected to the internet for the first time. You type in Buffy then hit return. Click on a few different links. Then you type Angel and hit return. Click on a few different links. And then you watch porn for a day and a half.

Then that's you, bored of the internet, because the internets greatness is somewhat overrated. Slightly getting off my point here, so let me get back to it.

How come I, that doesn't explore the internet that much, somehow finds that every single forum has, absolute, top of the range, not to be equaled, 100% guaranteed, plonker moderators?

It can't be every .single. forum..(except this one...), surely?

To those of you who think that it is not forum moderators, it is I that is a plonker, based on witnessing something that I may have written on this site. I would just like to state that when I joined this site I was informed that the moderators of this site were not strict at all, were up for a bit of a laugh, and did not take offense at "swear words"( ie - not deleting them before running to the sink to cleanse themself of the evil of words by covering their whole body in tap water, previously blessed by the local father, just in case). If you take this into consideration, then remarkable as it might sound, I can inform you that I in fact can restrain myself, and do not post in the same manner on every single site that I hve joined. Primary reason for this is that some sites I join solely for knowledgeable discussion and learning and as such do not prance about making a wally of myself because I think its funny.


So how do I always find these morons with the perspective and judgement of a mars bar?

 

[nerd4hire]

I can only offer up what works for me. I check the site out. If I'm dissatisfied, I go someplace else.

It's interesting though you know, I find most mods have been members who have at one time or another been dissatisfied with a mod some place, or another earlier in their own internet adventures. There is no doubt an intention going in not to indulge in what they see as the excesses they themselves have dealt with.

However...reality tends to creep aboard, and I believe they often discover those realities tend to demand a different, and perhaps even seemingly unreasonable approach (from the outside) than the one they went in thinking was appropriate.

Either that, or it's all just a big power trip. 🙂

(You're just talking about mods and the internet in general, right? If you're talking about the ones here specifically, I'll have to send this to Angel Investigations, or advise taking it up via PM depending on the question.)

 

[Schillaci]

I can only offer up what works for me. I check the site out. If I'm dissatisfied, I go someplace else.

What if it is a site that you are already invested in?
I've been going to a site for years, almost from the point I joined the internet. This site has a forum, and a member who you have paid little attention to, is suddenly bumped up to head mod. And then you find out that they are so un-bloody-reasonable, they make me look like someone who agrees with everything ever said to me. How do you deal with someone who has power over you?

It's interesting though you know, I find most mods have been members who have at one time or another been dissatisfied with a mod some place, or another earlier in their own internet adventures. There is no doubt an intention going in not to indulge in what they see as the excesses they themselves have dealt with.

However...reality tends to creep aboard, and I believe they often discover those realities tend to demand a different, and perhaps even seemingly unreasonable approach (from the outside) than the one they went in thinking was appropriate.

Either that, or it's all just a big power trip. 🙂

(You're just talking about mods and the internet in general, right? If you're talking about the ones here specifically, I'll have to send this to Angel Investigations, or advise taking it up via PM depending on the question.)

I'm talking about my experience on the internet, every single forum I've ever joined. One in particular has just completely knackered me in. I know I can be unreasonable, but when it really gets down to it, down to the nitty gritty, I'm not going to argue white is black, if its bleedin' white.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

I'd have to go with the power trip thing.

I can't wait to get promoted to head mod so I can properly abuse and terrify 'normal' members...what's that...I am a head mod...BWAAHAAHAAHAA!!! 🙂

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Oh my God! you said some thing derogative about Mars bars. That's it! ban him for life.
Now where did I put that peaked cap?

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

What if it is a site that you are already invested in?
I've been going to a site for years, almost from the point I joined the internet. This site has a forum, and a member who you have paid little attention to, is suddenly bumped up to head mod. And then you find out that they are so un-bloody-reasonable, they make me look like someone who agrees with everything ever said to me. How do you deal with someone who has power over you?

I tend to find that it's the new mods that are the worst. They suddenly have all this power, and instead of using it properly they want people to know that they have it. Which doesn't lead to happy members. Mods that have been mods for a longer time tend to mellow a little, and, despite usually not posting so much, have more of a presence. That means they can be a bit more forthcoming with the discretion.

I do feel more for mods on very large sites though. It must be impossible to moderate each and every thread on its own merit, and so they have to be more arbitrary. As long as they listen to any comments made on their decisions I'm fine with that, but they so often don't.

I have to say though, I've not had any such problems here. Even if they won't put Buffy or Angel tags on the forum titles like I suggested...

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

Well there's a lot of idiots out there, is my explanation. But I know what you mean. I used to be global moderator on this big friends forum (friendscafe, if anyone knows) which was great, but now I'm not mod anymore (or I still am, only just for the German subforum because non of the other mods had the right German skills for that) some of the things they do seem just so ridiculous.
And I'm on that German site where moderators (or admin s there) just get elevated way tooo much. I used to be one and saw what it was like. Now I'm not anymore. And since then it's hard to get any of them speak to me. It's so weird, but honestly, they suck.
But well, since I've been mod myself I can sometimes better understand mods. They do have a lot of work (well also depending on size of the forum) and are often stressed out because hobby becomes job or something. That's why I wouldn't like to become mod again anywhere.

 

[Buffy Summers]

The other thing I can say about that is that after a while, mods have seen the same thing over and over and over again. The same question, the same mistake, etc. and it just gets harder to not be frustrated by it. Because to the member, it's all new, but to the mods, it's old hat and so it feels like people are intentionally doing it when they really just don't know any better.

And on the other hand - a lot of times the mods have seen such and such thing tried before, they know what happens when you do "x" or allow such and such thing to go on on the board. So to a newer member it looks unreasonable, but to the mod, they know it's going to end badly so nipping it in the bud is the best course of action. (Best example there is custom avatars.)

🙂

 

[Angelic Slayer]

^ Very true, a good point to bring up. You don't think when you ask a question that most mods would have heard that same question time and again, and especially if the answer is in the FAQ (and posted in the help forum, and and and...), it would get really frustrating.

And I think too, that with the exception of BB, the moderator attitudes depend a lot on the size/attitude of the forum. Bigger forums I've found that typically mods are a lot less slack about what they will/won't let slide (which makes sense, they have that much more area to cover, that many more potential problems!). But I also find that sometimes in smaller forums the mods/administrator can get a little "I am above you, agree with me or I'll boot you out". Which again, is something that I've always loved about BB, that it doesn't happen here. In my experience, all of the mods are really good about staying grounded, and seem to be really reasonable in their decisions.

A lot can go into how a mod can react based on the forum itself, too. If it's not a friendly environment to begin with, I find that's usually reflected in all of the members; including the mods, you know? It's bound to be.

I was on a harry potter board once (for shame, for shame) and I think that one was just too big and too disorganised to run smoothly. The mods typically just didn't seem to have it worked out what section of the boards they were looking after, and you often times got them contradicting each other (one mod would move a post to place "X" and send a warning, then another mod would send the post BACK to the original location and send you another warning). The members there also weren't nearly as considerate to each other as I had hoped, it was really easy to get a nasty reply from another member (leading to a lot of silly member to member drama for everyone to try and deal with). So with all that added up, I'm not surprised that the mods were a little snarky 😉

But again, I think we've got a really nice balance here that the staff really work their buns off to maintain: which I really appreciate, myself. 🙂

 

[Blondie Bear]

Apparently, we here at the BB have an entirely atypical social atmosphere. Other boards are not nearly as nice. Our mods may get frustrated when a newbie asks a question they've answered a billion times before, but on other boards, you'll get members answering with "Run a search before you ask questions, you &^%(&! n00b." The boards my husband hangs out on, mostly devoted to law enforcement, military, and training of these, are HORRIBLE. They are not at ALL welcoming of new people, and God forbid you're a new person who's only INTERESTED in getting into law enforcement or military and not already in (unless you're under 16. Then they understand that you really CAN'T yet). And the mods are on massive power trips--there's one who's earned the nickname "Ban Hammer" for his habit of banning people for no good reason. I know a few people here have complained that only one opinion is welcome here, but they haven't seen these boards--where you get banned for trying to have a discussion instead of a big agreement-fest.

We're much more open and welcoming and nurturing here, and our mods are some of the nicest, most patient mods in cyberspace. I love you guys!

 

[Aethra]

But I also find that sometimes in smaller forums the mods/administrator can get a little "I am above you, agree with me or I'll boot you out".

I can totally see that being true, but I am a mod at a very small forum, so I've gotta defend myself here. This forum used to be a reasonable size. It was very active (not nearly as active as BB, but active) when I joined. We had members who came every day, and some who just popped in every once in a while. But then our host (it's just a little free forum) started going all wonky on us. It got to the point where we had to move, and I think the pop-in-ers didn't get that message, even though we tried to make it very clear we were moving. So there's not much activity there now, unfortunately. We've got like four active members, on a good day. But even when it was rockin', we were very welcoming. We loved having new people around! Also, it doesn't have a lot of the fancy doodads that BB here does, so there were far fewer questions we had to answer. I'm still a mod, but unfortunately there's not much to, erm, moderate.
I guess that means my board is superior to all the other little forums :lmao:

Oh, but there was one member who became a mod before me, even though I'd been there longer. When he got elevated, he was VERY much like that, "I have power and you don't, mwahahahaha." The first day, he "edited" my posts, overriding it with a mwahahaha statement, and I FLIPPED. When the admin threatened to take it away, he stopped, and there weren't any problems after that.

 

[palabravampiress]

I don't know. I'm active on a handful of relatively small boards and I've never had a problem with unfriendly or power-hungry moderators. I've only ever had one little online squabble and, in general, I find my other boards to be every bit as friendly and fun as BB. In fact, I became such good friends with one mod (from the first board that I joined) that she and her family have been guests in my home. Now, I've been asked to mod a new board that's still being formed and top-secret. I'm a little nervous about the responsibility, but I'm excited about having a look behind-the-scenes and planning cool stuff for the members, too. Mods are just members who want to use their spare time to help out the board. If you remember that, then I don't think you'll feel so offended when/if a mod has to correct you on something. Basically, I think that if you hang out on boards on which you have good posting chemistry with the members, you're likely to have good chemistry with the mods, too.

 

[T.I.P]

I know some of you will say that it is not forum moderators, but that it is I who is unreasonable. You may say that, you would be wrong though.

To those of you who think that it is not forum moderators, it is I that is a plonker, based on witnessing something that I may have written on this site.
?

It is not you thats a plonker. From all the posts ive read of Schillaci's, theres nothing in my eyes he's written that merits a warning/banning/thoroughly good talking to, or whatever the hell he's annoyed about.
Moderators though, i suppose you get your cool ones and your gimp ones. On here though, ive not had any(or not noticed any) problems with the Mods, they seem ok to me. In all fairness though, i only remember about 3 of them.

 

[Washburne]

We're much more open and welcoming and nurturing here, and our mods are some of the nicest, most patient mods in cyberspace. I love you guys!

Yep *gives standing ovation*


Any board there I can tease the mods from time to time without being thrown out is my kind of place. 😉 I´ve seen enough of the powertrip thing. Even if I haven´t been around much on the net, it´s not hard to see that this place is really special.

 

[Angel's vision]

I do believe we are lucky to have the mods we have here, and I haven't a problem with them, on the SFX(mag) forum the people who run the mag and few reader mods are the type to banter with and are very fair in dealing with issues. That forum besides here is a lot of fun.

However a friend and I fell foul of mods on David-Tennant.net forum, it has a main site as well. I joined to discuss not drool. Anyway a mate of mine joined roughly the same time as me and she didn't like the new skin because it effected her eyes as she hadn't the best eye sight, she pointed it out and even linked a site that had guidlines,they have rules to get links approved but she made an honest mistake and to be honest they catch teens doing the same and only give a warning, their responce? They banned her, and not only that they said people accused her of being up herself! Me I read an article on him and pointed out the fact that his personal status info was wrong, I wasn't discussing his PL, just pointing out an error in this article. They have a rule that says no articles or posts discussing his PL, so what do they do? Post an article with a tiny mention of his PL!

Anyway I had a message saying I was banned for three days, I thought ok, then when I visited it again I was banned, so I emailed one of them ot ask if someone would have the common curtasy to tell me why, I mention the post as a sneeking suspicion but stated that the intent wasn't to get talking about his PL. I never heard back till I posted on a LJ community reg someone who had the cheek to talk about matters reg his life that were none of our business, and said so, one of the mods commented that my post was the case and that my email was rude, so they banned me altogether, and even lied about sending me the email about the banning! I know for a fact that I never recieved it, and they make sure you don't stick up for yourself. So yeah inconsitant, and double standards. Don't do as I do, do as I say.

I'm glad now as they did me a favour, the teens make it very frustrating by posting stupid statements and using kewl talk, arggg! Well the bottom line is our mods are way better than that site. I sympathise with those who have experienced mods with power trips like my friend and I have.

 

[Lyri]

I've had bad experiences with Mods and Admins, where they've had a power trip going on. The worst I've experienced was over at the now defunct CoA. They would close threads at random and not give reasons as to why. They would edit their own posts so that it looked like us regular members were out to get them. They took away AV's and sigs, and I still don't know the reason for that. They banned everyone from sending PM's because two people were abusing the system, so we all got punished. There was one time when they asked us what we wanted to do with a forum that wasn't really very active, and we voted...then they went and did the exact opposite!!

Mods don't get paid for what they do, we give up our free time to help keep a site running. Granted, I spend my free time here anyway, but still, lol. I don't agree with Mods using their power just because they have it, and using that power for their own gains. Mods are promoted to help run a site that they love and care for, and when they use that power to act like a prat, it's just wrong.

The Mods at BB are some of the best Mods I've ever met. I've never and a problem with any of them, and they are always on hand to help if ever I need it. They're the best!!! lmao

 

[Kean]

Lyri is of course totally impartial and in no way covering her own backside😀

In all seriousness though, like Lyr I have seen both sides. I've been the disgruntled, angry member and the mod. I was on a small Buffy forum awhile back and the mods there completely let the power go to their heads...you could pretty much imagine them singing "We are God's",togas, harps and all in there little secret hide away! (I swear I'm not bitter🙂) lol. It was only when I came here that I realised how much of a headache me and mine must have given them...serves them right... I mean...Baaad Kean! LoL

My point is really simple, we have to have mods. Otherwise the boards would be chaos. It's sad that some people choose to abuse that power but I am sincere when I say there isn't even an ounce of that happening here. I wasn't here long when I was bestowed with modage. Any opinion I have of my fellow mods was borne out of what I learned from working with them and I have to say they genuinely care about the members and what happens on these boards. We all give up our free time because we want to, because we love what BB means and what it is and we want to make it the best experience possible for you lot!

This place is too big to please everyone every single time. There's no knee jerk reactions, we make decisions together in an effort to avoid power trippyness and to ensure the right thing happens for the members and the boards themselves. No one person, mod or member is bigger than these boards.

Mostly we just want to do the same thing you do...come to BB and have fun with our friends...we wouldn't have time for power trips even if we wanted to🙂

***Disclaimer*** Like Lyri I am totally impartial and in NO way trying to cover my own backside😀

 

[Buffy Summers]

Five by Five agrees: Sorry to ask, since it's probably been asked hundreds of times before, but is the reason why we aren't allowed custom avatars to keep the boards family friendly? I'm not disputing it, just curious.

That's only a very very small part of it. If that was all, we could just have a rule saying they had to be family friendly. *shrugs*

It's really because having board-wide custom avs really really slows down the loading of the board and eats bandwith like candy. I was on a board that tried it and it just didn't work at all.

Also, we've had such a problem with people stealing our avatars (and more importantly, linking to them on our server from other sites) that as a courtesy to other boards we don't allow people to use their own avs. When we make all the avs, we know where they all came from.

Other small reasons are because it's nice to give the mods something special for their work, and that it keeps the board layout looking somewhat uniform and keeping with the theme.

That said, we try to accommodate people's requests as much as we can. It's been hard for me as of late, since my internet access has been a little wonky.

🙂

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

That's only a very very small part of it. If that was all, we could just have a rule saying they had to be family friendly. *shrugs*

It's really because having board-wide custom avs really really slows down the loading of the board and eats bandwith like candy. I was on a board that tried it and it just didn't work at all.

Also, we've had such a problem with people stealing our avatars (and more importantly, linking to them on our server from other sites) that as a courtesy to other boards we don't allow people to use their own avs. When we make all the avs, we know where they all came from.

Other small reasons are because it's nice to give the mods something special for their work, and that it keeps the board layout looking somewhat uniform and keeping with the theme.

That said, we try to accommodate people's requests as much as we can. It's been hard for me as of late, since my internet access has been a little wonky.

🙂

Makes sense. If there wasn't such a great choice I might not like it so much, but it certainly made me choose one that I would never have picked on my own. Anything that saves bandwidth without causing problems is a plus in my book. Not that I have a book. Well, I have books, but not a book with everything I think is good and bad in it..... I should really lay off the sayings after midnight...

 

[Buffanator]

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

we have *GULP!* .... moderators? ? ? ? ? ? ? 😉