Why I don't want to be a moderator

[Typhoid Libby 1,265]

If there must be a definitive title for the site staff, instead of a title like moderator which invokes authority/fear, what about "Site Ambassadors" because it's a more user-oriented, user-friendly title I guess

 

Inquisitor makes more sense.

Added bonus if the moderator is Spanish.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

Inquisitor makes more sense.

Added bonus if the moderator is Spanish.

 

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[KakeiTheWolf 652]

I used to a mod on a forum. Then I took two banhammers to the knee.

[Evilshy 5,090]

If moderating a forum is anything like moderating a minecraft server, I'd really rather not.

 

"hey mod, flatten this ground for me"

 

"can I have a few stacks of stone? I could mine it myself, but you could save me time."

 

"hey you should ban this guy"

"why?"

"he broke my shit"

*checks log*

"no he didn't"

"bullshit he totally did"

"I checked the log, nobody broke your stuff. It was probably a creeper or something"

"yeah right you're just his friend or something"

 

 

I only stayed because the admin/owner was my friend, and he only had one other mod.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Evilshy

[Marcato 2,143]

If moderating a forum is anything like moderating a minecraft server, I'd really rather not.

 

"hey mod, flatten this ground for me"

 

"can I have a few stacks of stone? I could mine it myself, but you could save me time."

 

"hey you should ban this guy"

"why?"

"he broke my shit"

*checks log*

"no he didn't"

"bullshit he totally did"

"I checked the log, nobody broke your stuff. It was probably a creeper or something"

"yeah right you're just his friend or something"

 

 

I only stayed because the admin/owner was my friend, and he only had one other mod.

 

This.

You essentially summed up something i deal with often as well. The ebst way to comeback this is by providing direct proof and explaining things cooly and as they are. If they keep complaining then just leave them to their own complaints.

 

Of course to an extent its very different. No people asking for that sort of stuff. But still much is similar.

[Evilshy 5,090]

 

 

This.

You essentially summed up something i deal with often as well. The ebst way to comeback this is by providing direct proof and explaining things cooly and as they are. If they keep complaining then just leave them to their own complaints.

 

Of course to an extent its very different. No people asking for that sort of stuff. But still much is similar.

 

Yeah, it's not so much people saying stupid stuff as doing and wanting stupid stuff, but at the end of the day, the problem is the same: people being stupid.

 

 

Heh, best conversation I ever had on that server:

"your house sucks"

"okay"

"seriously your a mod, why are you using stone to build?"

"cuz I like stone and there's a shitton of it everywhere?"

"that's no excuse. Why don't you just give yourself decent building materials?"

"I like playing legit"

"I play legit and I have a brick house"

"good for you"

"you should at least try to make yourself look better than normal players. If a mod has a stone house and people like me have a brick house, that's just retarded"

"if you want to keep your brick house you'll stop bugging me about it"

"fuck bro calm down. Man, the mods here are idiots"

"you are perfectly free to leave at anytime. I won't stop you"

"I think I might"

"I assure you, I won't be losing any sleep over it if you do"

 

And then he quit talking. That wasn't word for word, by the way, but was along the same lines.

Eventually the admin banned him because he would do stuff like this all the time.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

Being a moderator or, more critically, an admin on a forum is just as St. Paul (paraphrased) says: you are all things to all people.

 

You are beloved by most everyone when the seas are calm and you exercise your authority the least. There is generally the perception that you are a benevolent "ruler" who may have the authority to instate rules or close threads, yet you never appear to overreach that authority vested in you. When you speak, some members will be tempted to hyperbolically engage in praise and adoration of your "rational" attitude and just disposition. There is a general swell of support, and the moderators may feel increasingly justified in doing the "right thing" with respect to the forum. It can become a dangerous echo chamber, one that affects both the moderators and regular members. There potentially exists this tranquil state that mimics the rule of Celestia over Equestria: everyone's voice is heard, even if not all members have equal authority, i.e., not everypony is a moderator.

 

Then there are the moments where a critical decision has to be made; your personal interests may clash with your "objective" role as a moderator. If you come down on members or particular topics, you will receive viscerally negative reactions. What may otherwise be a simple enforcement of the rules becomes a step toward some form of e-tyranny. There can be clashes of ad populum arguments versus appeals to authority. The discussion and/or debate devolve into claiming the moderators are trampling on intrinsic rights versus rebuking supposed reactionary tendencies amongst members. In the worst case scenarios, members are pitted against one another. It can be extraordinarily ugly and damaging in terms of trust and relationships.

 

And yet moderators must still act in accordance with what they perceive are the best interests of the forum. It is a difficult task.

 

The buck really does stop, however, with the admin. His or her management style will tend to influence the team brought together to manage the forum. If he cannot get his own ducks in a row, then the moderators are often powerless. There has to be near constant communication with enough flexibility where moderators are not totally beholden to the head of the forum yet understand their basic marching orders in a clear and concise manner. That is generally why it is best to have at least two administrators: not so much to check the authority of one another---if you need checks and balances within the staff, for fear someone will abuse power, then there is an inherent flaw within the structure---but to manage the needs of the moderators. Moderators are best suited to fulfilling the task inherent in their title: moderating the forum. That moderation, however, can only come about when the admin has established a.) a clear line of authority and b.) a set of standards by which the moderators govern their own behavior. Everything else is relatively open to interpretation by the mods themselves; otherwise, the admin is constantly double guessing his staff and micromanaging needlessly.

 

If you want to be a moderator, you best be prepared to take flak. There is little way around it. Somepony is going to complain eventually; somepony will accuse you of being unfair and being overly zealous in your enforcement of the rules. As such, the staff needs to support each other behind the scenes and discuss difficult decisions rather than simply letting things fly and hoping for the best. At the same time, a moderator cannot become isolated from the community he or she is supposed to serve. Otherwise, you will make poor decisions which overstep your authority. Then it is the devil's own time to make up lost ground and, more importantly, trust.

 

My philosophy, one which was influenced by a good friend of mine with whom I managed a forum for several years, is this: moderators are a shield, not a sword. What does this mean? Your task should not be to go about cutting away at bad behavior but rather defending other members from abuses. Undoubtedly this is a fine line to walk. In my own frame of mind, it is an attempt to follow in the example of Thomas Merton's view on warfare: you should be a peacemaker, not a just warrior. A moderator team constantly clashing with members is one doomed to failure. Come to the defense, the aid of members in need. In that way, you stay true to your calling, even if not everypony agrees. Keep the peace rather than crush misbehavior.

 

Furthermore, strive to make rules which are clear and enforceable. If moderators do not understand where the line in the sand is drawn, then the rule requires modification. Opaque standards yield uncertain moderators; uncertain moderators tend to make mistakes.

 

Nevertheless a moderator must be prepared to make judgment calls. That necessitates a form of confidence not imbued in everyone. If you are uncertain about your ability to make a gut decision---or a gut wrenching decision---then you should think twice about becoming a moderator.

 

Synopsis: Moderator's a good job, mate. It's challengin' work, outta doors. I guarantee you'll not go hungry. But you had better be committed to your position.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Thereisnospoon303

[Senn555 242]

I used to run a couple of my own (very small) Invisonfree message boards. They were fun at first, being able to manage my own communities and all, but after only a mere couple of months I began to grow tired of it; I don't think I was able to keep a place going for any more than half a year at most. Granted, the places I started up never managed to get any more than 100 members, so I didn't feel too bad about letting them go.

 

I also used to be a moderator at a very large website - it was a major hub for pirating video game music years ago - but nowadays it's as good as dead. I had somehow managed to stay on staff for a year and a half before I ultimately ditched the place, as over time I had really grown sick of the general attitude of the members and the staff. I was in charge of the central video game music sharing subforum and I had always been "pressured" to ban people who only wanted to leech and *never* give anything back. I didn't feel good every time I did it but I had done it anyway, numerous times. Over time I just got fed up with everything and left.

 

Back then I was still in high school and I was juggling my online life with schoolwork. I'm not in school now, nor do I have a full time job, and even now I have no desire to go back to being a moderator for *any* site. I really don't see myself as someone who is a good leader or someone who can make the right decisions all of the time - I'm still naive and sheltered to most of the outside world.

 

But most of all, I am terrible at time management and I do not have any motivation or willpower to want to be on any kind of staff or perform any duties. Even if I were asked to become a moderator now, I'd only turn it down - it's just added stress for me and it's an extra, unnecessary burden to my already busy lifestyle.

 

It was a decent enough learning experience to be someone in charge, but I'm not that kind of person. I'm done with that.

[Swordfishtrombone 384]

Its something you would do not out of enjoyment, but because your love of the community runs deep.

Actually, wanting to be a mod is like wanting to be a Roman emperor.

Now you too can be the scapegoat of peoples failures, resent, ingratitude and general hate! And it wont matter how hard you work or how just you are, there will always be a vocal minority. In the rare situation people do like you, most of them will like you way more than you would like them too. Being a mod is awesome!

Edited April 11, 2012 by Swordfishtrombone

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

Tich has said everything I have found out about moderating in my two months of experience at it.

 

I'll give you my side of the story, because I'm not a super-experienced moderating person. Modding this forum is my first time at moderating and managing anything of relatively large size and importance.

 

Not long ago, I was like a lot of you. I feared moderators and had harbored an automatic dislike of them. I thought: "Why don't these jerkasses get off of their asses and go post?" I always dreaded when a moderator would post, because it meant that they'd usually post to correct someone or be a killjoy. Never just to merely enjoy the forums and make a post like a normal person. I saw them as cold and distant robots who were appointed for little reason besides the admin had been friends with them. These were my experiences from my first forum, the one I came to and was at for four years before coming here.

 

I came to these forums, full of these biases. But then I realized something about the moderators here. They were different! They actually... had real personalities. Like human beings. As I got to know moderators such as Zoop and Nico (at the time a chat mod), I saw that they were just people like me. But... I didn't fully realize it until I had become one myself.

 

Once I became a moderator, my entire perspective changed. I realized just how much moderating the forums does take a lot of time and care. Because I have a lot of free time and not much to do, I often devote an entire day to moderating the forums, and then actually participating in them. So Tich is right in this aspect. It is very difficult to have time to do both. Focusing so much and being on the forums is driving me sort of nuts, and I feel like I need a small break. I can attest that trying to do both at once is stressing.

 

It almost feels like a job I don't get paid for. I don't mind not getting paid for it though. But it is difficult. Especially since I am a very sensitive person, and I am not equipped to take people's crap when they scold at me simply for doing my job. A few times, I have burst into tears and had a few breakdowns of stress because of the insensitivity and disrespect of people towards my decisions. So this definitely proves something to you people; we moderators are human with feelings and aren't just robots.

 

You need a thick skin for this sort of job. And though I don't have one, I usually recover quickly from my hurt feelings and am able to contain them. You need to keep a level head just to keep yourself from going insane at the constant amount of people who don't read rules. It's a good thing I'm a patient person. Think about that before you want to be a moderator. Are you patient enough to have to answer the same question being asked several billion times even though it's clean smack dab there in the rules? This is a big part of being a moderator. It's not just about moving threads.

 

The unwarranted praise, I actually am unaffected by. Most of the time, I am able to tell when someone is complimenting me as a person and simply for just being a moderator. I agree with Scootacool that the people who do get moderated are usually people who made awesome and intelligent posts in the first place, so they probably get just as many people complimenting them on the actual merit as they did before, whilst getting several more piggybacking for the "godlike status." I also think that moderators' posts are more likely to get more attention, which in turn leads to more people commenting on them or brohoofing them. (And may I confess that the praise does help me with my low self-confidence and insecurity...)

 

However, I enjoy this job. But I'm going to be completely honest for you guys. I don't serve the forums for you. I serve them for me. The other moderators may have their reasons, but I do it because it makes me feel like I'm making a difference in something. I've never felt like that before, or really like I've affected anything in my life. I've felt so powerless and out of control with everything. So it's honestly nice to be in control of something, and to actually contribute. To help out and help make decisions.

 

I've never actually had a (paying) job before, and I really like to do hard work that contributes to something. It's a labor of love that is uniquely satisfying to me even if it causes stress. Doing this job has actually helped me as a person. Which probably sounds absurd to most of you, but it has helped me become more confident with myself to have a position of leadership. A position that I thought I wasn't good enough for, or worthy of, for anything in this life. Now I feel a little more like I actually matter. So... yes, I am proud to be a moderator in spite of its blatant disadvantages.

 

As with anything, being a mod comes with both pros and cons. But just like most positions of leadership, most people honestly don't have what it takes. It takes a certain type of person to be a mod, and if you want to be one, then you probably want to be one for the wrong reasons and probably honestly shouldn't.

 

Well, there's my obligatory wall of text to this thread.

[Mr. Wobbels 664]

End result: OP becomes mod.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

End result: OP becomes mod.

 

Dammit, I've been discovered, abandon ship.

 

I would post an explanation on this, but perhaps someone higher up will. because it seems only fair.

[Typhoid Libby 1,265]

"I don't want to be Mod but I said yes when I was asked to be one."

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

>Makes thread about not wanting to be mod

>>Becomes mod

>>>[start conspiracy theories.]

[Future Allie Way 185]

>Makes thread about not wanting to be mod

>>Becomes mod

>>>[start conspiracy theories.]

 

>>>>Profit

[Gingerpotato 889]

I, myself, would like to hear straight from the horses mouth how a forum member who had recently posted a topic about their disproving opinion on the moderator status managed to get offered the moderator status and then to accept it.

 

Not being rude or angry, I'd just like to know what managed to sway your opinion on the matter.

[Neikos 968]

Guys, he never said anywhere in his post that he would refuse such a position. So please calm down, stop posting pointless replies and either get back on topic or do something else.

[Killian Jones 2,655]

I, myself, would like to hear straight from the horses mouth how a forum member who had recently posted a topic about their disproving opinion on the moderator status managed to get offered the moderator status and then to accept it.

 

Not being rude or angry, I'd just like to know what managed to sway your opinion on the matter.

 

I said I am willing to try it. Perhaps most of my disgruntlement of the status comes from my own sour experience of having been one. And the forum I was one at wasn't exactly the nicest of environments. Which may have made all those issues feel a lot more heavy then they actually are. I gave a conditional yes, because saying no without knowing what it is like here is slightly jumping the gun. While the conclusion may be the same, if it is not, I'm willing to take a chance on it.

 

Suffice to say, it may seem like a hypocritical thing, but really it's not, I will still try to be member first and a moderator second. All I will try to achieve is that all that reporting I would usually do, is now going directly through me.

[Key Gear 6,663]

Suffice to say, it may seem like a hypocritical thing, but really it's not

 

I just want to chime in here and say that I don't think that it is hypocritical at all. As a matter of fact, I am quite certain that it is the complete opposite.

 

According to WordNet, hypocrisy is defined as:

 

insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

In your original post, you painted a vivid picture of what it means to be a moderator. You did not pretend to have qualities or beliefs that you did not. You demonstrated quite clearly that you have a firm grasp on the subject matter and that you were under no illusions about the duties of a moderator.

 

I feel quite comfortable in saying that I welcome you becoming a moderator of this site. I am also quite sure that most of the ribbing that you are receiving regarding "hypocrisy" is all in good fun. I doubt that anyone seriously regards your being a moderator as a bad thing.

[Evilshy 5,090]

I got a good chuckle out of this

 

brohoof for you, Tich /)

[Marcato 2,143]

Tich, you have been on these forums for the last several hours, i have been watching and hardly left at all. That dedication is the kind of thing that they need, and you have taken care of topics that were reported and/or noticed quickly and effectively. After only your first day you are doing an amazing job, and i think you deserved your position.

 

I'm sure you will last long here as a moderator and do an amazing job from here on out as well.

[Swordfishtrombone 384]

Well guys, the way I see it is like this; I would never join the military. Although I have no bad feelings for them and very much respect them. But its not my type of job, too hard for my blood. If during an emergency or something, I was asked to join by my country, I would be very proud of it and try to serve with honour, do the best I can do.

[Shankveld 4,949]

"Why I don't want to be a moderator"

by a moderator.

 

Strikes me as a bit odd,

if you think it's so bad then don't be one? :s

I'm sure Feld0 isn't forcing you into it.

~

[Killian Jones 2,655]

"Why I don't want to be a moderator"

by a moderator.

 

Strikes me as a bit odd,

if you think it's so bad then don't be one? :s

I'm sure Feld0 isn't forcing you into it.

~

 

I wasn't a moderator when i wrote this. I agree it is confusing ex post facto.

[Swordfishtrombone 384]

I think he was offering a different perspective to fiends who want nothing but modship, not being literal. He seems like he'd make a good mod, knows whats hes talking about, knows what hes up against.