Baakay wrote:Pudge wrote:
What I do think is funny, though, is that the only ones that
complain about the way we moderate, are the ones who have
never done it themselves. All the people who do or have
moderated are all on our side. Go figure.
You should not assume that just because a person has not been a moderator on THIS board, he or she has not had a similar -- and equally thankless -- experience elsewhere. OK?
I think what she was trying to say here is that those of us who have moderated here or elsewhere on the web have generally been siding with the moderators, because they have experience that is directly relevant to the situation that the Beta mods are in. I don't think she intended anyone to feel that they have never had a thankless job anywhere else. I'm quite sure most of us have at some point.
And if indeed you have had a similar experience elsewhere to a moderator's job here, you should have some clue as to just how tough a spot the mods are in around here. I mean, this isn't just a forum, its a community of people who share a hobby--and by pissing off people in that community a mod here could lose more than just his/her sanity. I completely sympathize with them.
Personally, I moderate on a board that deals with computers.. over 6000 members--some of whom are extremely childish, so I'm used to playing the 'big bad mod' role there. It sucks sometimes, because you know no matter what you do, someone is going to get pissed off. But you do it for the good of the board and you try to use your best judgement on when its time to delete/lock a thread. Mods will make mistakes--we're all human, too.
I don't get paid to do that job either, and I've come extremely close to walking away several times in the past 2 years that I've been a mod there. So far, I haven't given up yet (mostly because the admin begs me to stay... and I'm a sucker so I always do *sigh*).
I mean no offense by this statement, but I can't think of an easier, clearer way to say it: To those of you who think you can do a better job as a mod... I'd challenge you to step up and try it for a week or longer. It just might not be as easy and black & white as you think.
However, I think many of you do have a clue... which is why it confuses me that you're so hard on the mods many times.
Just my thoughts/opinion. Feel free to disregard it.
