Okay. I have no idea what you can say your first statement when everything else you have said contradicts that. You said that you denied 85% of people applying to be GMT. And that's only the people who applied, a lot of people wouldn't bother because they wouldn't think they had a chance. If you want to see how many people are willing to actually be a mod, ask a random person if they want to be, and I guarantee that a large percentage will say yes.Ephemeral wrote:
it's a shit job. most people (99.9% or something like that probably, you could calculate it exactly by taking staff+gmt and posing it against the rest of the playerbase) don't want to do it, or they'd be doing it already. you feel responsible for other people's enjoyment, and yet you're acutely aware that you essentially get to decide who participates and who doesn't, and doing that with a clear head in some circumstances is very difficult, and never fun.
i wont deny that there's more than a small portion of being in the right place at the right time as far as becoming a moderator is concerned, but the good news about that sort of stuff is if you're not blisteringly fucking stupid, you can generally see where the right place is, and figure out when the right time is. i saw a huge need for people skilled in discussing things and being proactive with issues 8 years ago when i started playing, so i got off my ass and started getting involved. easy as shit. if you're not doing this, you're not fit for the position.
call it sycophantry or w/e you like, but it's just being smart as far as i'm concerned.
it's pretty shitty to lowkey hint at the "cool, mostly german staff" as being a product of a certain someone's preference when in fact all of the people who are indeed the "cool, mostly german staff" work their fuckin asses off to make sure you dudes have content to play.
it's all the same with people, unfortunately. covet what you don't have, and pin what others do have on circumstances that are beyond their control to make yourself feel better about how empty your life is
Is a mod responsible for other people's enjoyment? No. A mod is responsible for creating an environment where people can enjoy themselves without any unnecessary troubles affecting people's enjoyment. Such as spamming or harassment. And if we compare a forum to real life social situations: how many times do you need to get the police involved because someone is bothering you? Rarely ever. Of course you might respond that an anonymous forum doesn't have the same consequences for bad behaviour as real life, and that's true to an extent, but the fact remains that in general people don't stay where they're not wanted, and if they are wanted then there's no reason for a moderator to take action. It's self evident that a community self-regulates, and forceful intervention by a moderator is rarely necessary.
And why don't I respect mods? Isn't is obvious just by your conduct in this thread? As I have already mentioned, a mod's job is that of a servant, not as a ruler, but that's not how most mods act. Here you are, acting as if yourself and your buddies are God's gift to mankind. I have dealt with mods a lot, and the large majority have an elitist attitude; they're not interested in helping the users. They will go banning and silencing at a whim, yet actually getting help from one is like getting water out of a stone. As you have mentioned, the way to become a mod is not through virtue but through sycophancy. Drawing some parallels between mods and politicians, it's often said that politicians don't have any particular talent for ruling, but for keeping and holding office, and there is truth in that when it comes to mods as well.
And as I've already mentioned, being a mod isn't a whole lot of work. And it might be said that the increased status and pleasure from wielding authority is a lot more common a motivator than a genuine desire to better a community. It's also apparent that nepotism - not technically the right word but you know what I mean - is just as important - if not more - than merit. Because the people who decides whether someone is a mod or not aren't the people whom the mod servers, i.e. the userbase, but people above in the hierarchy who are actually in the same group as the mods. It's like cops deciding if other cops have abused their power. It's apparent form many real-world examples that that doesn't work out very well.Railey2 wrote:
@b1rd: Saying that 75% wanting to moderate somehow proves that moderating is a good job is completely wrong.
Consider this;
- people might only be thinking that they want to moderate, but when they start moderating they quit pretty soon cause it wasn't what they thought it would be.
- people are drawn to the role as a moderator not for the works sake, but for the sake of the increased status that comes with being a mod.
- people might like power, but trust me that most people do not like work.
Conclusion:
Pertaining to mod-work, what people think they want seems to only be mildly correlated with what they actually want. The reasons being: Most people only have a desire for things that come with being a mod rather than a desire for actual mod work + wrong conceptions of what mod work is actually like (tedious, unpaid)
