New Forum Mod

weeeelllll if people wouldn't break the rules and cause drama for laughs then this wouldn't be an issue :O!

It's only sound judgement when it's in your favor. When it's not, it's perceived as biased, favoritism, unprofessional, etc, etc...

I see this repeat every time I diffuse a situation.

Nice to meet you Terraka and congrats on becoming a new mod! Hope you'll be a better mod than the others. :)

So by this logic, you will hire unqualified policemen to take care of issues.

Whether you/people like it or not, he's right.

It depends how you do it.

But overall, by now, you should have the experience to be able to tell when it is biased/unprofessional and when it's not. So their comments shouldn't matter in the slightest.

When I'd issue someone a punishment and the guy did do something bad, I didn't care that he came here or on BG to look good, what matters is that you took the right action.

This post in itself is unprofessional, you shouldn't have to justify or defend yourself if you followed the rules and were objective.

how can others become a mod?

Hey, if no one broke the law, broke the speed limit, stole, or any of the reasons we need police in the world, then yes!

True. But it IS an issue when the wrong person gets ***on (and then bullied) by the mods because of others and the people causing problems are ignored.

Who got bullied?

As much as I agree, it doesn't really work since you can see pretty much every one of their posts since people quote each other so much.

Not my information to give out. Aelius knows what I'm talking about though.

There are guidelines that I have to abide by. Yes, each situation can be different and it's always best to approach everything with neutrality.


Intentional hate comments towards Mods actually do not bug me as the term Moderator has been devalued and has a form of negative ring on it before I even became Mod. I hoped to have changed this but people hang on the past too much.

This is a fan website. We volunteer to do this. By no means are we 'suppose' to do this professionally. For instance, are you all professional users to a professional game? Most of you no longer play, so I really rest my case on that one.


This is why the system has changed to privileges of certain features and functions. An 'Eye for an Eye' so to speak. If you abuse that particular function, you lose it but you still have access to everything else.


I don't care what's professional or not. I never took a professional Moderator course nor did I pay for Moderator college to earn a degree so the point of having a Moderator on my resume as a profession is moot.

Yes, you're right, we aren't obligated to defend ourselves but I'm not one to stand here and read all these messages and do nothing and let the masses toy with rumors of hearsay and things that are completely wrong. I will correct if I feel the need to correct which I think is the right action. I don't want to run from or ignore problems just to deal with them again and again. I will solve them so I won't have to deal with them anymore.

Yeah, lets keep it at that though.

Never had any intention of taking it further. My point was made.

Yeah, I asked him recently if there was a way I could help with some of the development work and get things back up to speed. I didn't really get an answer either way, so I'm taking that as either "no, there's no way to do that" or "there is, but you're not the one I'm giving that power to", either of which is totally fair :)

We don't read EVERYTHING on the forum. This is why we have this nifty little link that will send a post directly to our attention and we'll take care of it the best way possible.

These problems that get ignored are because we simply don't get the reports. If you don't believe the report function is not a viable way to let us know, you can simply private message us a link and tell us what the problem is. I advocate this so much but many people think that we see everything in which we do not which is why the masses think they are ignored.

The situation I'm bringing up specifically wasn't looked into at all. Someone with a grudge was report happy and the responding mod was ban happy. That was literally the extent of initial moderation.

This is when private messaging must be utilized. When we look at a reported post, we look to see if the post is breaking a rule. If it's not breaking a rule, it is dismissed. If it is, there's many options to choose from but it's the Moderator that decides it.

Like it was in that situation and Mod #2 dropped the ball as well? And let's just skip to the end where Mod #3 was PMed and proceeded to make a few missteps before everything was finally resolved to... some degree.

Quite a few people have every reason to doubt our mods abilities and judgement thanks to that mess.

I want to be very clear though. Terraka being modded? I'm not against it at all. ...As if my opinion actually matters to anyone.

A little confused, but I genuinely hope things go well.

I hate the reputation our moderators have. Ever since I started using these forums they've been treated with such disrespect and negativity, every single one of them, at one point in time. Sure, they receive a lot of love too when they chill and hang out with us, but then you have those who think they're slacking on their duty when they are interacting with other members on the forum, being involved in discussions etc.

I think people forget that they're here to help maintain the forums, and if they were qualified to update the site and maintain its information to help Scragg out I know that they would jump at the opportunity to help instantly.

The moment you take that position you have to be ready for people to instantly dislike you, challenge your decisions, and publicly shame you for being a horrible moderator and we need someone else.

Thing is, that someone else will be treated the same way you treated moderators previously. Anyone who's been here for years would find it very difficult to become a moderator because they know how others treat them, for the countless hours they devote to keeping the site as clean as they are capable of.

They'll never receive a "Thank you for doing so much for us, you all are great and we're glad to have you to keep these forums fun for everyone." Instead, they get the exact opposite, mixed up, in a way where you can't take anything personally, not even a compliment, because one day you'll be doing something everyone loves, and the next everyone will be against you for it and blaming you for everything wrong.



but yea, its whatever. The people who know all of that and still want to become a mod to help out I respect so much. I couldn't do that, I'd want to do my best to make everyone happy and that just isn't possible. You can never make everyone happy, and sometimes, anyone happy. It sucks, but it's something a website like this needs. I just wish they didn't get such a bad rep.

/endrant

We can take this to PM if you like.

This is a matter that needs to be settled through PM. Would you please take it there?

Welcome Terra. My mods suggested bringing a new mod for the day time shift and I was fine with it on the conditions that all mods gave an unanimous yes. I spoke to each one individually about it and got some feedback. She is on a one month probationary period and I will check with mods or seek others feedback when the time comes. Please be respectful!

As for site updates being delayed or stagnant. I feel really bad about it and think about it constantly. Sometimes at work I really get an itch to update some ffxiah. Keep in mind I have been working on it for close to a decade and spent a big part of my life on it. Between my job and ffxiah, I have a couple side projects and used to work with Stan on Guildwork (which I really enjoyed!) I have spread my dev time pretty thin.

I've had many people come to me volunteering to take a developer role on ffxiah. I greatly appreciate these offers but the truth is the code isn't ready for another dev just YET. It has api keys/passwords hard coded and potentially security vulnerabilities if the source were to leak or just be abused. As for the former I can fix, the latter I will review the code and strip out some of the old garbage. Of course I will let parties interested of any significant progress in this area.

They wouldn't get such a bad rep if some of them (imo) (not naming names) weren't biased and or actually did their position justly and professionally. Not all the mods are like this, some are actually nice and care and aren't biased on certain situations but some of them are. People who have/had issues with the mods have/had them for a reason and it has showed on the forums on more than one occasion.

This is a lot of the reason why I wouldn't be able to do it. I'm fairly sure I could be unbiased when I need to be, not saying I don't have biases but I'm keenly aware of them and I do try to stifle them when I can even just as a regular user. But I think I'd get Jaded really fast and I'm so anti-drama I think a lot of people wouldn't like how I'd handle things were I a mod. That and I'm a bit sensitive. I'd probably be crying in the corner before the week was out.

It's a damned if you do and a damned if you don't type of situation, Kali.

As you said, you can't make everyone happy and sometimes you can't even make anyone happy.

As a mod, we're damned if we don't take action because people feel like they're being ignored or mistreated, but sometimes action isn't warranted like they believe it should be. Or even they feel ignored because WE were unaware of any type of rule breaking behavior because there was a lack of report. Aelius has stated we can't be in every thread and we can't see every post that needs attention, that's why Scragg has a "report" button for the posts.

And we're damned if we do because people don't like to be told what they can and cannot do, especially in an online thread. So when we do take action, some people get defensive and argue back.

So I'll say again, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't, so we just try to do what we're supposed to be doing, regardless of reports or not.

I'd be more than willing to help in any aspect I can once the necessary changes are made. Not sure I have the skills to help but it depends on what's needed.

The work you've put in to this site is really appreciated.

Did you at least negotiate a dental plan?