What’s pathetic is that the moderators here, or at least some of them, hold the membership in contempt. If they feel that way, they shouldn’t be doing the job.
I suspect every moderator on the planet holds their members in contempt. Frankly, I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. They’re moderators on the friggin’ internet - it’s the least rewarding past-time I could possibly imagine! Just get over it.
As I’ve always said: Life is jus like High School. The only difference is that it ins’t over in 4 years.
It’s a volunteer position that they took on themselves. If they can’t do it or don’t like it, there is nothing stopping them from resigning.
I genuinely enjoy seeing every current member of my message board online, and communicating with them. True I only have about 30 active members, but nonetheless.
But it gives them a sense of purpose. Like retired senior citizens who get jobs as crossing guards.
I got burnt out after moderating a couple of boards, very active ones, for a couple of years, but I liked my job while I did it and I liked the people. And it was a very rewarding way to spend internet time.
When I got burnt out and didn’t think I could approach the job with the same enjoyment and respect, I quit.
For almost ten years I owned and moderated a very high-traffic yahoogroup (not like the SD, but still well over 100 posts per day, and a few thousand members) and I can honestly say I never held the members in contempt, I can’t imagine why I would? I had a half-dozen co-moderators. Sure, there were weird, annoying and troublesome posters and we snarked in the background about them but 98% of the posters - both regulars and newbies - were great.
Collectively our moderating was light and hands-off unless something got really out of hand or someone repeatedly violated group rules. It was more a specific-interest dog-related group, which probably made the vibe a bit more community-minded but there was still frequent drama. But generally we [del] fought bitched [/del] worked it out like adults and no hard feelings.
Why would you be disappointed if board/group moderators didn’t hold the general membership in contempt? That seems to be a very strange stance to take.
I’m still dumbfounded that there are people here who think that what twikster said shows contempt for picunurse, let alone for the general membership, or evinces some “outrage” at her. That’s “talking shit”? Amazing. Sad but amazing.
twikster’s phrase demonstrated an annoyance with one posters reports. No worse than that. Only knowing picunurse from my intersection with her public posts, and not knowing what she reports, when, and how often, I can only assume that such annoyance is misplaced. So twickster may be among the easily annoyed. Not a good trait in a mod, I’ll grant.
But this hyperbolic reaction to it is not even High Schoolish, Hogzilla … Hell my Middle Schooler is more mature than this. And she just gave her Mom her first “I hate you!”
I don’t think the problem is that - I think the issue is that the behavior was unprofessional. Similar to a TSA inspector putting a note with comment on someone’s personal items in the luggage after inspection?
But, meh, at least this comment was intended to be private.
And, that’s the difference.
Wait, how can Twickster “get you in trouble”? The worst she can do is ban you from a message board, just like the worst the Subway guy can do is ban you from the store. Or spit in your food. Or come over the counter waving a bread knife.
The moderators here are more closely analgous to the pasty teenagers behind the counter at a sandwich shop than they are to parents, or teachers, or cops, or bosses, or coworkers, or neighbors. They’re people with enough free time and low enough self-esteem to put in hours of unpaid work on an internet message board.
If you’re continually disappointed by the way moderators behave, then you can either adjust your expectations, or get used to disappointment.
The issue I’m seeing is that this is not just a one off, out of character mistake. This is yet another reveal of a pattern of behaviour and attitude.
Something from another thread on another topic says it better than I could:
You may see a pattern. I do not.
How does getting banned from a message board not constitute “getting in trouble”? For that matter, how does getting attacked with a bread knife not count?
You people are weird sometimes.
I agree with this completely.
What Twix said about picunurse in what she assumed was privacy definitely was snarky, but I don’t think it shows contempt. And the mods should be able to vent to each other in private. I can understand the need to blow off a little steam once in a while. And personally, I wouldn’t care what one of them said in an email to me, either, as long as it wasn’t made public. I’m a big boy and I can take it.
Twix’s only mistake was in cc’ing picunurse on a message that should have stayed within the mod loop. She gave what sounded like me to be a very sincere apology. She not only apologized for sending picunurse the message, she acknowledged that she shouldn’t have even made the comment in the first place. She didn’t sound as if her feet were being held to the fire. If she made an apology like that to me, I would have forgiven her and agreed to move on. It’s not the end of the world and doesn’t indicate a pattern of incompetence or corruption among the moderators. Some people in this thread not only want to beat a dead horse, they’re attempting to joust at windmills on top of it.
?
What was? That the original comment was unprofessional, or that it was private?
Sorry. That it was private.
Well, here’s a few that took about 2 minutes to dig up. Based on what happens every time one of these thread about Twickster pops up, I’m sure there’s plenty more.
I probably shouldn’t have made the ‘step down’ comment at the beginning of the thread since I really don’t have many run-ins with her (or any of the mods) and don’t really care one way or the other. What I do care about is that people don’t turn a blind eye to things that need attention. Whether it’s a mod that is making bad calls or a poster that seems to get away with way more then anyone else. Even if I have no interaction with them, (mod or poster alike) it doesn’t mean other people should have to put up with them just because they won’t say anything. When she blamed this rogue email on being in a bad mood it reminded me of the one run in that I did have with her where I got a ‘mod note’ from her because she didn’t find my joke funny…because she had a headache.
Anyways, yeah, there’s a pattern.