Becoming a moderator is not a promotion

[JohnAdams1735]

From the archived old forums, originally posted by cmdrtebok in July 2011.

From day one our objective was to pull together a moderation team that understood this and did not view becoming a moderator as a promotion in that sense. While we attempt to make the moderator job as fun as possible and keep people motivated to do free work for us, at the same time, they are not better or worse then the users in any way. To be honest becoming a mod while it is fun and it feels good to have a community of people choose you for something but beyond that the job kind of sucks. Its a lot of effort with little to no return.

The return I try and pull from the experience is making a community such as this one possible. I have witnessed people create some really extraordinary things with blocks. I have seen people make new friends and more. We have helped out people when they were at their lowest, and others (including myself) deal with grief and depression. Beyond that we donated thousands of dollars to ChildsPlay. Not so bad if I do say so myself.

The point is however is that it isn't me or the staff that made all these things possible, its the users and the community. The staff is only supposed to be around to keep things fun and fair and nothing more. Its important that the staff don't start behaving like they are better then the users in anyway, frankly you aren't. We ask people respect mods and admins in the rules only because it makes it far more difficult in dealing with people when the only attitude you are ever greeted with is petulance. Due to this we do require a certain level of conduct from people we choose to become staff, as much to protect that person as to make sure the community runs smoothly.

I want to be crystal clear that I am not talking about any specific individuals or groups of people on the server. This is a blanket statement that applies to everyone in the community we are going to consider for staff or is staff. Our license for conduct is generous and does not apply at all to users in any way (Besides, of course things, that are in violation of the rules). Honestly if I never hear about it and it doesn't become a problem, it isn't a problem at all. If you do not want to be held to any sort of conduct accountability then I suggest you turn down a mod nomination and if you are already on staff, you are free to take leave of your position at any time. I do not mean this to be a jerk. If you would like to be a user please do. We will welcome you back on staff as soon as you are ready to step up again and take responsibility. I know the staff are all good people and good at their jobs, I can't imagine I wouldn't be happy to have them back. If being a mod, or mccondom is stressful or you can't deal with a certain aspect of the job. Don't worry about it, be a user for a while. Play Minecraft, go in mumble, be free. You always have that option.

The people who I choose to become staff are never chosen simply because I think they deserve a promotion. These are people I am saddling with non paid responsibility; its not exactly a favor. We get charged with the accusation of nepotism all the time, but frankly I do not know how to address this. Would they prefer that we modded people we didn't know? Give them power over users with out being their friends or knowing what they are like? There isn't any real power anyway. That is the point of this whole thread. At the same time I don't need or want everyone I am friends with on the server on the staff, there is simply no reason for it. This is just a video game on the internet its really not personal, nor should it be. If you were not chosen for a position on the staff please do not take it personally. It is not meant as a personal insult or anything to that effect. If you are taking it personally then its evidence that we have made the correct choice. And if you view the fact that someone was modded over someone else as a personal slight, we really need you to adjust your attitude and help us make better decisions, calmly and treating everyone with respect. What we need right now is professional detachment.

We are trying to build a community of equal users, personal issues with power have no place in it and in the long run will become detrimental

The last thing I want to add is that these "jobs" aren't forever. We do not have lifetime positions. If we ask you to leave we expect that you will understand gracefully and bow out. We do not do this lightly nor is it something anyone enjoys doing. Things in the past have become far to personal in that aspect and it will not be like this in the future. We are going to figure out how to keep new and fresh ideas coming and figuring out what does and doesn't work. A big part of this is bringing in new people and having others trust them to take over and bow out. The old culture needs to pass and this point forwards we are going to encourage more participation on the server admin aspect and demand greater openness from all head and server admins. We do reserve the right to talk among ourselves to iron out certain ideas and issues with out having all eyes, input and drama involved before we figured out our stance. We will always come forwards with what we decide and we know our users have no problem discussing things endlessly in the forums. We will listen, we will change and we will continue to refine the way nerd.nu works.

For those of you who are paying attention we are having a lot of changes in the way we operate and more to come in the coming weeks. We will be honest and open about what is going on. This post is the first of many from myself and others on the admin staff outlaying our ideas for what we want in a server and implementing a fair system that will last beyond my own involvement. I am in my waning months of activity on these servers. I will make sure that we have a great system in place before I go, one that can last through a long haul and make as many people happy as we can while holding true to the ideals that Reddit Public was founded under.

 

I edited it a little, mostly for spelling.

 

Also here is the link to the original post (so people can read the comments).

http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/3771/becoming-a-moderator-is-not-a-promotion

 

Also from McLrn227 in April 2011:

 

I don't mean this as a slight to anyone in particular, but try to remember that our main goal is to provide a friendly playing environment for the users. Use the tools you have before passing judgement on someone. Many players are young and not familiar with our rules. Talk to them. Try to communicate. [...] 

 

We are public servers, remember to treat everyone with respect and talk/act in a way that you'd expect the users to conduct themselves as well.

 

Link to the original post: http://nerd.nu/archives/index.php?p=/discussion/1212/remember-to-be-polite-and-take-the-time-to-investigate

[Guest Former Staff]

I would like to see this moved to Mod Chat as this seems to be a good message for people to read before considering a moderator role or to better understand a shared consensus on staff.