Post by Latino on Apr 4, 2009 13:22:36 GMT -5
Ok first off, what I'm going to say doesn't represent any of the past mods nor does it represent any of the current mods. Second off, being a mod doesn't really suck but it's not as great as I feel like some people may think.
As you guys know from my earlier chapters I never expected to be into this for so long. Honestly, I expected GFWCW to go down 2 months into it but hey we beat that obviously. I never really expected what type of responsibility a mod had until I became one. I think many people don't. It's difficult... at times. Other times it's fun and very rewarding. I guess what I didn't expect was that on top of being a normal writer I also was going to have.. let's say 10 hours more the workload. I doubt this is what everyone else had but between working on the site, maintaining the boards, fixing problems between members, and doing 2 to 3 banners a week it was tough. The only way I got around it was because I was able to manage my time well and I think it's because I didn't try to be in very high level feuds. This though did bring on a lot of stress. Most of the time I dealt with a lot of the member issues on my own. This was mainly because I was online when most people were looking to talk to a mod. Plus I was the "nice" one I guess.
If you were to look at the various people I had to help that constantly were in trouble with other members from Dan White to Rena to Ridley to Rose to BK to TK... after a while dealing with issues that honestly a mod doesn't need to do but does it to help can take a lot of out of you. It becomes even more stressful when one or both parties involved don't want a compromise. Then you're stuck as a mod wondering what to do. It's partially why we created the Conflict Resolution board. We felt it would help for some members to get their issues in the open. I'm not sure if it's helped completely though.
The hardest part of being a mod is banning a person or stripping a mod of their modship. Sad to save I've done both and while each person I feel deserved it it's still not fun. You lose ties with that person and while it's still a game communication is all we have in our game. When we lose that we lose... well everything. When we decided to ban Bladeshadow it was after many, many second, third chances. Maybe we were too lenient but Blade wasn't alone in this situation. Ridley had his own problem and at the time we didn't deal with Ridley. We all knew he was leaving soon so we felt anything that we did to Ridley wouldn't matter in the long run. We almost didn't do anything to Blade until he gave away storyline secrets... after he promised me he wouldn't do it. It was then we had no choice but to ban him.
The second person we had to ban was Bob. I didn't like banning Bob but he gave us no choice. He was reacting very angrily over how he felt he was being treated in ACW. I tried to help and for a time being I did but after a while his attitude just got too much and we to let go.
And as for stripping modship away? Well that was the White Rose. I honestly feel like this should have happened during the HWL fiasco. I pushed for this hard but in the end, as a group, the mods decided not to do it. We only later did it when Rose stopped showing up to "duty." Honestly, by the time this happened it didn't make a difference Rose stopped being an active member of the mods by the time Ridley left. It made working with him.. well terrible. It was like pulling teeth to get him to do his duty as a mod and by then I was tired of it. I had grown tired of arguing with him over what to do to a member he had a personal problem with. Or why ACW should not become all RP. Rose and I had different views on ACW as a whole and that's how we clashed the most. He also let his friendships get in the way of what it is to be a mod. I don't feel like I ever played favoritism as a mod. Ask BK. I have several times went against him in a ruling or a match even though I know he wouldn't like it. I did it because as a mod I needed to do what was right not what I wanted.
That essentially what it is to be a mod, from my point of a view. You have to do stuff you really don't want to do. You have to deal with people that at the end of the day you would rather tell them to go away. You have to put in that extra work while everyone else is in the chat having fun. It's not fun at times but in the end ... when I look back at it all I wouldn't change it. I'm glad I spent my time as a mod and part of me misses it. The other part is glad to know I left ACW in the hands of our current mods.
As you guys know from my earlier chapters I never expected to be into this for so long. Honestly, I expected GFWCW to go down 2 months into it but hey we beat that obviously. I never really expected what type of responsibility a mod had until I became one. I think many people don't. It's difficult... at times. Other times it's fun and very rewarding. I guess what I didn't expect was that on top of being a normal writer I also was going to have.. let's say 10 hours more the workload. I doubt this is what everyone else had but between working on the site, maintaining the boards, fixing problems between members, and doing 2 to 3 banners a week it was tough. The only way I got around it was because I was able to manage my time well and I think it's because I didn't try to be in very high level feuds. This though did bring on a lot of stress. Most of the time I dealt with a lot of the member issues on my own. This was mainly because I was online when most people were looking to talk to a mod. Plus I was the "nice" one I guess.
If you were to look at the various people I had to help that constantly were in trouble with other members from Dan White to Rena to Ridley to Rose to BK to TK... after a while dealing with issues that honestly a mod doesn't need to do but does it to help can take a lot of out of you. It becomes even more stressful when one or both parties involved don't want a compromise. Then you're stuck as a mod wondering what to do. It's partially why we created the Conflict Resolution board. We felt it would help for some members to get their issues in the open. I'm not sure if it's helped completely though.
The hardest part of being a mod is banning a person or stripping a mod of their modship. Sad to save I've done both and while each person I feel deserved it it's still not fun. You lose ties with that person and while it's still a game communication is all we have in our game. When we lose that we lose... well everything. When we decided to ban Bladeshadow it was after many, many second, third chances. Maybe we were too lenient but Blade wasn't alone in this situation. Ridley had his own problem and at the time we didn't deal with Ridley. We all knew he was leaving soon so we felt anything that we did to Ridley wouldn't matter in the long run. We almost didn't do anything to Blade until he gave away storyline secrets... after he promised me he wouldn't do it. It was then we had no choice but to ban him.
The second person we had to ban was Bob. I didn't like banning Bob but he gave us no choice. He was reacting very angrily over how he felt he was being treated in ACW. I tried to help and for a time being I did but after a while his attitude just got too much and we to let go.
And as for stripping modship away? Well that was the White Rose. I honestly feel like this should have happened during the HWL fiasco. I pushed for this hard but in the end, as a group, the mods decided not to do it. We only later did it when Rose stopped showing up to "duty." Honestly, by the time this happened it didn't make a difference Rose stopped being an active member of the mods by the time Ridley left. It made working with him.. well terrible. It was like pulling teeth to get him to do his duty as a mod and by then I was tired of it. I had grown tired of arguing with him over what to do to a member he had a personal problem with. Or why ACW should not become all RP. Rose and I had different views on ACW as a whole and that's how we clashed the most. He also let his friendships get in the way of what it is to be a mod. I don't feel like I ever played favoritism as a mod. Ask BK. I have several times went against him in a ruling or a match even though I know he wouldn't like it. I did it because as a mod I needed to do what was right not what I wanted.
That essentially what it is to be a mod, from my point of a view. You have to do stuff you really don't want to do. You have to deal with people that at the end of the day you would rather tell them to go away. You have to put in that extra work while everyone else is in the chat having fun. It's not fun at times but in the end ... when I look back at it all I wouldn't change it. I'm glad I spent my time as a mod and part of me misses it. The other part is glad to know I left ACW in the hands of our current mods.
