Does moderating get to your head?

Now I don't want to sound like the moderator that keeps complaining about his moderating duties every day while he could easily fix it by just stepping down, though that is not what I want. I want to be there for the community even though the community will forever dissapoint me by scamming etc. I want to be there for the rest of the staff even though it'll never be rewarded, hell in alot of cases lately not even appreciated, I want to be there even if I might burn myself out but my question here is... Is it also for the better of myself? Is it also for the better of my current/old friends?

I mean lately I'm about 24/7 at home and a shitload of that time I'm either working for the livechat position I've recently gotten and meanwhile I'm also moderating on Sythe, trying to provide skilling services for users etc. This might be a question especially meant for ex-staff, but does moderating also get to your head?

When I first joined Sythe I felt very unwelcome; you're treated as trash because 99% are ban evaders or end up scamming, but even the ones that won't end up scamming (e.g. me - mark my words) were treated as trash. Right now I'm overwhelmed by all the requests you get for help, especially the kind of questions because they are enormously straight forward to me... So I'll probably reply with very few words, I might even sound mean and lots of the time I'm annoyed.. I even notice lately that I'm literally rushing every sentence I write on my keyboard so I kind of stopped using capitals and proper wording.

Now this thread is worded terribly and you might think this belongs in Personal Support but it doesn't, this is a question meant towards everyone to review all staff: Do you think becoming moderator gets to people's minds? Do you think it'll change them as a person? Are there any examples you have seen? Have you seen it happening to me? Please let me know.

By the way, I got the idea of this thread by @Service Rs, he mentioned it to me and I believe he makes a great point, because I see it happening to fellow staff members aswell.

 

While I have no experience in moderating, I do believe anything can get to your head as long as you let it. You have to remember that this is voluntary and not your job. All you are doing is helping to keep a website safe and moderated. You can always leave whenever you have a lot going on. As for you, I do think you're overwhelmed by everything but you can solve very easily by slowing your role.

 

Wortel haven’t you posted one of these before? If it gets to you too much take a break. It’s not your job, you’re not getting paid. If you need a break just go invisible, most people don’t bother asking pointless questions to people that are offline.

 

you gotta know not to get triggered by it its a painfull job tbh , it takes alot of self steam to carry on what mods do on here

 

I enjoyed moderating while I was a moderator personally, I knew what I was getting into and it was fine with me as I was and still am on the computer for 12+ hours a day, lots of time to deal with reports/disputes and help people who came to me.

What annoys me/has gotten to my head is when I tried to come back to the mod team my application got denied for inactivity even though when I was a moderator I was always on top of things, insanely active in all aspects of moderating and made sure stuff got done in a timely manner then you have people like Dave, Time To Buy, Azie or any ex-staff member that wanted to come back would probably get accepted even if they were much less active than me. (and some of them have gotten let back even multiple times after weeks/months of inactivity)

Just pure speculation with no proof but I believe it's because some of the current upper staff members did not like when I called them out on their mistakes, which is fine but they should understand that I did it so they wouldn't make the same mistake again, not to insult them.

Lastly, I'll admit that I wasn't super active throughout the months of September - January ish but I do know I was one hell of a moderator and with the above in mind it's just a little frustrating, I don't want to compare myself to the current staff team but i'm sure I could do much better than the people attempting to handle this but damn i'm ranting pretty hard but I wanted to get this off my chest and this seems like the perfect place to do it. If I were you Wortel i'd take a small break, i'm sure you'd be welcomed back at any time or atleast you should be welcomed back considering how much you do.

 

Speaking for an Old friend that asked me to post this.

"Ive noticed the change in your attitude Over the past few months while lurking both with more aggressive post's/Lack of Grammar which you also pointed out, Ive said in the past your good at what you do here, but I believe maybe you should sit back for a few weeks, I think your burning your self out again with frustration.

Your the only Global I see constantly active, No disrespect to GEN (gratz on your promotion)

PS @Void Pendulum suited you better."

I tried to quote it word for word but Had to write it from rs chat.

 

Judging by this thread and prior threads you don't seem content as a moderator, because of your inability to change people's human nature. You won't ever feel content if you don't accept there are some things in life you can't change. This isn't the first time you've expressed these emotions, you clearly aren't happy, drowning yourself in sythe won't make things any better. If it's time to hang up your boots do it now before you lose your sense of self. I'm sure the mod team won't have any issues with reinstating your position later down the line.

 

Yeah it does, I find it just comes down to how the person handles it.

I used to run a decently sized community and after a while it kinda sunk in that I could do pretty much anything. I personally didn't mind it and made sure to figure out my own moral views and stick to them. Sometimes I'd go ahead with things way faster than most people would seem reasonable, and it tended to pay off more than it didn't so I didn't mind doing it.

The main thing I noticed changing in myself though was my patience was thinning pretty quickly. Usually I'm super patient, able to sit there through frustrating things for a long time and be completely fine with it. Towards the end I somehow ended up losing my patience over the smallest things related to that community and had to distance myself from the position I was in because of it. It's super out of character for me and wasn't something I was expecting.

One of the people after me had a different outcome. Although they intended to do well and tried their best, they often abused their advantages from being in the position and made sporadic changes that were based around it. As an individual they're great, but in that specific position they changed quite drastically.

At this point I'm pretty sure positions like that changes everyone, just in different ways and to different extents.

 

Sorry if it sounds this way, I did not mean it that way. I do enjoy being a moderator alot of the times though I'm not a guy who walks around in his life throwing parties or celebrating. I'm a laid back guy and I'm always pretty consistent in my mood, so it's not like I wake up every day, flick my muscles and be like "YAY another day of moderating". It's not like that with me in any case. I'm a guy which puts alot of pressure on himself aswell as having very high standards which after another victory become higher and higher.

Thanks Rivenstarz, that means alot to hear from you

 

Keep it cool, you're doing a hell of a job here on sythe, take a break if you need some time to relax, no shame in that lol. Seriously, just lay down and watch some netflix (peaky blinders is a recommendation ).

 

Never did for me. I think mod/power abuse mainly stems from insecurity. I could name a few.

 

I would think people changing comes down to their personality and if someone is power-trips over moderating a forum site, they probably need to take a step-back and re-evaluate their lives.

It's a definite shift - becoming a moderator - and often leads to the average user approach you differently; I think this becomes more dramatic as you progress through the ranks and people treating you differently. I know how many staff members had asked me how to talk to another administrator due to not knowing how to approach them; in reality, they're just other forum users who happen to be able to delete you

I definitely think there are staff members that need to take a step-back. I knew how much time I was putting into Sythe and at times it would encroach on my actual life; it's important to not forget it's a staff-team and no one has to do everything

 

I'm still salty at Cosrob, 5 years after he got banned lol. Honestly, it's human nature to power trip when put in a position of power. The same thing happens with managers in real life all of the time.

 

Yeah, your just wasting your Time if you think about it. You don't even get paid to do what you do even though it may something u want to do to help. I think you shouldn't be looking at it as a job and just something you do once a day for an hour or once a week even. (And by the looks of it you don't even know what you want your self)

 

It got to my head a little bit. To be fair, though, I was a 19 year old idiot.

 

I didn't really have many issues with anyone when I was a mod that I can remember, so I guess not. I'm quite blunt and to the point on the internet so that probably came across with the moderating, though I don't see that as being an issue as it worked well with scam reports and stopping idiotic threads in OT.

Some people turn into a complete power tripping cunt though, I could name a few that giving a pixel badge, a lick of photoshop to their name and some drop down boxes to click on gave their ego a huge boost.

 

What happened to cosrob?

 

I love your bluntness haha. Finn was the worst. It got to his head so bad. One time he pmed me a proposal about how I can partner with him (my gold shop) and the huge boost of customers I would get just because I would now be able to have admin in the title since he is my partner... fuck right off lmao. The worst part was, I checked the pm a second time and noticed I was just 1 of 4 big sellers he sent the pm to. He really thought he was royalty and deserved to make money for doing nothing. No Finn way.

 

I see it as a hobby ppl should take on as long as it's fun. I don't get the power trip thing as I've never viewed staff as "powerful." Just people who find it interesting and fun to do the various tasks staff do. That's why I've wanted to join and if that were no longer true and I were staff then I'd retire and hope others would too.

 

It's great but the only issue I feel is the obligation. I'm happy to help people when I have free time, I'm not happy when I get spam messaged on three different platforms by one user demanding I help him in that moment because he received a TWC.

Sometimes I feel unwelcome, but it's just about how you view things. If you expect that most users will treat you harshly and complain about everything you do, you're surprised when they don't. Luckily the only thing that has been brought up as an issue since I received mod status has been my activity, which is understandable, especially since I've been very sporadic. When you're either researching graduate positions or attending interviews for 10 hours a day, I'm happy to dedicate a couple of hours a day but not much more.

For you I feel like it might be the inverse, since you quite a bit of time on your hands you feel obligated to spend the majority of your time doing it. It's what happens, there's endless things to do in terms of moderation, and it can feel very repetitive quickly (at least in my experience).

It's hard not to change your outlook on Sythe at least a bit in my opinion. Before you're a staff member you can speak freely about things you object to, you see updates or scenarios which you find fault in and it's easy to criticise. Once you're staff you see the inner workings of most things and understand their complexity. You find that you can't object as easily, either out of not wanting to insult your peers or understanding of their situation.

At the start you're happy to remind people that things aren't always as easy as they seem and that things are being handled, but soon enough you realise that it's falling on deaf ears. You find yourself repeating the same things constantly, with most users feeling like they deserve some kind of special attention. For me, the thing that got to me most was a slow realisation that I as an individual can't make much change happen. It's more of a grind than anything else. If you look at the old staff members who I regard as achieving the most, such as Roary, Jack Goff, FireZ, Shin, etc, you'll see that it's a constant grind of not only doing the same old stuff but of constant innovation and opinion. I don't know how they can continue to have so much energy behind it, but they have done many or are still doing many good things for the site. Somewhat rambling at this point, but to finish up, the most important thing I've understood is that you have to be willing to constantly take shit from everyone. Users, other moderators, admins, etc. If you have a clear head about what you want to do for the site, people will be receptive, even if you need to fight for your idea. To finish up, looking at those names, I know they changed plenty while in their positions. Staff members are different from regular users. We have an elevated position, and while we are here to express objectivity through Sythe rules, we are all subjective. Change occurs simply because you're in a different position, and hey, not all change is a bad thing. Even the more important we're very careful in who we put in these positions!

/ramble