yay sleep.
@lordraleigh : It's simple, you don't ask to become a mod. You just wake up one day and find out you've been promoted into it.
Also, we, as a mod team, have a forum section that normal forum users can't see. Just like the GM team has a section as well. In those places, we talk amoungst ourselves on issues and what actions should be taken. So yes, most of the time, there is no rogue mod going about deleting everyone and everything in sight as you aparently think.
Moderators aren't above all, they are the police, they enforce the laws, they aren't the law or above it. Just because you can click on some buttons to move/delete/lock threads among other things don't entitle you to claim such thing.
We are the law. We make the law, you follow it. You don't follow it, you aren't around here for very long. You have no rights to be here. This is us allowing you to be here. The project could go to closed testing at any time and thus only allow certain people to be part of the proect and thus we'd only allw certain people to come to the forums. Will that ever happen? Most certainly not. But I use it as an example. We are cop and judge and law maker in one.
But you are right, we have to follow the laws we make and we do answer for our actions. To the admins.
And although you are 'above us' socially, you're actually working to protect us. Just like a cop - you may have rights and privileges and be above 'normal citizens', but you can't go around whacking random people with your night-stick for spitting gum at a trash can and missing...
We are monitored by the admins, which have final say in everything. What ever they do, is final. No hope to argue, no chance to dispute. Don't like thier actions? Tough luck, this is thier forum in which they allow you the ability to use.
This place isn't run by the populace. It's run by the admins and thier mod staff. They hold all the power, the populace then follows.
~~~~~~~~~~
Is it that way? Not exactly. There are no iron gloves here. We listen to honest complaints and, yes, believe it or not, care about your input. This thread wouldn't even exist if that wasn't the case. We try to do our "job" fairly and try to do t so that everyone is happy. I don't like being the bad guy, I really don't. But some times, some of you like to push buttons. Sometimes, we are forced to push back. If I really didn't care what thegeneral populace thought, then I wouldn't have my PM box open to accept PMs from anyone now would I? I could simply block all PMs from only those people I feel like tlking to, but no, I leave it open so that if anyone as a problem, they can write to me wit the isue and I shall conider thier points and write back.
So do you have "freedom of speech" here? Nope. We allow you to post, simple as that.
Do we go around playing mr./mrs.. mean person? Only when there is no other option. Other than that, you have the go ahead to post as you wish, under the guidelines that have been set forth. Theres no reason to be all paranoid about the evil mod team and thier powers of deletion.
I think we're pretty darn open to what is posted around here. And we allow quite a bit of threads and posts to be made that, if we truely wanted to, we could remove. Why don't we? becuase we are nice. we want to be friends, not enemies. we want to work with you, not against you. the mods and admins are simply people given the power to poke otherpeople in the right direction. Same as the gm staff. we're just people, like you. we mae the same mstakes you do. We realise this, and thats why we don't play the big bad mod with a but delete button guy.
To be quite frank, I don't care if you have respect for me as a mod or not. But I do hope you respect the rules, and if you do decide to break them, know that you are forcing me or another mod/admin to take action. We wish there wasn't a need for rules and that every one got along just fine and dandy with each other, but that isn't going to everhappen. Different peoples backgrounds, differnet views on life, differenet everything, people come here from round the globe and post thier thoughts and ideals. Naturally, we aren't all going to be alike. And as such, there will be times, in which these things clash with one another. The mods and admins are here to step in on those occasions and cool the flames of war, so to say. Other than that and simply daily forum maintenance, we let the forum run its course.
Anyway, my point is this isn't about suddenly going "Bling! Oh! This is off-topic! What was I thinking!?" - people have different ways of looking at what does and does not relate to each other (in fact, it's governed alot by each individual's psychological archetype, but, uh... I'd best not go into that Tongue) and it won't suddenly become apparent no matter how many times they see posts get deleted.
Again, as long as it isn't 2 pages of "how to make a good apple muffin" in a thread about growing oranges, then its fine. I also believe I said, that after awhile we expect forum user sto check onto how theis place is run. If they don't, well, they'll justhave a tougher time here than those that do. It may be a bit unfortunate for them, but this is how the forum isrun, and this won't be changing. They'll just have to deal with thier post being deleted. For the most part though, this hasn't ever happened so far, sooo I really don't worry about it too much. Don't see why you should either.
