Forum Drama For Breakfast. · 12:40pm Jul 6th, 2015
I think that some people on Fimfiction forget how little their self-created user groups matter, and how unimportant they are as 'admins' of small forums on the interweb. Sure, there are few that fill a much-needed niche on the site, but most groups are simply throw-away cliques run by kids play-acting at being important.
I feel a bit nauseous after hearing someone describe their groups as 'their baby', and watching a couple admins get really butt-hurt over a supposedly MIA founder admining someone else without consulting them. Kind of a douch-y thing to do, but that's not the fault of the person admined, and honestly, if the founder is flaky enough to hand over control of the group in the first place, then to me, that indicates that the group it'self isn't really worth putting a lot effort into.
To put it simply, fighting over control of such a group, and getting butt-hurt about someone else being inserted into one's little club, is stupid. I would personally rather not publicly humiliate myself by throwing a bitch-fit about something like that. If you find yourself feeling possessive of a forum that someone else started, because they said that they were leaving, but then came back and started doing admin stuff, then you might want to re-think what it is that you're doing with your life. If you find yourself upset because a new, 'nobody' admin is undermining your special-snowflake-ness by having the same oh-so-important admin position as you, then you might want to re-think what it is that you are doing with your life.
Want to feel important? Get a job, and then get a promotion. Do right by your family. Go out into the world and perform good deeds like a modern-day Jebus. PLEASE don't get on the Internet, start a user-created forum, and then pretend that you've created an empire.
Okay, I'm done.
OK, I'll admit that I've said and done some pretty stupid things on some forums, but that sounds really immature by what they do.
3211458
I was a moderator on a Final Fantasy forum for four or five years. I regret taking the 'job' so seriously. Every time I see other people doing the same, it makes me cringe, and it makes me think of myself.
3211468 Dang. Well, taking it TOO seriously is one thing. But not taking it seriously at all is a downside too. Like... keep your group's rules in mind and only enforce them when needed. In the meantime, have fun while being admin.
Just be serious when needed, but other than that, it's not always necessary.
3211483
I think an essential skill for a moderator to have is to be able to sift through flame-wars and heated arguments with a level head. That part is to be taken seriously. Having the position, however, is not.
People's ego causes them to behave as if the position is like a real job, or something that validates their existence.
3211496 Probably. But yeah, I know what you mean.
Nyah. The world is full of tiny little Napoleons, aching to carve out their own little empires. For a lot of them, their own chance to do so is in places like a small-time forum on a horsefiction site.
But once they have their tiny fiefdom, they defend it to the death.
Yush. It's muchly sad.
So much emotional energy wasted.
3211524
And yet, Luminary has yet to conquer the world.
In all seriousness, I would be surprised to see this sort of behavior in TWG or ADP.
3211553
More's the pity.
Call it my usual lack of ambition!
Well, with ADP we're pretty careful to only recruit people who will provide a minimum of meltdowns and drama. Nobody is terribly young, for one.
It could happen in TWG. And there has been mod drama in the past, when we've found bad seeds from Cosmic's scattergun approach to admin selection and such. And people feeling snubbed by not getting admin positions. Though I guess that latter is really more about avoiding Napoleon Syndrome, since that's why they were denied it.
3211565
I don't know anything about Cosmic, or the history of TWG, but I've seen plenty of other forums start off badly because the founder decided to admin the first several people who asked. I've also talked to folks who feel as if a forum has devolved, but really, are just miffed that their admin position got taken away when the forum inevitably re-shuffled itself.
3211568
You're not missing much. Forum drama makes me sleepy. I do my best to avoid it whenever possible.
Honestly, I'm more or less certain that maturity is a huge factor. The younger someone is, or the more childish, the more often these tantrums and blow-ups happen. Not saying older folks are immune. They just tend to handle things a hell of a lot better, on the average.
Get a bunch'a teenagers in there who think High School is how the rest of the world acts, and it's a powder keg of zany, exhausting drama that never ends.
3211575
Sometimes the forums make me feel like I'm back in high-school. Then again, so does work.
3211581
You work in retail, no?
'Tis usually the province of part-timers who are around that age. So I wouldn't be surprised if that was the culture formed there.
3211599
Actually, only one of my coworkers in the past few years has been of college age. The majority of women who work there have been in their mid-twenties, and some have been as old as early-sixties. The last guy who they had helping me with the stocking was a 49-year-old will ''eleven grand-babies.'
I've just seen stupid, childish crap everywhere I've worked, even at the plant. People are far too concerned with everyone else, their lives, and what they're doing.
3211611
Yikes.
Fair! I guess some places are like that. Thankfully, my work isn't full of gossips, or what have you. I would abhor it if it was.
I can't help but agree with this.
EDIT: I used to moderate a lot of things. At one point it was a forum based around Lovecraftian Tabletop games. Then I moderated a few Source game servers (TF2, Garry's Mod, etc). Hell, I was a Minecraft operator at one point or another. But to take something like this that seriously really makes me cringe.
Even the smallest drop of power is the world's strongest poison. It's addiction to having control over something that makes people go crazy.