Forum newbies who 'know how it should be run'

[Ree]

Just curious Raps... if it was 'a while back', why are you putting this one up now??

It really wasn't all that long ago, actually.

[Rapscallion]

Maybe six weeks or so?

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I find that people who really want to be in charge are often the last people you'd ever want in charge.

I mod a couple boards, all of which exist because someone either asked me to do it because they were sick of it, or I volunteered after a long period of silence that was caused by the original owner going "Okay, look, if nobody takes this thing over, I'm getting rid of it altogether." Not wanting to see the community go down, I waited until the last minute and then agreed to do it.

But then, SCA boards are pretty easy to mod, so, it's not like it's a huge job or anything. Everyone tends to be pretty polite on them as nobody can hide behind a screen name. Eventually, you'll be found out, and nobody in the SCA wants the lable of "asshole."

So my job consists of fixing bugs and dodging spam, mostly.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I once had trouble with a noob on the Ace Frehley board I admin. He took offence at something I said (basically, I was telling him off for being a tool in a thread that he totally derailed) and instead of sucking it up and trying to fix himself, he emailed the board owners to whine about me.

Bad idea. I've known both of the owners ever since they first opened their board on the ezboard server. They emailed this guy back telling him in no uncertain terms that they supported me, that they'd read the thread and seen nothing wrong in what I said, but a lot wrong in what he'd did. The idiot seemed to think that they'd just take his word for it rather than checking the thread. -.- He bitched back, saying he was leaving; they told him to do just that. XD

[Nyoibo]

and nobody in the SCA wants the lable of "asshole."

Unless it's here, where every member of the SCA already has that lable.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Ho ho ho.

Sadly, I have no doubt that it's true.

Fortunately, here most of the SCAdians are very nice folks. Most of them.

[Rapscallion]

I got talking to someone a while ago who helped admin another forum based around a gaming guild. The main difference in any sort of disciplinary action, we realised, is that there's an effect outside the board for those in gaming guilds (get kicked out) or similar (such as the SCA). One drive-by forums such as this or CS.com, there's not as much effect if someone gets banned.

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Exactly right, Raps. There IS an outside effect for such boards. Hence the good behavior.

I've actually met several people who acted badly on message boards, and it really colored my opionion of them. It really damaged the respect level for those people.

[Lace Neil Singer]

On a lot of boards I go on, you get a domino effect if some noob barges in and starts bitching at everyone; ie, it's not just the forum staff who will get up in arms, it's everyone.

One board, this girl faked her own death (she posted as her "brother" to report the death) and after she was discovered, she was literally run out of town. O_o No need for bannage; we don't take kindly to people who internet suicide, ma'am!

[protege]

Some of you know that I help moderate a model-car site. Yep, we get some real winners over there

The best though, have to be the idiots who post photos. Some were so bad, we had to implement standards. Such as, the photos have to be clear, and against a contrasting (plain) background. I mean, there's no point in spending hours building something...and you can't even see it.

The reason we ask for a plain background, is so that the *model* gets all the attention. I could care less about the million or so tools, bottles of paint, and other assorted crap...all of which takes attention *away* from the item in question.

Along those lines, every now and then, we'll get some idiot who simply can't comprehend the standards. He'll post something so out of focus, that it looks like a blob, and then get pissed when we (nicely) ask if he has any better photos. Don't even get me started on the morons who reply with "Nice work!" when you can't even see it! That's not "nice work." In fact, it looks like shit!

We've had several people get upset over the standards. These same people leave and threaten to either join a competing site (which sucks ass, BTW--there's very little in the way of tutorials or other info), or "never to return." To them, we say good riddance.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Here's a little translation: "I've leaving this forum, never to return!" usually means either, "I'm leaving... under this username. However, I will register another account and be back, pretending to be a newbie!" or "I will be back... to troll! Mwahahaha!"

[Rapscallion]

We do occasionally go back and check IP addresses. Usually don't have to - they usually give themselves away through their behaviour.

Rapscallion

[BroomJockey]

Here's a little translation: "I've leaving this forum, never to return!" usually means either,

I find it usually means "for a week or two, when I think people have a reasonable chance of forgetting I wanted to leave."

[Lace Neil Singer]

We do occasionally go back and check IP addresses. Usually don't have to - they usually give themselves away through their behaviour.

Rapscallion

With most rulebreakers on the forums I look after, I'm usually only prompted to check IPs after they give themselves away. Sometimes by posting with the wrong account, which tells me they have another account (only one account is allowed on the forum, cuz people were using extra accounts to flame) or someone posting in the exact same style for all their usernames.

I used to post as a bunch of parody accounts; one thing I always did was post in a different way for each one. This wasn't for sneakiness, it was so that no-one cept for the forum staff (of which I was one) knew exactly who was doing the parodies. Sometimes too, another mod would take an account so we could have two of them online at the same time for a bitchfest as the parodies attacked each other. Good times. XD