General Hostility towards Moderators-A discussion towards enlightenmen

[DogtoothCG]

I was doing some googl'ing earlier tonight and stumbled upon a rather disconcerting subject that seemed far too widespread for me to ignore.

 

This subject is an overwhelming consensus that the moderating staff here at the nexus is, "fascist".

 

My concern lies not with debating to the hills on whether or not the staff here is iron fisted, etc. My concern lies with the reasons behind these opinions.

 

I have been a member of the Nexus for many, many, years now; in fact, in the large scope of things, I have been here most of my life, predating the transformation to the nexus sites. I have read, re read, and read yet again, the terms and conditions, site rules, etc; and in the past, I have broken just about all of them. Never once have I experienced a warning or reprimand for my behavior. I have spoken with quite a few of the site staff in the past, and they have all been nothing but kind, friendly, and helpful.

 

One of the reasons that I am writing this, is due to a specific comment I read elsewhere that was rather defamatory, and aimed at our very own Buddha. I've only spoke with him once or twice in my history here, but he has always stood out to me as the pinnacle of forum policy. A great man, a good friend, and a darned good moderator. Why would someone defame someone like him? It's beyond my reasoning and I don't understand.

 

In light of my recent return to activity, I've been introduced to a few (not) new friendly faces around here, including some of the staff. I have always felt welcome here, the nexus has spurred my creativity and put me on the path that I'm on; in part due to the staff here.

 

In my googl'ing, I've ran across various complaints against most, if not all of the staff, ranging from playing favorites, to being Robins equivalent of the SS, and I am quite legitimately stressing over why there is such an enormous amount of slanderous comments strewn about the internet. Are these people simply playing advocate to a blind cause? Are they all the type of people who violate the rules, are warned, and than go on to attack the acting moderator?

 

I would like to abstain from creating waves, so I will not drop any names of those who have said these things, a quick search will suffice. It simply worries me that there exists such a hatred towards the staff who maintain these sites; these men and women have volunteered there time to create an environment that inspires feelings of community and spurs creativity on the individual, and communal levels...

 

Tldr;

I've noticed an immense amount of complaints, attacks, and slanderous remarks about the site staff.

 

I have questions:

 

1. What is the general stereotype of these users?

 

2. Based on the above, what is causing them to express such hatred towards the staff here?

 

3. Are these users being deliberately harmed? (I certainly don't believe so).

 

4. What can be done on all our parts, to reduce this view off the staff (and in some circumstances the community)?

 

 

 

Please, if you have any incite, please feel free to comment below

Payton Quinn

[Thandal]

Meh... Criminals don't like cops. Dirty players don't like referees. Schoolyard bullies don't like the playground monitor.

Invective and vitriol have always been spewed at those who enforce the rules by those who break them. The internetz just give the unhappy people a larger and (outside the Nexus) a consequences-free forum (pun intended) in which to do so.

The Nexus Staff have had their Troll inoculations, Rob issues flame-proof armour, and we all carry the Mighty BanHammer! :thumbsup:

[Vindekarr]

It's also worth noting that wining is a very loud, high-pitched sound. Trolls for the most part tend to be self-entitled brats and when they get banned, they tend to whine about it to what few people will actually listen. A single indignant troll can make an awful amount of noise and stink, but nothing will ever come of it. Contented people however, don't tend to make much noise. Speaking for myself I've rarely commented on the way the Moderators do their job around here, but that doesn't mean I don't applaud them or the way they keep the website a clean, safe environment-and free of trolls.

 

http://www.rottenecards.com/ecards/Rottenecards_48587539_vygvhx7vvx.png

[Lisnpuppy]

We have all heard about, see, experienced first-hand all these accusations.

 

I will not speak for anyone other than myself here. I am human. I have made mistakes and have been accountable to them. I have apologized a few times and explained or clarified my decisions when asked. If someone approaches me about something I have done in a polite and respectful way, I discuss it with them. I don't always change my decisions but I am willing to discuss things and explain my thought process.

 

We have lives outside here. We do not get paid for this. We do it because we love it here and wish to keep it going. To continue to make a safe place to share mods and discuss the games we love.

 

Now that being said...many folks that are unhappy here are that way for a few reasons. They have been banned. They refuses to understand why we do not allow certain content here. They do not like the rules here. This place is not for everyone.

 

I have been personally on the receiving end of many, many non-too-polite PMs, un-ban request and posts. One person even called me out on a social media site wanting to throw down. I try my best with everything I do to be fair according to the rules. Many folks do not see what happens behind the scenes. They do not see these PMs or other things that cause us to end up moderating something. Other folks will never be happy regardless of the decisions I make.

 

I try to take into consideration someone's side on all things and if approached politely I will listen. However the rules are the rules. If you do not like them then simply go elsewhere or use this site for downloading only. If you have real issues with a rule here then ask Robin about it. If you think a moderator does something wrong then everyone has recourse to go to Robin and tell them their side. Most people do not do this. They make assumptions or yell at us or post their grievance on the forums. All it takes is contacting Robin. He will listen and he has come to me before asking me about something I have done. Despite popular belief we do get held accountable if we do something dumb.

 

I don't listen or look or read all the things said about us. If I did I probably would want to hide in a hole. If I do something wrong, by all means go through the proper channels or ask me about it nicely and I will respond nicely. Alternately go to Robin. If you don't like how things are done here in general..well I suppose then The Nexus is not for you. The rules here are pretty clear and not too hard to follow. I don't play favorites, heck there are thousands of folks here and most of them I know nothing about. I have a life out of this place and need no validation by being a moderator to make my life complete. This at the end of the day is a GAMING SITE. To get all worked up about it in any way...is a waste of time. I have a husband, children, dogs....there are more important things to do than complain about a gaming site. People will think what they will and I can do nothing about that. All I can do is continue to perform to the best of my abilities, be fair as I can within the rules of this site and own up if I make a mistake.

[Deleted472477User]

The mods here are some of the nicest I've met. Modding is NOT easy--I've tried it--so I have a great deal of respect. Do I always agree with everything? No. I've reported one or two mods for borderline non-consensual sexual content--we can pretty much figure which ones those are, so I won't name them--and they weren't taken taken down. I respect that, even if I don't agree with it.

 

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see Godwin's Law invoked by disgruntled people, but if you want to see really not so nice mods (with some exceptions) go to the official bethsda forums. Maybe it's changed since then, but you couldn't even converse with them in the course of a thread. Lots of snobbery, too. You don't get that here. the worst I've had was a mod and I verbally scraping against each other, and she said she was having a bad day. i was too, I said, and then it was all good. Just that, in six years.

 

Nexus is safe, and I like it that way. A friend of mine is struggling with his Oblivion game crashing. I told him to come here, it's a safe place even if he feels he has a dumb question. No one will jump on him, and if they did, the banhammers are ready :D

Edited November 20, 2013 by nyxalinth

[gamevsreality]

Ive seen on other forums both less and more strict than The Nexus people calling the moderators and administrators for fascists, nazis, communists.

Sometimes its users who simply cannot handle the amount of rules that's looming over them.
Or they can't handle being given a warning by a moderator/someone with more power than them.

There are other reasons for the name calling but those two reasons are the ones i see most often when it comes to namecalling a forum's staff.

[Oubliette]

*Googles: Nexus+fascist. Gets a lot of nothing - well a lot of studies of historic fascism which isn't exactly nothing but close enough to nothing as to be the same thing*

 

:huh:

 

I do know of a few places that have a bunch of very angry banned people posting on them that happily denounce almost every moderator here. I have learned to avoid those sites, they're not good for my blood pressure :laugh:

Edited November 20, 2013 by Oubliette

[ZeroKing]

People on the internet like to have that apparent "freedom" of doing and saying whatever without being told how to conduct themselves. The instant they are reminded that they are bound by rules and code, they go crazy and start complaining about how moderators or site admins are fascists. Right...... so why not call your mother or father fascists? Or your school? Or your employer? They have rules, and you're expected to follow them or face consequences for breaking them. Why should Nexus be that much different? Because it's the internet? Bull.

 

Those banned people got a free service from visiting mod forums, and they complain when they no longer get it. Besides, most of the people getting banned from here are pirates. They already got the games for "free", and now they want more free stuff? What mediocrity.

[Vamyan]

A google for "Nexus Moderators" comes up with quite a few hits, all of which at first glance appear to be negative. That's really not surprising, since (as Vindekarr mentioned) whining is noisy.

 

I think "strict" is a pretty good description myself, overall, but what good are rules that don't get enforced?

 

Also, due to Godwin's Law, whoever it was that fulfilled it has lost their argument for the rest of the internet. That means we win! :dance:

[MotoSxorpio]

1. Self-entitled.

2. See 1.

3. Self-destructive self-entitlement.

4. Use kind and diligent community support of Moderation Team.

 

The internet somehow unlocks 1, 2, and 3 from above. Social sites are sometimes completely based on user related opinion posts where the user has no fear of reprimand when crossing boundaries, or breaking normal/real life social mores. Who or what is really to blame? Upbringing? Peers?