Being an admin on several communities has many advantages… You have power, you can educate new people (or rip them a new ass), you get respect (sometimes)…
There are draw backs, however. Such as people always assuming that since you have power, you are on a power trip. People who knowingly do wrong, and even after being warned multiple times, who are banned send you a weekly hate email and curse your name on every other site they are members of…
Then is what you get to see. I have seen people angry at the way they are treated. The catch is, they bring it upon themselves. They act a fool, or like a completely retarded person who has to wear a helmet wherever they go… Sadly there are no “virtual” helmets or digital handicapped stickers.
There are a few people who stick out the most and usually are the first to be banned.
Starting with people from other countries. If you go to a site that is overwhelmingly English speaking, either know the language, or leave. I have nothing against people from other parts of the world… I have something against people who come to the site, post something in Italian, and expect a reply from everyone. No. Thats not the way it works, bub.
You are a GUEST at an ENGLISH site. Don’t expect everyone to copy your message, go to Google, paste it in their translator, write a reply, translate that, then copy and paste it back to you. Not gonna happen. If I see a post that is in a completely different language, I delete it (Or ban them if I had to warn them multiple times). I don’t even bother to translate anymore. If you aren’t going to take the time to translate it when you are the one looking for help, why should I?
On the internet you can’t see the person. You can’t hear the person. You can only read what they type in order to gauge your opinion of them. Posting something like “zomfgbbq!! 1 jsut joenid dis site n ur artz rok!” or “oke I will wane there for of to think”. Those are ACTUAL comments. Congrats, you just labeled yourself an idiot. If you make a comment like that, and you have only been a member for a few days/weeks/months… Don’t bother returning. Because I can guarantee you won’t be welcome there much longer, and 80% of the people I ban, started out by making a post like that.
Show some respect to the staff. We may be dicks most of the time, but we do run the site. We deal with ignorant people all day long. So calling us idiots, insulting us, etc… Is only gonna cause you trouble. If you have a problem with someone who is staffing the site, then report it to another staff member. And it damn well be a good complaint. “He was mean to me when I broke the rules” will get you laughed at by the rest of the staff, trust me. We run the site on behalf of the owner (or are the owner). So you are in our house… Would you call your mom a stupid bitch for punishing you when you steal or get grounded for not cleaning your room? If you answer yes to that, you need to log off now, and call a therapist because you don’t belong on the internet, you belong in padded cell with daily doese of electro therapy.
Which brings me to another point… Don’t start flaming people in public. Deal with it in email, pm, im, phone, whatever… Don’t do it on some thread. When I see an unprovoked attack, auto ban and thread lock. However, I do it sometimes only to make an example out of the person. And the only times I do it are when I have warned the person over and over and over and there is just no hope for them.
On the internet, age doesn’t matter… WRONG! It does. Not your physical age, rather your mental age. A person who is 11 can act, and be treated like a 30 year old. The opposite can occur, too. Admins/mods/staff aren’t babysitters. And unlike babysitters, we can throw you out of the house and not have to worry about losing our $3/hour. I have dealt with 10 year olds whom I was surprised to find out they were that age because the carried themselves like they were much older. And I have met 40 year olds who reminded me of babysitting my lil brother when he was 8.
Lastly, and most important of all… READ THE DAMN RULES!!! The rules aren’t there for decoration… They aren’t there for other people besides you. They are there for EVERYONE! And most of the time, they aren’t that hard to find.
