As a Global Moderator in another forum, the exact thing as a Super Moderator here (Lee, Ron, Tim), our team takes moderation literally. We don't want to be the Secret Police but we don't want to be eating donuts at the 711 on duty either.
In my 6 years as a moderator the strangest thing is how some guys can be real sweethearts in person but can be uncourteous, uncouth and downright @$$holes once they have the protection of anonymity. I've actually had to ban one guy who was really a friend! Like I said it isn't an easy job. It isn't like you get any benefits from it either!
The payback is that if the administrators and moderators do their jobs well, an environment that fosters intelligent or even just entertaining exchanges can come about. What is the use of a forum if everybody agrees with everybody else? Like any party however, NOBODY has to have to endure the dude that wrecks the vibe. It isn't hard to agreeably disagree. Some guys just refuse to make that tiny effort to simply act decently.
Would you have such a person in your home? Even when that person is family it's difficult. So this begs the question. If you don't like a place or the people in it, why go there at all? One does not walk into a slum wearing a Rolex expecting not to get mugged because the Constitution guarantees him the right to property.
Nice post Jack.
If I may.
Some people are more apt than others at doing their duties; cops, judges, lawyers, politicians, stock brokers, bankers, etc.
In real life, or on the Internet, we only know as far as our own vision.
When we make a judgement call, it is always directly related to our own education, our own self-appreciation, period!
Banning others is banning ourselves first if we truly want to be good at it!
I believe that you guys don't need further explanation from my above comments as I know that you are smart enough to extract the truth...
I don't wanna be a mod, eva! But in true fact I am one! Not from an official title, but from a true and honest one, my soul. Yes sir, I self-moderate myself and my friends as well, and nobody knows my name...
{Well, Bob. -()._ }
Do you guys know what I'm sayin' here... Do you see the real power in it...
Yes, me too I've been banned and wrongly judged, but I don't have any grudge.
I understand human's behavior and interactivity...
I understand human's misinterpretations and emotions.
I understand human's conventions and misconceptions.
I understand human's condemnation and perception.
I understand human's traumatizations and demons.
I know about human's nature and predisposition.