Re: Claymore Hang-out Thread
Just declaring my standpoint first. Since I have never been part of this, I probably don't get the hang of the full extent of the situation, and any views I'm about to voice out are subject to bias and misunderstanding. If so please point it out to me.
Now, I've never been a mod for a forum so I'll be speaking as an average forum participant. While I understand very well every mod has their individuality, another way of saying they're people who will speak due to differently motivated mindsets (whether for self or public interest,) forgive me but I'll be targetting a specific group of mods whom the community generally deem 'harsh' and 'dictorial.'
Here's my ignorant understanding of what moderators should be: A member of the forum who has shown and deemed reliable in certain aspects, specifically characteristics that promote enrichment of the community, thus is granted administrative powers to assisting the growth of the forum.
Shown and deemed reliable...: Their posting record has shown excellence in certain aspects, and not only are they trusted to continue to provide no less in the future, they should be regular participants for 1) continual moderating; 2) up-to-date understanding "of the workings of the forum" + "of issues at hand."
Certain aspects/Characteristics that promote...: Depending on the general aim of the forum, this may include sense of logic, sense of justice, vigilance, authoritative tone, favours order, amiability, sociability, desire to help fellow members, ability to provide a casual and easygoing atmosphere, etc. Different forums prioritises a different combination of the above. However, I will be assuming most or all of these in my following discussion.
Assisting the growth...: Again, the aim of the forum determines what 'growth' means to them. And most likely, this 'growth' is related to the above pointer.
Individuality of mods
Mods aren't machines in diguise of human, and humans could change in various ways, in ways they notice, in ways they don't realise. "Understanding their role" and "understanding of their role" in the community also varies from mod to mod. And forgetting their initial understanding is not an exception to the change. However, let me explain the difference between the above two in quotation marks. Some mods may understand their role given to them, while other mods may have a personal understanding of their role given to them. I would like to focus on the latter as this is seemingly a paradoxical issue that generates a lot of the problems between a normal member of the forum and a member with moderating capabilities granted to their accounts.
Funnily enough, while mods aren't machines in human disguise, there are mods who are in machine disguise. Burying their minds in a self-dug mound called "standards," complying to their sense of "self-absolutism," while rejecting the greater voice of the community, is nothing but authoritarianism. Not only do they deny a well-supported cause in favour of a single person's point of view, reasoned with biases, they also fail to grasp a good understanding of the rest of the members who (surprise surprise!) makes up the community (eg. opening up a thread on time; creating a thread as suggested.) This is a good case of confusing the "need to sound authoritative" and the "act of authoritatirianism," thereby putting off existing members who mostly come from a democratic background.
Just to add, I do believe the need to sound authoritative is necessary in extreme cases, for example, an outright warning to abusive or discriminative members. Should the individual not comply, mods may resort to necessary authority as dictated by forum-rules. However, the need to sound authoritative should not be misused in discussing subjective issues such as, "I personally think this thread is pointless." Any act of authority spawning from a misjudgement or misuse of authoritative language on the moderator's part will mostly likely lead to unfair treatment.
Members should be free to discard their pride and apologise, just as members with moderating capabilities to admit their fault. Members are free to discuss what's good and preferable for the community they make up and participate in, just as members with moderating capabilities are free to discuss their support or opposure to an idea for the community they participate in. Members should respect all participants of the forum, just as members with moderating capabilities to respect all participants of the forum. While I don't really agree with straghtforward swearing and insults, constructive arguments based on personal reasoning and self-justification should you feel you have been misunderstood are two major components of free speech. Unlike insults and swearing, I personally believe this is not misusing the rights to speak freely in any way, as the banning seems to suggest.
While I'm on the topic of respect, a mod has written the following:
Yes, because moderators are so reliable that the thread is created the moment spoilers/chapter is out? And then we have 5 or more pages of discussions which belong to the next chapter thread and twice as that of discussions that would fit as well to 116th and 117th thread (so why not open it earlier). What's more annoying, all of them have spoiler tags which makes discussing "unappealing". I don't know other moderator as reliable as Klashikari who at least took the effort of transferring the posts concerning 117th chapter from 116th thread to 117th thread once he created 117th thread.
You are not entitled to having a Chapter thread at all. We make them every month, without fail (seriously, when have we ever missed a month?), and this is the attitude you want to throw out? Oh poor you, can't discuss your favorite spoilers in a fresh thread right away, how horrible. Oh no, the posts of spoilers that aren't even right aren't migrated too. Boo hoo. Get over yourself.
A clear case of authoritarianism vs constructive argument.
While I understand people are different from one to another, certain forum participants are inconveniently given moderating capabilities and hence the opportunity to let out some steam and have a go at being king and
Right I'm gonna stop writing because 136 has come out and damn now that's a major revelation right there.......!!!!!
. It's fixed now[/tmod]
