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Have you ever been a moderator of a community?
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
Every now and then it was pretty satisfying. Suspensions were stressful on Gamespot because you knew that in a day or two or a week or whatever, they'd be back and they knew it was you, and they'd be pissed off and wanting an explanation. Bans were kind of fun when it was super justified and you knew you were getting rid of a real piece of work. It's like killing someone, but on the internet, and they are still alive, and you didn't go to jail... so not like killing someone at all.
If the person was generally despised by everyone, it was nice. If not, it was mostly a pain in the ass.
Yeah. I liked doing it for awhile, but eventually I got sick of having to deal with people's drama constantly. It honestly kind of "broke" me in terms of my desire to getting super involved in an online community. Having to deal with certain personalities regularly was taking a toll on my emotional health, so eventually I just had to leave and get away from them. I think I only stayed as long as I did out of some stupid sense of duty.
I am still friends with some people from those days, but I still feel pretty cynical about online forums in general after the experience. I have to keep my distance from the internet.
I am still friends with some people from those days, but I still feel pretty cynical about online forums in general after the experience. I have to keep my distance from the internet.
Yeah, a Dutch gaming website called GameSen had a pretty cool forum. Back in 2000 I think, before I got on GAF. After just being a member for a while I joined the crew to write news and reviews for the site and also to moderate the forums. The level of discourse was actually pretty high, people seemed to behave pretty decently, so the job wasn't that hard.
I was admin and global mod for the N: Way of the Ninja community for a few years.
I was a moderator of the trading forums on Guild Wars Guru.
I was admin of the largest trading server for TF2 when hats first released (which was... an experience).
It was hard work but rewarding at times. I wouldn't want to do it again, though.
I was a moderator of the trading forums on Guild Wars Guru.
I was admin of the largest trading server for TF2 when hats first released (which was... an experience).
It was hard work but rewarding at times. I wouldn't want to do it again, though.
Yep, on a large forum (>200k members). Luckily we had a very large mod team and people were responsible for different parts. Luckily the general gaming section was one of the easier parts to manage.
I was also an admin on a persistent multiplayer server for a certain game for this same forum. That became almost a day-job in trying to manage the community and the moderator team, and marketing efforts. I had a great time but after 3 years I burned out hard.
I was also an admin on a persistent multiplayer server for a certain game for this same forum. That became almost a day-job in trying to manage the community and the moderator team, and marketing efforts. I had a great time but after 3 years I burned out hard.
Yes. I've been a moderator for Bungie since 2008, a year into Halo 3. I've always enjoyed it, more so the helping aspect than the actual moderating part of it. I always liked showing people we weren't some evil force out to ruin the fun of people. It has also been really interesting to see the community evolve and grow between Halo and Destiny as well as seen other moderators and friends go on to actively work at Bungie on both the community and in other development roles.
I don't have as much time to actively do it like I used to due to life, so anymore I sit back and try to teach and help the new and younger moderators make decisions and help the community team refine how players use the site.
I don't have as much time to actively do it like I used to due to life, so anymore I sit back and try to teach and help the new and younger moderators make decisions and help the community team refine how players use the site.
I was the Mod/Co-Owner of a "Community Forum" on GaiaOnline ages ago. Think of it like the Hangouts section of this forum, but larger. The one we made ended up being one of the larger ones and ended up being quite the hassle to moderate at the time. After about a year I got fucking tired of people arguing with each other all the time and appealing to me, I ended up being the punisher of the two of us and banned a fuck ton of people and was highly selective of who we let into the forum.
Eventually I said fuck it and gave up my half of ownership and let my fiend have to place, less than a month later he quit too and gave it over to one of our first mods and the place ended up being even larger than it was when we ran it.
Fuck being a mod.
Eventually I said fuck it and gave up my half of ownership and let my fiend have to place, less than a month later he quit too and gave it over to one of our first mods and the place ended up being even larger than it was when we ran it.
Fuck being a mod.
I was an assistant mod on one of the CompuServe videogame forums way back when. Got some free games to review (I remember Apocalypse starring Bruce Willis, a Tony Hawk game, and Evil Zone) & admission to E3 thank to that.
Moderated a FB Group with 10k members focused on A Song of Ice and Fire. It was pretty cool, but some new mods came over that clearly did not deserve it. I Left when I found out one of them banned a user she was arguing with and nothing was going to be done about her.
Yes, I was a moderator at the old Game Informer forums for a couple years. It was cool getting to know the staff (I actually went to Minneapolis and hung out at the office), but ultimately, mod work is thankless and mentally exhausting. I eventually withdrew completely from that forum and became the first person to ask to be de-modded.
Yea, several forums including an IGN board in the early 2010's, and a few subreddits - one with only about 25k members, the other had over 230k. I also helped with a Goodreads group of around 10k members but I don't know if that's really moderation persay. I just kind of helped organize things, send out emails, organize holiday activities (like gift exchanges), that sort of thing. It's been several years since I've done any of that.
I once was a moderator on a message board for a relatively new game at the time called Battlefield 1942.
I didn't last very long.
I didn't last very long.
Yea and while the experience is very useful in life, it's a fcking miserable thankless job.
It's why I tend to (generally) feel for the moderator staff here. They're just a bunch of unpaid individuals trying their best to do right by their community. And often times they're hit with BS conspiracies or needless hostilities.
It's why I tend to (generally) feel for the moderator staff here. They're just a bunch of unpaid individuals trying their best to do right by their community. And often times they're hit with BS conspiracies or needless hostilities.
I was a moderator on the (very) old Fanhome forums through its purchase by the Insiders.Wasn't really worth the time commitment/headache although I did meet some good people there.
I've never experienced this. I'd hang it up in a second if I did.
Besides, there are so many times when I come on to Era and see someone banned who was having fun in a gaming thread just the last time I saw them. Or someone who posted a thread about an important social issue, but had run afoul somewhere else. It's not a dopamine rush, but some disappointment that is felt when you find out someone is banned.
Besides, the impact of someone being banned isn't always seen by the community. When someone is banned who happens to be a dependent, helpful or comforting resource for some other members, they can be impacted by the loss of access to the banned member. There is no "too bad ha ha" dopamine rush associated with this at all when you must ban someone.
I helped moderate a decent sized anime forum when I was 13-14. It didn't go as badly as you might expect considering my age but I still wouldn't do it again. The forum got overrun by spam and died not too long after I and bunch of the old moderators left.
Was a forum moderator way way back in the day, for a start up forum, even then for a small.community it was too much work to do for free.
I respect the work forum moderators do because it's not easy, it's definitely not something I think should be done for free though.
It's not cut and dry, there is alot of nuance and mentally it beats you up.
Get paid
I respect the work forum moderators do because it's not easy, it's definitely not something I think should be done for free though.
It's not cut and dry, there is alot of nuance and mentally it beats you up.
Get paid
Yep, I was an admin for another game forum during the height of GAF. It was obviously never as big or popular, but we had a dedicated userbase and it was (mostly) fun interacting with them each day. In fact, I still have several of them in my friend's list across various consoles. There were times it felt like having a second (or third) job, though, so when it came time to close shop I didn't really have any regrets.
I'm happy just lurking and posting a few times a week these days.
I'm happy just lurking and posting a few times a week these days.
OP
OP
Yes I did. I ran a fairly large board dedicated to comic/pop culture collecting back in the mid-00s. It was fun for a week, then I actively started to hate every single member of the board, my co-admin, and the person I went into business with when I started it because he only intended to build it up and then boot the staff to take over the name/IP for himself. It was one of the most thankless "jobs" I've ever done, and I'd never do it again. You're never, ever right and nothing you do is ever good enough. It almost ruined the hobby for me.
I also ran the second-largest IRC room on one of the bigger servers back in the late '90s, and that was a whole other fucking nightmare.
I also ran the second-largest IRC room on one of the bigger servers back in the late '90s, and that was a whole other fucking nightmare.
Yep, not gonna say where in case I get stalked all over again. It was pretty fun, not a massive community, but not small either, very popular during a specific era.
I was pretty laid back and popular amonst the users, and sometimes people wouldn't realise I was a mod until they were at the recieving end of my banhammer.
Unlike the mods here, I didn't lock threads if they went 'off topic' or 'run their course'. It's a damn forum, the point is for people to get together and discuss shit. Why prevent them? I just put my foot down when anything got personal between users, but in a pragmatic way. Gave them a chance to cool off or change their ways, otherwise bye bye.
And of course, we went by the golden rule: you do not ask to become a mod, it is a job bestowed upon you. Asking for modship automatically excludes you from the pool. Tis a good rule everyone should follow.
And like Cincinnatus, I willingly gave up my modship and retired.
I was pretty laid back and popular amonst the users, and sometimes people wouldn't realise I was a mod until they were at the recieving end of my banhammer.
Unlike the mods here, I didn't lock threads if they went 'off topic' or 'run their course'. It's a damn forum, the point is for people to get together and discuss shit. Why prevent them? I just put my foot down when anything got personal between users, but in a pragmatic way. Gave them a chance to cool off or change their ways, otherwise bye bye.
And of course, we went by the golden rule: you do not ask to become a mod, it is a job bestowed upon you. Asking for modship automatically excludes you from the pool. Tis a good rule everyone should follow.
And like Cincinnatus, I willingly gave up my modship and retired.
