Community/staff Members!

[Sky 0]

Initially I was going to put this in the feedback section, but like many non-RP threads it suits the place of a "Off-Topic" place. 

 

This thread is just me pointing something out, and bringing it to the light of day but that's not to say that a lot of people haven't noticed it nor am I saying that people are trying to fix it (not publicly trying but that's something else).

 

What is this about you may be asking, well it's to do with the staff and how someone goes from being a "Community Member" which we all start out as, then become a "Community/Staff Member" and then go to being a "Staff Member", this happens in all staff teams but is more obvious in the Global Moderators. Let's start this, shall we.

 

First the person (Lets call him Andy) joins the server for what ever reason, be it for the sole sake of role playing with friends that are on the server or be it the much more fun act of PvPing warring factions (Humour!). The fact is Andy joined the community, and starts to build ties with it. After a while, Andy gets really into Lord of the Craft, but starts seeing things that he himself thinks can fix. It being something like, no moderators online when he is or the moderators online not doing anything, so does what he believes is the right thing! Which is make an application to become a moderator, now at first Andy spams his friends with the link and they then support his application, over the time span of ... X ... Andy helps people in the 'Help' channel, on the forums and on the TeamSpeak, those Andy helps go to Andy's application and support Andy! Andy's application stays at the top due to a lot of bumps, most of which being people other than Andy. The admins decide to add more moderators and Andy is chosen as one of them!

 

Here comes the middle ground, Andy is now a Community/Staff Member! What does this mean? He acts on his own impulses and fixes situations the way he believes is best. In some cases, Andy may come off a little biased but are mindless mistakes! More than once Andy ignores the advise of his teammates because he believe the situation is more than a black or white situation, but instead has 50 shades of grey mixed into it. The community loves Andy, but his teammates aren't too pleased with him, but who cares when Andy has friends like the community!? Right? Right... Well, this is the part that it ends with. Andy can never please all of the community, and from pleasing some of the community, the other parts will call Andy biased and other words, that honestly don't make sense at the time. Add onto the fact that, by him not following "The Book" to a tee, he is being slowly ostracized from the team he joined. Andy is standing on two boats currently, the Community on one and the Staff on the other. Which does he choose? Because at the current state, neither of the captains of the boats really want to be near each other. Choose the community? Or more so, the part of the community Andy left? then Andy reverts back to stage one, and more than likely will not consider going through this again. Choose the staff? Well, Andy progressed to the next stage.

 

Andy is a fully fledged Staff Member now. What does this mean? Well more than likely Andy has started following everything to the tee, and has blended in with the rest of the team. Making most, if not all situations into a black and white situation, where it's ban or don't ban and the lesser of two evils is never considered. You're outraged with Andy? Well, he has been taught by fellow Staff Members to ignore that, and take it in his stride. Andy now is no longer part of the community because of multiple reasons, and refuses to let your opinion bother him, because of said position. While in theory, having a hard shell around Andy would be amazing, it's not. Andy needs to hear feedback, without labeling it as unworthy as his teammates do. But this is what he is now, a Staff Member who no longer is part of the community.

 

End of the story, I bet you are completely lost and I don't blame you, because it's meant to be a little confusing. The point of this at the end, is different to the beginning. I would like you to think about this for a moment.

 

How many times have you insulted a Staff Member, and then complained that they refuse to partake with certain aspects of the community? Same coin, different sides. Action, reaction. But that isn't an excuse, but a reason why we have some Staff Members who are ostracized from the community, mostly doing it themselves but the reason being similar in most cases. 

 

Oh, you want to know the point to this? You've missed the point, or you see no point in this? Then that's fine, you don't see what I see and that's perfectly fine. Perception is key, a key to what? Who knows.

 

This was a rambling of Sky, and I thank you for reading.

[Volutional 935]

This could have been much simpler, but I guess you described your experience pretty well.

[TheBareSheet 194]

+1

[Parading 302]

Except that most people are nice to staff members, and even kiss their asses most times, unless the staff member acted blatantly bias. I know I'll probably never insult/joke around with a staff member again because of my last ban. I see community members getting hated on a lot more than staff, and when a member calls out a staff for being bias, sometimes he's the one who gets attacked for it. Not saying you're wrong, but other people may have different experiences. 

[Wolf Druid Ouity 1461]

In the words of a very wise man, "just be nice."

[Wobbajack 119]

Too soon Ouity. Too soon.

[Mouse 324]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.