A Year in Moderation, done

[GMRO 5245]

 

 

 

 

 

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After a year in moderation, I'm stepping down. For those who don't know me, I've been a mod manager for a few months and then a moderator before that. It’s time to move on however, and more importantly think about my dissertation I’ve been putting off as school starts back up.  It wasn’t always the best and neither did I always perform the best but I tried and hopefully most of the time made the right calls. At the time of when I applied, I felt I had the experience to help others and I wanted to try to make a difference as every person on the moderation team seems to say. I hope overall for those that interacted with me in a moderation capacity that I did make a difference, and that it hopefully made you trust in the team and its process itself. For those that had a negative interaction with me, I can only say sorry on account of oftentimes moderation being a series of situations where you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

When I first joined the team, I felt like a token addition. I didn’t personally have much trust in the team on account of (in my opinion) it being overfilled with people from one nation. My application stated that I wanted players to be able to better hold moderation to account though from what I’ve seen players are more than currently capable of doing just that by themselves. Furthermore, a lot of the worst offenders for those who destroyed trust in the team are gone. Hopefully players have a bit more trust in the system since then, but I doubt it. I at least thankfully didn’t hear too many complaints of Orenian bias during my time. I’d urge players to remember that a lot of decisions are under pressure and the mod you’re arguing with is (hopefully) asking for second opinions from the team. They won’t always get it right but they are trying. 

 

I often found myself as a run of the mill mod that would take conflict tickets or tickets in game in general. Big up to moderators that actually gave it a go to create systems, it's easy to destroy someone’s work whilst it’s very difficult to create it yourself. I sincerely hope someone picks up my attempted project of reforming the infraction system because it’s quite difficult!

 

 

As some final advice to the moderation team itself:

 

• Make all old moderators go through the proper application process and try to see how many infractions they gave out, there’s often a reason they left and they should be properly held to account by players if they were bad the first time.
• Never take your own nation's tickets if it's to do with conflict, and don’t join voice chat in moderation just to argue for them.
• Ask what players want out of a situation and don’t give infractions if nobody wants one given.
• Please stop players from selling children on the auction house.
• Don’t let players get away with tactical reporting to win at minecraft politics.
• Don’t listen to advice from players who are larping as lawyers on the forums.

 

 

Thank Yous

 

 

To all the People that supported my initial application

Spoiler

Sometimes I look through these messages of support and it really gives me a little ego boost. Especially from the time I rejoined the community, it was a really great experience for me to get so many messages of support that I frankly wasn’t expecting. I hope that I made myself worthy of your support.

 

Special thanks to Louis with this, I know you went out of your way to spread it about and make sure I was supported. From day one you’ve supported me and I don’t think I say it enough how much I appreciate the fact that you’ve supported me for so long.

 

Gusanoarentonio

Spoiler

Thank you for putting up with me whilst I constantly messaged you about my application to the moderation team, and then teaching me after. When I first joined moderation I barely knew you but you became a good friend from our time on the team and thereafter. Thanks for helping me in the start, and being a good friend.

 

JoanOfArc

Spoiler

It’s strange how I started speaking to you out of the blue and we became good friends. Thank you for going to bat for me on the most mundane and silliest of issues, or hearing me vent about how I hate everything sometimes. Don’t burn yourself out doing things you don’t like.

  

Endershadow292

Spoiler

I always really appreciated your cheerful demeanour when you were about, and were one of the managers throughout that I felt I could actually bring up issues to. You were a great trainer and always perfect for asking for a second opinion, and I hope you soon come back in full.

 

Danny

Spoiler

I think you’ve got a good career ahead of you if you’re serious with what you’re wanting to do to help protect the community, and you’ve definitely been a great influence in the team as both a friend and just a really positive person. Thank you for being so kind. Don’t forget you don’t always need to say sorry!

 

HogoBojo

Spoiler

You set the bar of mod tickets so Danny could run, but you were also really friendly on the team and a good friend to me. I have high hopes for you as an admin, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck with it. Hopefully you deal with people immediately messaging new players.

 

Disheartened

Spoiler

I think people give you an unnecessarily hard point of view for when you’re trying to do your job. You do your utmost to try to keep verdicts the same across the board. I really respect your decisions whilst on the team even if I didn’t always agree with you. Try not to get weighed down and stick in there.

 

Itdontmatta

Spoiler

I find myself almost surprised that I’m thanking you from where we started a year ago. I wasn’t much a fan of you back then, and probably considered you just another Orenian shill. I think you developed a lot during the year and most importantly kept going with ideas whilst trying. I’ve come to really respect you, and I hope you keep the energy that you had when we started up again. You’ve been a great friend during my time in moderation , and I can only hope you say the same of me. I hope you keep people around you that share your vision in order to make it a reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Evonpire 1816]

Rip the Homie +1!

 

In seriousness, I hope you find something satisfying with your new found time, free from the moderation shackles.

[Buffsanta 960]

o7 You beautiful british lad

[Tigergiri 2859]

Be free <3 Ill miss you 

[MRCHENN 3663]

Love u Jimbro, thanks for ur service

 

Still hate u for spoiling spider man tho

[MissToni 3487]

You did wonderful as GM, thank you for the support and help you have given me and many others. You deserve a break from it all until you start your heavy journey of being a NL! <3 

[Fionn__TWG 2616]

Thank you for putting up with my stupidity everytime you did (often), and i hope you enjoy your time off staff like you deserve.

(Squid game gif was gonna go here, cba getting it though.)

[Masouri 2131]

God bless you homie. Love you and your hard work. Always the Mod I could rely on to talk things out with and work with!

[sarahbarah 5008]

thank you for your service, soldier o7 godspeed.

[Lickspittle 694]

Jim Rowe... don't leave me here! JIM ROWE

In all seriousness, bless you GMRO for all your hard work <3

[erictafoya 2302]

Here's to one of the best Moderators on the server. Unbiased and always professional when being a moderator, I applaud your mineman service <o

[garentoft 8352]

Helping you when you first became a moderator and witnessing your passion was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. It was a pleasure to work with you.

[Marquesa_ 298]

16 minutes ago, GMRO said:

Ask what players want out of a situation and don’t give infractions if nobody wants one given.

You did not practice this at all times, as evidenced by a situation in which you doled out a punishment without consulting both players involved, levied a baseless accusation upon me, and then outright refused to speak to me about it and promptly sent me elsewhere.

 

Thankfully the situation was amended and the punishment was reversed due to another staff member acting as a mediator. I think that a learning lesson here for you, and all staff members (be them former or current), is to learn how to be an impartial judge of all situations, to remember that both parties are worthy of being spoken to. In any case, enjoy your retirement.

[Xarkly 12581]

There's a reason why a lot of GMs don't always stick around past a few months, and that's because it's genuinely really tough, and often unrewarding, work where you're basically dealing with the server's shit, and sometimes dark stuff, for hours at a time. You have to deal with players who might be angry or abusive - rightly or wrongly - with people trying to take advantage of you, and literal high-pressure situations that require you to make decisions on the spot.

 

The fact that you did this for a year without backing down, without hiding from conflict tickets like past long-lived mods, owning any mistakes you make, without losing your shit at all the frustrating stuff that goes on behind the scenes, is actually one of the most impressive things I've ever seen on this server. 

 

You should be proud of yourself, just as I'm proud to call you my friend. Thanks for your time. 

[JoanOfArc 4586]

yeah i get you left the team because you don't like me anymore but you really think that's gonna stop me from spamming you over the dumbest stuff? moron.