Buzvia Blog

What some moderators act like

If you have been on the internet long enough, you will eventually have to deal with a moderator who gives moderation a bad name.

Why people use moderators?

You see moderators mostly in the wiki and forum worlds, these are people who have been chosen by consensus or simply because they where one of the first to use the site you are posting to. People and companies use moderators to keep spam, abusive people and to try to keep the fames down when there are intense debates. They usually work for next to nothing, donating their time and “expertise” towards causes they believe in. Some, of course, do it just for the power trip.

What’s wrong with moderators?

Although the vast majority of board moderators out there are level headed, you have some people who treat their section as Holy and if you express anything remotely not to their liking, they just delete your post or even account without a word. I had this happen to me several times, one of the more “famous” ones was by a “professional” dream interpretation board that prefered pushing people into spending 40-90$ an hour to have their dreams interpreted instead of using my free DreamClue.com system. See: DreamClue.com: Ruffling a few feathers in the dream industry!

Why do bad moderators act the way they do?

Bad moderators act the way they due either because they suffer from an inferiority complex (hence controlling the thoughs of strangers gives them a kick) or worse, they are just plain idiots. Out of all the forums and other sites using moderators that make me question the educational value of kindergarten, I must say Wikipedia ranks right up there. Wikipedia itself is a great idea but too many moderators have no business handling any responsibilities beyond tying their own shoes. Moderation is a “job” that should be taken seriously, too many people are given this important task simply because they were present when one was needed. I have to admit though, Wikipedia has done wonders with how moderation is done over the past few years and are getting far better weeding the snakes out of their grass.

Do moderators have a future?

With the endless march of technology, you must think moderators are soon going to be giving the reigns to their bot couterparts, although this will happen in the next few decades, for now, I think they are safe. The advantage to having a human moderator is that they are able to be “accountable” (I use this incredibly loosely) while a robot is completely impartial which sometimes isn’t a good thing.

The Bottom Line

Moderation is a responsibility not to be taken lightly!