Difference Between Staff Power Abuse, Opinions, and Misunderstandings

I've seen this happen a lot with various player/moderators, and it's annoying to me to see them used in the wrong way.

So basically, the term "staff power abuse" is referred to either

1. A moderator making a mistake
2. A moderator having a different opinion than the players
3. A moderator actually abusing power

Let's go into each term and discuss what they each mean.
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Staff Power Abuse- This refers to a moderator abusing his or her powers in the community, whether it be on the forums or on the server itself. Some examples of this include taking from people's inventories, banning people for no reason, sudoing people into saying inappropriate things, intentionally killing players, using their powers to bypass island protection and grief, framing people, etc.
If you were to ban a player for an extended amount of time, simply because you feel you have the power to do so, is power abuse, and the moderator should apologize to the public for their actions.

Different opinions- Each person has their own opinions, right? Moderators respect people for their opinions, so, in return, we would like to have your respect for our decisions as well. That doesn't mean you can't critique us, just don't be rude about it. A prime example of this would be muting somebody for spamming instead of kicking them first. Now, a moderator is entitled to either or, so saying a moderator is "abusing powers" to do this is, in fact, not true. However, if the moderator is giving different punishments, e.g. muting somebody that just insulted a friend of yours for a longer period of time than someone who insulted a random person, would make the moderator biased.

Misunderstandings- Everybody is human, correct? We make mistakes, but there's a difference between those who actually learn from their mistakes or just go ahead and act like it never happened. If a moderator makes a mistake, that moderator should apologize to either the public or the player it was performed to.

I also hear the term "biased" being thrown too much, so I'll address that as well.

Bias- People accuse moderators of being biased against certain players. Yes, I admit, sometimes this is true, but it's not the case every single time. As previously stated, if a moderator punished X player for a higher amount of time than Y player for the exact same reason, that would be considered biased. However, not every single situation is the same. Some are repeat offenders, and some just don't know the rules.
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I sure hope this can resolve a lot of the confusion/misunderstandings that many are having

-Lemo

(Credits to Sleepyhead08 and Zambiana for fixing this up a bunch)

 

Thanks for explaining ~

 

There is no perfect moderator, there are moderators that are right at certain times.

Nice post, Lemo.

I know if I become mod, I'd warn people through PM before a kick. Every mod has their own protocol for handling situations.

Other people I know would just mute, or even ban for 10 minutes.

 

*cough* except lemo *cough*


Jk

 

And nice thread, lots of players tend to get out of line towards mods when punished.

 

I wish I could post something similar to this on MV without getting a ton of negative ratings...

In all seriousness though, I agree 100% with what is said here.

 

I could see that happen very easily lol

 

Its their fault for not accepting the difference and pure stubbornness if they don't. Go for it, I'm sure more people will agree than disagree.

 

On a related note, the word bias is either a noun or a verb, not an adjective.

A moderator can experience bias.
A moderator can be biased.
A moderator cannot be bias.

/endrant

This is only applicable if the moderator gives the same treatment to everyone.
Say Mod X kicks player A first, while Mod Y mutes player A automatically. That would be legitimate, as each mod does what they think is the proper first step for solving the same problem.
However, if Mod X kicks player A first, but goes straight to muting player B because player B is annoying them, that would be an example of bias, as the problem is the same, but the solution has been escalated due to preexisting prejudice.

 

1. Everybody is human, right?
Overused point which is just a scapegoat for "I messed up, and I learned nothing - but mistakes happen, so give me credit. The whole point from mistakes is to learn from them. If you aren't learning from them then you're not improving.

2. We all make mistakes, just as donors, greenies, or anybody, really.
This line was covered just seconds ago by saying "Everybody is human, right?"

3. A decent amount of the people in the skyblock community expect moderators to be perfect
No, no they don't - in fact I could say they expect less because that's the standard that has been set on members. With people continuously being slandered and abused by staff, I'm amazed they don't hate the entire staff team, thankfully a small group of moderators are able to dredge the rest through it.

4. Moderators make mistakes, and if we make a mistake, we hope it is not taken the wrong way and we can move on from there.
If you make a mistake, you learn from it - not shove it under the rug and pray that it goes away. Public apologies go a long way if people deserve them. If you make a mistake learn from it and then apologize. Banning someone for the incorrect amount of time because you feel like you have that power is simply power abuse and you should apologize.

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I'm not giving you a prolix reply because I doubt anyone will read it and all it will do is tire my poor hands and then I'll be grumpy. It's deplorable that this staff team has an iota grasp on how to moderate effectively and then how to learn from mistakes and then apply them in a sense of duty. Every staff member should display the correct amount of decorum instead of demanding they know what they're doing. Because yes, everyone makes mistakes, but only those who are scrupulous to fixing it will actually attempt to fix it.

 

heh.

I appreciate your vocabulary, sir. *tips hat*

 

Your making a good point but if Player B has a history on the server as spamming, advertising, or making non-g-rated comments then that action would not be out of proportion.

 

I'm trying to eat McDonalds, I made mistakes! Don't be facetious.

*tips fedora* m'lady

 

See, that's why I said "annoying." If you've already been kicked for something, it's different than if they just insulted your best friend.

b-b-but I was being serious ;c

Also, the fedora was not intended, I just meant a generic hat tip as in kudos.

 

You triggered me.

 

Wow, Yu-Gi-Oh? That's too far, man. Don't you know the backs of all those cards are black? Doesn't that MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU???

 

Edited that in a bit. Thanks for the input

Should've been more clear in the description of this, so thank you for clearing my confusing words up, as well as making the thread better as a whole