Glutton for Punishment
So, I was recently outed on PlanetFeedback as a site admin. This in and of itself was not a bad thing...I don't know how it became a secret that I was doing all the admin, really, because there was no reason for it to be. And as well as I've come to know some of the people there, I just feel better with them knowing who I am. I don't have to feel like I'm lying, or misrepresenting myself. Clears my conscience. Anyway.
The comments at PlanetFeedback, as mmmmgreen once pointed out, have a tendancy to be a little...a lot...well...rabid. Hitting below the belt. Aiming for the jugular. That kind of thing. And we started loosing new site visitors, because people would just get trashed in their comments. Even if things could be said nicely, they never were. I didn't even wanna be there anymore, and you all know how I feel about PFB...I love that site. It's my passion, next to seeing new babies come into the world and cats. ;o)
So, I had a talk with the site manager, and with the site owner, and we decided to go back to the original commenting structure. If a comment contains profanity, contains namecalling, or makes judgements on a person's intelligence, lifestyle, etc - anything that is a personal attack rather than being about the letter - it gets taken down. The commenters get three strikes, then they're out. Blocked from commenting on the site. Since I can't personally read 400 comments a day and still do what I need to do here at home and still do site admin, we had the site users nominate site moderators, who are assigned certain areas, and report back to me if a comment needs to be removed. In addition, I randomly review comments and take things down if they're inappropriate. All this with 100% visibility, which means when people get pissed off, they know exactly who to scream at.
Jesus, talk about a glutton for punishment.
I was already beating myself up 90% of the time in my life outside of PFB for not being perfect. Now I have judgement calls to make. Some of these comments walk the line real tight.
Does this one cross over the line to being a personal attack? Or is it just an unpleasant reaction to the letter, not about the letter writer??
The letter writer found it offensive, but is it really?
I realize this was a joke, but is it funny, or does it go too far?
But ultimately, I have to make a decision on each one. And either remove or leave the comment. And if I leave it, and someone thinks it should have come down, I hear about it. And if I remove it, and someone didn't think it violated the guidelines, I hear about. Usually in the nastiest way possible.
And, of course, because the site's been unmoderated up till now, everyone who has a comment removed gets really defensive and angry about it. If they're not allowed to be rabid towards the letter writer, then dangnabbit they'll find someone else to focus their rage on - that there site admin looks like a good target!! I know they're never really thinking about the "me" behind my title, "That BITCH Who Keeps Needlessly Removing Comments"...they think of me as a faceless representation of the site. And are as nasty to me as the customers that they accuse every day of being raging entitlement bitches to store clerks.
And of course, Libra that I am, every time they question me, I question myself. In the end, I end up ignoring them because a) I can't please them all, b) I'm following the guidelines I've got, and c) I'm doing the best I can. I'm bound to make some bad judgement calls, but eff it. Anything is better than having people jump ship on the site and never coming back (or worse! telling their friends not to use us!) because they're afraid of the regulars. But it's getting to be about gawd damned ridiculous that people I've never even interacted with and don't know from Adam are accusing me of removing their comments because I am targeting them and have a personal vendetta against them. Or that I'm ridiculously inconsistent and incompitent. Or that I'm just a preferential tramp. I've already gotten several threats, two of them legless legal threats, had people say they're leaving the site because I suck, and been told exactly where to kiss and/or shove it...and I've only been an "outed" admin, in charge of comments, for two days. TWO DAYS.
I'm not going to quit or anything, because this needs to be done. But sometimes I just want to cry. I want to scream "Jayzeus on a hill, people...I have guidelines! They're posted, you know what they are!! I'm just following them! End of the effing story!!!!!!!!" If they'd put half as much energy into making their posts respectful as they do making sure I feel like dog shit, they'd be fine.
So just remember. Next time you get angry at an admin somewhere because he/she did something to your account you didn't like...site admins are not inhuman machines. We're not issued a suit of bullet-proof armor to go along with that snazzy title, and I'd bet half the time (like in my case) we aren't getting a paycheck to take your abuse and in return give you a nice community. No, not even a little paycheck. Not even free swag. Nothing. We're doing it out of the kindness of our hearts, trying to help out in a community we love. So cut us a little slack.
The comments at PlanetFeedback, as mmmmgreen once pointed out, have a tendancy to be a little...a lot...well...rabid. Hitting below the belt. Aiming for the jugular. That kind of thing. And we started loosing new site visitors, because people would just get trashed in their comments. Even if things could be said nicely, they never were. I didn't even wanna be there anymore, and you all know how I feel about PFB...I love that site. It's my passion, next to seeing new babies come into the world and cats. ;o)
So, I had a talk with the site manager, and with the site owner, and we decided to go back to the original commenting structure. If a comment contains profanity, contains namecalling, or makes judgements on a person's intelligence, lifestyle, etc - anything that is a personal attack rather than being about the letter - it gets taken down. The commenters get three strikes, then they're out. Blocked from commenting on the site. Since I can't personally read 400 comments a day and still do what I need to do here at home and still do site admin, we had the site users nominate site moderators, who are assigned certain areas, and report back to me if a comment needs to be removed. In addition, I randomly review comments and take things down if they're inappropriate. All this with 100% visibility, which means when people get pissed off, they know exactly who to scream at.
Jesus, talk about a glutton for punishment.
I was already beating myself up 90% of the time in my life outside of PFB for not being perfect. Now I have judgement calls to make. Some of these comments walk the line real tight.
Does this one cross over the line to being a personal attack? Or is it just an unpleasant reaction to the letter, not about the letter writer??
The letter writer found it offensive, but is it really?
I realize this was a joke, but is it funny, or does it go too far?
But ultimately, I have to make a decision on each one. And either remove or leave the comment. And if I leave it, and someone thinks it should have come down, I hear about it. And if I remove it, and someone didn't think it violated the guidelines, I hear about. Usually in the nastiest way possible.
And, of course, because the site's been unmoderated up till now, everyone who has a comment removed gets really defensive and angry about it. If they're not allowed to be rabid towards the letter writer, then dangnabbit they'll find someone else to focus their rage on - that there site admin looks like a good target!! I know they're never really thinking about the "me" behind my title, "That BITCH Who Keeps Needlessly Removing Comments"...they think of me as a faceless representation of the site. And are as nasty to me as the customers that they accuse every day of being raging entitlement bitches to store clerks.
And of course, Libra that I am, every time they question me, I question myself. In the end, I end up ignoring them because a) I can't please them all, b) I'm following the guidelines I've got, and c) I'm doing the best I can. I'm bound to make some bad judgement calls, but eff it. Anything is better than having people jump ship on the site and never coming back (or worse! telling their friends not to use us!) because they're afraid of the regulars. But it's getting to be about gawd damned ridiculous that people I've never even interacted with and don't know from Adam are accusing me of removing their comments because I am targeting them and have a personal vendetta against them. Or that I'm ridiculously inconsistent and incompitent. Or that I'm just a preferential tramp. I've already gotten several threats, two of them legless legal threats, had people say they're leaving the site because I suck, and been told exactly where to kiss and/or shove it...and I've only been an "outed" admin, in charge of comments, for two days. TWO DAYS.
I'm not going to quit or anything, because this needs to be done. But sometimes I just want to cry. I want to scream "Jayzeus on a hill, people...I have guidelines! They're posted, you know what they are!! I'm just following them! End of the effing story!!!!!!!!" If they'd put half as much energy into making their posts respectful as they do making sure I feel like dog shit, they'd be fine.
So just remember. Next time you get angry at an admin somewhere because he/she did something to your account you didn't like...site admins are not inhuman machines. We're not issued a suit of bullet-proof armor to go along with that snazzy title, and I'd bet half the time (like in my case) we aren't getting a paycheck to take your abuse and in return give you a nice community. No, not even a little paycheck. Not even free swag. Nothing. We're doing it out of the kindness of our hearts, trying to help out in a community we love. So cut us a little slack.