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[shinai]

Poll HELLO I AM ABOUT RP

Note that this is not just about the death of pandoradressing , but these kinds of situations in general. Also, consider this an appeal for advice. In essence, HAY HOW CAN I BE GOOD MOD? Various ways in which to minimize fail based on personal anecdata/experience, whether it was you or someone else that sucked, go!

Comments

[rhodanum]

Oh, I've seen this one mention on anontalk -- with most people wondering why the community vanished all of a sudden.

There are issues even with the best approach -- because something that sounds good in theory won't really work if it's applied by someone who's either too proud or too stubborn in order to bend at least sufficiently enough for everything to work suitably. The very bad part about all of this is that many of these flaws aren't very visible at a cursory glance -- especially in the case of a person who knows what to say in certain situations, so as to come out looking good.

The most problematic kind of mod isn't the one whose arsehaberdashery can be seen from a distance (and hence used as an early warning system) but the one whose flaws slowly come out of the woodwork and undermine him/her in critical moments.

In regards to the second point of the poll, I do have an anecdote to share -- not personal, but I was still around for much of the mess, so I saw a good deal of the details. There was 'Community Y' run by the rather timid 'mod S'. In essence, mod S had very good intentions and was very enthusiastic, but their habitual shyness and slowness with responses caused problems, so when the community grew, a better mod was sought. S agreed that someone more firm was needed, hence why they agreed to step down in favor of 'mod B', who offered themselves for the position, citing some experience in modding roleplay games.

Everything went on as usual, there was a flood of new characters, B named a few other mods as well... and tensions brewed under the surface. B apparently played favorites at one point, there was some name-calling, some insults tossed around discreetly, until everything led up to consecutive levels of wank. B made some pretty bad calls, took a lot of time in actually rectifying them, more months passed and the community ended up fracturing rather spectacularly (there were many reasons for this, some petty and some not, but it's clear that mod B also carried some of the blame).

Cue people regretting that they had let the quiet, nice mod S go and hadn't been wise enough to choose someone other than mod B (though I honestly don't think things would have turned any different -- it would have probably taken someone like the Buddha for that).

Edited for HTML fail

[shinai]

I saw it come up on anontalk a day or so ago, and I happen to include that comm on my list of daily RP stalking, so I kind of groaned when I checked today and BAHLEETED! I'm not surprised, considering, but it's pretty annoying for everyone involved.

This is true, but the first approach is written under the assumption that if someone is willing to even consider listening to people and reaching some sort of compromise, then that person isn't completely up their own ass. I think I might be displaying an absurd level of idealism here.

... that's also a good point, the placaters. I've never seen that turn out well in cases where the individual doesn't make good on whatever was discussed. The backlash is often several times worse than what happened initially.

I suppose as far as finding a suitable replacement goes one would have to use the best possible judgment and probably actually know the person in question. Or, at least, have had first-hand experience with their modding style and feel confident that they're capable of running the community effectively. Choosing someone based on no more than hear-say sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[rhodanum]

What kind of comm was it? When I first saw the name, I thought that it was an Avatar Dressing Room, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

That would be a little too much idealism, I think. We're essentially flawed -- all of us, just some more than others. In many instances, we aren't even fully aware of our own short-comings until someone else brings them to our attention in a very convincing way or we end up slamming face-first into a wall because of them. I've seen individuals who were essentially good people for the most part, but who just weren't suited for any sort of position of power because they would invariably fall back into patterns of behavior that created one hell of a mess in the end.

The again, I'm an inveterate cynic, so you should also take all of this with a grain of salt. :p

That was the essential problem, in that situation -- the decision in regards to the new mod was taken very quickly and rashly, without a good deal of thought placed behind it (mostly since the community was impatient to go on as planned and mod S wasn't fast enough for its needs). The consequences of that decision can be clearly seen today, more than a year and a half after that moment.

[shinai]

It was a Pandora Hearts dressing room. From what I hear, the mods were a bit special. There was also something submitted to rp!s a bit ago about one of the mod's characters being incredibly OOC (the OP's assessment was quite accurate, as the character was behaving the opposite of how he would in canon).

True. I suppose one could argue that if a person was aware of their shortcomings in that department, it would render the whole point moot because they would more than likely have the self-awareness necessary to acknowledge this and circumvent any issues that would have led to a game-wide SNAFU in the first place. Then again, I've seen problems (seemingly) come out of left field before, as well, but those are usually isolated cases.

I used to be a lot more cynical than I am, oddly enough. I wonder what happened to change that? Hm.

I figured you were talking about that. What you're describing happened around the time I discovered that place, oddly enough. I ignored it because I was just there to thread-haunt.