In this thread, Wiggley made a post that, while having something in it that could have been interpreted as sarcasm, was fairly innocent in my interpretation, and suddenly she found herself berated by an admin for acting like an 'ethug'. I didn't see that in the original reply, but I can see how it could have been read as a 'snarky' comment- even though she also welcomed the OP back to WoW. Rather than concede that he could have misinterpreted the emotion behind the comment Wiggley made, he continued to chide her as if he was absolutely right. Now, we've taken a minor issue and blown it way out of proportion.
At the same time, as has been mentioned, we have a number of veteran posters (Bodhisattva, MentalFrog and Theophany come to mind quite readily) that, while having had somewhat abrasive personalities before, seem to revel in one-liners, trash-talk, putdowns, and basically trolling the forums, with an occasional helpful post to offset the majority of their crap. They have been doing this for months, and seem to be doing it more and more frequently, padding their postcount with vitriol and spite. However, I assume that since they're long-time posters who occasionally have moments of helpful productivity, they're overlooked by the same admin. In fact, I felt it necessary to comment about one of them in a post today, and find it very odd that Akuin decided to lambaste Wiggley for her comment while overlooking their comments calling people moron, noob, loser, etc.
I've also noticed admins stepping in more & more frequently to moderate threads- does this mean Allakhazam is taking a more hardline approach to site moderation? Are we going to see more admin intervention? Are the admins going to be trained in proper handling of situations, or are we going to get treated the same way that Wiggley was when we've run afoul of their delicate sensibilities?
I'll say this- if there's more admin involvement in moderating threads and stopping asshats, make sure you choose your battles and go for the people stirring the pot before you deal with the minor infractions. Also remind the admins that it's not always easy to read someone's emotional intent when reading text, and a lot of that emotion or attitude that is read can often be due to the reader's interpretation. Finally, pick battles. Small comments that could have been curiosity, a joke or a snide comment can be overlooked more easily than someone saying "you're a noob that should l2p or quit the game".
I'm sorry- I'm tired of the double standard being displayed on the forums these days. Certain people seem to revel in asshatery and get encouraged by a verbal section of their peers, and the admins constantly say that the forums are member-moderated; only for admins to step in where their involvement wasn't required.
![Smiley: disappointed](http://zam.zamimg.com/i/smilies/disappointed.gif)
Edit: A perfect example, also by Akuin, in this thread:
Akuin wrote:
Overlord Theophany wrote:
NeoJaecin wrote:
when I got pst from the same toon
I have news for you; you are a noob.
PST means "please send tell".
I have to totally agree. This has become very very anoying.
I wonder who ever started this. :/
Edit #2- and from this thread, you can see a typical Bodhisattva response to the OP:
bodhisattva wrote:
Terrible enchant that shows your understanding of the game is next to zero and that you are too cheap to spend mats on a relatively cheap enchant that is much better.
Don't really need to cliffnotes that, but if I did bad.com
Don't really need to cliffnotes that, but if I did bad.com
Edited, Nov 5th 2008 4:32pm by Wondroustremor
Edited, Nov 6th 2008 12:15am by Wordaen