Originally Posted by tore

One thing I've understood is that few mods here are at all able to take any form of criticism. And not just now. I noticed this in my fellow mods when I was on the team. Some people, when faced with criticism, will think something along the lines of "perhaps there is something I can do to improve the job I do around here". Generally speaking, our mod team is more likely to act scared and defensive. Vanilla f.ex, when confronted by members who think she acts like a bit of a bitch, responds first with mocking those who complain. Then, instead of changing for the better, she decides to wear her bitchyness like a badge, proudly proclaiming how she hurts feelings and how little she cares for the complaining cry-babies. So telling her she behaves badly only motivates her to behave worse. Faced with this, the other mods seem to do nothing but protect her rights to act however she wants, as if there are no standards. As if mods need to be protected from any criticism or as if they're too tired with this place to give a shit.

Vanilla is spectacularly bad at coping with any sort of negative feedback, but it's not just her. A sort of butthurt, defensive attitude is what we usually see. Or mockery, a bit like this thread. Sometimes, mods will point out that they actually have to delete a lot of spam and stuff and act like this somehow justifies acting like a baby now and then. But members shouldn't accept that argument because deleting spam is a very simple job. I know because I've done it, many times. It's nothing to brag about. The real job when it comes to modding is not how you deal with spam, it's how you deal with people. And that's something some of you are not that good at. A willingness to admit that and deal with it in a way which isn't just an all-out defensive knee-jerk reaction would be very refreshing. A unwillingness to go blindly along with / support other mods when they act like dicks would also be refreshing.

We know you're not paid to do the job you do, but does that mean you're above criticism? Where is your idealism? What is your motivation? If you no longer have a real want - a personal engagement in you - to make MB a nice, friendly community, perhaps you should step down and let someone else have a go at it instead. The more posts I read, the more careless I feel the mods are and the more it looks like the desire to make a difference here has burnt out in them. When I felt like that, I stepped down, but I think some of those on the team today may just be continuing as mods out of habit.