| moderator fatigue syndrome (mfs) - |
The burn-out syndrome that all (unpaid only?) internet forum moderators eventually succumb to. Whatever the cause or causes may be, moderators get to the point where they no longer put in the effort, energy, thought, and time to actually moderate a forum -- at least, not a forum that gets any significant amount of traffic.
People being people and trolls being trolls, it can take considerable effort and good judgment on the part of moderators to keep discussions moving along -- on topic and within the Terms of Use posters have agreed to. People get off-topic, start using obscenities, post rude pictures, start calling each other names, etc.
Characteristics of MFS: Frequent and immoderate (i.e., uncalled for) threats to posters, editing or deleting posts, moving threads, closing threads, changing avatars and signatures, suspension, and banning -- all beyond any need to do so or any reasonable interpretation of the Terms of Use posters agreed to.
Even before MFS sets in, some moderators are likely to behave like little tin gods, or like the all-powerful Wizard of Oz. What can you expect when moderators extend the terms of use with forum stickys that say such things as this: ”On this site, the mods are the all-knowing, all-powerful gods of your little universe” -- not untypical of the way moderators see themselves, including always capitalizing ”moderator” or ”moderators” while they usually refer to the Deity in lower case.
The best anyone who questions a moderator`s action is going to get is ”I suggest you. . .” ”quit pushing this” or ”take this offline.” ”If you have a problem, take it to e-mail.” ”If you have a problem, take it up the chain.”
|
