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Old Mod’s Perspective on the Boards

Galacius·3/1/2020, 10:03:54 PM·1 votes·2,699 views

Keep in mind I still have an NDA for this stuff, but I’ll write my thoughts.

I used to be a boards moderator a few years ago (back when Arbiters existed and Miscellaneous was alive) and the boards culture was a bit insane. When I got into the team there were lots of us to start and we didn’t really have a solid internal structure. Keep in mind that we didn’t have heralds until way later and we did struggle a bit for awhile. However, over time all of us came together and wanted some sort of leadership, but a few of us didn’t like the Herald idea. This started what lead to a few of us leaving back then. Let me tell you my story and why the boards going down is bittersweet.

I was mainly a moderator for a specific section when I first started. We didn’t cross to other sections and were just assigned to a few boards at a time. This changed obviously, but those moderators, who modded specific sections, got upset if anyone crossed into their territory. It started a culture of not so much teamwork but a divide in how all of us thought and how we could help one another. I found this out the hard way when I tried to help other sections, because I noticed that there were threads not being moderated. Long story short... the team was frustrated a few of us intervened when we weren’t supposed to. The coming months changed all of that and we didn’t have specific mods for things anymore.

Admittedly, there was conflict in our internal affairs at least when I was present and it lead to me having a mental break down. I can’t say what happened, but I can say that not everyone’s opinion was heard and changes to how things were ran just happened and we had to suck it up. In any group, you have people you get along with and others that you don’t, but when you start to see the same people “cockblock” you or push their “I have more experience than you” card... it gets difficult. I’m not saying everyone on the team is terrible, but I am saying there should’ve been changes a long time ago and people on the moderator team should’ve been listened to. I eventually left the team under mixed circumstances, because of my mental breakdown/“mental boom” I couldn’t focus or do much of anything. I felt like part of the boards was left to rot and what me and a few others worked so hard to do wasn’t supported that well (we didn’t have much backup from the rest of the team). It was basically just a giant middle finger and we didn’t understand why there was a lack of empathy or a lack of trying to make specific areas better.

I saw Ulan’s post calling everyone out and I wanted to talk about that too. He has basically lost his perspective on how to be a moderator. When you start trashing your community and calling them names, insulting them, etc. - you’ve lost your perspective as a moderator. However, I can see why and he’s most likely burnt out. Ulan and I didn’t get along sometimes but I trusted his words and to see him say those things makes sense, but I think it’s uncalled for. How he acted now was how I left the team - I saw where things were going and I felt nothing was being done about it.

Do I wish the boards could’ve been fixed and grow into something vibrant?

Of course, but I think being setup for failure by Riot and our internal issues made it really hard to do much of anything.

2 Comments

ModUlanopo3/2/2020, 1:22:29 AM2 votes

I saw Ulan’s post calling everyone out and I wanted to talk about that too. He has basically lost his perspective on how to be a moderator.

For all intents and purposes, none of us are moderators any more and frankly, this notion that we're not allowed to have and express unflattering opinions about people who are being negative is pretty much the gold standard for what was wrong with the Boards.

I stand by what I said. This is a business decision by Riot that makes perfect sense. If the community had been different, maybe things would have worked out differently, but the community isn't different.

Aymin3/3/2020, 8:45:48 PM1 votes

People love boards. This game is huge. The fact that these boards are underutilized and contain worse content than places like Reddit is a surefire sign that it wasn't run correctly.

It's like having a kid who is the child of two repeat olympians who came from nothing that grows to be fat, ungrateful, and lazy. He has everything he needed to succeed, and some part of him has his parents to blame.

A community like this is curated like a garden or a patch of wilderness, not like a factory farm or a city; full of pesticides and police and plows and ordinances. You provide an environment and care for it and understand the people that make it up, and help it to grow on it's own. It wants to grow, it has everything it needs to succeed. These boards suck because of who is on them. But who is on them is a result of how the moderator team, and ultimately Riot, shepherded them.

Sight unseen, I am willing to bet on sheer force of probability that: 1. Riot often forgot these boards needed resources put into them; and 2. Mods were regularly on powertrips that drove away good community members, killed off new/fun/good things, and didn't let difficult situations resolve themselves naturally, but enforced peace by mandate. This is because Riot grew too fast to adapt to the resources it had to manage as an organization; and the latter because internet forum moderator positions abnormally attract the type of person that will institute a tiny little dictatorship with any amount of authority they are given.