R.I.P. League Boards Moderation Staff

xAcidik·5/1/2019, 1:05:57 AM·13 votes·5,953 views

I won't point to any specific topics or users to make this point, but I want you guys to take it to heart anyway.

Stop freaking out about moderators of the boards. No one is trying to silence your opinions, no one is singling you out, and honestly, the staff of these boards really don't care about you beyond the care that they extend naturally to other human beings. Not because they are insensitive, but just because you are a STRANGER to them, and your context in their lives is that of a stranger that may be 100s of miles away who uses the boards that they are tasked to moderate.

As an experienced forum administrator myself (albeit on boards far, far smaller than this) it pains me to see user behavior like this. I'm seeing people make spectacles of themselves while they soft-flame (or hard-flame, depending on the circumstances) the forum staff for doing their jobs. Say, for example, your post was removed and you believed such a removal was unjustified. How is it okay to respond as if you were personally attacked, making a public post of yourself to rally the masses to your side? You were not sanctioned in any way, with a warning, a ban, or anything of the such. But it was SUCH an injustice that you had to make a public spectacle of yourself, rather than simply messaging the mod, or responding in the same thread, or just moving on?

Or what about silencing negative feedback? If a post criticizing the boards staff was removed, it is almost always because there was a personal attack made against one or more staff members and the topic became a shit storm that was impossible to moderate. You cannot attack someone with toxicity and claim it was a defense or simple constructive criticism and that you were okay. It's just like in the game guys: Someone flaming you does not give you grounds to flame them back. Flame is still flame, and in the case of the board staff, it seems that users are flaming staff for perceived wrongdoing where there is none, and where their posts are dealt with and moderated correctly, it is taken as perfect evidence as to why they are exactly right.

There is no power trip euphoria associated with moderating boards. Honestly, unless someone is personally attacked, it is usually quite dull. Remove this comment for spam, that comment for contributing nothing, the other one for necro-posting.

I'm gonna stop now. I don't want to come off too insulting to individuals who display this sort of behavior. I just wanted to defend the forum staff.

As a final note: These people work very hard to produce a presentable community for you to come and discuss all things League, good and bad, and that's it. They shouldn't be treated as all-powerful and unjust gods bent on ruining your life.

14 Comments

Kaisha5/1/2019, 2:49:21 AM7 votes

Toxicity on forums is a top down phenomenon. If the devs weren't so blatantly toxic, and the mods so keen to defend their toxic behaviour, we wouldn't be in this mess.

GenoXx5/1/2019, 10:12:17 AM5 votes

No one is trying to silence your opinions,

Yes they do.

ChickenWrap5/1/2019, 5:05:33 AM4 votes

Hey, thanks bud. We try hard for you guys! Much appreciated!

Karn Bishop5/1/2019, 5:44:58 AM4 votes

They could make their lives so much easier by being more flexible with general discussion and allowing folks to talk about history and other topics so long as its not a thread advocating violence/death/witch hunting.

Though i understand they wont and will rehash some canned line about how we need universal safe spaces and how learning from past historical mistakes are bad because we all know riot has serious issues ever admitting they make mistakes and will push forward with poor decisions because changing them is basically admitting they were wrong which they don't like doing.

edit: yes i know mods are not rioters but the forum guidelines come from / are suggested from riot.

ZT Xperimentor5/1/2019, 1:08:12 PM3 votes

"No one is trying to silence your opinions, no one is singling you out" Try commenting on some extremes in real life, and you'll quickly see that's not the case anymore.

ModRowanstar5/2/2019, 2:45:06 PM1 votes

Thank you. I haven't really been involved in conflicts. Mostly observing and trying to help the people of this Forum. But when I do feel ready to jump in and do bigger tasks, my goal is to be accountable to the other team members and the board people so that I make the best decisions.