» Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:21 am
Mods can be an odd bunch. They're free labor, and some people post on forums just to get their post count up...just so some day they can be a moderator. I saw a thread (not one of mine) several days ago where somebody piped up and said "You aren't supposed to be talking about this, I reported you and hopefully they'll come lock the thread." I piped up with something like "Hey, I disagree totally with the OP's point, but why in the world do you care if the thread gets locked?" There was nothing offensive about it, it was just technically against some rule. To anologize to some sort of law, it wasn't like somebody reporting a theft or assault or even minor vandalism, it was more like reporting somebody driving five miles an hour over the speed limit or somebody parking for two minutes in a no-parking spot because they had to run into a store. Yeah, it's technically a violation of a rule, but it isn't hurting you or others, so why bother reporting?
Their answer: "Because I keep my nose clean and try and help the mods because some day I hope to be a mod." Then they followed up with "In contrast to how this might sound, I am not trying to brown-nose." At which point I had to tell them that yeah, their behavior was practically the definition of brown-nosing.
So yeah, there are people who like to be unofficial Forum Nazis, in the hopes that one day they'll get a chance to be a moderator, at which point they become official Forum Nazis.
NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO NEED THIS SPELLED OUT FOR THEM: Note I did not say "All forum moderators are Forum Nazis", I said that people who are at heart tattling little Nazis hope someday to become moderators, so that they can have power to indulge their inner petty Nazism.* I'm sure that most mods, the ones who just wanna keep the place from devolving into a junior high locker room and keep the 14 year olds from driving others from the forum by hurling epithets at each other - we get enough of that playing Halo on XBox Live, after all.
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* Did I just violate Godwin's law? Probably. OH WELL.
EDIT: Also, I'm not saying anything about any particular moderator. I haven't been here but two weeks, so I wouldn't have any clue who's a good moderator and who isn't.