If you were a mod on these pages (I know, crazy right?) would you feel compelled to change your nature?

I can’t change my nature and my nature is why I can’t or won’t ever be a mod. I really can’t see them ever asking me to “join the team.” I’m not mod material, I know that and I wouldn’t want to be a mod, so it won’t ever be an issue, for me, to change my nature. I think you have to have certain traits; a certain type of temperament, to be a mod in the first place.

Ditto @lillycoyote. When I first joined fluther, I was asked if I wanted to mod because I was unemployed at the time at had the online presence time but I knew I didn’t have the temperament for it, the consistency of character. @The_Compassionate_Heretic is a friend of mine who did mod here, an incredibly open and fair person- he’s what I think a mod should be.

@lillycoyote Nice answer, the point of this question being, no one should change their nature, or would even want to. Keep up the good work mods say I & above all, stay real :¬)

I would love to be a mod, but only for the nice people.

I don’t want to be difficult or contrary, but I don’t see what changing your nature has to do with the, as you say, “recent spotlight” on the mods. I must be totally misunderstanding your question because it seems like a question just to give atta boys to the mods.

Why do people care about mods so much? I joke around about how they mod arguments that I’ve wanted to see, but I don’t have time in my day to worry about someone modding my answer. The rules are pretty simple: use decent grammar, and don’t be a raging diiiiiick. Lol.

I agree @bkcunningham. I don’t see how this question is any different than what is deemed by the mods as a “popularity contest” thread.

Mods are people, and we shouldn’t try to stop them from being people. In my experience, mods are typically able to separate who they like and dislike from what deserves moderating and what does not. Whenever someone who thinks one or more moderators dislikes them gets modded, they of course assume that it was personal. This is confirmation bias. It’s ignoring all the instances of moderating that they know are perfectly fair and acting as if these individual incidents are the whole of the matter (and therefore prove a pattern). It would all be laughable if they didn’t take it so seriously.

In fact, you can always tell who the troublemakers are by who complains about moderation the most. It’s people who constantly skirt the line and hate the occasions on which they get burned. People who think they should be able to do whatever they want whenever they want. They typically cry about censorship, but are perfectly willing to report other people they don’t like to the moderators (though they’ll swear on a stack that they don’t, knowing that they are protected by the fact that moderators keep that kind of stuff private). It’s a silly little game of revolution that spoiled brats like to play when bored.

No, because the consensus here is that the mods do a great job.

Perhaps, to be less abrasive.

You? Abrasive, @Simone_De_Beauvoir? Never.

I couldn’t enforce the rules as written. I think they are wrong. Since I wouldn’t change myself, there is no point in being a mod. I’m sure it’s obvious to everyone that I would be a horrible mod. No one ever even mentioned it to me, and I would have the good sense to decline if they did.

In any case, I’m too selfish. I’d rather answer questions. I don’t know if I feel like I should take a turn so as to help out. I don’t think my idea of helping out would be thought to be very helpful. Then again, if most of the work is dealing with spam, I guess I could do that as easily as anyone else. But anything more controversial than that I could not do.

I could help with spelling errors and grammar. I could not help with appropriateness. I think everything is appropriate. I could not help with trolls. I don’t believe in trolls. I don’t know what a troll is. I think I like trolls. So I would be a horrible moderator.

@bkcunningham I know. Hence the perhaps.

Personally I haven’t changed my nature, or even adjusted it in the least, since I became a mod. I still participate pretty much the same as I did before. I don’t tend to be super obnoxious (as far as I am concerned), but I don’t shy away from speaking my mind. I know I have pissed people off, but that has been more as a Jelly-at-Large then as a moderator.

I do think there are people who have a hard time separating the moderator from the Jelly. When involved in a spirited debate that involves a moderator they might tend to see bias with regard to that specific mod’s decisions. For the most part I think the moderation team and Auggie consistently and effectively keep personal bias out of the moderation process. There is also a system of checks and balances in place that would effectively keep any mods from moderating based on personal vendettas.

I am a mod but only for @rebbel !

I would have to learn how to be critical. Right now, I am more interested in the crazy things you people are thinking than I am in how you get all angry talking to each other.

I’m playing DJ tonight…

This one’s going out from @janbb to @rebbel

Love Machine

She won’t work for nobody but you.

This is the OP’s, @ucme,‘s own fault. He’s the one that got me all discoed up this week.

Aw shucks @lillycoyote – you read my mind!

@janbb You’re just lucky that I am one of the few DJs in the world who takes requests for song dedications telepathically.

Do mods change their nature? I’m not sure, probably not. I notice most mods all, of course, have their own personality, but when they enter ’‘mod mode’’, they’re to the point, while remaining civil, as it should be. They’re all alike then, which I think is adapting to said protocol needed to be a mod, rather than changing one’s nature. I’m sure there are exceptions, have witnessed some myself, but from what I can largely see, you don’t have to change your nature to be a mod. Just gotta know when to deal with what, and how, which I’m guessing is instructed upon the mod once receiving said title.
Then again maybe there are some natures which just couldn’t adhere to modhood, which is probably why certain people are chosen, or not.

And of course, I only wrote this to state that I’d never be chosen as a mod want to be a mod. XD

I would have to change in order to be a mod, and I just don’t think that’s possible. I admit to, and own my bitchiness.

I would likely make a pretty horrible moderator. In fact, I have mental fights with myself, and my inner mod always gets her ass kicked. It gets ugly in there.

No, not to change my nature, but to moderate my behavior, yes. And when the frustration was too much, I stepped down.

I think “change my nature” is a hyperbolic way to put it, but I imagine that I would feel some responsibility to be impartial and to try for reasoned responses when acting as a mod. That’s what umpires do, after all – it’s not a question of a change in nature so much as putting on a role. When responding as a jelly, I don’t see why mods should feel any such compunctions.

@lilycoyote Disco has also been in my head lately!

@wildpotato That’s a good one. And if disco has been in your head lately, then get yourself over to @ucme‘s Donna Summer, and now Robin Gibb, memorial disco thread and get your boogie on!

Some of my most strongest (and sometimes nasty) debates were against mods on here, but not with this account. I would say no, and I wouldn’t want a mod to hold back because they’re a mod. Moderators on here are both moderaters and users, and each role has their place.

Fuckin’ A!

@bkcunningham & @SpatzieLover Maybe it was, in part, intended as a pat on the back to the mods, but can hardly be described as a “popularity contest” Those are catered towards the individual rather than a body of people. I recall several successful threads asking for appreciation aimed at the staff & their sterling work here, I see nothing wrong in that at all, quite the opposite in fact.
As far as changing nature is concerned, well, it seems a few are seeking just that. If a mod feels angst toward a certain viewpoint then it’s only right that they air their view accordingly.
I’m sure even our esteemed leader has written through “gritted teeth” at some point & yet remained composed & “professional” when it comes to extreme differences of opinion.
That’s fine, but shall it be expected/demanded of the mods? I say no.
Thanks all, good stuff.

I think, even if these kind of questions do sometimes end up being “pat on the back” questions for the mods, I think it probably balances out the hate mail they get and thereby helps to maintain something of a balance between the forces of good and evil in the universe.

@lillycoyote Yup, restores the feelgood factor, which can’t be bad.

I wouldn’t want to be a mod for that very reason. I think I would always be too concerned about how I answer questions or respond to people.

Can someone either PM me or tell me here what is the “recent spotlight on the mods?”

I’m always out of the Fluther gossip!!

@jca, @ucme is referring to this thread.

Nope.

And another thread that was completely removed, @Fly.

@bkcunningham I am aware of that one, but I obviously could not link to it. If you’re still lost, @jca,the basis of the thread that @bkcunningham is referring to is mentioned in the thread that I posted.

Nope, I am who I am. There are some people who can, some who can’t and some who you run like hell away from. Oh well, that’s life in the big city.

@Fly and @bkcunningham: Got them – read them all. Thanks for the info!

I is who I is and I ain’t changing for no one.

No, I said to @augustlan when she asked me if I would consider being a mod “would it mean I have to be sensible and serious all of the time” and she said no, so I am often not.

I do take the role seriously though. I think most of the community deserves that.

Well said that girl :¬)
Cheers folks, good stuff!

Yes.