At 10:59 AM 8/29/97 -0500, Nicholas Leifker wrote:

On Fri, 29 Aug 1997, Spiffy wrote:

I don't think Tybalt likes moderating very much. I think he knows how 
people feel about him. Yet, he does this by his own free will [I think]. 
He could quit at anytime he wanted to, but he stays and takes the abuse. 
Why? I do not know. Perhaps he's a sick person and enjoys this kind of 
punishment. Maybe it's the power to decide who lives and who dies. Maybe 
he feels like he owes something to the list. 

(sigh) Tybalt perhaps loves this ML more than you know.

As moderator of the ML, he has a thankless job.  He has to look over 
dozens of posts a day, most of which have little or no relevance to his 
personal interests.  He has to stop somewhat-humorous spam threads that 
threaten to go out of control, and tempban people who go beyond the ML's 
limits, earning the ire of those around him.  In short, Tybalt has to be 
an asshole.  

NO Sysop/Moderator HAS to be an ass.

I Sysop/Moderate the Anime/Manga Forum on Compuserve.  We have over 6,600
regular forum members right now, and it's increasing daily (the member:staff
ratio is now about 3300:1).  We get about 200 *public* posts to the message
base on an average day.  We handle 4 different weekly live-time conferences.
We have 19 different subject areas to keep straight, as well as 10 download
libraries.  We have to deal with off-topic posts, screwed up library
uploads, help questions, newbie (to both anime/manga and the service)
questions, people who can't follow the rules, on-line harrassment, etc etc etc

It's *much* easier to do this job if you maintain a sense of humor about it.
People just do not respect someone, however well they do their job, if
they're a pompous ass about it.


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.accsyst.com/jhedge/
NEW Address: jhedge@wwa.com

_____
Girls do what their mothers tell them. Ladies do what society tells them.
Women make up their own minds.

The same thing applies to boys, gentlemen and men.

                                   - 'Consult Charity' advice column;
                                     "Katwalk", Karen Kijewski