Staff

Started by GKS November 22nd, 2008 12:33 PM
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  • 58 replies
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
Contacting Staff
I used to have really high respect for staff here, but now I'm not very sure. A lot of them don't seem to even care when a member tries to contact them through PM. Even when people have real questions and not spam. I asked questions to staff regarding something about making a thread to a mod and never even heard a reply. I send a message to 3 admins, but never heard a reply.

Example:
I wanted to ask a mod if he will approve a "Game of the Month" thread, but never heard a reply. I PMed so many people for this.

Suggestion: Add a new mod in the Game Development area, I don't care who it is, just someone responsible. I'm not saying Avatar is not doing his job, just that someone else should be there too.
Age 31
Male
Boston, MA
Seen October 8th, 2017
Posted October 8th, 2017
719 posts
15.8 Years
I used to have really high respect for staff here, but now I'm not very sure. A lot of them don't seem to even care when a member tries to contact them through PM. Even when people have real questions and not spam. I asked questions to staff regarding something about making a thread to a mod and never even heard a reply. I send a message to 3 admins, but never heard a reply.
Don't worry man, you're not the only one who's noticed this. The staff seem to generalize newer/less-known users as spammy, and will hardly ever take any requests you may have seriously. It's happened to me before too. Not recently, but whenever I would try and get in contact with a staff member here before, rarely would I ever get a response, and the few times that I did, it would either just show blatant disregard for what I may have been asking, or end in ridicule.

And like I said, not even just me, but plenty of other users have been complaining more-and-more recently, too. I mean, I understand that the staff here have lives and can't constantly be here, as well as the fact that they may be flooded with PMs upon signing in and might not be able to keep up with them all, but to completely throw aside your question like that...I can understand your aggravation, especially after having tried on 3 separate occasions.

I'm glad you made this thread. Maybe now it can finally be brought to someone's attention.
Gather the faithful and propose a toast to the epoch of indifference.
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
I know it isnt. Im just saying we need to know if others feel the same way about the mods on PC ^_^
Look at everyone elses' posts here, they seem to support my point. :\
Don't worry man, you're not the only one who's noticed this. The staff seem to generalize newer/less-known users as spammy, and will hardly ever take any requests you may have seriously. It's happened to me before too. Not recently, but whenever I would try and get in contact with a staff member here before, rarely would I ever get a response, and the few times that I did, it would either just show blatant disregard for what I may have been asking, or end in ridicule.

And like I said, not even just me, but plenty of other users have been complaining more-and-more recently, too. I mean, I understand that the staff here have lives and can't constantly be here, as well as the fact that they may be flooded with PMs upon signing in and might not be able to keep up with them all, but to completely throw aside your question like that...I can understand your aggravation, especially after having tried on 3 separate occasions.

I'm glad you made this thread. Maybe now it can finally be brought to someone's attention.
I was kind of scared of even talking with staff, but not anymore, they are people too, not any better than a member.

parallelzero

chelia.blendy

Age 32
The capital of Canada (not Toronto)
Seen May 11th, 2015
Posted May 20th, 2013
14,627 posts
19.3 Years
I can't vouch for the reasoning behind any individual mods behind this, but I'll shed a bit of light on the admin side of things.

Let me make one thing painfully clear: ADMINS DO NOT DEAL WITH EVERY SINGLE FORUM ON A REGULAR BASIS, AND THEREFORE DO NOT KNOW EVERY SINGLE RULE FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE. If you were to ask me about something related to the Pokemon game forums or any hacking type forums, I'd have no idea because I don't like those things. I get about 5+ PMs a day about the goings on in these forums, they aren't things we should be dealing with in the first place. If you want general law enforcement, go to an S-mod or even an Assistant Admin if there are no S-mods around.

I personally also don't reply to stupid questions, aka stuff that can be found in the FAQ. Along with stupid questions follows "questions you already know the answer to". Stuff like "Can I really not have a sig over 500x300px? Another staff already said I couldn't, but I'm just making sure." WHY? A staff member already said no, and any staff member should know the general forum rules well enough, else they wouldn't be staff.

AND DON'T SEND US PMs ASKING US FOR NAME CHANGES! >O

SKY GOD SLAYER: CHELIA BLENDY
twitter + raptr + myanimelist + tumblr
Age 31
Male
Boston, MA
Seen October 8th, 2017
Posted October 8th, 2017
719 posts
15.8 Years
Ah, wrong. Sorry, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Most of us are more inclined to help newer members, since obviously they don't know the community as well as older members. I don't care how popular a person is, I don't reply to people who are more well known and ignore those who are less well known. I don't know anyone on our staff who do that.
Oh? Totally didn't see that coming in response to what I've said here. "Wrong. You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe you do whatever you possibly can to make every single member here with a serious question as well informed about the basic rules/regulations of this forum as they possibly can be.

...But apparently not everyone else does, otherwise there wouldn't be so many complaints about you all, and this thread would never have had to have been made in the first place.

Edit: Hah, forget it. There's no use in staying here trying to reason with any of you. I'll always be wrong anyways.
Gather the faithful and propose a toast to the epoch of indifference.
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
Ah, wrong. Sorry, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Most of us are more inclined to help newer members, since obviously they don't know the community as well as older members. I don't care how popular a person is, I don't reply to people who are more well known and ignore those who are less well known. I don't know anyone on our staff who do that.

That said, Radium, the staff of PC is structured in a way that not every admin will know about every section of the forums. Most of us started as moderators of certain sections and eventually got promoted to admin ranks over time, that means that not all of us know the standards, rules, structure, etc. of places like Game Development, ROM Hacking, many of the writing and art forums, and so on. Avatar knows his forum best, he knows it better than any admin does. That's just how it goes. If he didn't approve your thread then it means there's something wrong with it, and talking to an admin won't help your cause. I can guarantee that none of us will go in and "override" a decision to not approve a thread, because Avatar knows the quality and standards he wants to keep up in his forum.

Now, moving on the communication issue. I did get your PM, I don't know who else you sent it to you, but I can give you a broad/general defense. It's been said before, I know, but I'm going to try and explain it again. The staff on PC, especially admins because we've done our time with mod-gruntwork, don't always have a lot of time to spend on PC. I'm in college and I work a part time job, and apart from that I do other things with free time as well. PC is extremely important to me, it's my favorite place on the Internet and I love helping out here as a staff member when I can, but there are other things I do with my time as well. Despite that, generally I check up on the forum throughout the day, I check for threads that need attention and so on and so forth. There are a lot of times when I'll see that I have a PM and not open it immediately because I know I don't have the time right then. I save it for later when I'll be able to help the person.

There are times when I forget, but for the most part I'm good about replying to messages. I just got your PM yesterday, you can't wait one day and be upset when you don't get a reply instantly. Sometimes it'll take days for someone to reply to you, because as was stated above, we do have lives that have to balance out with PC. We don't sit here and madly refresh every second of every day waiting to help people, we volunteer the time we're able to give to helping. It just so happened that yesterday, when you sent me that PM, that time was limited.
I wasn't trying to get a decision to be overrode, I never got a decision, and this was sent a week ago. I understand that you guys have lives, I don't come on days when I have more school work that usual. I understand that, but if there is a section that is popular or semi-popular, you could appoint more mods there. This will reduce the work load of the other mod.

I wasn't actually pointing you out, you actually replied to my questions in the past if I recall.

I do believe real life is more important that forum life, so we agree there.

Tyrantrum

Age 29
Male
Seen May 18th, 2021
Posted June 13th, 2020
5,812 posts
15.6 Years
I was hoping to reply to this before staff, saying something as simple as this:
They have their own lives to deal with, not to mention how busy they are to deal with a ton of other stuff around the forum! They are not ALWAYS going to have time before they reply to our some-what useless little requests! It may take a few days/weeks, so be patient!

Sorry if I came out a little harsh, but it's true.
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
I was hoping to reply to this before staff, saying something as simple as this:
They have their own lives to deal with, not to mention how busy they are to deal with a ton of other stuff around the forum! They are not ALWAYS going to have time before they reply to our some-what useless little requests! It may take a few days/weeks, so be patient!

Sorry if I came out a little harsh, but it's true.
I already stated they have lives and they should appoint new mods to lower the work load on the last post, so what was the point of this post.
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
I'm sorry if this is confusing, maybe the title makes it seem like I'm accusing every staff. There are good staff out there and I know that personal life comes first, because it does come first for me. This thread is more of a suggestion to get more mods than an accusation.

~All the staff are going to hate me for making this thread~
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
The only person you really should be contacting for your issue is Avatar. Remember that now. Whether he'd like to deal with your PM or not depends on his available time as well.

Toki_Warface: I don't think for a second that your opinion is being deliberately scorned. However, we do have the right to defend if we don't believe the situation is false. The fact that the admins of the forum were referred to is the reason why the issue was brought up.

Now this thread is pretty broad, isn't it? The scope of it is covered in the thread name, which says "Staff", so can't a lot of us assume that you're talking about all the staff here? (Which would be wrong - I doubt every mod here refuses to read messages sent to them.) If you have an issue regarding individual staff, or feel that a certain forum needs a new mod, then without making any suggestions (or allowing us to draw inference that you want to be a mod), then bring it up with one administrator. It's a better idea to take the issue up with an s-mod or an admin who appears to have some familiarity with how the forum is structured.

Anyway, consideration of new moderators would be a good idea, but it depends on the forum actually having good candidates.
I have no hope that this thread would "make me a mod" because it would be stupid to get staff angry and expect them to do that.

Just to tell you, this is a feedback on what I thought, and if other want to express their opinion too, let them.

dragpyre

The Brother's Fight For Hell

Find me in the Hoenn
Seen August 29th, 2012
Posted July 23rd, 2011
348 posts
14.8 Years
well, i think there are some good staff and mods, like Went and Rukario

but some do actually ignore you

i'm relativelly new, i've only been here since august. but i think that if a person accepts the responsibility of becoming one, they should do everything in their pwer to help any members
Brother, Uncle, Cousin
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
well, i think there are some good staff and mods, like Went and Rukario

but some do actually ignore you

i'm relativelly new, i've only been here since august. but i think that if a person accepts the responsibility of becoming one, they should do everything in their pwer to help any members
You are right, still they don't have to come on all the time, just when they have time.
Age 31
Seen March 14th, 2009
Posted November 30th, 2008
224 posts
15 Years
You shouldn't generalize. In your first post you generalized alot to mean the whole mods when you are just dealing with one moderator or a select few who you feel ignored you.

Although there is the aspect of moderators having their own lives, I think there is a certain point where you feel they must have accidentally skipped your message or ignored it.

Not sure how the moderating system works here, but in most places, the report messages and such like are sent to their inbox and it can be very easy to accidentally delete them.

How long ago did you try to contact these particular staff members?

I think the moderators handle the forums pretty well, with your point to creating new moderators, it is really hard to choose usually because well, it is hard to choose =) You don't truly know what someone is going to be like moderating until you make them one.

Paired with Vivaa <3 Credit to Vivaa for the signature.
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dragpyre

The Brother's Fight For Hell

Find me in the Hoenn
Seen August 29th, 2012
Posted July 23rd, 2011
348 posts
14.8 Years
yeah, i do accept that mods have their own lives.

but when they are online, they should help us, unless they are doing something of the greatest importance

i'm not saying that moderation is lacking, i'm saying its minutely flawed
Brother, Uncle, Cousin
Age 32
Male
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Seen November 4th, 2012
Posted January 9th, 2012
1,722 posts
14.8 Years
Please don't berate the moderators of this site. They have commitments other than this site to deal with.

In regards to Game Development, I can sympathize with a lot of the users of this forum, as, when I was a new member, I was wondering why my GD thread wasn't being posted, and even had one of the moderators of this site help me out with it, and I figured out that I hadn't read the rules of Game Development thoroughly enough. If you're wondering why your thread hasn't been posted, look over the rules before you mindlessly and ignorantly spam the inboxes of the moderators of the forum. Because from this ignorance, you fuel your very own argument of "moderators don't care about new members". Post count is irrelivant; respect is gained through adherence to the rules and a generally respectful attitude towards your peers. If you're not adhering to the rules, don't be disrespectful and whine to the moderators about why your thread hasn't been posted yet. I had to wait until the third try to have my game posted, and even then, it sucked, so I gave up on it.

In short, the moderators of this site expect you to read the rules of the forum. If you don't, and then whine about how bad they are, then I'm taking the supposed side of the moderators; they really shouldn't give a rat's ass about your apparently super-special game thread. Know the rules before you start making demands of the moderators. When I did, I regretted it, because I looked like a freakin' idiot when I read over the rules and saw "Oh, I didn't post screenshots of my game! D'OH!"

The moderators do what they can to help the members of this forum, but you can't expect them to take time out of their busy lives to sit you in a corner and tell you what you really should already know.
"I've seen a lot of things, but this...This is a first."- Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer, after meeting Rammus
Male
Seen December 23rd, 2013
Posted December 22nd, 2010
1,319 posts
15.7 Years
You shouldn't generalize. In your first post you generalized alot to mean the whole mods when you are just dealing with one moderator or a select few who you feel ignored you.

Although there is the aspect of moderators having their own lives, I think there is a certain point where you feel they must have accidentally skipped your message or ignored it.

Not sure how the moderating system works here, but in most places, the report messages and such like are sent to their inbox and it can be very easy to accidentally delete them.

How long ago did you try to contact these particular staff members?

I think the moderators handle the forums pretty well, with your point to creating new moderators, it is really hard to choose usually because well, it is hard to choose =) You don't truly know what someone is going to be like moderating until you make them one.
Then super mods should also look into regular sections more.

I'm not saying who, but I asked a super mod if that super mod could approve a thread which the section's mod never replied to and the super mod said that:

I started a thread called the Game of the Month about a week ago. I sent a PM to the section moderator, Avatar, soon after creating the thread asking to approve it, but heard no response. I really want this to be approved, so if you could take a look at it, it would be really nice.

The link is http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=159634
If it's been a week and he hasn't approved it - he most likely won't. It would be rude for me to override his authority, and I won't do it regardless.
Actually I just haven't heard a reply, I was pretty sure he would approve it. Plus looking at his profile, he doesn't seem to come on much either. I don't know if he didn't get the PM or if he hasn't checked yet.
Avatar is on just about everyday, I know this for certain. If he hasn't replied by now - he isn't going to.
My reply was: "What kind of mod doesn't even reply :\? Forget it, I'll ask someone else."





I don't want to fight with you guys, so let's stop. I just wanted to make this point.



To DonRoyale:
I have read the rules, plus I have been here for almost a year longer than you so you don't have to fill me in on stuff like "Know the rules before you start making demands of the moderators." Plus I didn't make any mistakes in the thread, as a matter of fact I usually read the rules, and I never had your experience of posting a game or a hack without screenshots...