[Fum]

(Sorry everyone, I have too much time on my hands...some admittedly unnecessary and overly idealistic ramblings are about to ensue....)

Ever heard of it? No? That could be because the syndrome doesn’t exist, I made it up a year or two ago when I was running a forum of my own. What it is to me is when persons are given authority over a small and well-behaved community; these persons, understandably, feel a responsibility – or a desire - to make a difference, to exert their authority. Like a town cop (at least the cops in my town), there really is very little for them to do - there is very little speeding, and just about no crime. So they resort to bothering people on very minor infringements, and I’m sure I don't need to run down a list of examples, I bet most of you have first-hand experiences of being pointlessly “hassled” by the police at one point or another (and if you don’t, then you clearly aren’t extreme enough to be reading this.). You know how you feel after being “hassled,” there’s a little bit of a bitter taste in the back of your mouth, you feel belittled, and all around you are not as happy a person as you were before. With this kind of behavior, all the police really accomplish in the end is making the community feel slightly more negative and oppressed, and creating a barrier between the people with authority and those without. This is, obviously, not the way it should be, authority is given to keep everyone happy - but that is plainly not always the case.

Maybe you are a keen individual, and if you are, you probably know where I’m going with this, and see the parallels I’m trying to draw between town cops and this forum and its moderators and administrators. If you happen to be, say, a libertarian, you might see this as an insult, but I can assure you it is not. I like town cops as do I like moderators and administrators - I know they are necessary. But in most cases they aren’t perfect, and in most cases they could feasibly do their job better to make the community they serve better. Mostly it just comes down to attitude, plain and simple. So many people with authority tend to “talk down” to people without authority, intentionally or not, and this can very easily tick someone off, make them angry, and create a hostile environment. Avoiding a hostile environment can be as easy as a simple rephrasing of words while maintaining the same meaning.

For example, if someone is breaking a rule, one authoritative figure could be curt and aggressive about it towards the perpetrator, and exude a sense of superiority, but this will not settle anything, it will just incite whoever is misbehaving further, I have seen it happen so many times before. A little respect makes all the difference in the world. If the authoritative figure understands clearly that his/her job doesn’t make him/her in anyway superior to anyone else, and if this understanding comes through in the way they conduct themselves, it will create for a much more positive town, and also, a much more positive forum.

So now the authoritative figures are being respectful, but respectful hassling can still be a, well, hassle. People with authority should really practice restraint, and identify when the exertion of authority will actually help anyone or not. I was at a party a few months ago, one with a very minimal amount of illicit activities such as underage drinking; mostly people were just socializing, playing cards, playing pool, or watching television. And the party was busted by the town cops. A lot of people’s nights were ruined, some got in trouble, and I can’t at all see any positives that came from it. This got me thinking, though, more about the “town cop” syndrome idea, because the cops reminded me a little of how I used to be – in my younger and less intelligent days - when I was a moderator for a fairly large hardware forum. I admit I used to scour the forum for anyone breaking any rules, and jumped on the opportunity to close threads or delete posts or any other way I could feel like I was doing something. But in hindsight, the truth is that I could have helped out a lot more by respectfully trying to direct things back on track, or just allow the forum’s intelligent members to work things out themselves. Because there is no sense of finality for anyone that comes from closing threads or deleting posts, it is just irritating to everyone. Once I thought about it, I really doubt my closing threads or deleting posts really helped out at all, except when it came to the few topics that were nothing but flamewars or posts that were nothing but flamebait. And the town cops busting that party weren’t really helping out at all either, but in the end they do serve essential purposes.

I emailed something like this - with some of the above points - to the moderators of the forum I was running a few years ago, and they listened. I hope some of the moderators here will listen, even though in this case I’m not some big, powerful, administrator, just a lowly visitor. I’m not telling anyone what to do, I’m just working towards the same goal you are: to create and maintain a better community.

(Hot damn, that's a lot of text I just produced! This has got to be a forum record for the most words in one post.)