Bully!

This is what a player called me today. Not just once, but twice!
The player sent in a ticket to Support claiming that I am nothing more than a bully to him because he beat me. I should not represent the site because I am this terrible bully and I made his rank go way down.
He also went to my profile page and left me a comment saying essentially the same thing. it is my fault that his rank went down.
I wish I had control over the players ranks as my own rank stinks. If I could change the ranks, surely I would improve my own lol
I get quite a chuckle out of the players at times, more so when they give me more credit than I am due.

Tired

I'm tired lately. Perhaps it is due to too many hours looking at player chat or just being on this computer. Who knows?
Part of it is I am tired of players that say really stupid things then wonder why they have been chat banned. Or players that come into the middle of a conversation and get offended without having all of the information. I can do without either of these types, believe me.
The Mod boss is back, sort of. She comes and goes as she wishes and I have no qualms with that, I am happy to see her return. She did leave the two temporary bosses listed as Supervisors though and I'm not sure what is up with that. Guess she'd rather he and I read all the lobby chat instead of herself lol
It is a good thing I have broad shoulders, this job certainly requires them as well as a sense of humor. Without those two things I would be doomed...

Another Mod

Finally got us another chat moderator! Nice guy, everyone likes him, including the players so that is always a plus. Took a long time though, process can be slow without some things like the Head Mod coming back to work lol
Plus one Mod that has been missing for a while now is back. His mother was gravely ill and I told him to stay with her, the heck with the game site. Family first :)
Now I just have one more player to add to the Mod list. He is having some surgery in a few days so he is waiting to see how that goes before committing :)

Too Touchy

Maybe it was the weekend, maybe it was the hot weather, maybe, just maybe, it was sheer silliness on their parts.
This weekend I managed to irritate two players both of whom decided they no longer wish to chat when I am around. Not sure if that was supposed to upset me but it doesn't bother me at all.
The first one wanted to continually talk about cake. He must have thought it was incredibly humorous but I did not. After my shift was over and I was hanging around the next shift he wanted to start back with talking about cake. The Mod on duty groaned (we had discussed it already in private). The player asked if people were tired of his cake talk and I replied that I had gotten tired of it 4 hours earlier. He left the lobby in a huff and I haven't seen him chatting there since.
The other one I upset last night. Not entirely sure what I did, probably asked them not to hog the chat lobby with their inane chatter about nothing. Who knows, who cares? He said he was leaving, we all said goodnight but he didn't leave, he was still playing on the site a few hours later. After my shift had ended he was back in the lobby chatting away again. Ugh.
The worst part of these two touchy people is that one of them seriously wishes to become a Mod! If he cannot take the mild criticism of me telling him he may be chatting way too much, how in the world is he ever going to take the abuse from players that Mods often get? You cannot be that touchy as a Mod, you can't just leave in a huff either, that just totally irritates me no end when Mods try to do that!

Great Joke

Last night in the lobby I was having a bit of fun with one of the players and another Mod. The Mod had used a bunch of capital letters in a sentence, a rule violation. I was teasing the Mod about having to take away his chat for that like we do the players.
One of the players was telling me things like kick him hard! and make sure to leave a red mark with that boot.
The other Mod had to go to work so we decided to have some fun with the player. The Mod didn't say good-bye in the lobby and, after awhile, another Mod came into the lobby to ask me what happened to Bubba. I told her I gave Bubba three hours of silence for using those caps. The player was horrified! Kept telling me over an over that he was just kidding, he didn't really want me to boot Bubba. It was hilarious!
Off and on for the next seven or eight hours the player would mention that I booted a fellow Mod. A lot of the players now must really think I am a tyrant. If I will boot a moderator what chance do they have to misbehave? LOL
I guess I will have to send the player a mail telling him he just had his leg pulled, it was all a joke.

Like Little Children

I really love my job as a chat moderator but there are times when I wonder why. Yesterday I chat banned a player for bashing the Mods and he is terribly upset. It appears that he feels as though he is being picked on, singled out perhaps and he doesn't understand why.
He complained on a forum where all the other players can see it and reply if they so wish. I replied explaining that bashing the Mods will not be tolerated and advising him to read the chat rules of the site. This apparently made him angrier and he now thinks calling me a nasty little man and saying that I am not God will win him favor? hmmm...one of us is dumber than I thought.
I never once thought of being a Mod as being God, I just enforce the rules as the site asks me to do. Most days go by without a hitch and all the Mods are thankful for those days. Some days we just are left to scratch our heads and wonder why we put in so many hours every day of the week without any payment.

I don't care

In the game room that I moderate chat for there are many players from all over the globe. Some of them truly do struggle with English and sometimes get frustrated when I or another Mod has told them they must use English only. I can sympathize with their problem and I try to be lenient with them and tell them to do the best that they can or use a translator. I have to laugh at the translators though as even they sometimes don't get English quite right.
Some foreign players swear they don't speak English. They tell us that IN English! LOL And, if you tell them that you will take away their chat if they don't use English it is surprising how many of them can actually swear in English! Not bad for not knowing the language.
But the players that always crack me up and make the mods job easier is when they have been told that you will take away their chat they reply with "I don't care". If they don't care, I don't care either. Simple enough. It's just too bad that these are the players that so frequently complain that the mods took away their chat for three hours or however long the ban was. Gee, I thought they didn't care.

The Boot

As a chat room moderator I sometimes have to deal with people that really do not want to chat. They would prefer to get booted, meaning they lose their chat ability. They can read but they cannot respond. I do not like to use the boot but sometimes it is inevitable.
Players get cranky and that is understandable. If things are not working properly for them they come to the lobby and either ask why or they vent their frustrations. Venting is fine so long as you don't vent too much or start to bash the site. If you are asked to stop whatever it is you are doing then you should stop and most players will. Some, however think they are above the rules and continue on and on until the mods have no choice but to give them the boot.
Last night I had to boot someone from the lobby. Spent considerable amount of time talking about how he had been on the site longer than any of those of us in the lobby, how the site should make him a premium member because of that tenure, blah, blah, blah.
Then he decided he wanted to argue with one of the mods. That is a no-no. He was warned, twice, to stop. But, on a roll, he went forward. First he got a soft boot meaning that he could log off, log back in and his chat is restored. Normally this cures players. Not this lovely guy.
Immediately upon his return he started back in, arguing about anything and everything and bashing the site. I lost my normal cool and booted him, hard. Twelve hours this time!
A short time later a friend came in and started giving the other mod hell for booting his friend, defending the one I booted. I let him know he was bitching at the wrong mod and why his friend was booted. He wanted to argue with me now. I told him that, unless he wanted to follow his friend with the boot process he should stop arguing and go play. Thankfully, he did.
When I boot someone I have to copy all the chat that led up to the booting and put it on a forum page so that the head mod can read it the next day and decide if I was right or wrong or if I should have banned the player for a longer period of time. It is time consuming and none of the mods like to do that "paperwork".
Alas, there are times when one just has no other recourse than to use The Boot.