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Note: After reading this post, call me a suck-up or kiss-ass if you want, but you'd be wrong. I have no need to kiss anybody's ass, and indeed am old enough, mature enough, and successful enough in my real world career that I do not feel any need to kiss anybody's ass.
Moreover, using the term "you're a suckup" is really just vernacular for saying "I can't think of any legitimate counterarguments."
So spare us all your bull-blam!-.
Anyway, I think that the desire to be a moderator must be a personal preference. It is a hard job and clearly not for everybody. Your list of reasons that some people might not want to be moderators is certainly accurate, but I disagree with your overall tone of trying to persuade EVERYBODY not to become a moderator.
Some people like this kind of thing and some don't. For those people who think that moderating is appealing merely because it is a position of power, I hate them and everything they stand for, and I pray that these people never make it to ninja status. I cannot stand the thought of anybody sitting at a computer and salivating over the opportunity to blacklist somebody - it's both disgusting in a way and disturbing in others. Many chapters, who will not be named here, are horrifying displays of what the real forums would be like if these kinds of individuals became moderators. Petty squabbles, unjustified punishments, and overproud boasting run rampant in many of the groups.
But for those of us who do not see moderating as a power trip, and prefer to be leaders, there are many valid reasons that we WOULD want to become moderators. Ironically, these reasons are actually often the same as the reasons that you've listed NOT to become a moderator.* Having Responsibility:
Some people like having responsibility. This is how CEOs, politicians, and other various kinds of leaders are born. Sure it's hard work, but a leader craves that work and feels a sense of responsibility and pride. In their own way, moderators are leaders: they guide the forums, they keep things clean, and, like Achronos mentioned before, they indirectly are often seen as the voice of Bungie.
You raised a legitimate concern: some people want to become moderators for the wrong reasons and, like you, later realize that they didn't factor in how hard it would be.
But this does not mean that everybody feels this way. Those of us who do not get scared or apprehensive at the thought of having more responsibility are the kind of people that SHOULD want to become moderators.
* Hard Decisions and Challenges
Decisions can sometimes be hard to make, but some people excel in making them. To again analogize to the real world, look at judges in courts around the world. They face decisions that are far beyond the level of difficulty that anyone in these forums will ever have to make. Yet they do not shirk this duty. Rather, they embrace it. I am so impressed with the decisionmaking process of judges in the court systems that I wrote a paper about it for my law school scholarly writing requirement.
People who may wish to become moderators (again, those who wish to do it for the right reasons) embrace the mental challenge of deciding the fate of a bad post or bad poster. Moreover, they love the fact that there is a set of rules (much like the "law" in the real world) that must be applied to the facts of the case. Every post is different, and sometimes it is not so obvious whether a post should be locked (see This controversial thread and Achronos's reply regarding locking it on page 5 of that thread).
For people who relish the challenge and opportunity, moderating can be an intersting and fulfilling way to spend your free time outside the real world.
* Hate Mail - Not a Problem
The moderators with whom I've had in-depth discussions without fail say that the hate mail does not bother them at all. This, however, would obviously not be true for everybody who became a moderator.
Those who are able to take the good with the bad and just let it roll off of their shoulders are the kinds of people who would excel at moderating. Provided that they meet the other traits of a good moderator, they are the individuals who will continue to want to moderate despite the hate mail.
* The Suck-ups and the Spammers - Not a Problem
I have asked moderators many times in my role as an interviewer for The Guide how they feel about PMs and MSN Instant Messages regarding bad posts. I have asked them both on and off the record, to see if I'd get a different response. To a person, they always say that they appreciate it and it occasionally makes their job easier. And I believe them when they say it.
People who despise suck-ups should probably not become moderators. So in that respect, you are right. People who do not mind it and do not allow suck-ups to lull them into a false sense of superiority are the kind who are proper to become moderators.
As far as spammers go, similar rules apply. Some people get personally offended and/or stressed out by people trying to piss them off. Others just kind of shrug it off. Any good leader is going to have to deal with, at some point, somebody who is PURPOSELY trying to piss them off. If you can't deal with it, you shouldn't submit yourself to the role of leader. If you can, then you are right to want to become a moderator.
* Most importantly, Making a Difference and Helping the Community
Gosh, this one is self-explanatory. If you care about the Community, what better way to do it than to use your abilities to clean up the forums and your newfound recognition to start great Community projects that bring people together and make them proud to be a part of all of this?
In conclusion, many people have a legitimate desire to be a moderator. And it is not for power hunger (I, for one, have plenty of power in the real world. Having "power" on an internet website is completely irrelevant to my motivations to do or be anything) or for more respect. It is rather for the reasons I have outlined above, which are just as valid as your reasons for NOT wanting to be a moderator.
Like I said, it's not for everyone. But it is for some.
[Edited on 3/14/2007]