You know, pikachu, (and many others, not just you), it's (ab)users like you who have disgusted me and many/most of the other ops to the point we don't want to go there anymore.
We volunteer our time and skills to trying to help out the channel, some of us even volunteer other resources that cost us real money (take for example the hassle I had getting a static IP and what I payed for it here at the dorm so I could host a CGI gateway since Alex has yet to fix his, or the computer I have dedicated to running Bot_0 and it's IP on my company network). We spend tens if not hundreds of hours trying to ensure that the enviroment is one that truely helps others.
It's not an easy job, many people have very different opnions on various subjects, and are hostile to some other viewpoints. Fights happen, trolls happen, /b/ raids happen, people threaten us, even going so far as threatening to kill us, and even people who later went on to commit murder try to get info on chatroom ops (take willfreund as an example, offered me personally $500 for the real name and address of another op who banned him, because he wanted him dead. We all know what happened with that case, despite the numerous attempts made to warn local police about the guy.) Not to mention all the users who try to undermine us just because they disagree with the fact the chatroom has rules and refuse to take converstations to PM or the the alternative room which we don't regulate (except in extreme cases) and setup to allow converstations that *ARE* offensive to many in the main channel to occur.
But the biggest problem, in terms of stressing us, of all is usually long time users, such as you (and there have been a great many others, again, not singling you out) who, through one way or another, develop a personal problem with other long term users. In most cases, they are good users, usually constructive, have a lot to offer the channel, and, quite frankly, it's a personal matter outside the scope of the channel, and really has no place being there. We end up spending our time in channel acting as babysitters, to quote another op, "They don't need a channel op there, they need a kindergarten teacher to watch them and talk to them about how fighting is wrong, how it hurts everyone, etc. etc. etc." We don't want to ban the people involved, they bring a lot to the channel at times, we surely can't let them keep ripping eachother to shreds in channel, it disrupts everyone else, we try to talk to them, and we end up being the bad guys/gals, we are seen as taking sides, even when we act against both of them, or even just for asking them to stop fighting. We end up with them going and contacting others to plead their case for them, we end up with all kinds of "he said/she said", usually about stuff that didn't happen in channel, we have no assurance in the intergity of the statements we are getting, etc. Hell, we even get IRCops coming to us asking us if we can sort out the problems because they end up spilling into other places on the network quite often. And throughout all of this, it's almost never just one person being out of line, if it was, we can action to deal with that person without too much harassment (though I've had people harassing me for weeks over a 1 hour banning before for swearing and harassing someone of a different religion, simply because they were a different religion!)
Really, if you want to have channel operators who are willing to put the time, effort, and resources into helping the channel, at least show them the respect they deserve, and don't go and make their job worse. Don't bring personal problems into channel, don't take them elsewhere (#freenode, #defocus, other channels on the network), don't try to get others involved to "see your side of it" or to listen (at least not through channel, as that gets everyone involved, as everyone sees the msssages, everyone knows somehting is going on, and it destroys what little peace and quiet is there, as everyone feels the tension just under the surface), and, most of all, DON'T start fighting/baiting the other person just because you've got some little problem in your life they might or might not have caused you for whatever reason. LIFE in totality is such a dynamic enviroment, with so many personal differences, that NO ONE will ever find ANYONE who is completely identical in thoughts to them. People are all different, and these differences create friction between us when we encouter one another. Learn to accept that, learn to live with it, learn how to just go on with your own life when something doesn't work out with another person, and accept them for those differences. Don't come running to others, and trying to get them to make the differences go away, just because you don't like them.
I really don't know how to end this well, so I'll just say this: Please, treat others with respect, and if you can't bring yourself to respect someone, at least show the ideals on which we try to have the channel operate the respect, and by extension, respect the channel as a whole.
Section9/Bateau
13 Jan 2009, 5:49 am
