Over the time I've been here, I've heard stories of questionable actions taken by staff. Of staff being overtly rude etc etc.

I usually lean towards the side of the complainer being heated. Isn't that how we all are? Things are just terrible when they involve us, so we inflate. Human nature I suppose.

But today I saw a private message that was posted that frankly made me angry.

Now I concede that posting private messages is against T&C, although I don't understand why, but that's for a different day. But the content of this message, I believe, should not have been taken off. In short, it was a staff member being just down right rude to a member. Said member had a question about a glitch and used the thread to let off steam in a rather funny way. Nothing offensive I saw, nothing that crossed any line, nothing that wasn't light hearted fun. But this Staff member came after the member in a private message. Cowardly if you ask me, The thread was open. The staff member could have posted their thoughts there for all to see. Instead they decided to be a jerk in private. Sadly, the member didn't post which staff member it was. I'd like to see that honestly.

A short time later, the post was blocked out because of T&C violation (fair enough) and the member made another comment, one that this member saw as asking a question but doing so in a humorous manner. A staff member then came along and simply said to "quit while you are ahead"

then BAM! thread closed hammer. I'm always against closing a thread unless it is a duplicate. It's cheap, it's cowardly, it's shady. Why not allow for the discussion to continue?

Add to that some less than helpful Staff member responses I've seen, blowing people off etc, I'm disheartened by this site some more. I don't mean to sound like the "this place isn't what it used to" because it still is. It's crazy people coming around to talk to other crazy people. What I am saying is staff might need to take a look at things a little better.

The "everyone is more on edge" excuse doesn't work. the "we don't get paid" doesn't work either. When one accepts a job, they accept to do it to the best of their ability and not let outside things interfere. My job puts me in a position where I catch crap all day. Seriously, a porter potty has a better job than I do. (thankfully today is my last day) But I would have been fired day one if I let one rude customer effect how I treated another rude customer. I know the "it all piles up" excuse is used all the time but it doesn't make it right.

I'm not looking for an official response at all. This is just a rant after all. I just needed to get it off my chest. If it wasn't for the members who break news faster than anything I've ever seen, I wouldn't be here anymore. I've exhausted all the conspiracy theories in my mind. I'm just a news junkie.

Hopefully this will help me fell a little better.

Hope so.

It's really up to the member and the staff member to work it out, or for the member to seek out the intervention of other staff members. We do police our own, and I've seen mods go in my time here when they've behaved consistently in an "un-mod-like" manner.

I say consistently, because despite various theories, most of us are only human, so we can have an off day or two just like anyone. That said though, our actions should always be answerable to "is this the best thing to do for the site"....

It's hard to make a judgement call without knowing the whole story though, and you're in the same boat we are there. Would have to see EVERYTHING about the issue from start to finish, as you could be (and likely are) getting only part of the story about whatever issue this is...

Things can happen in messages and chat for example (like threats, non-T&C behavior, etc.), that aren't generally visible to the membership at large, but have a lot of bearing on the issue.