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A Year in the Life of a Mod ......

P8ntballer.Com

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Mar 31, 2009
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www.p8ntballer.com
We thought we'd kick this new forum off with a subject that I'm sure a lot of people will have wondered about.
Our mods get paid nothing, they ask for nothing and spend spend hours of their week cleaning up our site from out of date posts/threads, abusive posts, spammers, scammers, trolls and Lord knows what else ......

They do all this behind the scenes and in some cases have many a threat directed their way - anything from mutilation to murder, from castration to crippling ... we've seen it all but as of yet, in fourteen or so years, not one threat has been carried out which pretty much tells its own story when it comes to internet hard-men.

And so, enough of this, Dusty is going to tell us what it's like to be one of p8ntballer.com's moderators:-


A year in the life of a P8ntballer Mod
[Written by Jim Montgomery, Dusty]

Before I start this article properly let me clarify that by and large, most of our forum members are really nice people. Honestly, I’ve never been involved with a bunch who will go out of their way to help strangers as much as the P8ntballer userbase.
You lot are BRILLIANT !!!
Except for the odd one, and I will emphasize the word ODD on this occasion because sometimes as a Mod, all I can do is look at the words in front of me and scratch my head in wonder at how some people manage to survive by themselves on a daily basis.
I’ll touch on specifics later down the page ☺

But how did I come to be a Mod?
Well, many moons ago I started playing paintball and was, like most of the people of my time, captivated by the glossy pages of PGi back in the mid to late nineties.
After a 3 or 4 year hiatus, and rediscovering our sport, the internet was now more prominent and forums were the place where the news was to be read.

PGi kept coming to my house until its unfortunate demise but in its place P8ntballer filled the void for the other 30 days of each month when I wasn’t reading that mag cover to cover.
Back in May 2004 I registered as a user, in awe of the tech knowledge and news that was being posted; there was a classifieds section where practically new markers were being sold off at a fraction of their RRP, pictures of them weren’t even necessary back in those days, I bought many, many markers from people completely blind and was never once disappointed.
Cost me a bloody fortune it did…….

4 or 5 years later and after meeting a few forum members and becoming a Platinum Subscriber (which ALL of you should do by the way) I was trying to be a help to new players; I was effectively addicted to the forum and I then received a PM one evening from one of the moderators, none other than Andy Piper.
He told me that if I wished to accept, there was an offer for being a section moderator in the Announcements Contacts and Queries forum - did I wish to accept?
Does a bear sh*t in the woods?
It was absolutely the last thing I expected to read, I genuinely believed I would never have been given the chance to be a Mod.
Back then it was an absolute privilege to be considered, never mind actually offered the position!!
Imagine, access to the Mods’ secret non publicly viewable forum which we all thought existed but couldn’t prove….. I was in the company of Gods.
These guys to me were witty, all powerful, eloquent and in positions of trust.
If a Mod said something was so, then it was gospel.

So what was it like?
Generally, pretty darn good. People started abusing me almost immediately!!
A sign that I was successful in my newfound position but you aren’t truly successful until you’d received a death-threat by PM, something I’m proud to say I have achieved on more than one occasion!!!

Since then I’ve had what can only be described as an “interesting” time on P8nt, dealing with everything from non-payment to non-delivery, missing items, missing brains, help finding Christmas gifts for other halves, dealing with scammers, finding them and where they play or who they play for, helping to raise some money for deserving people, sharing information with other forum mods among many, many other things.
Every day is different day on p8ntballer.com ...
I was once asked to sign a playing top - Verily, I am now a celebrity :D

Anyway, enough of the background, what’s it actually like?
Well, honestly, overall it’s just a part of my life now and something I try to look at on a daily basis.
Sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it’s rewarding, sometimes I wonder if people are honestly trying to wind me up!!
Here’s an example of the PM’s I get most days:-
“I’ve bought a thing and it hasn’t arrived” - that’s it - that’s what I’ve got to work with.
Engage standard 'response mode' – “Hi there, do you have a link to the sales thread?”

Answer A = no, can’t you find it?

Answer B = I bought it by PM/on Facebook (*NB* Yes people really do say this……) cue appropriate, usually 2 word response…….. Then reply politely :LOL:

Answer C = Sure, should have thought of that - here you go, *insert link*

So off I go to have a nosy; usually turns out ok and the buyer has been delayed by a day or two, no major drama.
Sometimes we do get a scrote and they’re out to fleece people so we do the best we can to recover the goods or the money and mostly we get there but sometimes our hands are pretty well tied.
That’s frustrating but we do have the power of the people and I have been known to phone site owners, tourney organisers, team captains etc and that can often help set the wheels in motion.
Once we did have some bright spark selling stuff by pm but he managed to copy ALL the mods in on the offer to sell his wares – Facepalm !!!!

Once in a while people will get banned or whatever, and they somehow feel obliged to email "the owner of the site " not knowing they're maybe jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
I'll get a pm from Robbo asking what happened and he picks up the baton, and kicks off with steam and smoke coming from his nostrils...
Sometimes it’s the buyer's fault and they’ve missed a package or indeed given a wrong postcode.
Sometimes people are just impatient and have only paid for the item the previous day.

Most days are spent tidying the classifieds and deleting the posts from chancers who can’t be arsed reading the rules or maybe we’ll delete a bit of spam which is usually deposited there overnight.
It’s basic housekeeping that we need to do on a daily basis but it is important to prevent our site from being flooded with cr@p.

Every now and then there’s a drama on the forum, we genuinely try to make sure we stay neutral and give everyone a fair chance to voice their opinions.
The problems arise when manners and common courtesy are forgotten and people start insulting; we can’t be having that so warnings are dished out or the ban-hammer is dropped.
It’s actually a big red flashing button on our keyboards issued by P8ntballer HQ.

When pushed, we the Mods, rally round, light a bonfire and burn the person’s username in the office’s metal wastebasket in a secret ceremony involving strippers and alcohol ;)
Yes, we vigorously enforce the rules with p!sstakers and we can seem strict at times but the rules have been developed over years of experience.
Net result is, our decisions are invariably made for the benefit of the vast majority of our members but there are always the few who we can’t keep happy.
Sadly that’s life but never forget we really are trying our bestest.
Sometimes I get entertaining pm’s from people who feel aggrieved that their sales posts have been deleted, demanding that the rules shouldn’t apply to them.
They think I’m some sort of Nazi keyboard warrior enforcing the rules arbitrarily and they’re being victimised.
It mostly ends with a ‘Sorry matey, I didn’t delete anything, here’s the link to your missing thread, it was on the second page of the classifieds’…….. :/

I did have one lad who suggested his kick-boxing prowess would be put to excellent use on my face because he had been caught out scamming someone.
After a quick Google it turned out he was 14, chubby and liked playing SuperMario Kart according to his Facebook page.
Oh how I laughed that day!!

[Editor’s note – For those who don’t know, Jim (Dusty), is a black-belt tutor in Tae Kwon Do hence his amusement]

As for the Mod team?
I really can’t praise them highly enough.
Every one of them without exception has done their job tirelessly: even with their “real” lives going on in the background.
This has included births, deaths, hospitalisations, personal disasters, broken cars, broken fridges, house moves and finances - We support each other through thick and thin.

I’m not ashamed to admit at one point I had enough and really wanted to leave the Moderating team as I couldn’t commit 100% to what I needed to be doing.
The support the guys gave me was flabbergasting, Robbo got in touch privately with counsel and the rest of them periodically stayed in touch with offers of help in any way they could.

Thankfully, I had a break of 6 weeks or so that went by fairly unnoticed as the other mods slid in and covered my stuff whilst I got myself back in order again.
Good bunch, I’d walk on a field with them any day.
The stuff we chat about in the Mods’ secret forum is good craic too, but really I can't tell much more than that ;)

We also try to help out where we can if one of our members falls on hard times.
Over the years, some of our site’s members have had some terribly tragic events to deal with.

Obviously most people know about the Leezo fundraiser and also Cook$, when he sadly lost his better half to cancer a few years back.
We had a whip round too for Nige whose bottle blew up at a tournament and put him in hospital, ruining his custom marker.
At times like those, it makes me proud to be part of a large community who can be so shamelessly generous, proud to be a part of the Mod group who work all the time to make the forum a pleasant place for YOU guys to hang out.
We also work hard at making p8ntballer.com a safe place to trade - everyone in paintball knows that our mods will do their utmost ensure people don't get scammed.
We've had several occasions whereby our mods have gone out of their way to make a visit to someone's house or field of play to redeem cash or product that they've tried to scam from our members.
I know of no other forum that has done this and this is yet another reason why I'm proud to be part of our bunch of mods.

At the end of the day we do try our best to make the forum a good place to spend an hour or three browsing, a lot of forum stuff is discussed between us and while we come up with the suggestions let us not forget our illustrious leader who finances and sanctions any improvements we might suggest.
Without him there would be no p8ntballer.com and the Internet would be a slightly less colourful place.....

[Editor's note - I think Dusty's article accurately explains what our mods experience - they are an extremely special bunch of people who I'm extremely grateful to because without them, there'd be no p8ntballer, it's a simple as that]
 

Dusty

Don't run, you'll only die tired....
May 19, 2004
7,606
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Northern Ireland
I bet half the members on here don't even read this thread! Personally I think the Mods on here do a great Job :) keep up the good work :)

You're probably right but that's something we're trying to change with general interest articles. Expect more articles as time moves on and if you have anything specific you'd like to see don't be shy and let us know :)
 

Spikerz

Super Moderator
Mar 25, 2014
1,834
732
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I liked the article, very cool to see a glimpse behind the curtain at the sausage factory.
 
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Reactions: Bolter

Ashleypowell

Member
May 27, 2015
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Ive always thought mods worked quite hard and were busy, but that takes it to a new level, also the dedication to being a mod looks like a major thing!
 

dfr350

Sad but true
Apr 22, 2007
557
115
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Bracknell UK
Interesting article. I totally sympathize with you all as I was a mod on a very busy AV forum once and it seemed like I was spending all my waking hours on it doing something or another. Mods get no recognition for all the work and hours they put in for free and are the first ones to be handed the sh*t when things go wrong.

Although I have had little contact with the mods on here (only Bolter) its much appreciated all the hard work you do and I hope you all keep it up as the No1 paintball forum IMHO.
 

Jay Wilko

Platinum Member for Life
Aug 19, 2015
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Wigan
Really enjoyed reading this, seem to be spending more and more time on this forum as time goes on, everyone seems helpful and friendly, it's all you can ask in a community as big as this.