One of the reasons I think some players have some not-so-great feelings about the staff, is the fact that often times, the staff are extremely quick to simply shoot down suggestions that they might be doing something incorrectly.
It stinks to be criticized, called 'lazy', etc. and I fully understand why people may be so quick to shoot it down, but I think it would greatly help everyone involved if everyone was to read it, consider it, and put into action what people suggest.
Just because you didn't see it happen, doesn't mean it didn't happe
This goes for both sides.
Just because you don't see a moderator doing work, doesn't mean they aren't, and just because a staff member didn't see another staff member act out doesn't mean they didn't.
It is so incredibly hard to have a proper discussion with someone who hasn't experienced what you have. For example, you can tell someone all you want that you saw a pink cow, but if they haven't seen it themselves, the odds are, they will not believe you.
Something else to add, is the fact shooting down criticism so quickly takes no benefit from said criticism. There are so many of these threads, and complaints nowadays that most of the staff members have got to be starting to think "Oh, great, another one of these" rather than thinking "I wonder what we can fix!". It is literally impossible to please this entire community.
One of the reasons I think some players have some not-so-great feelings about the staff, is the fact that often times, the staff are extremely quick to simply shoot down suggestions that they might be doing something incorrectly.
For example, when someone criticizes something, for example responding to hacker pokes, and they are met with a reply that says something along the lines of
"No, the moderators do reply! I've seen it!" both people are met with a real conundrum. The 'antaganist' (person with the negative opinion on the situation) has had negative experiences with this, and knows about it first-hand, hence sharing their opinion. The 'protagonist' (person with the positive opinion) has not experienced a moderator not replying to a poke, and thinks they surely must always reply from past experience. Neither of the two have experienced much of, or any of what the other person is referencing, making it hard to get anywhere.
I bet that even if the staff was absolutely perfect, and not a single staff member ever stepped out of line, people would complain and say they "needed to loosen up a bit", or "have some fun".
Something else I've seen brought up by someone (I think it was mooclan) was that you can't expect moderators too be perfect, and that everyone needs to start somewhere. I agree- nobody is perfect, and everyone starts somewhere, but that place to start shouldn't be a staff position.
I remember, and still occasionally read for a good laugh, my old moderator applications. One of the first things I did was apply for moderator. My grammar, was awful, and I really had no reason to be a moderator, granted I just joined the forums. While this isn't most likely the case of any moderators, I thought I could start as a moderator, and figure it out as I went.
There is a lot more to moderating than meets the eye- clearly not my eye at that point
While we can't expect moderators to know everything, do everything- and do it perfectly, we should expect them to know the ramifications of their job, and how to do their job. It shouldn't be an excuse to say new moderators are still 'learning' when they fail to do something, because while they may be learning commands, and details, they should already know what it is they need to do, just maybe not exactly how.
In the end, I think there comes a point where you have to let it go. Thing is, the way other people do their job shouldn't be your problem unless you're their boss. Don't take it upon yourself to be the single person to make change- because you can't (learned this lesson the hard way). Just have fun and play the game, and let everything else work itself out.
Dying to a hacker that you poked a mod about, but got no response? Let a higher staff member know, and let it go. You've done your part in reporting that staff member, and there is nothing else you can do, so let it go. It's in the hands of the higher staff, and if they don't do anything, so be it. You know not to poke them next time.
Life is not an inspirational tumblr quote. You can't fix everything, and one person can't always make a huge difference.
Don't take it upon yourself to be the batman to this "Gotham city".
The only thing you're doing in obsessing over "bad" staff members, or staff members obsessing over "bad players" is ruining your fun.
If we could all just relax, and play the game like it was meant to be played, I bet it'd be a hell of a lot of fun.
Well, that's basically it for my point of view. Thanks for reading that lengthy post XD
TL;DR-
read it, you goon