The Mod appreciation thread

[Luke]

Pimped your post, dusted off collar.

[ExedExes]

That would have been my



but then again I'm no mod.

[prfsnl_gmr]

This place is doing fine.

I know!

The other day I commented that Trick 'r Treat is just an OK movie, and no one threatened to murder me and my family! It was so civilized!

Um, about that...

...if you receive a box in the mail, and there are some red stains on the outside...don't open it. And don't go looking for your wife about it either... In fact, just go find a new wife...

I got the package, and my wife is fine.

...

...

...

WHO THE HELL DID YOU MURDER, ACK?

[Ack]

WHO THE HELL DID YOU MURDER, ACK?

I don't know, but I'm wearing her as a dress right now.

Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me.

[MrPopo]

WHO THE HELL DID YOU MURDER, ACK?

I don't know, but I'm wearing her as a dress right now.

Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me.

Goodbye horses... I'm flying over you...

[ZeroAX]

I say this with sincerity: this site is an island of sanity and clear thought in an ocean of swirling bullshit. We don't dwell on stuff like Gamergate and I can't imagine any other site being able to have something like the Unpopular opinions thread without it devolving into a crass pissing match.

You might think Jvalentine threads are bad but the Escapist has a poll up at the moment asking people how much they masturbate and it's one of the sanest they've had for a while.

This place is doing fine.

again?

They didn't have enough options last time and i told them to make a new one

[Exhuminator]

The Escapist was the second worst video game forum I've ever dealt with personally. So many people just looking for every excuse to offended and make a big fuss all the time.

[flojocabron]

Mods? I've done many of those in my day. I can still do some now. Robot Cookies was one I did recently. I was real proud of my fart gun too!

[Thierry Henry]

Totally selfless job. Nothing but respect for those that sign up.

Each forum has it's own particular set of dynamics to deal with. And I feel the mods do a great job here at RB.

I do notice a fair few delicate souls on here, and it wouldn't surprise me if the moderators get more than their fair share of complaints and what have you. If that indeed is the case then it would make me respect them even more having to deal with all that.

So yeah, as I say, from where I'm standing, they handle everything very even handed.

[fastbilly1]

Though I know this was bumped for this "holiday" but:

Thanks for giving us an insight on how the warning system is run. It seems fair.

Okay, it is in the past. I just feel a little sad that I've burned some small bridges with certain members over silly arguments. It is a pity.

Who's been here since the formation of the site? That's an interesting question.

Also, does the staff here know each other in real life?

Good question, and Fastbilly will be able to best answer. Fast is an admin and honestly, he does the heavy lifting along with another gent (not a mod). Fast fixes most issues with the forum to keep it running smoothly.

He and Ack are close irl, and they can comment on that more.

I know dsh has met a few guys irl, SB and noise, maybe others, again, he can comment more on that if he chooses.

Hobie is Mod+ and does a bit more on the member and cleanup side than regular mods.

Most mod work honestly is really boring stuff, merging similar threads, deleting spam, sending messages to not sell stuff the first 14 days, and occasionally seeing a conversation going too far off topic (or insulting, threatening, etc) and locking it down.

I joined the site in 2007, it was founded in 2005. I found the site through another one where I bought a saturn modchip off racket (2006 I believe). In 2007 I made a thing and sent a write up of it to racket since he was looking for content for this site:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/pac-man- ... oy-advance

I shortly after joined the site and won a contest for a copy of the book retrogaming hacks:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2494

So I have been here for eight years now, pretty much since the beginning. Ever since I joined the site it has been stable. The names have changed, but the site has been even tempered. There have been flair ups, but overall the site has stayed at a contest pace of posts and new members. In the years between 2008 and 2012 I was actively promoting the site in person all over the country and we grew substantially during those years (if I remember correctly we doubled userbase between 2009 and 2010). We also amped up our projects and articles for the main site (the main reason we grew). I roped in a good friend of mine from college, Ack, who I knew needed an outlet for writing while working a crappy job. However around 2010 we had the biggest project for the site hit a dead end when the Dreamcast database was eclipsed by the release of RFgeneration and a couple other databases. Literally years of work for dozens of people gone pretty much overnight. So the front page started to stagger. Also around this time, racket was going through a divorce, I just had a major breakup, and several other key members were having other real life issues. So the site really floundered for a few years other than Together Retro, which a few of those I pulled out of my but the day of.

Flash forward to today. The forums, still here, still moving along. Frontpage is slow, but going (we are down to about one big article a quarter, instead of one a month). Eventually the site will hit another stride and grow to the next level, but for now we are happy with the plateau.

However, if you have not noticed, I am no longer a mod. My title is admin, but my username is not colored like a mod so I do not have moderator abilities. I do backend work nowadays. Between the work of Racket, myself, and Matt (a 3rd party developer we employ for big jobs), the site works 99% of the time. This came around because this day last year flojo did a big bump of threads on EVERY forum and it really ticked me off. I put him on a temp ban for a couple days then knocked it down to a day, other mods chastised me for my choice (one stated that I was abusing my power), so I asked Racket to close my account. He offered for me to just handle the weekly cleanup and maintenance of the site, so that is what I do. On the side, since this year he only did a mass bump in this subforum, it was much more acceptable.

I liken my position to being a lighthouse keeper: I keep the light going, yall just sail by. I do not need to be thanked, none of us get paid (all revenue generated by the site goes immediately back into development and hosting), nor do I get any real benefits (occasionally I will be contacted by a company if I want to demo or beta something for them), but I like the site. I like the people. I like the conversations. Just people need to not be stupid and bugger everything up. Sure conversations get heated, but be we can all be more tolerant. We can talk about anything and everything, just dont bash others if they think differently. Intolerance is what will kill the site. I cannot tell you how many solid members have come to me after they left saying that they left because they felt persecuted. Sure, no forum will hold every user forever, but we have lost a number of solid people over the last year because of our religious intolerance specifically.

I have met numerous folk in real life. I have known Ack since 2003 as well as a couple folk related to that group. Racket I met in 2008. Modman in 2009. Pephery the Worm in 2010. Tons more that I cant think of off the top of my head. But I was doing in person advertising. Depending on work this year, I may schedule a trip up to see Midwest or NE folk. I would love to go hang out with Spacebooger's family or hold something over Noise's head so he has to jump to grab it. This is the first year in a very long time I am not going to Dragoncon, so if I do not go out of the country, I am renting a car and driving around the US that week.

The cliff notes or "TL-DR" version:
I have been here a long time, dont be a dick to eachother, possible roadtrip later this year.