How has your perception of 4chan changed from being a user to a mod/janitor?For me it was for the better, at first it was sort of overwhelming at the size of the community, being around sort of the same. Now being a janitor gives you a chance to give something back. Unfortunately you become frustrated at times because you deal with the bad, but the good makes you feel nice for what you do.
The transition mostly reinforced some ideas and suspicions I already had, for better and worse. If anything, it answered some questions I had with more questions.
Granted I'm fairly new, but it hasn't really changed too much. I still prefer contributing to the boards I like with posts rather than moderation, so my relationship with them isn't too different, although I'm really happy about being able to lend a hand to clean up what needs cleaning.
>>2705You mean other than reinforcing the idea that the average 4channer is a complete jackass?I suppose it's been nice finding out that all my speculative rambling on /q/ hasn't been all that far off the mark when it comes to how Janitors function. It's also nice being able to do more for 4chan than just looking at ads and buying a Pass.All in all, I'd say the experience has been totally worth it, even with the frustration and little annoyances.
I love /mu/ so much more now that I realize that our problems are totally minute and our users totally tame compared to what some of you poor bastards have to put up with.
>>2711Right there with you.Also, this may sound strange, but something makes me feel relieved knowing that so much of the shitposting I deal with appears to be a handful of really bored Anons and not dozens and dozens of dedicated posters hellbent on breaking rules.
>>2708I will admit that my overall view of posters in general has degraded, as I see a lot of them as like you said, Jackass. But you have to see that when our job is to deal with the shit, it often mucks up the good.
4chan is exactly the same for me, except now I can actively assist in removal of such shitposting instead of having to wait.
>>2713So very much true.Oh, I should also add that it has made me much, much, much less likely to hit the Report button on threads I don't Janitor since I know I'll just be pawning off some annoyance on one of you poor slobs, especially if it's in the middle of some inane thread and you'd have to go look at the whole thing just to get context.I've taken to only hitting report on illegal things I can't otherwise do anything about and am not on IRC to just tell you about it. XD
>>2716I'm the opposite. I trust my own judgment and am very trigger-happy with the lack of report cooldown.
Hasn't really changed my perspective much, although it did satisfy my questions regarding how everything works.Being in this position has made me appreciate quality posters a lot more. We make boards less shit, but quality posters make the board good or even great. While it's not mutually exclusive to be a janitor and a quality poster, I don't publish my own games, participate in drawthreads, give away kawaii dice bags, or answer Magic questions with the authority of a DCI judge. Oh, sure, I contribute, but not to the extent that I see some users do. Mad props to them.I like the no-cooldown perk, and sometimes I'll just sit on another board and report a bunch of posts, because I know it helps the others to focus their attention on problem posts.
>>2713its pretty weird when you find friends of yours shitposting or samefagging, but oh well...
It's definately odd peering through the looking glass but it does give me a unique perspective on how the boards I visit work. I am working on learn trends, seeing ways to improve and work on doing my best to silently monitor and moderate the boards.The bad can get frustrating but the good can be rewarding. That's what spurs me on, just knowing that the work I do helps the boards motor on.
Also it's made me realize that a lot of the userbase doesn't have a good understanding of the rules and how it applies to the boards.
>>2724>my post was [board subject] related, so it can't be breaking the rules!
>>2725Yeah, this is basically what I meant.Thanks for phrasing it better/in likely a more understandable way.
>>2724Everyone likes to interpret things in their own special little way. Frankly, I'm sometimes impressed at the creativity involved with some of the loopholes they can find.
> How has your perception of 4chan changed from being a user to a mod/janitor?Perception of /co/:It really hasn't changed. I'm more prone to be annoyed because now that we're "janitors of the human condition" (to quote Morgan Freeman in Nurse Betty), garbage is thrown in our faces that we used to be able to ignore, but in general I think the things that make me prefer /co/ to other boards still apply. Perception of /tv/:This was my first experience wrangling a board that had gotten far out of control and it necessitated a lot of out of the box thinking (esp. with one of the imagespammers) to get some of it behaving more like an imageboard with discussions and less like a memeshit/feet/underage-worship dungeon.Perception of how 4chan itself works as an organization:As users who don't know too much about how things work behind the scenes, we tend to latch onto every rule, decision and comment to infer things (e.g. agendas) which management here aren't necessarily implying. It's frustrating not being able to reassure friends that 4chan doesn't have a particular ideological bent responsible for whatever perceived trend they're sure is ruining 4chan forevar.
>>2819>It's frustrating not being able to reassure friends that 4chan doesn't have a particular ideological bent responsible for whatever perceived trend they're sure is ruining 4chan forevar.We don't?With regards to "how 4chan works" being in this position really made me see just how much sunshine and rainbows 4chan requires to make it run. Always feels like we're on the brink of the next big shitstorm or collapse, but, as a wise man once said, we're all gonna make it brah.
Not to be one of "those" guys, but definitely for the worse.I really enjoy being able to make a positive difference in the community but when your job (or volunteer position) is around punishing rule breakers you can no longer just tune out the rule breakers.It doesn't help being on /vg/ where 90 percent of the posters are off topic shit posting ban evaders.
By far the largest shift is not being able to look away.Things sure look bad before you join. After all that's why most send in their applications: They saw a problem and thought they could help out, do their bit to keep the site they have enjoyed so much over the years just decent enough for everyone else. If you're spending a lot of time browsing the boards already, then why not use those hours in a productive way?Now the bad parts that you used to ignore are front and center every moment you check on reports. Lurking is no longer fun or boring at the very least, it's active patrol and you can't just look away from the obvious rules infringements. And you pray that maybe it's not just you for that shift, that maybe by the time you click delete it will give an error because someone else got it first. So I do miss that, being able to just ignore threads and trust that someone else will get to it instead of being able to recognize most furry scat porn ever made by the thumbnail.
