Why are site moderators SUCH pricks?

[The Curmudgeon]

Er, except me, of course. But then, I started this site because I didn't want to be, and indeed was sick of, the following;

For about six years now I've been going on a wrestling site; leaving comments, starting threads.. usual stuff. In fact, I reigned in my usual Hate Monger schtick because I actually enjoyed going on there, and didn't want any "trouble" in the first place. I didn't really start any arguments, because, let's face it, people who actually argue over fucking WRESTLING need to be blasted off into space away from the rest of the species.

Anyway, the site was a spin-off of sorts of a main site that was originally created by one guy. And that site used to be a joy. Like the Lolcats/Fail sites I go on all the time now, it was great - updated regularly and a lot of fun.

Then, for whatever reason, the guy got bored and barely has anything to do with the actual site anymore. His last "weekly update", for example, was from about eight months ago, if not more. There are now new writers and it's just not the same. And anything the original guy DOES contribute is, well, barely worth mentioning. What a comedown, right?

So when I happen to mention this fact, in a discussion with someone else, actually praising the spin-off site as now being superior to the original one, guess what happens?

I get banned. No warning, no reasoning, no e-mail or anything. After six YEARS of visiting and contributing to a website, I make ONE backhanded comment (and a compliment at that), and my I.P address is now banned from that site. I actually had zero idea WHY I was banned, I figured it must've been a mistake. It was only through talking to some guy through e-mails I found out why. Apparently I pissed off "the wrong people" pretty bad. Fucking mods, man.

Of course, this isn't the first site I've been banned from. And, of course, in some places I actually go looking for it. But there have been many cases of some power hungry nerd with an itchy "ban member" finger that have seen me booted out places for little to no reason. No joke, I was actually banned once from a site for referring to myself in the third person. The Curmudgeon couldn't believe it.

What's that saying about how power corrupts? Because in the case of website mods, it's 100% true. Anyone else come across asshole moderators with no sense of humour and a messiah complex?

[trashcanman]

I've been driven off of some sites before I even signed up. I joined Adult Swim's message board for a time and there was a "rant section" so I posted a rant about the mods not allowing cursing when half the shows on Adult Swim are violence and profanity-ridden and twisted. A few members told me not to complain. On a fucking section of the board dedicated to rants. That was my last post. Too stupid for me. I went to a board for a video game show (which precedes AOTS) where the hosts always made jokes about the stuff that was posted there and it sounded funny so I checked it out. Holy shit. I swear to God almost every single thread was locked ans shut down after no more then 3 posts. I'm talking 3 out of every 4 threads or so ended with a mod making a very curt bullshit excuse about why he was locking the thread. For example, one poster suggested that the show was more fun a few years ago the it is now and he got tagged for trolling and threatened with a ban. It was ridiculous. You could only comment about the show, but you could not comment on the quality of the show and you had to search the entire board to make sure nobody had made a similar comment in a thread before you posted or they'd lock it straightaway. The threads that were not locked were mostly from the same 3-4 people who were terrified that "noobs" were going to invade their message board and start posting stuff too. A new member was attacked because one of the long-time members said that you should read x number of threads before you could post a comment on a thread, and then you had to post x number of comments on other people' threads before you could even THINK of starting a thread of your own. I could not fucking believe this shit. I never went back.