I've been with Trap17 for only a few days now and am trying to familiarize myself with everything they have to offer. The moderators have especially helped me with everything and have made me comfortable with Trap17. One thing as caught my attention though. It seems that many users act as though they are moderators themselves, which confuses me quite bit. To clarify, a member by the name of Albus Dumbledore has been acting exactly like a mod. Some of his replies and thoughts are those of a mod. Also, some other members have been mimicing this member and doing the exact same thing. I don't understand, why members like Albus make replies and question authority when they themselves don't have those rightsas well? Are these so called "members" apart of the Trap17 family. If not why even bother to have mods if people like Albus Dumbledore are in power of controlling the forums. Doesn't make sense to me, and I believe is a strong topic!

it seems he is higher on the rank than you and if you talked to him you would realize he knows he isnt a mod....he just knows alot...hehe maybe tooo much about this trap17 and xisto....so sit back and do what 'ya told haha jk...but hes cool so dont flame him!

It's not that he is acting as a Mod but he tries to help out like them to lessen up their jobs. I try to do the same thing as well. It's not like he can warn you or anything but tries to help where it's needed especially if the mods aren't around. He isn't higher up than you, just hosted and has been around a bit longer so we try to help them out as well because we are sort of like family here.

Albus posts are what we look for with our members. Quality, straight to the point without any spam. Members like Albus who have been here awhile do what is neccessary to help the mods and admin out. Call it if you wish under the table senority over the rest the of the members that have been here for awhile. Also thats what we look for in moderators as well, people who keep the peace between members and keep the forums spam free and help others out if they got questions if a mod or admin are not around.

It's stuff like what albus and others do that we take notice on who could become a perspective moderator on our forum. The reason we have mods is so to punish those who break the rules and maintani order if all our members followed the rules then the only job the moderators would is answer questions. But since some people join this forum act like 2 year old's we have to set them straight, but if out older members get to them before we do, then we don't have to punish them because by them they would have fix it themselves instead of us fixing it for them.

Albus has been with Trap17 for a very long time. You're right, he isn't a moderator, but we like members who are mature mannered. He is just that. He isn't trying to be authority, even if he talks like it. A lot of members here talk like moderators.

There are 3 user groups
Mods
Admins
Members(Hosted included)

There is no rank higher then member and lower then moderator aggie. Rank doesn't mean anything, we're all "Members".

i dont have controll of the forums.. i dont have controll of anything.

if you are refering to the argument about religious beliefs and stuff of that nature that was in the shoutbox and me trying to stop it, i was meerley asking them to stop. i can not make them stop doing it. they could have kept doing it, but like i told them if they kept arguing about it i would simply report them to a mod who does have the power to do somthing about it. which is what i did. and i believe they got banned from the shoutbox because the mods looked back on the argument and saw it fit to ban the both of them from the shoutbox for a certian amount of time.

as you said, i am just a member, but i am a member who wants to see these forums to be kept clean and 'safe' in a way.

what do you mean i make reply's and question authorities?

this is the report i sent to the mod




but if you are refering to another incident, let me know and i will explain my actions

This post has been edited by Albus Dumbledore: Oct 20 2006, 01:37 AM

Coolduck123456,
Good topic. I'd like to have my say here, too, since I wrote that reply to Albus D, I feel I should be able to defend the position I explained in the reply.
The Trap17 Hosting is dependant on these Forums for advertising revenues. Each time someone requests a page, the income generated by the ads helps to cover the cost of the servers, etc. So, the more ads that get displayed, the more money Opaque has to 'squander' on the members here at the Trap17.com facilities. Hosted or not, these ads pay for the services here. And the best way to have people like you and I visit here is to make this Forum a good place to come to acquire information, tips, tricks and assistance for our Projects. Some come to socialize and rarely glean anything out of the place, but the point is that a well maintained 'decorum' around here is critical for most of the user's to have a good positive experience. And as outlined above, the more members visiting more often, the better it is for all of us.
So, there is another issue that blends in to the revenue side of things. All the Moderators and Admins here are volunteers. We don't get a plugged nickle for the time we spend on the site. That saves Opaque some dollars, too, but more importantly, because we have our lives outside the Trap, we can't be here all the time, so the more experienced Trap members assist us with some discipline and 'verbal' warning techniques. You apparently witnessed that in action one day last week.
Probably the biggest point to be made is that there is a sense of Community here which develops into a common desire to keep order in this Forum. Some of us are allowed to issue Warnings, Bans and Suspensions because of the actions of others, but in fact, we all should do what we can to promote Harmony and civil obedience here. We all benefit from that.

Thanks for listening.

I feel I have a need to give my view on this as an outsider. I think what Albus Dumbledore is doing is perfectly right, he is a model example of how a good member should behave. He is ever so regular on this forum, I can't give out that amount of time and dedication he does though, he writes constructive sentences and never fails to guide his fellow members around in the forum so that they do not make any mistakes which could put them in the 'red' meaning being warned by the admin or mods. I am pretty sure you would see Albus Dumbledore's posts or advice rather than seeing an admin's warning.

I think he has done the right thing in this case, guiding us and reporting bad posts is nothing wrong. Trying to stop any potential argument is also definitely not an issue, at least with me. I have never thought of him as someone who is trying to wave his power and a moderator despite not being one. We are all trying to promote this community as one with high quality and constructive posts, and naturally new members may not understand this concept. It is up to the older members like Albus Dumbledore to guide any users who might feel lost.

Even I at times, try to guide our new members and how to get their way around in this forum, what not to do and what to do. Because sometimes, they may post 1 liners which is not acceptable in our forum, or even quote the entire chunk and pass it as their own, these actions are not supported in this forum. The mods are there, but look at the scale of Trap17, it is so big, I don't even have the time to visit everyday, much less every single forum so I simply skip to my favourite ones.

Like what was said above, the mods are working on a non-profit clause, they are volunteering their precious time here, and like everyone of us they have a life. They have a responsibility towards this forum and they are executing their responsibility. But nonetheless, I feel every member should help out and do their part to notify any member who might commit a no-no and report to the mod if things get out of hand (A spammer spamming a rival web hosting site on trap17), things like that, these are some things we can do to lessen the load on the mods.

The other forum I am on has over 150,000 members, and at one point there were 2000+ online at once. It was very useful to the moderators to have people who would report the thread if something was going wrong, or someone was breaking the rules. Isn't it better that I tell them that they could get banned for saying that, and then they correct it, rather than a moderator turn up and ban them, and delete the post?

That is the same sort of thing that Albus Dumbledore does, which ends up as a better forum overall.

Hey now... being given a label of authority and some power doesn't mean that you have to act like it. You can act like a "normal member" even if you're a moderator. The only difference is you have the power to manipulate posts, change the warn level of the members and other things.

I try to help out as much as I can too... I hate spamming in the shoutbox, so I usually reprimand the person spamming and I report spam posts discretely. I'm not trying to act like a mod. I've been here long enough and I'm trying to help the mods out. It's not like they can monitor the board 24/7; As a member, I have this responsibility. I admit, at some point, I wanted to be a mod... A friend, (Saint_Michael) tried to cheer me on, but I realized that it's not a responsibility I want to uphold at the moment. I'm fine the way I am. Besides, I have the power to report... That's one of the best things I can do at the moment. I can't manage my time well enough to stay here and post often, so my credits are dwindling at a dangerous 1 digit number... O_o But when I do come over... I try my best to make content-rich posts. If everyone could do this, then... there would indeed be no need for moderators.