Above the Law?

It happens everywhere. It doesn't matter what job you have, or what club you belong to, or what forum you've joined. There are always those coworkers, club members or forum users who believe that the rules don't apply to them.

"Well, yes, that's all well and good for the regular rabble... but I'm above that."

Then there are those that don't like the rules and seek to have them changed. That's an excellent plan, if the rules aren't fair. The problem is that most rules are designed with the idea in mind to be fair to as many people as possible. Not everyone will find every rule fair. Not every rule will apply to every person. For instance, a "no swearing" rule doesn't apply to the person who never swears. You can't prohibit an action that doesn't happen. I don't mean that some people can ignore the rules, I mean that it doesn't apply because they're not affected by them.

We all push the limits of what we're permitted to do. That's a human response, and a healthy one. But it's important to realize that the limits are there for a reason. If a person feels they've grown beyond the limits of a certain environment, it's not fair to everyone else in that environment to demand the limits to be expanded. It's time for that individual to move on to a different environment where the limits are more suitable.

What does this mean in terms of Planet Minecraft? I'll make it simple. A user can be the most charming person, contribute a ton the community, be helpful, but still cause issues by breaking rules. If the issues are affecting the enjoyment of other users, no matter how well-liked the user is, the user will receive warnings and bans. Does it matter if you're friends with the staff here? No, it really doesn't. In fact, quite often, if you are a friend of the staff, it means you're being held to a higher standard of behaviour than the average user.

Wait, I know what you're going to ask next. Is the staff of PMC held to the rules of the site? Yes, we are. We do receive reprimands and warnings. Do we abuse our power? Maybe some of us do. We're human beings. But just because we CAN abuse our power doesn't mean that every action we take is an abuse of power. Users on PMC see the end results: a warning, a temp ban, a project deleted, a permanent ban. What they don't see is what led up to those results. Trust me, there are many sides to every story. Your friend that was banned did NOT tell you the whole story of how he/she wound up banned. Nobody wants to look bad, especially in the eyes of their friends.

If a moderator's actions seem unfair or abusive, maybe you should ask yourself what else is going on that you do not know about, what you haven't been told, what you haven't seen for yourself. If it really concerns you, ask other moderators. Before screaming "abuse of power!" find out what's really going on.

For those of you that made it through this, thanks for reading. I know it isn't my standard rant, but I'm too drained to get angry about thing like this right now.

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