[Debate] Staff Abusing Powers

[Enchant]

Jun 29, 2008 20:28:56 GMT -8 Aqua said:

This member of this role play board made fun of my skills and when I asked for help the mods banned me..

Please make sure that you read the rules of the board you are posting in. You have to post at least four sentences to be part of the discussion otherwise you are not discussing you are making a simple comment. Thank you.

[Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
When they embarrass a member in front of the other members on the board.Such as instead of sending them a pm to resolve a problem they post it where all the members can read about it.
When they enforce the rules to be followed by members and or they will be either banned,warned or deleted from the board and the staff member themself is breaking the rules left and right.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
It really depends on the disagreement in question.Like if someone continually told me how to run my own board I would warn them to stop then after that I would end up banning them.
If the disagreement was less of something then I would just give a warning and if it continued then it would end up being a ban.
Disagreement on the rules I set would definitely be a ban cause I have them there for a reason to be followed and not broken.Although its fine to break them once in awhile as I have done so on my boards but when a member just disagrees with your rules and their telling you its not right then I wouldn't hesitate to ban.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
That would be totally wrong to ban them or even warn them.Everyone has a right to their opinions and thats fine.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
No thats not right cause everyone has a right to their own opinions and a post should not be deleted then.
If they posted someting like in roleplay and it was stated in the rules to post a certian amount or their post would be deleted and they didn't agree with that rule and still posted less of a post,I can see that being deleted cause their not following the rules and its showing their disagreeing with you on the rules.
Have you had experience with this?Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?
I was accused of abusing my powers on a board before when I was sending my members reminders or something that was going to be changed on the board either by pm or by email.I supposedly sent out way too many and was bothering the members.But as I see it ,it wasn't that many pms or emails.It was only cause those members weren't loggin in everyday to read the pms or emails when they were being sent.All they had to do is check the dates when each was sent and it would have shown that they weren't that many.
Also when I banned someone from the board I wasn't accused of abusing my powers then but I did it for a certian reason and another member so happen to send me pms telling me it was wrong of me to ban his/her friend.But I don't just ban members out of the blue I ban then for a reason if they lied about their age when they joined or they did something wrong on the board.I also talk it over with my staff and if its agreed upon to ban that said member I ban them if not we give them a chance and a warning.

[ramidel]

By definition, a staff member using their powers is abusing them. So is a staff member not using them ^_^

Alright, jokes aside:

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
When a problem occurs. Said boundaries are so nebulous that they've only been definitively been broken is when someone's been unjustly victimized.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
In itself, never. "Disagreeing with me about how I run my site" is a right of every accepted member. That said, admin have a right to tell their members to shut up about it, and disobeying that is grounds for admin action.**

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
I can't even see how this would happen. In the hypothetical case of one side of an off-topic political debate using staff authority to pressure one side or another into taking their side*, I'd suggest beating said staffer with a club IRL if possible, in addition to destaffing.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
"Because they disagreed?" No. However, make no mistake: -raising a public disagreement with the mods on a site issue- is likely to not be kosher.**

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?

As I joked above, it's hard to find a site where I -haven't- clashed with the staff over something or other, and usually it's about them -not- doing what they're supposed to as opposed to abusing things per se. That said, I have seen people banned over personal conflicts, I've seen many cases of staff on RP forums cheating in their own favor in-game, and I recall one case where a user was sexually harassed by one staffer, complained to an admin in tears, and the admin they complained to took the chance to demand that the user cyber with them or be banned. I got wind of it and publicized the logs, triggering the usual sitewide "WTF?" response that led to the forum shutting down and being restarted on two sites, both of which melted down shortly thereafter.**

*Now, here's a conundrum: stuff like hate speech. If you use or threaten banning to stop people from chanting "Heil Hitler," you are using mod powers to force submission to your beliefs. Some people would say that that's legitimate; as far as I'm concerned, it's not. If it's on-topic in a political forum, the mods have a duty to defend to the death your right to say politically incorrect things, even if you're advocating genocide. If it's a discussion in an off-topic forum, I still maintain that if Holocaust remembrance is allowed, Holocaust denial must also be; however, if a thread starts to overflow, the staff have a right and a responsibility to lock it and tell everyone to take the discussion elsewhere.

**Normally, I think site problems should be directly addressed to the staff. However, I also believe that when the staff are causing problems (in roleplaying games, the #1 problem is when the GMs/Storytellers/Scenario Admin/whatever use their authority to benefit their own characters), or failing to address them, and the others and the admin are incapable of helping, the user has a right to bring it to the userbase for discussion. Of course, if it gets this far, either the userbase is too large to be able to come to a consensus (in which case no pressure can be brought against the administration and they can do whatever the hell they want) or the site is in a death spiral anyway (most cases of admin cheating). I've seen some sites effectively resurrected under new management after melting down, though.

[Jin Oh]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
When there is a problem: when people feel abused or feel dissatisfied about a staffmember ( with a reason though ), then the staffmember have been pushing the line a little, or much, over the borders. Even if you can't see them really, profiles still have feelings so my advice to these kind of staffmembers is, that they should think about if it were themselves. This works out fine, usually.
I think banning should be a last choice - warnings first!

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
No, but depends how "far" the two opposite parts is. But, honestly, a staffmember should there be patient and be the one, who has the calmness and should be able to calm down the things around him/her.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
This should not happen. I don't even think it will, but that's only a "though". But, IMO this should never happen.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
That's really a fault. That's what mainly forums are for: posting oppinions and debate about them. If then a staffmember deletes the content or the whole thread their status should be "thought through"

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?
One time, by a staffmember who pointed out that I posted the wrong place and then banned me in several days (don't ask me how many). Staffmembers should be, as said: ... be patient and be the one, who has the calmness and should be able to calm down the things around him/her... "

When the banning where over, my user didn't stay much longer!
It was a shame, becuase in my oppinion that forum had potential to become a big, great forum

[Blackie™]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?

Staff members are 'hired' by the admin of a site. So, if any staff member tries to over-rule what the admin has stated, then they are definitely letting the power go to their head. Breaking rules just "because they are a member of staff", which they call "special privileges". I can understand if the admin says it's OK every now and then, but constantly? Especially on RPGs. And it is one of the things that bug me the most.

As well, I think that when a staff member starts provoking fights with members they dislike, and they believe they can "get away with it" is being power-hungry. Just because a person is a member of staff does not give them a right to argue freely with a member.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?

This really depends on the disagreement. If it is a disagreement on the skin, or board content, then that's really petty, and if the person continues to argue about it, then yeah, a warning seems fit. A big disagreement....again, it all depends on the situation.

I do think that it is excruciatingly rude when a person bashes on a themed site. Take me for example. I run Warriors RPG sites. If someone joined, and started bashing on the series, authors, forum, etc., I would be very ticked, and would probably ban the member. It's uncalled for, and last time I checked, I didn't do that to your forum!

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?

This is the most childish thing you could possibly do, in my opinion. The way I see it, is if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Not everyone is going to agree with you, and that's one of the facts of life. Tough. Deal with it. If a person is warned or banned just because they are voicing their opinion, then obviously the staff member is a jerk, and really the warned/banned person should find a better forum.

But, again. Like I said just above, if someone was bashing on a forum based on something that the members enjoy, you can't change their minds, but you shouldn't put up with it. However, if they were simply stating that they found such-and-such to be a bit boring, but they enjoyed discussing/RPing it, then no. That just means that if you don't have it your way, then it's the highway.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?

Very childish as well. There is no point in deleting your/their post, because the damage is done. No turning back. Besides, again, you/they are voicing your/their opinion. You/they aren't making a decision for the entire world.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff

Never have I been accused of abusing my staff powers, however, I have been a victim of Staff abuse. xP I won't say names, but I want to explain what happened.

I also want to point out, that I am friends with the Main admin, which caused a LOT of the problem as well.

Main Admin- Creator of the site. xP
Admin- The sidekick.

A member on a site I am on brought up the topic of the lack of activity on the site. My friend and I suggested an activity check, or something along those lines. You know, deleting inactive accounts, since they are a waste of space. Well two staff disagreed, and it turned into a debate. Well, the debate turned into an arguement, and didn't end the best. The gist of what happened, was, while my friend and I were defending our points, my friends was being accused of trying to be a staff by another member, who mini-modded in the topic. (She was on the 2 staff member's side, and she did not get into trouble, so surprise surprise). Because of this, the Main Admin locked the topic, and moved it to the staff room to be discussed. In the end, the Main Admin decided to drop the subject.

Well, after, my friend had posted in the Debate board. She posted her opinion on 'If you help Staff with their forums', and then was letting me know that once she was done on the site, she would help me with mine. The other admin, whom was one of the ones in the Activity debate, prompted the question 'What do you mean done with the site?'. I told her that all my friend meant was posting, and that she needed to stick to the rules. (Yeah, I mini-modded, but I was ticked and such from the arguement). Well, next thing I know, I have a 50% warning. Okay, I really wouldn't have had a problem with it, except for the fact that I did not deserve such a high warning, and then the admin was very rude when she PMed me to tell me "Oh, you have a warning. enjoy." And, being the insane person that I am, I said in my siggie that I wanted peoples opinions on the fact that I got a warning. (Mind you, when I get angry, I am very insane. My actions are the weirdest.) My warning went up, and the signature was removed. A couple(2) more times I added different things, and then finally settled down. I didn't add anything else. During all of this, as well, another staff member began to argue with me, when I asked her questions about why I got the warning and such. Which caused my warning to go up. Again.

Well, I thought of a simple solution to let things calm down between the two staff members and I. I decided to leave for a bit. Well, I am pretty well known on that site, and wanted my friends to know, as well as let the staff know WHY I was leaving, without directly saying "I'm leaving because the staff are jerks". No. I did it in a polite way. Well, I guess it was a crime against the admin's laws, because I got snapped at about it later on.

The Main Admin wanted to know what was going on, from the PMs exchanged, and such. Well, I posted the PMs between me and the staff member. Well, the admin explained why I received the warnings and such. Well, her accusasions were wrong, and I pointed it out. Such as the 50% warning. Ok, I got 20% for mini-modding, but suddenly I had an offensive Siggie at the same time?! No. That happened AFTER I received the warning. Then, she brought up the subject of my leaving. I had put t in my siggie, so people would know. She said that I was making a big scene. How it's a 'big scene', let me know please. Well, I explained that I was letting my friends know I was leaving, and letting staff know that I was leaving so that things could simmer down. Which, for that I got a huge slap in the face by the admin, because she continuously brought up crap that wasn't true.

Well, the next day, I was talking to the Main Admin, and he agreed that the admin was just provoking a fight, while I was trying to state my defense calmly. So, he gave her a warning, stating not to argue with members. Well, the admin got extremely ticked, and deleted EVERYTHING on the site. I was there when it happened, and I was HOPING that it was just someone who cracked a staff account. Well, I PMED her(because she and I were the only ones on) and was banned for it. Thankfully, the Main Admin was able to re-create most everything, and out members came back. Well, later on in an IM between the Main admin, and Ex-Admin, she said that he was taking my side, and called me....a very dirty word. Best not say on here.

So yeah. That's what happened.

In my own opinion, and what I enforce on my own sites, is that my staff have very limited "special" privleges, and that they are still members. As well, I don't go against my own rules, because staff are supposed to set a good example for new and old members, and if they are breaking the rules, and abusing their powers, then they can lose them. Even on other sites that I join. If you can have more than one canon character, or high ranked character, I still create only one. I think its only fair that others get the chance to RP a 'special' character.

[sneer]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
I think that a staff member has pushed the boundaries when they're excessively rude to a member, with no reason to back it up.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
It depends on the conditions on the disagreement, or how each side reacts. A warning should always be issued first.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
I'm not sure what you mean by this?

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
Chances are, I'd feel like my right of speech was taken away. But if it's their site, the first amendment doesn't necessarily apply.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?

I've been accused of abusing my powers, yes. But the story was severely warped.

Story:

It was a four-way disagreement.

(Before this, we need to set the scene and the mood and feelings between the players. There was a thread about deleting inactive accounts, Member 1 and Member 2 were for it, and Mod 1, Mod 2, Mod 3 and I were very against it. After debating for 5 pages, Member 2 posted 'If you have a problem with me, tell me' or something just as rude in her signature, and Admin 1 removed it, and she replaced it with basically the same thing. He removed it again and she replaced it with 'hi Admin 1' It was originally directed toward the other staff and mostly me)

But to get to the subject at hand,

There was a post in the 'debates' board talking about 'helping admins' with their sites, right? One of the replies was from Member 1 saying that she was going to help Member 2 with her site 'once she was finished with Site In Question.' and I didn't recall any of the staff members asking her for help with Site In Question in any way, so I replied with the question "Finish with Site In Question?'

Member 2 replied to my post with something along the lines of, 'Don't derail topics, “güttermøüth, thank you. ' and at this point, she had changed her display name to 'Mini-mod Member 2' and Admin 1 replied to her post with an 'lol'

Obviously, I was rather perturbed by the fact that she was not only mini-modding an administrator, but also that Admin 1 was backing her up with it. He wasn't calling her on mini-modding a member of staff (me, Admin 2). Mod 1 replied with a warning about trying to push around a staff member, and said that mini-modding was against the rules. Which it is, right?

So then, she put a bunch of crap in her signature again. I gave her a warning, 10% for the mod-impersonation, 10% for the mini-modding an admin, 10% for the first sig. offense ans 20% for when she replaced it.
Then, I sent her a PM explaining exactly why I did it, and why I gave her warnings.

In her signature, she put 'Ask me about my warning, I'm grinning so much'
Obviously, this was aimed at provoking me, yes? So Mod 2 stepped in and removed it. She gave her 30% more of a warning for a THIRD offense and attempt at being catty and dramatic.
They exchanged PMs for sometime, and then Member 2 complained to Admin 1.

He then set up a thread were Member 2 posted all Mod 2's PMs, and I posted the very polite ones that she left out. She whined on the thread and said that her warning was ill-deserved and then Mod 3 tagged onto the thread and said she agreed with me and Mod 2.
So, Admin 1 moved the thread into moderation and sent Mod 2 and I PMs and 40 or 50% warnings for 'arguing with members' and said that we were out of line.

I thought that it was complete crap. We were 'out of line' for exercising our staff powers when a member was being utterly ridiculous.
The thing was that he's really close to Member 2, and he talks to her a lot on MSN.
&& now, she runs around and goes on and on about how she's 'such a victim.'

[[Mo]]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?

I think when they are rude, tell false things, embarrass members in front of others, and basically everything UNLESS it was absolutely needed.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?

It really depends. Like once i was throwing out ideas because of the lack of inactivity, and it turned into an argument (go to Blackie's post to read about it) and she got a warning and stuff because of it. That shouldn't of happened. I got yelled at because i was throwing out ideas and i was apparently saying what was going to be done.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?

Thats just childish. If somebody wants to believe something, let them.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?

That is also childish. I can understand about deleting it if it broke rules, other wise, i don't delete posts unless needed.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff

Yes i have. I got blamed for moding and taking control over the site by the co-admin. I was doing nothing but putting out ideas. Go read Blackie's post for the whole thing. I was even getting yelled at my the co-admin's little pet. Blackie's story in her post says the whole story.

[Gamoc]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?

A staff member has pushed the boundaries of powers on a form when they start being overly unfair. Things such as locking threads about subjects they don't like, but aren't against the rules of the forum, or by a member they don't like. Things like giving certain members special privileges and making other members miserable and thus, leaving.


A staff member also overdoes his powers whenever he or she goes into another members profile, and edits things such as post count, custom title, karma, siggy, etc...without a good reason, too. Good reasons are things such as setting warnings, punishing them for a misdeed they did, removing a signature that is too wide or offensive, etc...things like that. Not just because you want to mess with them.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
It depends. If the member is questioning a rule that is a decent rule, but doesn't like it because they want to cause some sort of minor mischief, and starts to get angry with the staff member, then there is a right. Or any other sort of anger and threatening PM can give the right

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
That is wrong, that is very wrong indeed. What the admins also don't seem to understand about that is that the member can leave just as easily as they came. So doing that is really stupid in the first place. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and should not try to change somebody else's because they don't agree with them. Sure, some people have beliefs that harm others and need to be stopped, but they are entitled to HAVE those beliefs.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
That's wrong unless it goes against the rules of the forum. If the admin states a rule saying that they can't post that, then the member does not need to post it, and if the member wants to post it...then go somewhere else. It's not that hard. If the admin didn't say anything about it, though, then they need not delete the thread, for that will only cause problems.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?
I have never been accused of abusing my powers unless it was something like somebody getting mad that I made somebody else a mod and not them, even though the other person deserved it much more than the person complaining did.

I have been a victim of abusive staff. I used to do RPing and if you were a new member you weren't allowed to start RPing with the only two people RPing until you had experience RPing with them (and that was hard considering you had to have experience RPing with them to RP with them in the first place) and banned me when I tried to RP. Other than that, I can't really recall direct abusive staff members.

[Enchant]

Jul 2, 2008 17:48:10 GMT -8 DEAD~X| said:

in that case this site has staff that has been abusing thier power. They have called me stupid and ignorant because i approached them with respect. Can u guys block this site off? PLZ?
LINK REMOVED

Please make sure that you read the rules of the board you are posting in. A minimum of four sentences relevant to the discussion, not some random link elsewhere that has no relevance to the discussion of the thread. Thank you.

[~Akira~]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?

When a member is embarrassed by staff: when staff members do not help people that are being abused by other staff: when staff thinks it is okay to threaten members(new and old)

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?

It really depends on the situation though. Like coming in and telling me how to run my board then I would ban them. Or complaining about the rules and such. The rules are there for a reason and I believe that for those people who didn't like the rules are not meant to join the site. Thats just my thoughts though.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?

That is not a way to act. Different people have different beliefs. It is wrong to force them to believe what you believe.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?

To me thats childish. Not everyone is going to agree with you so why make a fuse about it. If it was in a debeat section or chat then its fine. But if it occurs in role play then maybe a poliet warning should be given.

Have you had experience with this?Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?

I was never accused. I am a co-admin on several sites with my friends and we keep it up running for almost a year. We make sure to follow the rules and be friendly to anyone. But I was a victim.

On a high level rp site(I am only an intermedaite rper.) I joined as an orginial character of mine that only a few sites would let me play, and I really didn't mind though. I asked the main admin and she agreed that it was allright, plus it even said so on the canon sheet! I was doing fine until a week after I arrived at the site. There another member, new one mind you, started complaining about how that wasn't allowed and starting stuff. So, he pmed me saying that he was going to delete my account. I politely told him the main admin agreed and he didn't even listen. There was a staff member on and he would not help me at all. So, being confused I sent a pm to the main admin and left. But that turned out to be a mistake because the next day, my account was deleted! I only joined because I wanted to gain experience. I was really confused by the fact that he didn't have any staff powers at all, yet he was going to delete my account. To this day I have been wandering if he was another character created by one of the staff. It was a shame. The forum looked like it could be the one to attract many members.

[Kallison]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
I think that when staff members begin acting without consulting the administrator or at least some of the members in their decision, they are pushing the power boundaries. Yes, even some admins have problems with this. It is always best to involve others in your decisions and give your reasons for actions BEFORE acting to prevent conflicts.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
It really depends on the degree of the argument. If it is something that is about, say, plaguarism or a nasty offense, I believe the staff members have every right to ban the member. However, this should be debated with the rest of the staff before action is taken to avoid power abuse; if you always involve your moderators/co-admins in your decisions, it's hard for people to accuse you of becoming power hungry.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
I think that's a major turn off. Using your power as a staff member to bend others to your opinions is a big no. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if it is disagreeing with a staff member. If a moderator ever threatens to ban or warn another member because they don't agree with them, there are some big problems with that staff member.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
I have a roleplay, and I NEVER delete the threads/posts. Everyone has the right to say what they want to. By deleting the posts or threads because you don't agree with them, you are abusing power that has been given to you. Moderators/staff in general have been given power to maintain order, not to make drama or get everyone to befriend them.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff?
I have not personally been accused of abusing my powers, but I have moderated on a site where the ADMIN abused the power, bending the rules to fit what she wanted. It really irritated me at the time (I've gotten over it since then) because I felt if the rules applied to all the members, they should apply to the staff as well. I've made a point to watch my own staff members and even myself sometimes to make sure that power is not abused.

[Shelly]

When do you think a staff member has pushed the boundaries of power on a forum?
When the admin of the forum hi-jacks your profile, changes your name to 'That Thing', gives you a title of 'The Troublemaker' and have a load of bull---- proof that shows you in a bad spotlight. They overstep their boundaries when they lie to other players to make them seem like the good person. When they ban members who have a different opinon that they dont like. All these things are stepping over the boundary line.

Is a disagreement grounds for a warning or banning?
Having a different opinon is perfectly fine. This can lead to a disagreement, though. Depending on the situation, the more suitable punishment might be banning, or it might just be a warning. Banning as a punishment might come from more severe things such as a disagreement coming up over a warning, or a disagreement turning into a fight. Warnings should be used to avoid these disagreements, but a lot of times staff do not get their ideas out right and/or the member(s) ignore them.

What about idle threats to warn or ban a member in order to forced them into submission with their own beliefs?
If there are staff like that, then I will leave the forum immediately. This happened to me. I decided that I didnt like the 'flow of things' and voiced my opinons and was banned because I wasnt part of 'The Group'. Forcing someone into submission is just plain wrong. If staff cannot understand and accept that people have different Point Of Views on everything, then they shouldnt be staff. Staff members should be understanding and helpful, not the opposite of that.

What about deletion of your post and threads because they disagreed with what was posted?
- shakes head -
That is just plain wrong. If the staff member cannot accept the fact that everyone has their own minds and that they can speak/act for themselves, then they shouldnt have any powers. If they're going to delete threads and posts because they dont like what is written, they should be out of there. The only way for a good discussion to happen is if everyone can openly share their feelings and opinons with everyone else. If you have a different view on something, you should make it clear so they understand where you are coming from. To me, it's important that I get to put in my word and get my point across.

Have you had experience with this? Were you ever accused of abusing your powers or a member who was a victim of an abusive staff.
The answer to all those questions are Yes. When I was 'abusing my powers' happened when I removed someone from my forum who was causing trouble - such as purposely posting public threads about things that were against not only my rules but the Proboards TOS. They'd post 'R' rated things and I would delete it, and then the member threw a fit. Once the member left, though, things had settled down, and 'everyone got back to their lives' so to say.

I have been a victim a lot more. At one point, I might even classify it as cyber bullying. For example:
I have a profile on a forum before some things came up. The owner of the forum to it into her own hands to censor my name into changing into 'That Thing'. She added a nice little title as 'The Troublemaker' and put my warning level to '99%'. She then added a link to my signature that was link to 'proof'. I have screeshots of my profile, and Im holding onto them. I let it slide for the time being.

There has been other times when I've recieved private messages with nasty messages in it. The staff turn their backs when I brought this up to them - and it was another staff member doing this (go figure, staff are always buddies, right?) so when I went public with the proof, they denied it, and being staff, the 'bad person' was me.

[lantian]

...

[lantian]

...

[lantian]

...