Why are mini mods hated so much?

[Shakarane]

Hello there fellow Manacuber! I've played on this server for a while and I noticed a lot of toxicity against mini mods. If you're unfamiliar with what mini mods are, they're simply players online trying to help out the community, doing the mod's job while they're not online. Although they aren't official mods, I don't know why they cannot help out the community. For example, they can tell people to stop spamming caps or character drag. But I don't see why so much toxicity goes towards these mini mods. The conversations in this forum post are real public chat messages and I will not show their names as I am afraid that they do not want to be mentioned. Here is one conversation that I had seen about a month ago.

Players 1 and 2 had a huge argument, and many people were joining in, making the chat very chaotic.
Player 3 (MiniMod): Please stop the argument, it's causing lots of chaos in the chat.
Players 1 and 2 even stopped arguing, just to be toxic to the MiniMod.
P1: "shut up, minimod, you have no authority over us"
P2: "yeah **** off minimod, go get a life"
Player 3 (MiniMod): "Sorry, I'm just tryng to stop this argument because it's getting a little out of hand."
Player 1: u misspelled "tryng" you dumb minimod get outta here

I really don't know why they were being so mean to the mini mod. I actually like mini mods because they help keep the server nice while mods are not online. What did the mini mod do wrong? He was simply trying to help out the community, making the server more enjoyable to other players. There were some arguments against mini modding that people talked about in public chat the other day.

Mini mods have no authority over other players, so what can they do? All their work is useless, it's just making chat worse.
Actually, it's the other way around. I usually read chat while I do parkour for fun, and I remember many times where Mini Mods actually help the server. A lot of times I see people spamming in full caps a ton, then a mini mods comes in and tells them to calm the caps. They usually actually stop spamming caps which is great, but then the mini mod started getting piled on by people saying that the mini mod is useless, even though he/she just got someone to stop spamming caps.

I find mini mods to just be annoying, the way they talk and stuff.
Not kidding, I actually see this argument quite often. Personally, I think this is not a good argument at all. Think of this: Would you rather chat be spammed with players typing in all caps or an occasional "Calm the caps please." or "Please stop the argument, it's out of control.". I'm sure most people would prefer the mini mods rather than players typing in all caps.

If you hate all caps and spam so much, why don't you just turn off chat?
First of all, what about people that actually like chat on? I like leaving chat on so I can read some funny messages that people say or if someone is trying to message me, I can respond back to them. Also, caps and spam won't be good for new players. Imagine looking for a nice parkour server and you find manacube. You enter manacube and the first thing you see is ALL CAPS, spam and char dragggggggggg. Obviously they wouldn't want that, and they would probably leave the server before noticing how good the server truly is.

Now, hopefully I have convinced some of you that mini modding is completely fine and that they shouldn't have much toxicity directed towards them. But this is only my opinion. If I missed a point or you disagree, explain why in the comments so I can attempt to address your points. If you notice someone is being toxic to another mini modder, kindly send the link to this forum to them and hopefully they can change the way they act. I created this forum post because I'm tired of telling the toxic players about all these points one by one, so from now on I can simply send them this link. Anyways, I hope you have a good day! If you would like to message me, my name in manacube is Shakarane (my nickname is LuluMeow), and I usually play on Parkour and sometimes on kitpvp.

 

[SSM_GOD]

Mini moding is actually only when staff are online, other than that its community moderation which is supported and encouraged by the staff.
Players don't like to be told what to do, so when someone with no 'authority' tells you to stop, if makes a really awkward situation.
The large majority of players dont mind mini mod people. It's just that the few negitive people stand out more.
In your example thing, if people were actually like that, they can and should be muted for player disrespect/ flame wars.
I've given up on telling people to stop myself, now I just spam staff to do their job and take care of it lol!

 

[Quinny]

I think the difference between a minimod and a helpful community member is all in the tone each one uses, as well as what SSM said above with staff being online or not. When I'm online, I'm especially thankful for players who are helpful community members, answering questions and helping fellow players with jumps! It helps save me a lot of time, especially when I'm one of the only staff on. Staff tend to get pulled in multiple directions by players, and it's always helpful to have the FAQ answered by the community.
However, sometimes when players try to step in and stop a flame war or crazy chat while staff are on, they are actually contributing to it. Often times, players will start capsing to make sure their message to stop is seen, character dragging with exclamation marks, etc. which can actually hinder us being able to gather evidence and resolve the situation efficiently!
I think minimods and community members both have good intentions, but one with good intentions can actually make things a bit more difficult for staff in worst case scenarios. Minimods also tend to use more "proper grammar" which gives a "high and mighty" tone in game, which other players tend to dislike.
My advice to players especially in times of crazy chat like flame wars, bot attacks, spammers, etc. is to avoid typing until the situation can be resolved by staff. If no staff are on the server, please go to Discord and report what is happening! Especially with bots, staff are trying their best to get the guilty parties out as fast as we can. We don't want innocent players getting caught in the crossfire of that!

 

[abbie<3]

I agree with what quinny said, i am very appreciative of players who answer players questions when i’m busy, and report players properly on the forums / discord / ingame.

personally like quinny said, i think it’s an issue when it’s not doing anything but inflating the situation. it’s really frustrating when a staff member is trying to handle chat, or a report, or whatever we are doing but it’s getting worse because now everyone is fighting about mini mods. from personal experience it’s also a little frustrating when a staff member is online doing their job, and players are trying to “beat them” to try and handle it first. for the most part, if a staff member is online and helping in chat, there’s no need for 3 other people to say the exact thing as us because all it does is cause the arguments about minimods.

if you see players being overly disrespectful, or starting flame wars about who is or isn’t a mini mod, please report it. there’s reasons we mute for things like that.

thanks,
abbie

 

[IIRyanII]

People dont like being told what to do. Simple. If people have questions and need help with stuff i usually answer them and try to help but when people are arguing i just stay out of it because no one is going to listen anyway.

 

[curtis]

Minimods are great in game but I personally dislike when people act like this on the forums. This isn't so much manacube, more of another bigger server where minimods were all over the forums, but it felt like on any thread possible, at least 2 or 3 of these guys would jump at commenting a generic helpful response linking to some place like bug reports or suggestions. In some cases this would be helpful, but most of the time, help was clearly not needed or was even off topic from the point of the thread. It's even worse when the 2nd minimod came along and commented essentially the exact same thing as the first, which is what happened most of the time.

Minimods also tend to use more "proper grammar" which gives a "high and mighty" tone in game, which other players tend to dislike.

I've seen non staff talk like that so often on the other server, everything I read from forum minimods looks forced or unauthentic, and makes me feel their interests are in building a good post history for staff rather than interacting with the community. I'd compare it to talking to a help-desk bot. Not engaging to talk to, and usually not helpful. At least sound like a person?

To be clear, I only dislike this when it's so excessively done or unneeded. There are times when it's useful, and it's understandable when staff do it because they're supposed to.

 

[Tas]

As SSM and Quinny said the difference for most people between being a "mini mod" and someone who's just trying to help out is whether there's an actual staff member active in chat. If there's no one online, or I know the staff member who's on is overwhelmed or gathering screenshots or afk or whatever, there's obviously no harm in me saying "you need skilled rank to play expert maps." It gets annoying when mini mods are stepping on top of the actual staff members, filling chat with multiple people responding to the same person, or even giving false or outdated information without realising.

Basically, if you're considered about being a mini mod, check to see if there are staff online. If a staff member is participating in chat, and someone asks a question that you know the answer to, remember the staff member does too and maybe wait 10 seconds or so in case the mod answers the question for you. From the vantage point of a new player, it's a lot easier to see someone with a MOD rank answering your question promptly than it is to see 5-10 people with the MVP rank all spamming the same thing.

 

[jacobsfunparty]

I think very specifically to the parkour chat, staff are usually pretty vigilant about mutes and warnings. When players call out another player it can often exacerbate the situation where it started with someone saying something mute worthy to a possible "flame war" (it's what all the staff say) between the "mini mod" who doesn't actually have the power to mute and the person about to get muted.

In terms of answering questions, I would probably disagree with what some people have said. I feel like you don't really have to wait for a mod to answer the question because the questions on parkour get soooo repetitive that I would feel terrible if a mod just had to sit in parkour and say do /hide, do /show, this is how you turn off chat, {playerpoints} is a visual glitch, and so on and on. Obviously there are questions that only should be left up to staff to answer but those easy questions can easily be handled by the so-called "mini mods".

I also think that people don't really understand the difference between "mini modding" and just being a helpful member of the community. The people looking to be helpful should understand the boundary of helping out and actually making a staff member's job more difficult. Listening to what staff are saying is probably the most important thing. Throughout my time on manacube, I have learned through listening to staff what is considered helpful and what is considered just annoying to do. I won't mention any names but there are some members of the community that I feel have not taken the time to do this and this is where the negative connotation of "mini mod" comes from.

 

[borababie]

Even though my friends and I joke about me being a minimod, I really don't think I fit those standards of what a minimod is. Personally, I have done my best to be helpful as I have applied for staff, and I intend to apply again. I want to show that I can be someone that is knowledgable of things on parkour, and I can help others when needed.

Now, when staff members are offline, I'll answer most questions that players have. Sometimes I'll even go to help players out with jumps and show how certain things work in the mapmaker world. I feel like this is okay, as no staff are online. When there is a scenario in which I cannot help, I always refer the player to the commands /helpop or /report.

Now, this is where I draw the line with situations. When a flame war or "dream spam" is started in chat, I have found it is best to just screenshot and report. Trying to get involved in those situations is where I believe the term minimod comes into play. Especially when staff are online! Sitting there and acting like you have staff authority is not going to make a situation better, and it really fuels a situation more than it helps.

I'm not saying it's not okay to help, but regular players need to know when to stop. Let staff handle situations that they're trained to do.

 

[Sonic_Raptor]

Just wanted to say, this is a really good thread for many of the reoccurring staff applicants or new comers on the server looking to apply should look to what @Quinny and @Tasses have said and you'd see a remarkable difference to how people receive the help as well as how the Staff team perceives it. One of the biggest benefits of the community here on Manacube is how helpful and friendly it is but no one likes a mini mod. Also if you're looking to apply for staff don't worry about appearing helpful just be genuine and people will see that!

Minimods are great in game but I personally dislike when people act like this on the forums. This isn't so much manacube, more of another bigger server where minimods were all over the forums, but it felt like on any thread possible, at least 2 or 3 of these guys would jump at commenting a generic helpful response linking to some place like bug reports or suggestions. In some cases this would be helpful, but most of the time, help was clearly not needed or was even off topic from the point of the thread. It's even worse when the 2nd minimod came along and commented essentially the exact same thing as the first, which is what happened most of the time.


I've seen non staff talk like that so often on the other server, everything I read from forum minimods looks forced or unauthentic, and makes me feel their interests are in building a good post history for staff rather than interacting with the community. I'd compare it to talking to a help-desk bot. Not engaging to talk to, and usually not helpful. At least sound like a person?

To be clear, I only dislike this when it's so excessively done or unneeded. There are times when it's useful, and it's understandable when staff do it because they're supposed to.

Totally agree @curtis it is one of the most boring and monotone things on the forums. There are new ones every couple of weeks leaving generic replies often to questions that have already been answered just to get their post count to 20. I think one of the most exciting things about being a player on the forums is if you are answering a question you can often ask one back or enquire in some shape or form and make it into an actual thread. Rather then the bot like responses which are boring, that and getting pinged to the same thread that has had the question answered 6-7 times is boring.

 

[AlfieJay]

Personally I haven't had a problem with most of the people who get heckled as "minimods", not to say it's not sometimes an annoyance. I feel that there's only really a problem when players try to tell people off, since this is what seems to anger people the most. If staff are unavailable then I would recommend responsible community members to try to diffuse the situation by sympathising with the players involved and trying to get them to calm down rather than dishing out cold warnings and tellings off (and of course getting staff attention). However when staff are present and active in chat (not busy), just leave it to them.

If you want to be seen as helpful, telling people off in chat isn't the best way to go about it. I'd recommend answering people's questions and giving people help would be the best way to go about showing off helpfulness

 

[Sonic_Raptor]

Gonna be using this thread as a reference for people from now on I reckon some quality takes on Minimodding and what is defined as "acceptable" by the community.

 

[RainLess]

honesly i think its cool to be a mini mod and i have respect for all the staff