Snobby Members

[DRE]

After awhile, veteran forum members sometimes become kind of cliquish and leave the noobs out to hang and dry. I see that all the time on all forums and it happens to mine sometimes. I really hate seeing a noob encounter a snooty member's rude first reply to them so one of the things I do is warn them privately, delete their post and ask another member to reply to the noob (if the post was really rude) so that they'll at least get a reply from a kinder veteran. Most of the time noobs do encounter more welcoming members but occasionally people be too caught up in their own world to notice them. Speaking of which, that was one of the main reasons I removed the chatbox from my site the first time. It's back now though.

What do you do about Snobby members? I've been on a lot of forums with snobby members, including this one and it sucks worse when the snobby member is a mod, so some of you should be able to feel where I'm coming from. When you encounter snobbiness, rudeness, it makes you not even want to post on that site.

 

[0xym0r0n]

I delete the post and warn them. I had a lot of that sort of problem on RDUS :\ It was hard to keep new members. I had a tough crowd that didn't take well to "outsiders" and so replies were snobby and challenging to say the least...

I've had to ban a few members because of it! I hate it lol

 

[DRE]

I delete the post and warn them. I had a lot of that sort of problem on RDUS :\ It was hard to keep new members. I had a tough crowd that didn't take well to "outsiders" and so replies were snobby and challenging to say the least...

I've had to ban a few members because of it! I hate it lol

Do you also wince and be embarrassed when you see it? Shoot sometimes I get offended like wow they making me look bad with all this trolling especially after I invited so and so and then I get pissed off and go ham.

 

[0xym0r0n]

Actually I do because the site that was considered our competition made fun of me and my entire site for it. In fact we're stamped for life by the other site as a "that other forum" *insert negative statements here!*

My time spent redeeming our image is all for nothing It's a good thing I started this as a hobby because it's a reallllllll drag to have disrespectful and ungrateful members lol

Hell for a period of time some of my members were at the top of the leaderboards so we were stamped as the "Cheater haven" and many people didn't want to be apart of the site! It was a musing for about 10 minutes, then I realized how it was affecting us as a community.

People come back to me and complain that no one is around to talk to. I created a thieves' landing (BS talk) node where I put all their dumb talk and I often point my complaining members to their old posts.

"DO YOU SEE WHY I encouraged you to be nice now? Don't blame me, blame yourself."

Which doesn't result in veteran member retention, but I don't mind being an asshat to an asshat lol.

 

[AndyB]

On my forum I have to deal with Passive-aggressive types. You describe them as snobby, but I suspect we're talking about the same type. Another definition might be bully.

These members that are such a pain to deal with are not always easy to kick to the curb, because often they have a very nice side that is extremely helpful or provide value to the forum. So as an admin we have to be careful not to start banning members too quickly. Most of these bully types simple lack social skills, however In time some of them can change and become very good citizens in your forum.

I have found that a forum is very much a reflection of real life. So when a new member writes something questionable and the bully comes along to bash the new member, the new member will sometime leave an never come back. Is this a bad thing, well not always because the only way to prevent it is to have a TOS and heavy policing, that can effectively stop the learning process that comes with forum discussions and heated discussions.

What I do on my forum is allow members to discuss without my intervention. I do this in hopes that those arguing will learn how to avoid such arguments. Learning how to effectively communicate on a forum takes time, actually many years. Let others learn by not trying to police the conversations.

The Private Conversation is an important tool for the admin. Sometimes it's helpful to offer communication guidance, but it has to be done very carefully.

 

[0xym0r0n]

I tried letting them argue it out among themselves. I had to delete a 20 page thread from one set of troublemakers... she just went on and on.... and on. Funny thing is all it happened to be was over someone "camping" on a game and that person happened to sign-up.

The new member just stopped posting, but that girl literally went on for.... 14-15 pages I think. They were full paragraphs too haha!

Some people would take that freedom too far on my forums. I'll allow arguments but not with new comers. It's just not good! Unless newcomer is a prick, then I let the flame war happen haha