How do you feel about rude staff?

[pandaa]

When you're a member on a forum, and the staff is generally rude, or "short" with the members, how do you feel? Does it make you want to mind your actions more, or do you get fed up and leave?

Also, do your feelings depend on the size of the forum at all?

 

[iPhonefreak]

My biggest pet peeve with staff is when they don't respond to my PM's. This is a big turnoff for me and I'll leave.

Whenever they are rude or short, I feel that are stuck up and it really creates a bad opinion on that staff member and the forum because people will think they are only there to enforce the rules and nothing else.

 

[Smokey]

I generally don't stick around on a forum where the staff are rude like that. As iPhone said, if I'm in need of help or assistance and the staff aren't helpful, I'll leave. Why would you run a forum if you aren't going to be helpful or polite to your members? More importantly, why would members stay there?

 

[Edelheid]

My biggest pet peeve with staff is when they don't respond to my PM's. This is a big turnoff for me and I'll leave.

You might have ended up leaving weeks ago if you were in my shoes since that happened to me not once, but twice. Thankfully, this isn't much of a problem with me and I just shrug it off.

Whenever they are rude or short, I feel that are stuck up and it really creates a bad opinion on that staff member and the forum because people will think they are only there to enforce the rules and nothing else.

A good number of large forums are like that, but the reality is members will still stay. This only counts when it comes to large forums and you can realise why. I suppose they can stay in such environments by ignoring these kind of staff members and continuing their discussions, unless it gets out of hand. By then we can only hope that the Admin is considerate and give that particular staff the boot while letting the door hit his ass on the way out.

I can live with getting ignored but getting that kind of rude treatment isn't something I'd keep up with.

I don't really mind if a staff is having a bad day as we all go through that stage but he best get off his high horse and log out for the time being instead of throwing his tantrum at someone else. But yes, in short, such rude behaviour does make me leave. A forum with staff that lack tact isn't worth staying on.

 

[VirusZero]

Personally, I can forgive a rude staff if they're going through a rough time and I know about it. (But if I don't know then obviously I'm going to be less forgiving. Though even if I am more forgiving, that doesn't mean I forget and let it go entirely or that I'll be ok with this being a prolonged issue. So like if someone is having a rough time for 3 months and is giving people a hard time all through it? Then it's time for something to be done.)


At the same time though I can sometimes understand why staff might be rude. There are times when dealing with some members it's extremely frustrating. (There are some people who refuse to read rules and just ask you everything and then when you direct them to the rules they won't read them. Staff dealing with that I can understand them getting a bit short and just being like: "Here, these are the rules. Instead of asking me everything why not just read them first and then if you have questions you can ask.")

Also, I think it's important to consider that what I (or you or they) consider rude may not be the standard. Some people are more sensitive than others. (So telling them: "Hey, read the rules" may come off rude to them when it's really not the intention. )


But otherwise, I'll generally avoid a rude staff as much as I can.
I can't recall too many sites where I've left because of rude staff... Most sites I've joined and stayed relatively active at have pretty good admins. (And those who aren't root admin if they misbehave they tend not to stay staff long on most sites I'm active on. So it's never really been an issue for me.)

---

As for admins ignoring PMs... Yeah, I'm not a fan of that either. I've had it happen to me a fair bit. I mean a well worded PM asking for information (that hasn't been clarified in other places) really shouldn't be ignored.

I don't think it's always completely unacceptable to ignore PMs though. I have 'ignored' a PM a few times.
Like once was about a topic that had already been resolved and had nothing further that I could or needed to do. (I mean they had already been told exactly what they had to do, so if they had read their previous PMs they'd understand. They just wanted me to do all the work for them.)

Another time someone sent me a PM that was basically:
"I haz j0ined comonity. C00lz"
So I just ignored that one...

 

[Alex P]

It also depends on load of work and less number of staffs in a forum.... they don't bother to respond every pm.

 

[rngrdanny22]

I despise forums with rude moderators. I really do.

However, I don't take EVERY rude comment they make to heart. For instance, some forums lend themselves to it's members asking questions (software support forums come to mind). After about the 100th time answering the same question that the poster refused to look up prior to posting, I'd be a little peeved too.

Now if someone is outright rude for no reason, I'm out of there.

 

[Nebulous]

When you're a member on a forum, and the staff is generally rude, or "short" with the members, how do you feel? Does it make you want to mind your actions more, or do you get fed up and leave?

Also, do your feelings depend on the size of the forum at all?

If the forum has nothing to offer me except a place to chat in my spare time, I'd probably just leave and go somewhere that has nice staff.

 

[Quacker Jack]

I'm okay with dealing with one rude staff member as long as the rest are okay. I've never really had this issue, I've only worked with less-than-good staff members that have annoyed me in the past.

 

[Ashley]

I don't mind staff ignoring my PM if it wasn't anything important. However, if it was something important that I needed to know ASAP, then I'd probably get a little thrown off.

Rude staff in general: Depends on the circumstances for me. If I get responses like, "please be active and read the rules!: I might just ignore that and go on with posting. I've been foruming enough years to know what's expected of me and what isn't. If I have a question about something, I'll check the rules, and if it's not in there and if I'm not sure if it's allowed or not, then I'll PM the admin or someone on staff to check and see if the action I want to do is allowed or not.

 

[Migi]

Who likes being treated rudely? Unless he/she has some kind of mental problems, maybe, no one likes it. That's what everyone should bear in mind, being a member or staff member.

Problem is, sometimes written words can cause different impression than what is originally meant. Sometimes sentences come across as being rude or rather angry when the person didn't mean so in the first place.

Thankfully I never had that kind of experience so I can't tell, but I'll probably decrease my activity if members/staff members are being rude to me when I need help, lol. After I can sort my feelings again I may pick up activity again, depends on the situation too.

As for size of forum... Not sure, probably a bit? When you're a new member in a large forum and one or two members are being rude to you, don't you feel slightly intimidated? Because it's about first impression. But once you've been there for longer time, you get to know more members, annoying ones matter less. Maybe it's just me being overly sensitive, though, haha~ But rude/annoying members/staff members in small forum is a bad idea, IMO. It can drive other members away.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

When you're a member on a forum, and the staff is generally rude, or "short" with the members, how do you feel? Does it make you want to mind your actions more, or do you get fed up and leave?

Also, do your feelings depend on the size of the forum at all?

I generally don't like dealing with any "rude" people. That's a big turn off for me. But it's way worse when the staff are "rude" because they're in a position where they can give you warnings, suspensions, or even ban you from the forum. They have more authority than the regular members do. The regular members, you can at least have some way of blocking them or ignoring them. It's a lot harder to do that with staff.

 

[Justin]

Members don't have to be there so staff should be very courteous, and be very open. Quality staff means a quality website.

 

[Pebbles]

forum with rude staff members?

hell no im gonna stick around then
i've had this a couple of times..... made me leave those ... right away
forums arent really worth it then if you ask me....​

 

[Yoda]

Rude staff can break a forum! I will not stay around on a forum if staff are rude and unhelpful, yes sure most of them are volunteers, but at the same time, you make a commitment to help the members of the board when you take the job.

 

[VirusZero]

At the same time though, are people writing off a forum entirely because a staff member was rude once?
And does it matter what level of staff member is rude? So if a mod were being rude would you be as likely to leave if it were an admin being rude? (Or, if it were a mod, would you report their behaviour to an admin?)

And I know it may be a first impression situation, but are we also allowing staff to be human? Since sometimes people do respond poorly. (They've had a bad day... Someone in their family got hurt or died. They're sick and aren't thinking clearly. Their spouse or significant other just left them. Any number of maladies could have befallen them to cause them to react poorly.)

So I'm not saying put up with all kinds of abuse, but I don't think we should always write off a community just because of one instance of rudeness.

 

[Yoda]

I might not leave a forum if one staff member was rude, but if the majority of the team were rude, then I wouldn't see much point in sticking around.