Administrator Qualities.

[Jimmy]

Hello all,

I felt like this is something that should be addressed. Before I begin, I am not jabbing at anyone specifically, but instead speaking broadly. I don't  have any say on who/why/how someone is an administrator, although I would like to give my opinion on something rather important. I am open to a professional discussion but please do not respond looking to start drama.

I have noticed that some of BU's staff members are slightly unprofessional. I understand that this is a game, and it isn't a 'real life' job per say, but there needs to be some professionalism when it comes to being an administrator. The number one thing is grammar & spelling. Grammar & spelling are imperative aspects when being a staff member. A lot of people bring up the argument "Oh, it's just a game, who cares!", but sadly it does still look improper and makes a person seem ignorant. The simplest example would be if you were to contact your 'real life' boss. If you email your boss, are you going to use correct grammar & spelling? I'd imagine the response is yes, at least I hope you would. Long story short, it boils down to what's right is right. Don't look like a fool in front of your peers/players.

I think that is all that I wanted to address. If I think of anything else I will reply with my thoughts.

[Graul]

I disagree with probably all of this.

Recently I had a discussion with Casen about centipedes, I know he isn't an admin but bare with me just a little bit. He was trying to tell me that Silverfish were a type of Centipede, and that I was an idiot to not know that. Little did he know I actually have a interest in insects and so I knew right away he was incorrect with his every word. Even when explaining that Centipedes were from the order Chilopoda, while Silverfish were from the order Thysanura! Chilopoda aren't technically even insects, but part of a different Arthropod group entirely (while Thysanura are insects) to top off the maddening discussion.
He also went on about centipedes not having short legs and eventually the conversation got derailed. Now my point here is that he used his spelling and grammar perfectly fine, he still looked quite foolish to me though. He didn't use perfect punctuation I suppose, but that would not have changed anything nor would it have been impressive if he did. Even if he were an admin at that time, using his perfect spelling and grammar changes nothing at all because he didn't know what he was talking about.

I've been on the internet a fairly long time and have noticed that some of the more intelligent people I've talked to do not give two fucks for spelling and grammar, while on the other hand some of the stupidest are for some reason the exact opposite. I've also found intelligent people don't need other people to spell properly to understand them either, because they are intelligent therefore able to comprehend. Being a stuck up Grammar Nazi is the last thing admins should be, it's petty, pointless, and only impresses other Nazis. Its also intolerant to those that do not have English as a first language, and yes there are current admins that have other first languages.

I will admit some admin announcements are difficult to understand, in what I hope is some kind of typo causing illness that is spread by keyboard dust. But I always thought that chat should be used for only important things to begin with, that is another issue in itself.

[Jimmy]

Graul,

Thanks for taking the time to give your opinion. I respect the argument you've brought up for the most part. I'll take bits of your reply & address them individually.

The first bit I'm not going to reply to for obvious reasons.

Graul wrote

I've been on the internet a fairly long time and have noticed that some of the more intelligent people I've talked to do not give two fucks for spelling and grammar, while on the other hand some of the stupidest are for some reason the exact opposite.

I myself have seen this many times as well. Although, I think you're missing the bigger point of the topic.

--

Graul wrote

I've also found intelligent people don't need other people to spell properly to understand them either, because they are intelligent therefore able to comprehend. Being a stuck up Grammar Nazi is the last thing admins should be, it's petty, pointless, and only impresses other Nazis.

I'm not saying that grammar & spelling defines your intelligence level. But, if you continuously type improperly, you might as well be stupid in my opinion. I don't understand how someone can type so horribly on purpose. I understand some people may have trouble at times, but you can always practice & get better. What is even worse is when they're ignorant about it. For example, if you try to correct someone because of a horribly constructed sentence, and in return they reply with: "heh doesn't matter just a game heheh" | "i can type h0w I wantz heheheh". Stop. It's not funny, cute, or anything.

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Graul wrote

 Its also intolerant to those that do not have English as a first language, and yes there are current admins that have other first languages.

I completely respect that 100%. I understand other people do not speak English as a first language. I would call them an exception. But, if English is your primary language, you have no reason in my opinion.

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Graul wrote

I will admit some admin announcements are difficult to understand, in what I hope is some kind of typo causing illness that is spread by keyboard dust. But I always thought that chat should be used for only important things to begin with, that is another issue in itself.

This is the main point I was getting at here. Let's say there is a few new players online. If I am a new player, and I see an administrator send a global server message, I expect it to be somewhat neatly done. In other words, I don't expect it to look like a 3 year old kid constructed the sentence.

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Overall, the principle I was getting at is professonalism. At the end of the day, it is NOT professional to continuously type with incorrect grammar & spelling. I would get fired if I did this at my job IRL. I'm sure everyone else would too. Anyways, I am sorry if some of my reply's did not make sense. I'm rather tired at the moment.

[Lissette]

Hey guys, my response would be to this is... The reason you gave thats not an excuse is the reason. It's a game. Ive heard this argument many times in different places. When it comes to the internet people dont care about spelling or grammar unless losing an online fight. Then they resort to it. Yes if you were addressing your boss, you would use correct grammar and such but from my knowledge the admins dont get paid to work for BU? Again I may be wrong call me on it if you wish. When working for a big company such as Blizzard I would see your point more due to have actually seeing Admins in game and how they type. But how BU is and what BU is, typing is really the top of the totem pole on things to worry about. (Yes, the top.. If anyone knows the origin on totem poles) In the end the Admins are really respectful when using names I always see Caps on the first letter and they act professionally until the accused becomes a dink. In that case they drop a few notches inwhich I turn to my other point of this is what BU is and what BU has always been.

[Soren]

I....am stuck half agreeing and half disagreeing with what you're saying.

In any FREE, SMALL online game  the administration team are not professional (or as professional as they could be). The reason for this are based on 2 things:

1. It is damn near impossible to regulate professionalism on an online game because you don't have the face-to-face interaction with the person. This means you don't get to see 2 KEY things: Body Language, and Dress Code. Professionalism without face-to-face interaction is mostly left up to judgement of the team themselves, and the game owner because it is so ambiguous. Jimmy's idea of professionalism is obviously proper grammar & spelling. I personally side with Graul when it comes to that topic because I used to want to type perfectly, but it just takes more time to get your idea across. The time spent making sure your idea "looks" right could be spent just actually explaining it. See what I mean? Way too ambiguous.

In person, like I said, it is MUCH easier to assess professionalism. If you had a dress code, it's not ambiguous. The person is either wearing it and being professional, or not wearing it and being unprofessional. Body language makes tones of words, sentences, etc, WAY easier to decipher. Without those 2, it's just too opinion based.  

2. For some reason, no small game has tried to enforce this! In a small game like this, most of the administration team are a bunch of friends of at least ONE of the admins/mods, and they talk to each other how they normally would. No problem there honestly, but it WILL carry that environment to the moderator->player interaction, and that is why 90% of the team have more of this unprofessional environment. Yes, I know the opposite side argument: An environment like that is why we have cliques on BU, blah blah. I understand that, and that's part of the reasons why I half agree and half disagree with Jimmy's points.

When it comes down to it though honestly, the only reason it does not seem important to be professional on here is because Bone himself does not type with perfect grammar & spelling and his team are MOST LIKELY to follow that example. He also hasn't written down a PUBLIC post of how administrators should act. Plain and simple.

Basically, the reason why BU isn't professional is literally what you would expect to hear: "It's just a game".  In this case I'd say the reason is "It's just a game that's been small for 5 years, it's not that serious".

[Llilith]

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[Jimmy]

I respect both of your opinions. I guess what I was trying to get at mostly is in general. I'm not saying that typo's are bad, because obviously everyone makes typo's, including myself. I was aiming more towards the fact that it looks bad when your sentences do not may sense whatsoever. Their are a few administrators on BU that are kinda hard to understand a lot. This isn't really something that happens rarely, but instead happen all the time. It's not hard to prevent this either. I'm not saying to enforce it on BU, but why not better yourself? I wouldn't want to come across as someone that can't form sentence properly, 24/7. I guess this is all based on opinion though. I have worked with a lot of online community's where grammar & spelling are important, especially when you're in a staff level position. I guess that's all I really have to say about it as of now.

[PeiPei]

This is some interesting topic.

I partly agree with everyone's argument here. But in my opinion, spelling and grammar fails shouldn't be burdensome to the point that Jimmy is stating here. Moreover because typing in BU in fast speed will cause grammar and spelling failures. Since it will skip certain letters. Of course taking your time typing is an option but it indeed takes a lot more time what to me seems stupid as well since they're talking way too slow. I tried this once with my friend, taking our time typing things down, so it wouldn't ruin the spelling. It is a big no for me.
I think these kind of mistakes in grammar & spelling shouldn't be picked on, unless it's literally their way of speaking. In that case they should practice on their english skills.
Everyone can make a mistake in grammar and indeed it may look stupid when the construction of their sentences is totally off, especially if their native language is English. But as long as it is understandable and not irritating I guess it's fine. But.....

Now this is where I agree with Jimmy:

Jimmy wrote

For example, if you try to correct someone because of a horribly constructed sentence, and in return they reply with: "heh doesn't matter just a game heheh" | "i can type h0w I wantz heheheh". Stop. It's not funny, cute, or anything.

1. appreciate the fact that some one is trying to help you to speak in proper English. I would love to have great English skills with almost perfectly constructed sentences, personally.
2. My first language isn't english, but that doesn't mean I would speak like some kid, Wantz h0w?! What is that even? "Hehehe" is acceptable if you're not dealing with problems that players approached you for. Unless the player itself is having a lot of fun and keeps Lolling?! Certain grammer & spelling mistakes can happen like I mentioned above, sure that doesn't matter just don't abuse the English language like that. If you can speak proper English do it. Makes the person a lot more respectable.

It's true, at certain moments I want the admins to be professional as well, not sounding like they are making fun of the whole situation.
But let's ask ourselves -  what is acceptable? Things like LOL, ROFL, :D, 8D, hehehehe, :3, it's unprofessional as we wouldn't ever speak like that to our bosses as stated earlier in some one else's replay. But to this matter I am agreeing with the fact that it's a game. These kind of emotional expressions should be acceptable in regular situations, for example; they are talking in GH to players. We can't see their facial expression and body languages, so using expressions over internet makes it a lot more personal and it makes the distant between admin and player a lot smaller. Which in my opinion makes approaching admins a lot more comfortable. And when it comes to announcements, and solving problems- actually helping the players I would prefer them to talk normally, in a professional manner not necessarily the perfect grammar. Even here emotional expressions as :D and ^^ should be acceptable. Honestly if they would talk to me like they would in an email to their boss, I would feel so wronged. It would feel like I am asking a stupid question to them and they won't even want to help me. I might be the only one feeling like this, but I've experienced it several times now and I rather not ask things anymore.
I am not that much of a serious person, if I was I wouldn't be playing such games. So I don't mind if they would speak with emoticons, just don't overdo it and know what when to use.
Even though the above doesn't really got anything to do with grammar and spelling, it is a matter of the professionalism of admins. Also...

Rather than using the perfect grammar & spelling I would want their manner towards players to be more professional. Partly it includes proper speaking abilities like the right selection of words. But they shouldn't forget to be kind and patience with their fellow player. Knowledge of certain matters would be very much appreciated as well. Not saying they should be a walking encyclopedia, but as an admin I would want them to know what they are talking about, rather than taking a random pick out of their nose. That sounds so wrong. But in overall they know pretty much right now, so I am satisfied within that aspect.

All in all together, a proper manner is more of an issue in my opinion. I am not saying names, but I rather not speak with certain admins as their manner is just screwed up.

Lastly, once again I am not a native English speaker so excuse my grammar mistakes if there are any c:

[Nurd]

To a point, I agree with you. I do believe the team should have better spelling and grammar when it comes to explaining things to a player. Otherwise it is far too confusing.

 I don't mean that they should type and spell things correctly every day (like Cirras does) -> (Capital letters, full-stops, fancy words and what-have-you) but they should at least have the right grammar and spelling when approaching a player (like Blueluna does).

 If you're coming to a new player and you're saying stuff like ''i lik 2 hlp u gt litesabr'' then there's a problem. However, if you go to a player and say ''hi, id like to help you get a lightsaber'' it's perfect. Sure, there's no capital letters and no full stop or anything, but that's still fine for the way people should approach someone.

 The incapability to spell simple words is what's unprofessional, but not using full stops or capital letters? Doesn't really matter that much in a game like this.

Edit Of course the exception of 'u' as 'you' is fine, considering it's universally known.

[Stephanie]

Im not changing to please anyone.