User blog comment:Zer0TheNinja/I'm Addressing the Elephant in the Room/@comment-893709-20130828201222

Issues of maturity and authority have always been present online due to the fundamental nature of the internet, and always seem to be particularly acute here where we cater to a younger group of users, and so while I'm always in favor of refining policy, I don't think it's the sole answer to our problem.

While ranks and policy are all well and good, and should be observed by any self-respecting individual on our wiki, these two things mean very little in a community when that community fails to respect them. Now, why does a community fail to respect ranks and policy? Because that policy is bad? That's a possibility, in which case the community should take an active role in reforming the policy to better fit their needs. As you might expect, reasonable people will accept reasonable rules. Thus, bad policy is the fault of both the administration and the community, and should be fixed quickly both out of necessity and the simple fact that policy is relatively easy to ammend. However, I don't think bad policy is our issue here; both because I've written much of it (and that would be rather embarassing xD), and because most of what we do have has been upheld for many years.

Instead I think our problem stems from respect. Respect, notably, from both ends of the spectrum; regular users and the administration. Now, respect here stems from actions because when it comes down to it, actions are the most you have to show for yourself online. You can tell everyone in chat that you're a super hacker, but that isn't going to matter until you prove it to those watching. Sure, after the fact that respect (or a lack of it) might be transmitted by hearsay or story-telling, much as we remember many of our founding members even though most here never even met them. But, still, that respect stems from an action. The respect you receive in chat and on the wiki in general works exactly the same way.

As I said, respect goes both ways, and for members of the administration this is especially important. If you sit there in chat, watching or unwatching, as a problematic event unfolds, what do you think is going to come out of it? Probably nothing, but continue this trend of apathy and chances are that the respect people hold for your rank is going to diminish significantly. Much of the time the worst thing you can do is nothing. You will always have the upper hand, as the interpretation of policy is usually on your side, but only the respect that others have for you will prevent what could easily be a simple forgettable situation from turning into a very very memorable one. In the end, who will be responsible? You. If you don't enforce policy, policy becomes meaningless, and since your position is entirely a product of that policy, your position can be just as pointless as that which you failed to uphold.

As for regular users the matter of respect is much more simple. All policy here was voted in by you, all ranked users were voted in by you, and ultimately weild that power as a result of the votes cast by you. As much as an admin is responsible for his or her actions, so are you because you're the one who put them in there. Want them out of there? Then you follow the correct procedure. Until they're out of there, they have the full rights and privileges designated to them by wiki policy, and for all intents and purposes they represent that policy; vast and immutable. You can choose to disrespect members of the administration, that's pretty damn easy to do, but do keep in mind that while you may reap what you sow, so does everybody else. When you make a scene in chat, everyone gets affected; when you break policy, everyone gets affected; and when you decide to lead some silly self-righteous rebellion against a chatmod, everyone gets affected. Maybe they don't get a warning like you, but they're still pissed off.

In the end I don't think this problem is going to go away, we get new users all the time, and people are always inclined to do stupid things. That said, by doing as I've described, I think we can prevent future issues from getting out of control like this one has.