User blog comment:FishTank/Introducing Vanguard, Wikia's Newest Volunteer Team/@comment-452-20160819225633/@comment-452-20160922173125

"What past issues did you have with "volunteers" not understanding their lack of authority?"

- Yatalu

I don't want to go too far off-topic, because all I really want is an official staff answer to my question.

Here's the short answer to both this and the reason I asked the question:
 * A volunteer deleted a vandalised page rather than reverting the edit.
 * A volunteer restored a message which was removed due to being against the policies of the wiki.
 * A volunteer demanded that I answer their questions in the chat, and threatened to report me to Wikia Staff if I did not. When I kicked them due to the threats, they again threatened to report me to Wikia Staff.
 * Before becoming a volunteer, a now-volunteer decided they did not like the content of my userpage, and deleted the page outright, claiming that users have to "justify" the content rather than admins having to justify deletions.
 * I acknowledge that Wikia Staff gives admins free rein, but the point is that I do not trust make-the-rules-up-as-I-go admins, especially when they become volunteers.
 * A volunteer demanded that I choose different filenames. After I reported them to Wikia Staff, they apologised.  As far as I am aware, this marks the first and only time I ever received an apology from anyone in this group.
 * Wikia Staff themselves regularly choose to take action rather than consult and communicate, so it's not unreasonable to question whether to expect the same from vanguard.
 * I've also recently had an issue with the Community Development Team, who offered to help, but when I did not accept their offer, they decided to change the theme of the wiki anyway. After I complained, they stated that I was free to override the changes. After I changed the theme back, they reverted the changes back to their theme.  After I told them "if you have any suggestions about layout/features/anything an admin would normally do, I think you should use the forum to start a discussion about them to attempt engagement with the community".  After I had made it clear that I would not stand for them throwing their weight around like a spoiled child used to getting their own way they instead created a duplicate wiki about the same subject.  If the Community Development Team isn't capable of collaborating with the community and not behaving like dictators, why should we expect the vanguard team to behave any better?

So that's the short version of the things I can think of off the top of my head.

This is not "randomly hating", this is justified apprehension due to an established pattern of behaviour.

In all of these cases, the volunteers should have asked themselves whether they were right to make the action or demand before acting. And most importantly, after being alerted to the fact that they acted inappropriately, they should have admitted fault and apologised in order to restore trust.

As such, I have no reason to trust any volunteers because I know that Wikia obviously doesn't give them sufficient guidance.

Yes, these were the actions of the few, but each volunteer is a chosen representative of Wikia, so their actions reflect poorly on all volunteers and Wikia as a whole.

This is the same reason many people don't trust police: because of what the few rotten apples think is acceptable and are allowed to get away with.

Incidentally, I can't recall ever having a problem with Helpers.

For these reasons, I believe the community has a right to know:
 * Are vanguard team members aware that "they do not replace or "outrank" your local administrators."?
 * Are vanguard team members required "to consult with [the] local team."?