User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Tips for becoming an admin/@comment-3444778-20121206190454/@comment-20644-20121206225642

It definitely is a shame, but I’m not sure I would read ill intent into that kind of behavior.

When I was still a new admin on Star Wars Fanon, I didn’t live up to the types of things I’ve been talking about in these blogs. I was aggressive and abrasive, and I wasn’t particularly friendly. I was warning and block happy. I took things too seriously. However, none of that was a purposeful effort to lord my admin title over anyone—that just happened by accident. I was trying to be a good admin and trying to do what was best for the wiki. I just didn’t really know how.

So I like to assume good faith with people, because a lot of people assumed good faith with me. I tend to assume that an aggressive admin or someone who godmods a chat isn’t trying to be a bad person or be rude to anyone. I think they’re legitimately trying to do their best and do right by the wiki, even if they don’t really know how yet.

I was fortunate enough to have people who helped me realize that I could be a better admin. If you see someone who isn’t really living up to these best practices, try to help in whatever way you can. Help them realize that they don’t need to burden themselves with some massive responsibility. While wikis are important to us, at the end of the day it’s still just the Internet. You don’t want to take things too seriously.