The List Owner God Complex
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The List Owner God Complex (table of contents title), Who's running this thing, anyway? (title on essay itself) |
| Creator: | Jane |
| Date(s): | December 1999 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | mailing list moderators |
| External Links: | online here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The List Owner God Complex is an essay posted to Citizens Against Bad Slash by Jane.
It has the summary: "So you moderate a mailing list. Get over it."
The Essay
This rant is not fic related, but it is fandom related and I had to get it off my chest.Lately I've been reading Buffy fic. A lot of Buffy fic. Tons of Buffy fic. Recently I saw a good example, on a very populated Buffy list, of what I like to call "the list owner God complex."
Someone posted something off topic and his wrist was slapped by the list owner. "Sorry," the guy replied. "I didn't realize this was a dictatorship."
So his response might have been an overreaction, but a mild version of Hell broke loose. "XYX works really hard on this list," someone wrote. "Have some respect and don't talk back to her." The list owner did the e-mail equivalent of nodding sagely in agreement.
Give me a break.
So you started a list. A few people joined it and now its membership has blossomed to 150 or so. Good for you. But you're simply the facilitator, not the boss.
There is a little work involved in maintaining a list, but it's not a full-time job. If someone consistently posts long-winded memoirs, a note might be in order. You may have to bust up an emotional and tiresome fight. But unless you're maintaining an archive as well (and if you are, my condolences), if you wanted to you could delete every message and the list would continue. I was on a list once where the list owner said "It's OK if your opinion is different than mine." Well, thanks!
I'm also sorry to say that I don't buy the "I do this all for you" argument. If you weren't getting something out of it, like personal satisfaction or some degree of fame in your fandom, you wouldn't be doing it. If you really couldn't handle the time commitment you could hand the list over to someone else.
I'm not saying list owners in general are jerks, and I truly do appreciate what they do. But some act like they're in control of the red button that activates nuclear weapons. How about a little humility, huh? You created the list to play just like everyone else.
This rant doesn't pertain to 90% of the hard-working list owners out there. But I had to get it off my chest.