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"God, if you'd just do your job..."
"Go find everyone who does this and tell them too."
"You're too lazy to answer my PMs."
"They're never on, ever, just letting the trolls and spammers run wild."
"Well if you'd ever actually get on and do anything..."

Just a few of the gems I run across daily, either personally or through someone else. People retaliating against a warning, or tired of their home forums, or choosing not to think about things in any kind of depth. It's easier to assume we're lazy or derelict in our duties than to accept any responsibility for the all-too-often abysmal condition of the site. If only we'd add more people, if only we'd ever be on, if only we'd get to 100% of the offenders 100% of the time, if only we'd actually do the things the colored named supposedly oblige us to do. It's not them, it's us, duh, it always is and always has been, and they're just the few who aren't so brainwashed as to think the admins and other staff are the ones running things and doing work on Gaia. Once again, I call bullshit.

All the people you see in the forums, cleaning up after you or scolding the person who's been posting hateful comments in your profile or getting back your account after you gave out the password, they do it for free. This is a volunteer thing, and in addition to the extra things and pretty colors we come in for harassment, graphic hentai in the inbox, abuse, accusations and libel. We do it anyway. But because volunteering doesn't pay the bills, we need to work or do chores. Some of us have children or family members who need a little help now and then. We have friends. Some of us work full-time, others part-time, still others go to school. We need to pay bills, buy groceries, get the car fixed, go to the doctor's, and a million other things that all other normal people need to do in the course of daily life. If we choose to neglect these things in favor of being on Gaia 24/7, then we will lose the internet because we haven't paid, we'll pass out from lack of food and sleep, the people in our lives will become alienated, and all kinds of bills will pile up. Why do all these people begrudge us normal lives in the face of a free position taking crap from the spoiled children of the world? We want to help and we do, but families and jobs and graduations are more important. I'm sure if you consider it long enough, you'll realize I'm not just making this up to cover my sloth. Those who bother to talk to us realize, eventually, that we are people just like them, with lives just like theirs; they know we're not robots and while they don't kiss up to us, they don't expect us to be always on and omniscient either. They have a pretty clear insight into the ups and downs of the job, and they don't begrudge us sleep or friends or family emergencies or employment. I like that, it's refreshingly sane.

I think the worst are those who ask "Why aren't they on?" or imply, however vaguely, that the forums would not be hellholes were it not for our laziness. First, that's insulting and hurtful. That belittles all the work that did get done, that you perhaps did not see for any number of valid reasons. It makes it seem that collectively, we are lacking in dedication, and things would magically be solved if we would just spend an adequate amount of time here. Second, how many of these people are on without sleeping, catching every single thing as it happens? Until you are a model user who never breaks the rules, I think expecting anyone else to have superhuman abilities is a little grabby. Hoping we try is one thing, but demanding incessant and on-the-spot perfect remedies is another. It's insane, frankly. Forced to choose between finishing university and never sleeping to clean up people who choose to have no self control, I'll be attending classes, thank you. Same goes, I suspect, for something like raising a child or working to pay the bills or spending time with family.

My challenge to anyone who has ever wondered "Why?" and been ham-handedly rude enough to put such a thing in a signature or highly publicized thread is this: be a part of the solution, not the problem. You want to talk of productive uses of time, reporting things and not feeding trolls or replying to spammers is probably more useful than complaining. Glass houses, throwing stones, you get the idea. If just a handful of normal people would pitch in to work with the staff-- who are working, you'll just have to take it on faith-- then things would be better. Less to clean means more time to spend on more things, plus a better community all around. I did it before I was on this side of the fence, and I still believe such a thing would work again. Why not give it a try when you're not at work or out on the town?