The Tolls Of Being A Staff

Introduction
This page will be a deep dive into the mental destruction that staff brings on it users. Only I am allowed to edit this is you want to help comment below. I will be focusing on admins and bureaucrats especially sit back enjoy and start reconsidering wanting to be staff. Also I am not here to argue weather some staff should be staff or not, I am not here to criticize the staff v.s users conflict or anything like that.

My Personal Experience
There are no benefits to being staff except respect and power. You get closer to other staff members but you don't need to be staff to do that. When you become staff you have 20 people all excepting perfection from you and many of them just waiting for you to start slipping so they can snatch up your spot. Not to mention you are vulnerable at all times anytime you break a rule or slip up or insult somebody on the wiki or the discord or not you are in jeopardy. It just tough. On top of this you watch your fellow staff members your friends grovel for any chance at staying at staff practically begging to stay part of this elite club that they worked so hard to be a part of, and I am only a thread mod I am scared to see how it might continue.

ZachOWott
Everyone knows Zach our most recent crat who went out in a ball in fire. Personally I did not know Zach too well and the Staff Chat was purged by Ak so going there is impossible. But let's focus on his farewell post. Zach said he loved being staff until the moment he became crat. At that point you have no one to look up to and everyone is looking up to you. Its an awful place to be in. Zach said "Basically from the first day of having the position, I have been stressed.". As crat you are making all the decisions solving conflicts keeping the wiki active, and pleasing every single user. Zach said he laid awake at night, worrying about what people thought of him. I want everyone to think about this, you spend 2 years of your life working towards the ultimate goal of being crat only to finally get it and have the whole wiki hate you for being loyal to your friends. It's, to put it lightly, devastating. Zach goes on to talk about the countless arguments that he got into and how he regrets every single one of them. He ends his leaving by giving just about everyone the one thing no one gave him, forgiveness. Now to Sway's point it was Zach's decision to leave the wiki if he came back right now we would probably celebrate.

Spyroclub
One of the longest lasting staff members Spyro got bored of the wiki, he was active less, and what did we do? For all his years of adding to this wiki and being part of this community we let him go like a plastic bag in the wind. Only 4 people responded to his goodbye post. FOUR PEOPLE! He was on this wiki for 806 days and only 4 people could swallow their pride and say goodbye. He is just a kid, he is not some robot to corporate figure! He is a kid who was on this wiki for almost 3 years of his life. He earned his admin spot and can you blame him for getting bored! Now I did not know Spyro well but let's look his goodbye note. He talks about the whole wiki hated him. He talks about the times he has had, both the good and the bad. But two things are the most important. He talks about a common theme with all leaving staff, the real world. The wiki demands so much of its staff that actually having time to spend in the real world even more so as you climb the ranks.

His last words without a doubt brought tears to my eyes every time I read them:

"but I am still so grateful the wiki was in my life because I found my greatest friends, but still in the past few days I thought people who were my friends weren’t. I’m not gonna be reading any comments on this point because I know there will be a lot of hate, so if you want to talk to me talk to me on discord, though I left the bncs server and turned server dms off so I would only talk to the people I’ve added on discord, and that’s what I want because they are my actual friends and those are the people I would want to talk to. If we haven’t added each other on discord then there is no way to talk to me, I wouldn't want to anyways. Things will be so different in 2021 for me. "

Now I know that was long but c'mon. He put two years of his life into something he loved and cared for only to walk away feeling like the whole wiki hated him.

Garfield
Garf has been and still is a part of this community for a long time. After the Staff vs. Users event he gained mod but he didn't use his spot too much and was demoted/self demoted off the staff team. Now lets look at Garf's last words. He talks about how grateful he is to have been staff like most users do but then he talks about the common theme of all this.

"Because of staff, I have lost so much time I should have used for school and friends". And then later in his goodbye post on the wiki he warns all users of how stressful staff can be.

Ak-Elfs
His sudden leaving of his posts was insane. Its like all the stress built up in him exploded. Over the course of 5 minutes he had transferred power to sway and blocked most of the staff without a single word. The staff went into a panic. But why, Ak was one of the most liked users of our time. He was popular, helpful, he was perfect. Pretty much the exact opposite of Zach when he left. But it goes to show how stressful this job can be.

More Info

 * Staff vs Users 2020
 * The Bureaucrat Curse