But have you looked at the chat? It's like everyone has a color because lately, so many people have walked in and out of the staff.
You don't say.
Irrelevant. Especially given that his point was that you have very little ground to walk on when when questioning someone personally. You would have done well to not comment on the respected user award he held and his behavior. I would not be surprised when someone responds the way they did to you.
Normally I wouldn't comment on this, but perhaps the reason the severity of this problem is from my own lack of commenting on it.
You see, users have no power. They cannot ban you, or -rep, delete your posts, anything effective. The most they can do is downrate your resources, but fat lot of good that does with only one vote to cast. So, when one user tells another user to not do something, or to behave differently, or don't double post, it's no surprise that the user does not listen. However, if a moderator tells the user the same thing, the probability that they will listen and not ignore it, or even act in opposite to it, is significantly higher.
It's no surprise Elenai responded the way he did, though he shouldn't have, and it's no surprise the responses people made to his response, though they shouldn't have. Tracing things back to the first unjustified shouldn't have, it is Insincerity's attempt to moderate Elenai:
Please try to take this discussion seriously. Although I shouldn't bring this into the argument, your respected user award seems like something that implies a responsible and mature attitude, and thus you should be careful with the way you phrase your posts, because right now it sounds as if you're mocking other users' fairly reasonable proposals.
Users are not moderators. If you want to tell people how to behave, apply to be a moderator. Otherwise, your efforts to moderate could prove counterproductive.
Let me say it again:
Users are not moderators.
As for the topic, I have never liked the idea. As soon as people start donating for a specific reward, we've got issues. Namely, our hands are tied. Suppose we want to upgrade the chat, but the new chat doesn't have icons or colored names. Suppose we have to refactor a bunch or code to make it have them. Suppose we want to remove them. We can't do it, without some people
wanting a refund. Or course, since it's a donation they can't turn in their receipt. This doesn't stop them from
wanting it, though.
Money is only a limiting factor. Lots of people use it for enabling, but only because they are limited by money in the first place. I think the only reason for a donation should be because someone wants this site to continue being unlimited. Any other reason and we start getting limits.
Limits suck.
