User blog:Nikolai Banks/A Road To A Better Community

I love to give Sannse kudos for her amazing blog How to Get Unblocked, it has inspired me and in some ways her blog relates to Matthew 5:25, why I say this is quite obvious. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:25 "Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison."

Or in those terms, its best to come to terms quickly with the Admin you might of had problems with before, or any other user you have had a bad past with, it is better to come to terms of an agreement with your accuser, remember as a community, we work on a daily basis with each other, no matter if we are Admins, Staff, Mods, VSTF or normal users, it is far better to make peace and come to terms, admit what you did was wrong and ask for forgiveness, though not all users will be willing to forgive so easily, other times users are forgiving, but that depends entirely on the situation you and the user were in. If it was something minor, like cursing or harassing, you will most likely be given a warning, but if its more serious, like lashing out to personal attacks, vandalism and spamming or even trolling, then the situation will be a very serious one and you will only have angered not just the users, but admins and mods who are present at the time.

As for getting yourself banned, don't see it as being unfair, see it as a time out, an Admin or mod will put you on a time out from Chat or the community you are part of, due to either bad behavior or other serious problems, but if you are still able to send messages to the Mod/Admin that blocked you, take this as an opportunity to apologize for your actions, admitting your bad behavior and apologizing for them is the first step of coming to terms with the other user.

But if you chose to be rude and start throwing threats and insults, that won't help with your situation, your ban could be expanded as a result as well as your ability to message users on the site will be disabled in the process. Like Sannse said in her blog, be polite, calm and approach the issue in a calm matter.

Coming to the terms of forgiveness, you must forgive the user you had problems with and ask for the user for their forgiveness. Just as Jesus spoke about coming to terms with your accuser or adversary in Matthew 5, He said in Luke 6:37 "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:"

The moral of His message in Luke 6:37 is this, do not judge the person that blocked you from the chat, like Sannse said, there could be a reason for them blocking you, from saying something that is against the community guidelines or you just of came on at the wrong time [That either you were in a bad mood or the Admin/Mod are in a bad mood], best way to deal with this situation, is to be positive, if you are in a bad mood, don't take it out on the local admin/mods or other users present, if your bad mood was due to a family problem or any other real life problems you are having, please don't take it out on your fellow users or any of the local admins and staff members, this pretty much goes the same for the Admins, if any Admin has had a bad day due to life problems, don't take it out on other users, it is best to keep yourself calm, rather than lashing out at other users.

For the message involving Condemning, is pretty much like banning indefinitely without a reason, don't condemn your fellow users, or else you just might be condemned with out a reason yourself, rather jumping into conclusions and blocking a user for no apparent reason, specially if you are in a bad mood, just don't go there, one of the best ways to get over your current mood [if it's a bad mood or a negative mood], best talk it out with a friend, with talking things out with a friend or a fellow user, you will feel a lot better in some way, if talking to a friend doesn't help your current mood, try doing something that will, do something active or creative, there are many things to do that is active or creative, like painting art [With a paint brush, not on a computer], hanging out with real life friends or going to your local gym if you are a member of the gym, or do anything that is creative or active that comes to your mind, if it helps you and makes you feel better, I say go for it.

Now leading to forgiveness, like Jesus says in His message in Luke 6:37 "Forgive and you will be forgiven" Along to coming to terms with your accuser, it is good to forgive the person that accused you, and they will eventually will forgive you as you both come into terms with one another, but if you forgive the user, but they don't forgive you, or you don't forgive them but they forgive you, or if neither of you forgive each other, that will complicate things in your situation. If at anytime you are in that sort of situation, it is best to leave your computer, do something else and think about the situation, but if you start trolling the person's message wall/talk page, that won't get you forgiven and will lead to far more trouble. Trolling your accuser is like poking a hornet nest, it will lead to trouble and you will be stung, in this case, you will be blocked, or if you already blocked, it will only be expanded to a longer period of time.

Leading to the next step, is Fellowship, fellowship in a community is important, Staff are like the mayors of the community, Admins are the law enforcers and VSFT are the janitors and Mods are like new recruits or guards, and users, are normal, all are in a community, and most communities have to have a form of fellowship, and that makes a community become good at team work and helping one another out, by doing this, you are not just helping Admins, Mods, VSTF, and Staff, but you are also helping your fellow users, if any conflict arises during the time, remember the things I said in this blog, as well as the things Sannse has said in her own blog, most of all, remember to use your common sense, hopefully that will help users to come to terms and help each other better in the future.

I hope this helps users in any way possible, and remember to keep my blog as well as Sannse's blog in mind, as well as the Guidelines or policies the community you are part of.

Thank you all for reading.