The Anti-Mentor

[JoelR]

There are mentors: people that you admire and respect and follow as a role model. Then there are the anti-mentors: people who can still teach us incredibly valuable lessons by exemplifying not the good behaviors, but the wrong ones.  

What are some behaviors that you vow not to do, because you've seen the first-hand damage caused by their leadership?  

Inspired by The Management Consultant

[Maxius]

From my perspective there was this one forum I joined in 2005 it was about pro wrestling. The admins were such hardass gatekeepers going at new members who were "marks" and were unwilling to understand how pro wrestling really works + relentlessly punishing for every minor rule break. Needless to say the niche wasn't big and thru those actions the forum only lived for good 5 years.

Old members who survived that camp stayed and became loyal but as time went by new members did not join and old ones got away because life goes on. Shame. I wasn't smart enough back then to know better too that this won't work in the long run.

[JoelR]

9 hours ago, Maxius said:

From my perspective there was this one forum I joined in 2005 it was about pro wrestling. The admins were such hardass gatekeepers going at new members who were "marks" and were unwilling to understand how pro wrestling really works + relentlessly punishing for every minor rule break. Needless to say the niche wasn't big and thru those actions the forum only lived for good 5 years.

Old members who survived that camp stayed and became loyal but as time went by new members did not join and old ones got away because life goes on. Shame. I wasn't smart enough back then to know better too that this won't work in the long run.

Great story about the dangers of overmoderation! Every community who fails has as much to teach us as the communities who survive.  

One of the lessons that I've consciously tried to remind myself - and it's hard! - is that as your forum or community matures, it doesn't mean that everyone understands the community as deeply as you do.  In my primary community, there are members who have been with me since the beginning and they've learned all of the features and options. But I keep reminding myself that I have to build a community for the hundreds of new members who join every month and don't know anything.  It's easy to punish members for not knowing every rule, easy to assume every member knows exactly where to post and how to post, easy to assume everyone is as fluent with the platform as you.  But the reality is that most members are simply confused.