Day Thirteen: People I Admire

This post is part of a series "20 Days of... WoW Blogging Challenge", a blogging challenge suggested by Saga at Spellbound. She proposes twenty questions to be answered in twenty days and I, foolishly, have decided to take up this most daunting task because clearly my schedule is not full enough.


DAY THIRTEEN: PEOPLE I ADMIRE

When I started thinking about this topic I started compiling a list of people that I respect and admire in my head. After about an hour - once the blinding, searing headache went away from trying to remember all those names - I decided that a monolithic list of people was not the way to go with this post; especially since most people will just scan those to see if their name is mentioned and not actually read it. So I started to think of a different way to approach this topic.

The people I admire are the people who do the Thankless Jobs™ in our game. I'm talking about the Raid Leaders, Role Leads, Recruiters and Guild Leaders out there.

These people are responsible for an job that has been glibly compared to herding cats, but would be more accurately described as herding short-tempered, egotistical badgers who are fine when left alone but viciously attack anyone who pokes them with a stick. It's the leader's job to figure out how often it's possible to poke the badger without your face getting ripped off.

I have led online communities before (successfully, I think), and it's not an easy job. There is enough drama to deal with to make a young William Shakespeare quit the theatre and take up chartered accountancy. Often you're trying to provide direction to people who seem determined to remain directionless. Just trying to make yourself heard over the relentless din of internet chatter is often impossible; and on the occasions that you succeed you're often called a tyrant.

So my hat is off to you folks. You're doing a tough job requiring exceptionally clear communication, but doing it in a medium that makes everything you say easy to ignore or misinterpret. Considering most of you volunteered for this job speaks volumes of your character. Selfless, some would say. Noble, even. Masochist? Certainly.

Yesterday, DAY TWELVE: A DAY IN THE LIFE
Tomorrow, DAY FOURTEEN: THIS UPSETS ME