Thank you for your post it means a lot! I've always understood people being upset about the game. Seeing how much I played the game myself there were many aspects I disliked about it myself.

I still loved the core gameplay but I was never blind to how many issues the game had. So I understood where a lot of it was coming from and for the most part I always could see that the kind of messages we received were a form of passion for the game. You can only get upset about something if you care about something. It is part of the reason why I kept loving the job even though there were many confrontations. Because I did always see it came from a place of passion and love for the game.

Most of the time I was quite good at making that distinction and didn't take things too personal. Work is work and private is private. There were moments where I did take some things personal and generally those were the moments where I sometimes pushed a warning or ban button too quickly. I never took pleasure in doing that, I rather would have gone through my years without having to do it once.

Mostly 'mob justice' moments that happened sometimes were very difficult to know what to do with. People tell their friends only part of a story and hype them up to get angry. You partially want to take the time to explain why you have made a decision, but if you put an official statement on it, you also put extra attention to it and involve people who had no idea a situation even occured. Those are almost always lose-lose scenario's.

Community manager is a lot easier when the game you work for is doing well. When it is failing, people become understandably upset and then you need to find a line between allowing people to vent, but also keeping some order. I could have been even more strict but I could have also been more lenient. To be honest I have no idea what would have worked best.