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Ive been here for about a Month now, not all of the time, but when I am here I never really experience any problems, and Furtopia is by far one of the best and friendly forums ive come across yet. And the Admods are doing a great job! 

i been a member for ages and i only just returned here after sometime away.

Welcome back. and nice to meet you, Im Moon Dogy.

Pardon me for posting in a slightly old thread, but as a long time member (7 years) and also finally an Admin, I'd like to add my own thoughts to this topic. I've wanted to do so for a very long time, but I've wanted to wait until the right moment when I had enough experience under my belt so to speak. I'll try not to re-hash what everybody else has said, and I do not want to speak for the other staff and/or WS. My comments here in this post are my own thoughts and feelings. But if I do inadvertantly repeat anything that others have already said, then I apologise. 

What's it like to be a Moderator and/or an Administrator? Well, let me tell you, It's not easy.  A lot of comments made by Peaches, Kada-Ru, Sporty Fox, Savaaha, Far Raptor, and a few others have pretty much hit the spot as for what it's like to work here. It's a tough job, folks. You might think it's easy, but it's not. Every hour of every day, week, and month, the staff are constantly checking and re-checking posts, threads, and other issues that need handling. We're also debating and discussing decisions that not only affect the members, but the entire site as a whole. It's tough trying to figure out if we should do this, or should we do that? As Peaches had said in her first post, we don't get paid for this. We're all just volunteers donating our time and whatever other resources to help Furtopia grow as a community. Why did I become staff and work here? I did it for no other reason than to simply help out. I didn't become staff to be mean. I didn't become staff to yell. And I didn't become staff to lay down rule after rule after rule. If I've ever had to be strict with someone, then I'm sorry. But as a staff person, my job has to come first and my friends second. It hurts when I have to do this, and I've watched in year's past as I've lost friends. But when I'm logged into the forums and I see my name in red Admin lettering, then I have a job to do.
If I've ever made a mistake, then I am sorry for that too. When you take away the fursonas and all the role playing that the staff do, we're all just human and we will occasionally make mistakes from time to time. The only things we can do is learn and grow from those mistakes. And at the end of the day or night when I log off and you don't see my name at the bottom, Will I still be an Admin? No. I try to leave my Admin job at Furtopia only. When I'm logged out, then all the rules and PM's, etc. are left behind. I don't want to discuss "Furtopia business" with my friends in real life. I don't want to lay down rules or anything else when I see someone face to face. The only thing I want to do is just "be friends". And no matter how much I may PM someone and lay down the rules, I hope that that member I am conversing with can look past the job I have to do and still want to be a friend no matter how much I may be strict or whatever else.

I consider Furtopia my furry home and I couldn't imagine of going anywhere else. It's really hard to describe what this place does to you or what it brings about or whatever. I just know that I've liked it here for a long time and I wanted to "give back" so to speak to this community my time, knowledge, experience, skills, and anything else I had to offer as a "Thanks" for WhiteSheperd allowing me to be a member here.
What makes Furtopia special? Honestly, I don't know. The reasons could be as varied as the amount of fursonas the members have here. All I can really say is that you probably won't find another furry forum quite as friendly and nice as Furtopia. We're unique, that's for sure. Why the "family friendly/PG" nature of the forums? I'd have to take a guess and say that Furtopia is open to people young and old (of any age), female and male, of any background and ethinicity, etc. that share a common interest of anthropomorphics. We don't discriminate here. There are lots of forums on the Net out there, but some may be too yiffy. Others may be too lax with language, rules, or something else. Furtopia represents IMO a safe and respectable place where people can come and discuss issues that interest them and to feel safe and secure from bullying, flaming, disrespect, etc., etc.

Why all the rules? I know not everybody likes rules. Heck, not even myself. But if we didn't have rules and laws in this world, then the world would fall into chaos and anarchy. It may seem like Furtopia has a lot of rules for various things. But if you look at them sometime, they really aren't that bad or excessive, and they do make sense. The staff will try to work with the members in allowing stuff that they may want. But if we ever have to say No that you can't do something, then our decisions must be final. There are reasons for all the rules Furtopia has. Some may be old, while others may be new. But regardless of whether those rules/reasons are old or new, they are all still valid nonetheless. If anybody ever has a question on why something is the way it is, then please PM an Admin and we'll be glad to explain things to you. Some members may say "Why can't I do this?" or "Why can't I do that?". I'm sorry, but respectfully, the Internet is not like the wild, wild, west. It may seem like it since there is so little or no governing rules for how the Net operates, but no matter where you go, there will always be rules and laws to follow. You can't always get what you want. Furtopia belongs to WhiteShepherd and Kada-Ru. It's THEIR website, and as such, we (Members and staff) all have to follow whatever rules they may have for their website. The main reason we have the rules that we do is because of Furtopia's "family friendly/PG" nature. We tend to have members here as young as 12. We also have parents and/or whole "families" of members here, and we have to keep things to a respectable level. 

I'm not sure what else I can say here, folks. I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this topic about what it's like to do the jobs that the staff do. If I rambled or went off topic, then sorry.  I've tried to explain things on how I see them, but like I said, my opinions are my own. I did not want to speak for anyone else or WS.