Power + Person = Operator

I would like to extend yesterday’s post.

I defined an operator as someone who has power to control the users or the state of the hub.

The problem with this is that hub writers have provided hub owners with the option to give any given group of users power. Most hub owners will do this and have different levels of operator power. The standard levels are (starting from the one with most power) hub owner, super user (“SU”), operator (“OP”) and VIP (“very important user”). Then there’s of course other levels but I believe these are the most common.

Normally, all of these have power. (Speaking from experience.) The amount of power each group has is decided by the hub owner.

The problem that erise is that all of these groups have power to control users or the state of the hub. This means, they all should be considered as operators. But the issue is that people assigned the status of ‘super user’ seldom wish to be associated with (lower ranked) people (in terms of social name calling). That is, they are considered as higher by the hub owner, thus they have more power, thus they feel that they are more important than to be called operators. The people assigned with the status of ‘VIP’ is considered (by people that have no power) as “not as important”. That is, that they have no power; only a status marking of VIP. This can be true, but it might not. Most hub owners doesn’t use VIP as “label”, it is often used to test the person with VIP status if he or she is worthy of reaching ‘operator’ status.

Enough with the rant. Remember this; Everyone, no matter what their label in the hub is, with power is an operator. Because they can operate (control). All the labels are just different degrees of control.