Staff will always have the orange mickey badge and green ears. Indeed, the ears were brought out because a number of guests had managed to acquire the green flips and were also dressing close to the staff costume. Some because they liked the outfit, some because they admire staff and want to be like them, others for self-importance such as the one you witnessed. Newer guests don't always know to click on someone to see their signature so the ears were designed to make the Staff instantly recognizable. Community Leaders have CL in front of their names and a blue mickey hat badge.
There are a number of guests in VMK (some from beta days) who form what I call the "Staff wananbee clique". They are the bossy ones that order guests around, "interpret VMK values" for everyone, hint that they have pull with the staff, follow staff all over VMKm and brag that they have staff on their friends' lists...they don't claim to be staff or leaders, usually, since that would be blatant "impersonation" but they manage to give the impression that they are staff or at least close to staff. If you see them acting that way, just try to reassure any guests that they are bullying (and yes, this is a form of bullying when you order another guest to change an "inappropriate signature"-not even community leaders have that right to badger another guest) that they are not staff and not be afraid of them.
You see the same sort of name-dropping for influence in the real world. Often, if you call them on it, they will ignore you. Well, they don't ignore me so much because I have been a community leader for long time so it is harder for them to duck me.
On a general note-vigilantism is never attractive. If you witness behavior that is dangerous or completely against WRITTEN VMK values (as posted on the Main VMK page), contact staff immediately. If you witness borderline behavior (such as a signature that is not very nice or the "boy friend girl friend" stuff), ignore it as best you can. For while it can be annoying, at this time it is NOT against the written values and pestering a guest about it actually puts you in violation of the "harassing" other guests clause. Until VMK starts hiring "guest police", I'm afraid there is not much you can do about things that just irriate you or don't coincide with your own view of how the game is played.
When I see the "boy-friend girl-friend" thing going on, I usually ignore it unless I feel the "couple" is tending to give out personal information. In that case, a friendly reminder can be of help. Please remember that many of our guests are very young and, like all young, may just be mimicking things they have seen in VMK without really understanding. If you feel you need to remind a guest about values or caution them for something, please try not to be mean or judgemental about it but phrase your warning as a friendly one. If you are not sure and have a community leader you respect on your friend list, don't hesitate to ask them to come deliver the warning or help you out.
