Admin Or Member?

[∞ ConqueringWolf ∞]

It seems to me that a lot of people who are making forums don't have the proper personality to run a forum and would probably be better off as a member of another forum and helping to make it more successful than to be an admin of their own.

I see people who throw on the first generic template they can download off the first graphics site they come across and then they throw up a few general boards and proclaim their self as the greatest forum in the world. Personally I believe one of the keys to success for a forum is a unique look that distinguishes itself from someone who just uses a template that 2,000 other boards already use. If an admin cares enough to run a good quality forum they should be willing to spend the time to learn how to design it their self so they can offer something unique to their members and also offer upgrades and changes in the future.

I also see admins who refuse to post in their forum saying, "I am waiting until I get members and then they will start posting on their own". I know from experience that members will not just come in to an empty forum and start making threads on their own. If they have something that interests them enough to reply to then they will join to do so. Once your forum becomes active and new topics are made every day then new members will come in and start new topics and join in on the fun but never will they do that with a forum that is starting off with no topics or posts. Forum activity should be driven as equally if not more by the forum admin than anyone else.

You also need patience to run a forum and I see too many people who say, "I have had my forum for a week and I don't have any members". If you are not willing to suffer with your forum and endure with it for months at a time with no or little activity then maybe you shouldn't be an admin.

Basically not everyone is cut out to put in all the time, effort, and stress that is required to run a successful forum and they would be much better off if they were just a member on a forum that they enjoyed and were helping the admin of that forum create a successful forum.

So before you create a forum, ask yourself; are you an admin or a better member?

[D]

The main admin is the heart of the forum. If your the main admin it is your job to stay active, provide your forum with fresh topics, resolve problems and do general things.

Without the main admin being active the forum could fall apart. Try to get on everyday, but that may not be nessaccery depending on the activeness.

If someone has said something "noobish" dont make fun of them, help them on their way and show them your forum has a good admin and there is every chance they will come back.

You have to be friendly towards members aswell as staff and even guests. Dont favour staff over members just because they are staff. The motto "the customer is always right" could be "the member is always right" therefore pay attention to the views the members have on your forum. When new people come on and intoduce themselves on the introduction board (If you dont have one I suggest having one) always welcome the new members.

Lastly you have to be devoted, pointless making a forum then abandoning it a few days later isn't it?

[Raven]

There is no necessary requirement for coolness that anyone needs to be an admin.
But there are many things that will make your forum successful if you do the right things.
When members arrive, help them and make them feel welcomed, but make sure you give them space to roam and feel free at home.
Be active, you should make the majority of the posts, show them you care and have intelligence into your posts.
When designing your forum, make sure all the codes work in the major browsers (Netscape, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera).
Make sure the graphics match and blend in with the color scheme.
The color scheme should be something simple, but elegant.
It should be creative, the text colors should be readable and the opposite of the background colors.
What I mean is don't use black text on a black background and don't clash colors together.
Be nice and friendly on your message board.
You want them to feel welcomed and you want them to know you have a bit of intelligence inside you.
You have to be hard working to be an admin. Your heart has to be in it, things don't magically happen.
Members don't get on your message board and start posts out of nowhere, I had to wait a good 5 months for my forum to get active and it took even longer to find an efficient design team to work with me.
Don't forget the seasons. At the end of spring, there will be a lot of EOG and EOC tests, people have jobs, they can't always be on the message board, but if you're friendly and intelligent, they should come on when they get the chance.
Don't pm advertise, I admit I did it in the past and it is a foolish way to advertise.
When you advertise, do it in your signature, far more effective.
Get a nice signature to represent your message board and make sure it has a few of the activities you can do on the message board on the signature.
Post often and reply to all posts, it isn't a requirement, but it helps and it'll give the forum a bigger post count overall.
These are the things I do and that's why I make a good admin.

[mrsyukisohma]

An admin can do everything in there power to make the board successful. A message board becomes successful in different ways. What makes the person a good admin is based on their own personality. I've seen message boards that don't take banned members that well. They've talked behind the members back, and other things have gone on.

I for one know that I am a good admin despite what others say about me whether it's good or bad (if it's bad, most of the time people judge me because they don't know who I really am, but bother listening to what others have said). However, I know that I am a good admin because I extend grace to members. I've ran across some pretty rude administrators before. If you break a rule once or twice, you're banned. Sometimes there is no excuse, but I also try to put myself in the other person's shoes and imagine what must be going on at home.

One thing that's important to keep in mind is someone can be completely knew to being apart of a message board. It takes time to gain wisdom. For the most part, if this is your first time joining a message board, you want to kindly explain to the member the ropes. However, you don't want to treat a new member who's new to message board one way, and treat another differently who already knows the ropes. You want to treat everyone equally and fairly.

A lot of admins keep a score card of what a member does wrong. We already deal with that enough in life as it is. A message board should be a lot of fun, it's not a military. I try to handle my punishments fairly, where it won't seem as though I am just judging another, or making them feel guilty.

I try to make a personal relationship with my members and keep in contact with them. The point of communities are supposed to for that reason, but it's changed. Now it's to get as members and praise as you possibly can - usually for selfish reasons. I try to be different and really make it a personal community.

When I have a problem with a member, I don't go telling the other staff members. Members tend to feel judged when that happens. If I do, I remind my staff members that we're not here to judge, but try to help the members at least. I've been hurt in the past by staff members and felt as though they judged me. This is something I have tried to avoid with my members.

I am also a good member because I follow the rules. I am very careful with how I write toward someone else on the other line whether I am a member or a staff member to avoid confusion and arguements. The only reason why I tend to have a hard time with staff members is because they don't usually have the personality that a staff member should. Our personalities are usually opposite. Though, this hasn't been the case with all, but a few. It just depends on the community you're joining. So far, this has been the community for me because there are a lot of mature members here, different sizes and ages.

[Shentino]

It takes a good member to be a good admin. Administrators have to be expert at member issues, such as registration problems, dealing with spammers, and all the other stuff that ruins a regular member's enjoyment of a board.

Also, admins have to worry about being a moderator too, since admins are like Super mods.

All this to say, in order to be a good admin (which is the pinnacle of forumship), you have to have a solid foundation in everything below it.

[BluAngel]

I am an admin of several forums. One, it is more of an informational board, so I don't expect a lot of talking, but on the other, it's a few of us that met on-line, started a community on a certain "bill gates website--said so I don't name the competition, though it's not even competition ".....and got so fed up with it, that we moved to a different Message board server, that I now wish I had never heard of.....Anyway, on that second board, I haven't been active lately, but it's doing fine without me. They realize I have been very ill and not able to keep up with it like I'd like to. I do peek in at least once every few days, and touch base, but not anywhere as active as I should be. I've offered to resign, but my other admins don't want me to, so I stay, with the understanding, that they have the same powers on the board I do, and that I'm becoming more of a silent Admin for the time being.

Neither board started out as very active, but now they are both slowly getting there. The "friends" board, has been going now, between two moves, for about 3 years, and we have our times of being slow. The information board is only about a month old, and I just started getting some members, so I made sure that there were some games and stuff to play, so it isn't all business. You have to know when to be serious, and when to have fun. One thing I found out on the information board, is that by offering my members "Private blogs", they are feeling more comfortable sharing things they might not otherwise have shared.....and they have control over it. Password protected, and they mod their own sections.

A good Admin knows their members, and will figure out what the members need most for their board. My board deals with abuse, so they needed a place that was private, for 'venting' and stuff.

[kaylee2000]

I've had my board since Dec of 04 and haven't had activity in over a year. I've tried advertising sites and affiliation and many other things I just don't know how to bring members and keep members at my board. I do regular updates and have a unique look and taste to my forums but no luck. Does anyone have any admin tips to keep members coming? I do have frequent updates, multiple topics, and no empty boards. I just can't seem to get those who view it to register and start posting.


One other thing I would like to add. I find often twhen I see a newly created board that most inexperienced admins take hold of their "power" and use it too freely. I've personally experienced admins which abuse their powers and make an unstable environment for thier members.

E.G. Frequent abrupt changes to the forum procedures, Quick to bannings and insulting and prohibitinh members thoughts and ideas.

Usually in this case members just abnadon the area and find a better forum to attend. So bascially what I'm trying to say is that you need to be aware of what the administrator's effect has on its members and possibly you're better off not having that kind of influence and better off being a well respected member.

[∞ ConqueringWolf ∞]

I think the key is just patience. I myself have given up before on some of my other forums, only to go back and reopen them and spent 6 months or more trying to build up a good member base. Sometimes it takes forever to find the proper mix of members to keep your forum alive and you just have to be willing to stick with it even if it takes a year or longer.

[Dais Zanad]

now i know that i am not a good admin, but i have some good ideas about how to run it even if you arent there, for examplemaking everybody a mod, it is like making everybody a God, everybody is the same, no exceptions. You may not chose to follow that rule but iI think that it works, (once I get people to come to my site but since I can't post it here then I am going to have a tough time advertizing it.).

[myke]

x226 said:

now i know that i am not a good admin, but i have some good ideas about how to run it even if you arent there, for examplemaking everybody a mod, it is like making everybody a God, everybody is the same, no exceptions. You may not chose to follow that rule but iI think that it works, (once I get people to come to my site but since I can't post it here then I am going to have a tough time advertizing it.).

Terrible idea. I highly recommend NOT making everyone a moderator. For one, you don't know you can trust every member who registers. If the wrong people have mod powers, they can do some damage to your forum. If they don't have mod powers, and are only mod by name, then your forum can be deleted if they violate the Terms of Service. If a regular member violates the TOS, you will have 72 hours to get rid of it to comply with the TOS, but if a moderator violates the TOS, auto deletion.

Read this thread. and then find the 'Making Strangers Staff' section of this post, and you'll see why it's such a terrible idea to make everyone mods.

Again, for anyone who values their forum, I highly recommend against this.

[Slacker]

Patience and understanding is a very important thing for an admin. If they aren't patient enough to get a good amount of members to consider their board "successful" then they'd be better members.

If they can't make clear decsions in fights/debates and don't know when and how to enforce rules they'd be better as a member. Part of being an admin is settling disputes between members. If the admin sides with one because he/she is his/her friend then the other member gets the short end of the stick. The admin should be nuetral. Also the admin should know when to let the members spam a little and have fun with bending the rules. If the admin has no sense of that, they should be a rule-abiding member at another forum.

If they dont spend time customizing, tweaking, and preparing the forum for the first visitors to view and potentially join, they'd be a better member. To expect people to join a board with no posts and just the default skin is wrong. That shows the admin is not dedicated to the forum and just wants to quickly mingle with other people, somthing they should do at another board or even in the real world.

x226 said:

now i know that i am not a good admin, but i have some good ideas about how to run it even if you arent there, for examplemaking everybody a mod, it is like making everybody a God, everybody is the same, no exceptions. You may not chose to follow that rule but iI think that it works, (once I get people to come to my site but since I can't post it here then I am going to have a tough time advertizing it.).

If you wanted everyone to be the same why not have one member group while reserving staff powers for yourself?

As xkamelx said you are posing a great risk to your board being cracked and deleted. There is nothing stopping your members abusing their powers. Maybe you would be a better member than admin...

[leah]

I think I am a better administrator than member, but I honestly think i'm a pretty good member too.

I run a rather successful forum in my opinion, and I know all of the aspects of a good administrator. Providing new topics, being active, assigning member groups, rules, everything. In my opinion, that's what makes a good administrator. Knowing everything they need to know. You also need to be dedicated. I don't think that it's a good idea to make everyone a staff member. I just had 1 Global Moderator on a board with 52 members, and now I don't even have 1 staff member, and I can handle things fine. I only suggest giving a moderator position if you need one. Especially Global Moderator.

It annoys me so much to see people with successful boards just because they have friends who make all of these mistakes. It also annoys me when people assign staff positions to everybody. I try to tell them...and then they end up with 5 other members on their board, a co-administrator and 4 Global Moderators, with nobody to moderate.

[sumsumbubblegum]

Admin or member? How can one really know. To be a good member you need to be dedicated, have respect for other members, contribute to the board and show respect for the board + its admin. To be an admin you need patience, respect for your own members, respect for the board, and needs to realize that a board needs dedication and effort to make it good. The admin should also remember that some boards are successful and others aren't and that they need to make the right choices with their board. If you are into responsibility and you have a creative side that you might want to pursue being an admin and creating your own board; however if you like to have a good time on a board with no-responsibilities but likes to chat w/ others members that one would likely go for the member.

Its your choice and you should always analyze your qualities and your time and see which you could accomplish better.

[Dais Zanad]

Ok well one of my friends (TikkiGod) just recently had a contest to make people mods, by giving them chores to clean up his site. I didn't see how it would have worked but prior to that he just made poeple mods because they had a certain amount of posts. As long as they aren't posting one word per post then I think that would be ok. Mabye about 2000 posts could be the limit. Also reflect it off of their personality and how they interact with others on the site. I know one person who was horrible with the other people and was always deleteing posts and threads, just because they got a little off topic. Do you think that is right?

[papalia]

Actually, on my forum you can become a mod (although with VERY limited powers) just by making 5000 posts, on the basis that a member who makes 5000 posts without getting a significant level of warning (and the warning system is quite tough on my forum) isnt likely to abuse a staff position. Also by the time a member reaches 5k, I would know that member well enough to know if they make a good staff member.

Making people mods just because they win a contest is definately something I disaggree with. After all, what if I won your contest, then decided to post images of goatse all over the forum, and then report it... the forum would be deleted, but worse still, if someone posted suspicious terrorist information or child porn, the owner of the forum could end up in serious ****! That is also why you don't make everyone moderators, or make strangers moderators. I wouldn't give power to anyone who I didn't known PERSONALLY!!

On my forum, there is only one other staff member than me, who is someone I've known for over a year, and someone who's also been an admin, and in fact, a fairly good admin. Also I made him mod because he wanted to be a mod, and also I knew I'd need someone else to be mod if I was away ever. However, I have no intentions of making any other members mods because as it is, my forum only has 7 members, in which about 4 (including me, the admin) actively posts. I feel, if there's more mods than active members (including guests), then it is pointless. I've seen a forum where all but one member is a mod, and it just doesn't really work (and its quite surprising that the member never complains).

As for being a good admin, I'd say I'm good enough to be an admin (not as good as design and stuff as people like SoCal) and it also doesn't help that I don't have photoshop, but then again I don't try to make the best designed forum, as my forum has about 10 different themes to choose from. Only 2 of the themes have gradients, and sometimes simple is easier.

I do use scripts though. I have quite a lot of them in my headers and footers, mostly scripts taken from the code database, but some stuff that I've coded myself (such as my footer which has a link to a popup window showing the history of features/etc added to my forum).

As for members, I've heard of admins, and seen for myself, when the admin edits everything they don't like, or warns users over something that is too trivial. Firstly I think that kind of behaviour shows that an admin has little or no experience in being an admin, and secondly, a good admin DOES have to be a good member. Prior to setting up my forum (and hence becomming an admin of a forum) I had been members on several forums, and have seen how the rules work, and how admins react to different things (ex. n00bs stating the obvious, members making mistakes, spammers who manage to crash people computers when the person opens a thread, etc) and I know what members like about admins and what they don't (ie. as an admin, you must respect the fact that newbies dont know what you might see as obvious). I also could see that if an admin was too hard on their members, the members would just simply abandon the forum, and the admin of the forum would be the one who loses.

Therefore a good admin has to have been a member to know the rules, etc, and all the general stuff. An admin who knows all the ubbc tags is also useful. In fact, any forum I set up or have lots of power on, I usually create a thread in the forum's help board which is a guide to ubbc. My forum has one of these, and it's really long and detailled. After all, the admins need to know all the things that members will learn when it comes to forums, or at least if the admin doesn't know a lot of technical stuff, then they should try to find someone they trust who is technically adept, and have them be a tech support member of something (on a school forum that a friend of mine runs, I am Gmod, but mainly for tech support reasons these days).

Also I don't really care how active my forum is. For one thing it wasn't designed to have lots of members. The main purpose is so people who go on my website can post messages, ask questions, make suggestions for my website, etc. Also I feel all good websites should have a forum, even if people only post on the forum to say what they think about the website. Also, I use my forum to announceplans for my website and what things I intend to modify (such as information about an upcomming version of my website, if I decide to make major changes). The idea of "get more members/posts to be successful" therefore doesn't really work in my case, because that's just vain, and besides, if I had too many members, It'd be hard to moderate it, and then I'd have to quickly find members to make as staff members, which could be quite a risky thing.

And that's all for my ideas on being a good admin.

-james:)