Admin Or Member?

[Kahara]

I started out as a member, just like many others I am sure. I had never heard of proboards before one certain site, and when I came across it, at first it was confusing. But over time it grew on me and I got used to the easy to use controls and search options, among other things.

Being an administrator isn't an easy job. Some people I know seem to desire the position thinking it is all fun and games. While it has its perks, I must disagree on the 'all fun and games' thought process of some members in forums I've ran before or currently run. I do not even consider myself to be a good administrator yet. Over time, I've come to realize it takes more than knowing how to code and advertise and be organized to run a forum successfully. It takes maturity and understanding, as well as a lot of patience. I've been a moderator, global moderator, administrator and other various made up staff positions on forums and I've realized that being a moderator or global moderator is always easier than an administrator.

I had been a member of a community -- still am -- for around three years. We've all used proboards to express our interest in this specific community, and the first forum administrator of us wasn't exactly the best. I won't bash or anything, but as an example, they would constantly ignore requests of the members and once claimed they had no trust in their staff. I feel you should trust your staff, otherwise there is very little point in hiring them. This admin gave them very little powers and if they did something before asking said admin -- anything at all -- she would threaten to demote them. Over time this admin left the community and others took their place in new forums dedicated to the same thing, one admin and co-founder of a forum being myself. I've made mistakes such as hiring too much staff, quitting, rehiring, quitting again. Which has proved to me that when I took on these positions I just was not ready for the responsibility involved or how to balance my life and forum equally without stressing myself.

I guess, before this becomes too big of a wall of text, I'll just finish with; being an administrator isn't everything, and not everyone is cut out for it in the end. Personality, maturity, sense of creation and imagination as well as some basic knowledge on coding and color-coordination is all important to have. Otherwise, I feel a forum will fail, and the administrator may get heat for it from the members if they don't do a good enough job.

[cyhh2002]

I like being an administrator myself.

[aojiroi]

I personally prefer to be just an ordinary member and when I am put in the admin role, I normally make the forum rules pretty loose cause I just want everyone to have fun and stuff.

Currently I'm an Admin in two places. The one is my board that i made the other day and then the other one is where all my time goes into. It's for a gaming series website that has a forum for the games and an active rp. It came online in 2007 (after being taken down originally in 2004 - I was a member since early 2003) anyways by like the end of 2008 all the admin disappeared, but before they left the made me the head admin, even though I told them I didn't want to be.

Anyways story short I work my butt off and all we get are tons of spammers trying to join, but the rp is active which is good at least but frustrating for me cause I'm a player in it but I also have to keep track of everything and it just gets tiring after awhile.

Which is sad cause I actually love the place when I don't have a ton of stuff to do on it. : /

[wildmaven]

Nov 30, 2011 21:01:44 GMT -8 cyhh2002 said:

I like being an administrator myself.

Before making any more replies in the Discuss Your ProBoard threads, please take a look at the Rules of the board. One line replies are not allowed, as it doesn't give enough information. Thanks.

[fauxdiva34]

I was asked to join our forum by its founder. The co-founder and several others on staff liked the things I had to say and we had some fairly spirited discussions. After a few months I was asked to become a Moderator. I was shocked the first time I logged in to see Global Moderator under my screen name! Im in the forum multiple times a day. Since ours is for Authors, would be Authors, Artists and Aspiring artists, I try to point them in the right directions to find what they need to aid them in their aspirations. It has been a great deal of fun to find resources to help them and we have some fun with some silliness as well. I am very greatful that proboards has helped us to have a successful start to our forum!

[NetMaster]

I actually started my ProBoards experience as a Co-Admin. 4 of us started the board together however I wasn't really involved in the boards coding or layout. I then progressed to starting my own board, and it wasn't until I started creating my own board that I really came to understand how ProBoards really works. Back when I was a Co-Admin I had no idea that the ToS even existed much less what it said. I didn't know about Support Board either. I knew how to access the headers and footers and modify certain parts of the code (because I understand HTML, CSS and Javascript). But I've learned so much more from being the actual creator of the board. I do all of the graphic work myself and as much coding as I can.

[fauxdiva34]

NetMaster...wow. I got another shock this morning when I was sent a message saying I was being made an Administrator for our forum. So now Im going to HAVE to learn all of those same things you are talking about. It is a bit intimidating, thats for sure!!

[NetMaster]

Well if you need any help you know where to come. Support board has been a huge help to me, and that's why I hang around to help others who need it. Being an admin (and board creator) isn't always glamorous. It's up to you to make the tough decisions that effect everyone on the board. Will they like it? Will doing this push people away? Can I make it easier for them to perform <-insert function->.

[``D.uecalione]

I believe that there is a very distinct difference between Should-be members, and should-be admins. I say should be because maybe that is what that person is best at.

Administrators who do a good job are those who can get along with everyone and have a great time. They really need to learn patience, and need to be accepting of everyone. We have to keep an open mind, and look at everything from a certain perspective that helps instead of hurts. Admins see the whole picture, where as members only see a detail of that picture.

Members (or those who SHOULD be), when they are in an admining position don't do to well. They could be inactive, not very great with design (but that doesn't really matter, as almost all people start out that way), rude, greedy for power, strict, and yeah. These are the kind that will most likely choose favorites, make up rules spontaneously that make know sense, treat their site like it's a communistic country, etc. They don't see the whole picture. They just see their detail, being the admin.

[xstardustx]

Well when it comes to myself I happen to think I'm both. However, for those people who are not cut out to own their own site perhaps joining a newer site and being a co-admin or Global mod. It takes a lot of patience to run your own site so being a lower staff member that doesn't require too much effort may be what's best. I'm not going to lie when I started building my own forums I didn't have patience at all and I bossed my other staff members around to make my forum active. Yes I was like 14 back then but I just didn't understand. That leads to another point. Younger people don't always make good admins. If a 13 year old can code a really good forum, kudos to them. However, I've seen forums that are overun with bots and trolls because they can't run a good forum.

I started out as an admin and I know I didn't do a good job. I kind of went MIA for a little while to be a member and get the experience needed. I gathered patience all from being a lower staff member on other sites. I also learned how to code and do graphics. I joined a forum that taught me how. So now I am able to create forums without difficulty.

Also when it comes to activity, I could honestly care less. I've been running Forums with the same two people for a year now. We can keep our forum active between the three of us. As long as you have a set group of friends if you will, and they keep you happy and you can rp with them, then having 200 members or only having 3 members, shouldn't make much of a difference.

[Shorty]

I started out as a member as well. I had no idea all the hard work that actually went into it. I knew nothing about graphics or coding or any of that stuff, which is needed to make a good forum. I honestly thought it was the easiest thing in the world to do(make a forum). Eventually I left that forum in which I was a member, and I began my own forum. i found out quick the difficulty and work that had been put into the forum I was previously in. I have had to learn to do graphics and coding. I'm still learning coding, which I'm really excited to learn. I have began to like coding. I want to learn it really bad. I'm also not so great at the graphics. I am also learning that. I also agree that younger people do not make good staff. I had a 13 year old as an admin only because he helped me make the forum(sorta), but i had to remove because he was so immature. Being an admin is a lot of work, but it is so much fun. And I love it.

[Raj]

I am started as both member and Admin of two different forums.So i know about both of it.Being a member is easy than Admin.At starting i did not knew anything about coding and decoration.But slowly i learned it but still i have to learn more.

Regards
Raj

[True Essence]

I have been both Admin and member for such a long time. I've been the admin of three sites including my current Harry Potter site. My very first site I was the admin because I made the site and my friend was my co admin, I had the idea and we worked on it together. She was very fairly more experienced than me so of course I needed her and she taught me how to do a lot of things. So I definitely appreciate her for that. Being an admin is a lot of hard work, considering how I've been the admin for three it is hard work, especially when I was the only admin on my old site, when something goes wrong, you get blamed for it all and your decisions on how to answer those things are being noted by the members.

I like being admin, I do like to create boards that may not be original in terms of fandom since it's a HP site but when it comes to how it looks and how things are organized I'd have to blow smoke up my own butt and say I did a good job. I've learned so much about making graphics and what not that I can do a lot of them myself, (though I of course am not a master graphic/skin maker so then I do look for outside help) then when you are kind, members are willing to follow you no matter what site you make. I have a current member on my site who has been around since my very first site began to die, she joined my second and now she's on my third, same with another, she was on my second and once I deleted that one she found the same plot for my third and has stuck around. When you are effective, kind, and you show that you care, which I do, people respect that and like to join. But again it is a lot of work, I can't do it all on my own, so when I assigned staff I put up sign ups, for those who were interested and why they think they'd make a good staff member. They're just mods for now but so far they have been a great help.

I also like being a member but because of how much I do outside of my writing, I try not to be on too many sites. I helped my friend get her old site back off the ground and then once it started to pick back up, I told her I wanted to be a member, I think being the admin of so many sites can eventually make someone go mad, especially if you make them just to make them. Being a member allows me to unwind and just write without having to worry about new members other than greeting them and plotting. I enjoy both aspects of it but I have been an admin longer.

[Purple sky4]

there are 4 main groups when u first join forum, member, mod, global mod, and admin, if u would like, u can ad more groups through the Admin panel, only the Main Owner can do this though, even if u give admins all powers

[Himms]

After being a RPGer since 2005 and a member to SG RPGs (2005 and 2007 respectively). One isn't proboards, while the second one is. I have learnt so much on how big the responsibility is to a run a Site. It's stressful at times but it can be fun and a learning curve at the best. I agree that it requires time and patience to run things.

I went from being a Mod to Global Mod with Admin Powers. I don't consider myself as the Site's Admin, but a GMod since I'm not officially a Admin. I have never let the "powers/Ranks" go over my head. Being given a Mod-ship is a honor and not a right. It's based on trust and not how active a player is.

Taking those lessons I'm applying them to my own site. Although it's build up is slow, I'm sure it will be a great site while it lasts. And I have not gone Rule crazy either. But I have enough rules to star the site off with, besides more can be added/modified later if the need arises as members and activity grows.

If anyone has any tip/advice, I'm happy to receive them via PM.