Admin Or Member?

[Mandoli]

I think I'm a better member, myself. I've been placed as an administrator on different boards in my life, and I feel like once I was put into that position, the board would die within a few months. I don't think it's my fault entirely.

There was one moment on one board where there were two people who attacked another member (myself) by using my name and likeness against me. They called me names and used my pictures from Facebook as their avatar. They were cleaned up after a while and were personally deleted; the head administrator made me an admin not too long after. Well, the board had died, for the most part. And it was terminated after it broke the Terms of Service.

But other than that, there were minor instances here and there.

I don't think I can run a board as well as others might. I just don't have the tools to succeed like others do. I can promote a board all I'd like, but members just don't seem to flock to my board.

[kathy025]

While aesthetics play a significant role in attracting members, it is not the basis of a successful forum. Getting members to sign up is one thing, but making them stay and participate actively is another.

A premade template can look pretty clean-cut and even professional looking. You just have to have the patience to search for the right codes. Sure, there will be other forums using the same template. But in the end, it all boils down to content, always. Study your target audience. It's not enough that you've customized your forum to be pretty, it must yield something unique that members will keep coming back to.

All good admins start from being good members themselves. I joined my first forum in 2005. Been offered moderator and admin positions through the years. Some I had to turn down because I didn't have the time. My board has been 3 years in the making (not continuous), but I just enjoy adding tweaks to it. The content is the hardest part to prepare for so I take my time.

To answer the OP, am I and admin or a member? As a member, I can be very contributing to a community I have grown to love. For an admin, I believe I have it.

[Former Member]

I think it does take a certain person to be able to do an admin job. It's a lot of work and you have to have a certain temperament to be an admin or even a head admin. And I think, if you have the chance to be an admin, you should see it as an honor. I have been an admin on two sites now, a past one and a current one, and I admit that in the beginning I found it very hard to adapt. But in the end, I found that still being that member who can talk to people, and not letting the power go to your head. Because at the end of the day, I was still a member of the site and wanted to keep people as my friends. So...while it takes a certain person to adapt, I think you can quite easily be on the line between admin and member.


I'm also pretty OCD, so I love doing all the little jobs around the site, and I feel a great sense of achievement when the site looks clean, tidy and all the members are happy. So...answering the OP, I would say I definitely prefer being an admin, because it gives me a real chance to contribute to the changes and the growth of a site I love, more so than I could do if I was a member.

[nukestorm]

Nuke Storm agrees with the OP, I feel that many are jumping head first too quickly into making a forum without any reason for it, just wanting to be admin of something. No originality etc.
I think every forum should differ in someway, if you have a forum like for example a Batman forum and you know many are out there, try to in someway bring out something that is different, yet connects with the forum and the whole format of it.

[Mrs Twisted]

I've been admin of my role playing forum for over 8 years. I agree that not everyone has what it takes. I feel like what helps to make a successful site is patience and understanding first and foremost. Listen to the members and don't be power hungry or let it go to your head. You are no better just because you have an admin title. Ask the members what THEY would like to see and work towards making the appropriate changes.
You also have to realize that no body is perfect. So if a member makes a mistake or breaks a rule, treat them with respect when reprimanding them. You also have to realize that folks do NOT have to be there. There is a wide variety of places on the net that they can go.
Don't try to be a super hero and do it all on your own. I love playing around with the codes and making the graphics for my forum to set it apart but other areas I don't have time to devote my time too...so that is when you look for a member who has shown themselves reliable and trustworthy and begin giving small tasks.
I also took the time to become friends with my members and now I have to say that we are a close knit little community. We already have things in common and I've been blessed now to have some of the best friends of my life who I know would do anything for me and I them.
Be genuine and sincere.
I feel as though I've been through it all haha. Given a member a bit of title of power and BAM it went to their head. It is a live and learn process but my assistant admin has become my clone because I trust the forum to her completely in my absence. If you don't have a wingman/woman you will also get yourself burned out and stressed over all the responsibility especially if you have an active lifestyle.

I'm just thankful to be apart of a forum team that has withstood the test of time.

~Delora
Administrator
timeatthecastle.proboards.com/

[Arcane]

What I find as the most determining factor of how successful your site becomes is the dedication of the admin and staff. It is extremely difficult for a single person to create a forum and run it, themselves, creating the themes, handling coding, posting rules and other informative threads, all the while keeping active in everyday posts and attracting new members.

I know this isn't really an advice thread to potential admins, but I do have some tips I've learned through administrating multiple forums and staffing others:

1. Always try to find a 'business partner', when wanting to start out the forum. Find a friend with similar interests. Make sure they would have the dedication to put forth effort into the site, and don't be lenient on them just because of your friendship. Find a dedicated friend with similar interest to the site you wish to create and appoint them as a co-admin or, at least, a moderator and build the site together. It splits the work in half and, with someone to discuss ideas with, your own dedication and morale toward the new site will stay high, as well.

2. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Yes, advertisements are the bane of a computer nerd's existence, but we all can admit we've been drawn to a site we love by a pesky advertisement. In fact, if you're looking for a specific type of site, you specifically look at advertisements. So, be sure to stick your site's advertisement on every ProBoards site you go to with an ad board.

3. Don't give up. Every site has its ups and downs (mine, personally, being in a bit of a down, at the moment). Stick with it through its inactivity, and increase advertisement. Purposefully go out and look for sites you haven't yet advertised on and stick your ad, there. You need to draw attention to your site as much as possible, and attract new members. Another tip is to get in touch with members who have simply gone inactive. Email them or, if you can, contact them via social networking or talk to them in real life.

4. Post. Just because you're the admin doesn't mean you should be able to have huge gaps of inactivity. Always keep your forum updated with new posts. Reply to every member you can, as often as you can. Members, no matter how small and homey the site is, feel honored to some extent to talk directly to the administrator. They're the ones who likely know what's going on on the site (hopefully) and know how to solve any site-related problems.

5. Keep organized. Have a member who registered a year ago and never posted or even logged in? Delete the account! I'm a member of a couple forums where half the members haven't posted, once. They don't contribute to your forum and new members are more willing, generally, to join a site with fewer members, as it's easier to fit in, that way. If you can get to know each member, fairly well, and develop a friendship with them, then you know you've found (or founded) a golden site. This i made harder with hundreds upon hundreds of members, most inactive. (Don't get too crazy with deleting members, though, as some do come back.)

6. Seriously, keep organized. Don't make boards for specific threads just to allow members to post wherever they want. Keep the forum organized with the correct threads under the correct boards and the boards under the correct categories (or within a broader board). Make sure spam is at a minimum and essential places are easy to navigate to. In fact, make sure the entire site is easily navigable.

7. Individualize. Don't let your forum just blend in with every other forum out there. Make it unique. Use an unusual color scheme. Find a way to make red or yellow look good. Use codes and plugins to change your forum's appearance and functionality. This isn't limited to the theme of a forum, or its homepage. Individualize each board, individualize member profiles, and individualize anything else, possible. Make the site as different as possible to where members feel they are a part of something unlike anything else in the world.

8. Be nice. Don't rule your virtual lands with an iron fist. Listen to your members. If they complain about a staff member, listen to their complaints and confront the staff member in question, rather than dismiss it. If there's a spammer, not only should you get rid of it, but you should also apologize to your members if they took notice. And don't have a flat personality toward the members, either. Initiate casual conversation; make a joke; treat them as you would a friend... well, maybe with a bit less teasing and jokes at said friend's expense, though - don't want to upset the member or make them feel like a victim.

9. Content. The biggest one. Make sure it's appropriate for the site. Not all inappropriate content is considered spam, it may simply be off-topic, though only slightly. There's a difference between being off-topic and spamming. If you are off-topic, then you may be slowly trailing off into a different discussion than you are supposed to. However, if you are spamming, you are purposefully going off-topic. And, of course, content doesn't just limit itself to spam and no spam. Construct your forum to not only attract members, but keep them. Give them what they want, within reason. I'm not saying add a huge rp section to your general talking or coding forum. But if a member doesn't like one thing or suggests the inclusion of another, think about what they said and contemplate listening. Keep relevant and interesting content readily available to members, never let them get bored with the site or they'll leave. Even if the site improves, once the member is gone, they could be gone for good. Keep the members in the forum, actively posting, and you'll be a successful admin.

Apologies for such a long reply. And apologies if this is considered spam since it's not directly on topic, though it is related to the topic and I think may help many admins and potential admins. If you'd all rather, I could post this as a separate thread, too. Just say the word.

[Supernova]

I think I am a better as an admin because I devote a lot of time in, learn new things everyday to make my forum better and chat to the members and help them out if they are stuck

[Himms]

I think I make a better member or Mod as oppose to an Admin >.<

I killed my site

[Athene?]

Really enjoy being an admin.
One site I don't have full admin powers, just enough to create themes and avatars.
Also, enjoy that very much too.
I also like being a member at other sites as well.
Sometimes, it loads of fun just to be able to post and not have any admin/mod responsibilities.
This is especially fun at RPG sites.
So... I actually like both!

[Thomasss]

I am a good admin, though sometimes not. I think it just depends. The Admin is the heart, they should be able to manage a forum. I know a few forums out there, who have no clue how to run a forum, yet they wonder why members will not join? I do not think there are any requirements it takes to be a admin. But, you gotta have a unique personalty, and show it. To many admins are the same.

[Mari Moonshin]

I am main admin on my new forum and since i got a co-admin and even moderator, both of them seem always busy 
my co-admin has helped me with the skin and coding but we had a topic with our characters and she hasn't replied
since May 23, am not saying people can take a break but to let me know their busy they haven't told me for how
long they will be absent, and am scared that with this inactivity of their behalf, my forum will die what i need
is to know what i can do about this situation and how to be better admin? i run a forum before and it happened
to that site as well and i gave up trying to run it alone when nobody joined.

[:~:Sarapha:~:]

I like to think I'm pretty decent as both

The years that my board has been up backs up the admin part, but I don't know at all whether I'd find the same amount of enjoyment if I was *only* doing admin stuff.

I do have a co-admin, brought on due to complication I had a few years back where I had to take some time off after having my son, and coming back to near-ruin. I'm still fill-time admin, but she is there as a backup in case something happens to where I cannot be online.

[Bugme]

I'm an Admin on two boards, one with over 20,000 members and the other has been hovering at 199 members for several weeks. Both are active, both deal with different types of antiquities with different types of interests. The first one is very broad and the second is very specialized. On both of them, I must be active, kind but firm, somewhat tech savvy and a prominent poster. I've been on forums where the Admin was not active, rude and mean, derelict in resolving tech issues and only posted when they wanted flex their muscles. These types of forums managed by the second type of Admin are like sparklers: dazzling for a few moments but then they burn out.

[Mari Moonshin]

I am maid admin creator of my site and my co admin has just disappeared, what can i do and the character she plays
how long should i let her have the character few weeks, and then give up the canon she has i don't know what to do
because her character is the main one on the site and she hasn't been on now for several weeks.

[mmhmm]

Jun 18, 2015 15:32:17 GMT -8 Mari Moonshin said:

I am maid admin creator of my site and my co admin has just disappeared, what can i do and the character she plays
how long should i let her have the character few weeks, and then give up the canon she has i don't know what to do
because her character is the main one on the site and she hasn't been on now for several weeks.

If you've tried to contact her and she hasn't responded, she may be ill or she may no longer be interested. There's no way to know if she hasn't responded. You'll have to decide what you want to do about it.