Admin Or Member?

[$hØ©Këyë]

I'm an admin of a forum which Papalia joined. It's in matiennce mode for a while as I'm doing enormous security arrangements. I've made a roleplay on it and I've been improving my website. Well I need more members but you lot have to wait as I'm doing security. By the way, Papalia, that was very excellent speech and I agree with you not letting strangers being moderators. I wouldn't make any people I don't know moderators as they would mess up my forum. Don't you agree, Papalia and what do you have to say about my forum and the security?

[Panch]

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 have done that myself make a forum and then i not a great admin so i delete that forum.Then i look throught the internet to find a good forum.

[universedaily]

An Admin essentially has to the life of the party. Nothing is worse than an empty board so fill it! Don't worry about the lack of response in the beginning. Consider it an opportunity to test drive the place and practice your own writing style. Everything requires practice and I myself enjoy writing for the sheer joy of writing. posting at forums is how I first learned to love expressing ideas on a page and now I've been published on ezines. It doesn't hurt to have your past scribblings archived away at your own messageboard when you are trying to remember something. I see my message forum as a word file or diary that's open to the public. Don't worry about making mistakes either. I've had new members join simply to point out an error in my rersearch on some subject. I thank them and often they've stuck around. Sometimes becoming major contributors.

If you don't love your board then nobody else will. So don't get too wrapped up in trying to please everybody else. Its your private space and will have more personality if you customise it to suit your individual needs. Following all the advice of members might make you popular for a short time but chances are those ideas will often clash. You can't please everybody so start your board for your own fun and pleasure. Feedback is wonderful so thank members for contributing but don't be too disapointed if they only hang around for a short time or it gets very quiet as boards are prone to become at certain times of year. As somebody else pointed out, it takes patience. Trial and error too. Just don't burn yourselves out as I've seen many people do. Running message forum communities is extremely addictive once you get going.

[Omar]

dodz said:

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?

there's no main admin active for this forum, it runs and lives on

[Luco El Loco]

I think all to often now, that people create forums for the sake of it and don't have anything interesting to share. I believe a discussion board should have a focus, a raison d'etre, and have a point.

I also think too many places have too many rules. It's not enough to be a decent member anymore with something useful. You have to stay to a rigid topic wherever, sometimes, and sometimes a thread may not be all that long and could benefit from widening a little - it would at least enable those contributing a wider outlet for the subject, but oh dear, because it doesn't relate to one minutely refined point, they have to lock the thread or something stupid. Granted in a healthy discussion a little too much deviation can confuse, but I have seen very good discussions wander in and out and been quite enriching to thought, because good members have posted which have either tied it all in, or said their piece and then reconfirmed at the end what they think of the main subject in hand. Often, the right kind of nurturing can make a discussion board a good place to talk, and not the kind of fascism that makes one feel like one is at school.

Discussion boards are for sharing, not for excluding.

[myke]

omarali said:

dodz said:

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?

there's no main admin active for this forum, it runs and lives on

This forum is also a support forum for a business, and Craig and Martyn are basically main admins in their own right. It isn't fair to compare this forum to your average hobby forum run by a non ProBoards employee. Please read the rules before posting, they say each post in here should be at least 4 sentences long, or enough thought was not put into the post to make it productive to the conversation at hand.

[Ryan]

I'm an admin for 2 proboards with each form having over 4000 posts which i believe is pretty good that there less then 3 months old each

[myke]

eliasfong said:

I'm an admin for 2 proboards with each form having over 4000 posts which i believe is pretty good that there less then 3 months old each

myke said:

Please read the rules before posting, they say each post in here should be at least 4 sentences long, or enough thought was not put into the post to make it productive to the conversation at hand.

Also, does that make you a better admin or a better member, as this thread asks?

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

conqueringwolf said:

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?

Here's something I whipped up from being an admin and a member of 3 forums (including this one of course ;D):

Tips on being an ADMIN	Tips on being a MEMBER
Treat everyone equally, and you shall certainly get treated the same way Show your members why they should be honoured to be apart of your forum. Keep your forum as alive as possible by posting regurlarly (new fresh topics). Also give other members a chance to post regurlarly like yourself.	Treat everyone equally, and you shall certainly get treated the same way Respect the staff (They allow you to register in order to post your views, so compensate them for it ) Don't be afraid to participate in the forums activities. They're NOT always there just for the staff only, they encourages others to participate in them also.

Tips on what NOT TO DO as an ADMIN

Tips on what NOT TO DO as a MEMBER

Bad mouthing people you know, just because you think that you're king/queen of the universe or something unrealistic like that. This comes under the category of defamation-of-character, which if I'm correct, is not taken lightly by the ToS. If you're found out, which most certainly you will be, sooner or later. You'll regret every word you said. Start banning people because you've had a bad day. Sure that might sound 'fun', but you'll only be hurting your forum more. Make members feel that they are being left out of something, if that's the case, then they may not post on your forum anymore

Bad mouth staff because one of them has reminded you to do something you felt was against your morals. If the staff were good (like the ones at PBS), then anything they say *wouldn't* mean any dis-respect unless you want them to mean it in that way. Greet everyone at a new forum in a rough manner, act like a noob unless you're confused and need guideance. Don't act like you are staff because then you are intimidating the REAL staff by trying to mini-mod. Not a good idea, as this can cost you your account on the forum

The overall feeling is, it is tough to compare, which role someone is better at, an admin or a member. It all depends on what they are capable of and how they use their role .

[Rpower]

my forum had yet to open officially but i got already a member who is an alien fan like me. However he was made fun of ny an other boards admin because that admin was a predator fan. sso that member was a but afraid to be made fun of on my forum but i told him that i dont allow any member to make fun of another. So that members can feel conficent on my board and they can freely post their opinions without being made fun of.

[Enchant]

rpower said:

my forum had yet to open officially but i got already a member who is an alien fan like me. However he was made fun of ny an other boards admin because that admin was a predator fan. sso that member was a but afraid to be made fun of on my forum but i told him that i dont allow any member to make fun of another. So that members can feel conficent on my board and they can freely post their opinions without being made fun of.

A good point. I do not think that a member should be feeling left out, teased upon or made to feel bad for what they beleive in. So admin or member? Or both?

[Ћ€ Dog Monst€Я]

I'm good at being a member only if the forum is very active and unique. I'll never be able to be a good member if the forum looks the same as a million others and has many members but few active ones. Even then, I'm better off being an admin as I can do many things that I think were missing on other forums I've seen. Being able to control what's going on on the forum that you are in gives a great satisfaction feeling (at least for me). Overall, I'm better of as an admin.

[Rpower]

enchant said:

rpower said:

my forum had yet to open officially but i got already a member who is an alien fan like me. However he was made fun of ny an other boards admin because that admin was a predator fan. sso that member was a but afraid to be made fun of on my forum but i told him that i dont allow any member to make fun of another. So that members can feel conficent on my board and they can freely post their opinions without being made fun of.

A good point. I do not think that a member should be feeling left out, teased upon or made to feel bad for what they beleive in. So admin or member? Or both?

for me its both. It good to mingle between the members anf actually be the part of the community instead og being the admin who only maintain the board. as and admin its important to maintain the boards, but its also important not to look down on member and actually just mingle with them

[Enchant]

rpower said:

enchant said:

A good point. I do not think that a member should be feeling left out, teased upon or made to feel bad for what they beleive in. So admin or member? Or both?

for me its both. It good to mingle between the members anf actually be the part of the community instead og being the admin who only maintain the board. as and admin its important to maintain the boards, but its also important not to look down on member and actually just mingle with them

Thanks for clarifying...and I agree.I do not think an admin should look down on members, for the mere fact they are admins...it is in te best intrest ofthe forum to have an admin who takes pride and passion into the community...

[Rpower]

indeed, when you mingle and become part of the community, members will like you more and are actually willing to post. so being a good nice admin actually increases your forum activity.