Admin Or Member?

[gimel]

i am an admin in more places then i am a member of. i dont know if its because i like being in charge or what, but i seem to be fairly good at it. i dont think ive had a member complain about me yet.
i think in a situation where i feel like im not in control of at least some part of what goes on, i go crazy...errr...crazier, anyway. so i always choose to be an admin, or atleast a mod, or something.

[kelendria]

I'm sure I've said this before but I first helped my cousin out when he started his board.
He did a few topics then expected to get alot of members straight away & for them to start all the new topics.
Needless to day it's now abandoned, I no longer run his forum for him & he probably would've been better off as a member.

[Des]

An admin is the focal point of a forum, which makes them very important for success or failure. They should also be optimistic and have perseverance, because otherwise they simply cannot hold out against the severe inactivity periods. (Actually, personally I am neither...but I happen to have an inner voice which pulls me through).

In fact, I was quite dejected, only for a little time, when in my forum, the most important OOC thread was not the 'Get to know your HM' and 'Plot Ideas' thread I had created, but instead a graphics shop. *No offense to my members, I know now which is more interesting*, but an Admin cannot let their ego problem hurt their members, and neither did I. I ignored the situation, and let the members go on...and I finally came to the right conclusion.

Once on one of my older sites, I blew up right in the beginning on my 5th member who posted something in the wrong board...he smited me and was off, and the forum is dead ever since, though I tried to make amends.

Posting in every board, whether just one thread, was something I eagerly pursued in my site, even before we began. Also, another thing I have taken to practice is to complete the site before getting off maintanence mode, since one of my sites, a very original one, I removed from MM before completion, and I never did complete it after all.

I have made a lot of mistakes in my proboards 'Career' and have learned from them, thus I have posted here.

[Avery ♥]

I'm an administrator of many sites and I always try to catch the visitors' attention by posting Guest Opinion threads and other threads where they can post. Then I also put in other threads for new members to post in. I have games, GOAYB, and some other things to catch their attention. Once they actually get acquainted with each other they start requesting for things to be made and I either create a board for them or the thread they want if they want me to participate in it. I find it's the best way to get members but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment for some of my most recent sites.

[copacabanaboy]

HELP!

IM A STUPID IDIOT AND HAVE BANNED MYSELF FROM MY OWN FORUM!!! DUE TO TESTING

HOW DO I FIX THIS??


AARON

[~Zoey~]

copacabanaboy said:

HELP!

IM A STUPID IDIOT AND HAVE BANNED MYSELF FROM MY OWN FORUM!!! DUE TO TESTING

HOW DO I FIX THIS??


AARON

try asking that here, without the caps and someone will be able to help you. Also a simple 'I banned myself, can someone help?' would suffice.
Good luck

[SnowBlind]

I have my own site, and have experience on how hard being an admin can be. You basically take care of EVERYTHING and getting the site up and running.

Watch who you make an admin...I learned that myself. Once, one of my admins completely destoryed my site so I had to start from scratch....again.

Make sure if your going to make someone an admin that you either know them personally or your R-E-A-L-L-Y good friends with him/her. If not, your giving complete and total power to what could be a complete and total stranger.

[Ace]

Some people arnt cut out to be admins. I myself have dreamed of being the owner of a buisness, or in some big power in the media. Hey gotta start small somewhere eh?

[Thundermew]

Everyone starts off not so good at that, but they get better. Just keep trying to be a good admin and you should all get better

[Enchant]

copacabanaboy said:

HELP!

IM A STUPID IDIOT AND HAVE BANNED MYSELF FROM MY OWN FORUM!!! DUE TO TESTING

HOW DO I FIX THIS??


AARON

This is not the place for this, please direct your situation to the support board. Yell them exactly what you posted here.

[tankietalk]

i have just start my own forum i would like to thank the team for all the advise posted on various boards and proboars accross the site
Link Removed

[myke]

tankietalk said:

i have just start my own forum i would like to thank the team for all the advise posted on various boards and proboars accross the site
Link Removed

Hi, welcome to ProBoards. Please have a read of the rules before posting.

Thanks.

[_\|..Do.mi.no..|/_]

An admin and their attitude in that postition will either make or break a forum. By their personality alone, they may gain friends or enemies. I've met people who were great members. They were active, they got along with everyone, and they had a good time. When they made thier own, they got cocky. They abused their power to where everyone just up and left.

I was such a case myself, and I'll admit it too. Things didn't go my way, and I sat back and thought: How did I treat everyone? How is it that at that other forum that I had such good friends and we never fought or got upset with each other or anything, but here I intimidated everyone to the point of abandonment? What is wrong with me?

Thinking back, I realized that the admins on that site were kind and considered everyone's ideas and opinions. They would think things over before deciding anything. I, on the otherhand, just said, "Well, I like you better, so you win." People got ticked off, and decided I wasn't the person for the job. It was then I had an idea.

I made a brand new site after demolishing the last one, and waited. I added in everything nessesary BEFORE I unlocked maintenence mode (on the other one, I just opened it and added as we went), and had various topics posted with open ended questions and such. People poured in, and now came the real test: Would they stay?

I greeted every new member with a semi personal PM, stating who I was, what the site was about, and so on. I made great friends, and didn't let the first person who asked to be a mod have it. I watched them carefully, noting how they treated others. If they weren't friendly or open-minded to other people's thoughts, I wouldn't consider them. If they were, then I'd let them know they were on the pending list.

I'll admit again that I've run into rough patches, and my site still isn't very sucessful. The people who are there are faithful members, and they help me to keep my sanity today.

NOTE: If you aren't very comfortable with thinking of yourself as superior, then don't. Blend in with everyone, act like one of the members who don't have much power. It certainly helped me. ;D

[Weasley Twin]

Being part of the administrative team, means that you hold a lot of responsobility towards members and other members of staff. Being a friendly admin does help, because it means that members who are in trouble can turn to you for advice or help. However, this does lead I feel to faviourtisum among members, which in turn can cause many problems.

As an adnim your there to look after the members and general maintanance of the board. Being a good admin doesn't necessarily increase the forum activity, although it does help.

[Gamoc]

Another great thing for an admin to do before they create a board is to test out what they can do in the board on a test board. Just look through the features, real the help site that proboards has attatched to every forum. If they do this, they will be more familiar with what they are working with and will be able to have a better control over the forum. Someone who does not know how to work a forum, and is not will to try and learn it themselves is not good enough to be an administrator for a forum. Another great thing that admins should have is knowing who they can trust the most for their moderators.

I think that the biggest thing is that if an admin does not know how to do something, and does not know how to find out how to do something, then they shouldn't be afraid of asking someone how to do it. If they can confirm that they couldn't find out how to do it, then they really shouldn't feel so stupid, they just need some help, everyone needs some help once in a while.

An administrator also needs to treat all members with the same respect. Whether they are gay, straight, black, white, Asian, whether they like something they don't, or are different, but accept the rules of your forum. An administrator needs to know that that member deserves the same respect as any other member. I really wouldn't even show your staff too much more respect than members except for their moderation powers, overall, they are just members too.

An administrator who puts their board in maintenance everytime they make a board, modify something, or just tries to do anything in the admin panel doesn't need to be an admin either. Believe me, I have seen some who do that, and it gets annoying sometimes.

If an admin gets help with a skin or something in their forum. They don't need to take all the credit for themselves. In my forum, I say it is my forum sometimes, but I usually say that it belongs to all my staff because all of my staff pitch in to make the forum the best that it can be. Which they don't really have to do, so I thank them, properly, PM, welcome table, and other nice ways.

Like CW said. An admin who doesn't start his/her own threads for their board will never make it in the leading forums world. It just doesn't work that way, having your members start every thread. You need to be active on your own forum, or at least it is wise, you can make secondary accounts so you can just be a plain member, also.