How Admin Etiquette Can Effect Your ProBoard

[Amber]

I try my best to be a good admin, but being Bipolar, it can be hard for me sometimes to keep up the sites moral. I get discuragged easily. I am fair though, I stand firm on that. I dont care if your my best friend or a compleate stranger, rules are rules. I dont bend them for anyone, but I am willing to work with someone. Ie: on one site certian animals are not alloud. If someone asks to create one, fussing that it the animal they are best with or made it just for my site ect: I will inform them that we hold contests every once in a while and I may concider using it as a prize, I also created a store, where after so many posts, they can use our sites currency to "Buy" custom animals that may not be alloud on the site.

[stardust]

Ah...Wait...whats bipolar?

[Candice]

Jul 15, 2009 8:58:21 GMT -8 stardust said:

I think you, imnotperfect, are a excellent admin!

Jul 16, 2009 7:30:11 GMT -8 stardust said:

Ah...Wait...whats bipolar?

Hi,

Welcome to D:YP. Please make sure that all your posts are at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.

Thank you.

[stardust]

Sorry, about that. But uh...what is bipolar? I heard it in Katy Perry's "Hot n' Cold" but I don't know what it means.~Cyron

[*lemondrops.]

The most important thing for me, when I go to a site, is that the administrators are capable, responsible, and courteous to their members.

If I don't have faith in the admin to keep the site running, then I don't join. Simple as that. That's why, on my site, I'm trying to chat with them on the chat-box and start some OOC threads to keep people around until we build up a bigger member base. So that they know I'm around, I'm going to be active and helpful and not just leave them in the dust.

I dislike it when I feel like I have to tiptoe around administrators so that I don't do anything wrong. An admin should be firm, but forgiving. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. :\

A site should be fun. I try and have a peaceful site where the members like to sign on and post.

EDIT - Alrightie, so I thought of one thing to add. When your members need help, help them. If their application isn't the best it could be, don't just deny it. Help them.

FURTHER EDIT - If you have a member that isn't behaving, or didn't follow the rules, you have to be firm about it. Otherwise, how are the members going to have any faith that you'll keep order? I'm not saying you should go on an absolute rampage, but keep order about and make sure that it doesn't get out of hand. When you have a member that is blatantly disregarding your rules, don't just stand there and talk about it on the chat-box. Be firm, but polite. Don't go insulting people, otherwise, you just look bad.

[stardust]

Ah...on my forum I have 28 members, but only 7 or 8 of them come on...so I don't think a lot of them LIKE coming on...

[Candice]

Jul 16, 2009 13:31:09 GMT -8 stardust said:

Sorry, about that. But uh...what is bipolar? I heard it in Katy Perry's "Hot n' Cold" but I don't know what it means.~Cyron

Jul 16, 2009 14:34:24 GMT -8 stardust said:

Ah...on my forum I have 28 members, but only 7 or 8 of them come on...so I don't think a lot of them LIKE coming on...

Hi,

Please make sure that all your posts are at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.

This is not the place for you to ask about what a word means. If you don't know what a word means, seek help from google, the person who posted, or a dictionary.

Thank you.

[stardust]

Gah...wasn't my sentence four sentences long? And uh...wasn't this topic suppsoed to be about administraitors? Speaking of them, I got banned from a forum for doing bad on another forum, but it was accidents...some one probably hacked into my account...cuz I don't remember doing that...-- EBIL PEOPLE!

[Reisuke]

Hm if you have poor staff then your site will be ran poorly and I'm specifically talking about all those sites that have newbs as staff. Though some sites have complete idiot elitist mean person staff that are biased, abuse power, and shouldn't be staff int eh first place. So my suggest is simple: have kind, hardworking, helpful, and experienced staff and int he end your site will never die. :D

[Nacku]

Jul 15, 2009 8:34:40 GMT -8 HoudiniDerek said:

Lots of forums have members like that. They join and then want to be seen as the driving force behind changes so that they will be asked to be staff or even an admin. Some just want changes because every other site they are on or admin are like that and they want everything to be the same so they are never in violation of the rules.

You hit the nail on the head! Some members just don't respect anything but some are craftier...instead of coming in and just making suggestions, they will sweet talk their way into a staff position. Like offering to do things for you and taking advantage of folks who don't know alot of HTML or other programming languages. They will learn whatever they have to, to get the results they want. And they want control.

So hey, join the club! I've had my share of that type too.

[sunshine]

Ohhh, I have many words on this topic. xD

Being an administrator really isn't something everyone can do, in my personal opinion. These days it seems like everyone wants their own forum, but no one is really willing to put in everything it takes, or they just don't have the skills that are really kind of required to run a board. Sure, maybe you're good at making a site look pretty, and maybe you have good ideas and know how to get a site out to people to join, but in the end, if an administrator can't respect his or her members, people are going to be dissatisfied and leave. I've had experiences where an administrator was constantly rude to guests and members about their questions (which, okay, are sometimes very silly, but we're not all perfect), and would get an attitude at the drop of a hat. If something didn't go this person's way, all hell would break loose. If two members were trying to plot characters that she wanted to plot with, she would tell them no and throw a fit. In the end, this board died because no one wanted to be treated like they and all their characters were merely there to revolve around the main administrator's whims.

To be an administrator, you have to be friendly, but firm. Respectful, but not unwilling to take control when necessary. They should know their place, but should not lord it over people, and overall, they need to care about their board. If an administrator has six boards going at once and never posts on any of them, or doesn't update lists for weeks, or just leaves things sitting there that could easily be spiced up a little bit, that says to me that they are running a board simply for something to do, and not because they really care that much about what they're running. :/ Boards that are always changing and growing and expanding and coming up with new, exciting things for their members to participate in-- that is a sign of an administrator who cares. I'm sure someone will argue, "not everyone has the time to sit at a computer all day and work on that," but honestly, if you don't have the time to dedicate to making your board successful, maybe you shouldn't be running a board in the first place?

I also think every admin team has certain roles that should be filled in order to cover everything, and i think two main admins are better than one. I also am of the firm opinion that admin teams without a proficient graphic designer should not open a board... it sounds mean, but if you're starting, say, a Harry Potter board or something, if you really want people to join your board over all the 238947923742 other Harry Potter boards out there, it has to stand out in some way. Do you really think people are going to pick a plain, boring site with fuzzy graphics over a site with graphics that look amazing? I'm not saying they have to be masterpieces, of course, but... just something nice to look at.

My two cents. Or probably more than two, considering how obnoxiously long that was. xD

[ForumPromotion.net]

i so agree with this thread.

[simlizzie]

I have a few [Already typed/spoken] words about this topic. Long post ahead.

Favoritism, way too many admins show this. They shouldn't be nicer to members that they know and be just cruel to members they don't know. It shows signs of immaturity, and it also makes you unable to run a decent forum for the most part.

Immaturity, if you can't role play without using text talk then you shouldn't run it, the same thing goes for writing forums. If you mock everyone who loves a certain game and you're running a gaming forum, well then obviously you should run a one game forum. A lot of the time admins will act childish and think it's 'amusing' but it's really the opposite, annoying.

Inside jokes etc, either don't do inside jokes or let the other members in on them! This is very annoying, like if you say 'Lettuce' and someone else starts laughing, another member might be thinking 'What's so funny?', so inside jokes are really bad.

Annoyers, seriously, I hate it when admins E-Mail you every day. There should be very few times when you E-Mail members. Don't make people come on every single day, people have lives outside of the internet but a lot of admins won't accept that. It's annoying to have to do something if you're jut a member, yes staff would have more obligations to come on than members so it's not as bad with staff but still.

All in all, don't be annoying, show favoritism, be immature, or tell inside jokes.

[Candice]

Aug 3, 2009 11:28:15 GMT -8 ForumPromotion.net said:

i so agree with this thread.

Hello and Welcome to D:YP

What about this thread do you agree with? Is there a certain thing that you agree with more? Remember, your posts should be at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.

Thank you.

[FOX LOVER ?! <3]

I tell you, reading 14 pages is hard but also educating in a way. I totally agree that an admin's actions and they way they greet their members does affect their forum greatly. When I first started using proboards I was a bit too silly for many members' likings. So, they left. Well, when I met Kumori, Arty, and Stallion, they told me that many people didn't like how silly and immature I was. So, quickly, I cleaned up my act. Well, now I own three well run sites. My very site is getting as many as 30 guests a day. At least its a bigger leap. And, everytime a guest greets me in the c-box, I'm formal and polite. I don't just say 'Hey! Why not join?' Ya know? Cause that'll make them want to leave.

I also found that the more you socialize with other members on other sites, the more willing they'll be to try out your site, and I've seen so many stay and many still haven't left, even now. And it's actually helpful when you have a new forum because you can advertise first, chat a little and then, you become friends with that person and they feel more compelled to actually want to hang-out more often, so they'll go to your forum and join, and they will stay there, but only if the admin enforces the rules, treats all members equally, and proves to be the top-dog, not opening up to every opinion and suggestion thrown at them, ya know? Because when you do that, it can easily crash your site and when you create a new forum, they don't want to join it, cause back there you totally lost it by letting this member and this member get what they want till the fourm couldn't take it any more and crashed.

There are so many things admins never think about until they've been told, seen it, or figured it out the hard way. Either way, you have to figure it out.