How Admin Etiquette Can Effect Your ProBoard

[Latiwings]

Hello there.

I am glad I ever seen this thread, it makes me feel like I have done okay. I have to agree that an admin is the backbone of a forum. I've been to a forum once, and it have a set of pretty unstable staff members, as well as a pretty quiet admin.

I never left there though, because I have some friends. I never been to anymore of those website though. I think it might be a good idea if and Admin knows at least half of the things that are happening in his/her forums. And admin also have to follow their own rules, its no use if they don't.

I've seen a forum where the admin changes and breaks the rules whenever he/she likes. As you all guess, I never joined there. I try really hard to be active and talk to all my members the most I can.

I go to msn with them a lot, and I even ask them about their opinions on me. Its not a bad idea. I imagined that some admin might actually banned someone because they criticize him or her.
Misusing power is terrible.

I suppose that an Admin Etiquette Can Effect Your ProBoard is true.

[Reeds]

All of this is excellent advice. Our site used to have a moderator who broke all of these rules and was a real chat nazi. Our member ship went down to 150ish, she was eventually banned and deleleted and 9 months later we are back up to 540. ONE person made all the difference. The power hungry have no place as admin.

[Justimon]

May 31, 2008 19:55:03 GMT -8 Reeds said:

All of this is excellent advice. Our site used to have a moderator who broke all of these rules and was a real chat nazi. Our member ship went down to 150ish, she was eventually banned and deleleted and 9 months later we are back up to 540. ONE person made all the difference. The power hungry have no place as admin.

Or as even a moderator for that matter.

I'm a Global moderator at a small forum ~700 members and I hate to issue warnings and the like, but I will If I have to. Because even one member can drive away about 3 or 4 people if left unchecked. Myself personally, I'd never dream of breaking the rules I am charged with upholding.
Besides, if the staff doesnt follow the rules then how can they expect the members to? Because if they try to force the members to follow the rules when the staff doesnt, they lose their members' respect very quickly. We all know how that song ends

[womensselfesteem]

Hello
I guess it depends on a lot of things, whether a forum succeeds or fails.
I personally have over a thousand members in my forum and I have not had any real issues with any of them.

In 5 years I do believe that I have banned 1 girl and that was simply because her goal was to get banned. A real chaos seeker type.

I have one women that helps me in the forum and I must be damn lucky because she is like my right arm. Her ability to handle others with fairness and her general dealings with them in the chat room is also commending.deals with people with class.

Myself, I have no complaints about this forum. If I have ever had an issue..it was tended too in very reasonable time.

There is also a suggestion board if anyone has any better ideas on how to run an administrative forum such as this one.

Cut these people some slack....they do have lives also.

Have a good day!
~D~

[Kristine]

I can't even begin to explain how much the admin matters to the success of the forum. I was once on a forum where the admin didn't like to talk to people and constantly saw it fit to use other people to do everything for her. When I made my forum I became determined not to be like that in any way, I try to conduct my forum with fairness to every single one of my members and I'm definately friendly towards everyone and its actually a ton of fun to get to know my members a little. Obviously not on a real personal level, but just getting to know who they are a little bit just to be able to talk and joke around with them has definately helped my forum with its growing success, it might be slow but as long as I stay friendly on my forum and others it seems that the success is definately growing.

[theislandlives]

I think the entire staff, not only the admin, makes a difference on how people percieve your forum. If you give someone a badge, they need to be the kind of person who will wear it with dignity and respect, and follow through on their duties. Obviously, the admin is the most important, backbone member of the staff. But, the entire team needs to set a pleasant example.

I think the biggest problem I'm come across on sites is not that the admin is rude, necessarily, but that they sometimes tend to ignore new members in favor of friends they know in real life, or the five or so people who have been at the site from teh beginning. It's important as a staff to make an effort to welcome your new members. In the context of roleplay forums, accepting their application and then leaving them to do their own thing isn't enough. It makes all the difference in the world to extend a message of welcome, either in a c-box or via a brief PM, and invite them to roleplay with you (or interract in whatever way, depending on the forum). It's all about making people feel comfortable. Sometimes, it's not direct rudeness that's the problem--it's the indirect rudeness of not making an effort with your members.

It's also important to strike a balance between being enthusiastic and professional. I once left a forum because the admin's conduct was completely unprofessional--I won't get into detail, but it got so upsetting to the point where about a third of the site's members all deleted themselves and relocated elsewhere. To me, that demonstrates the importance of responsible, friendly staff.

[MISS']

That is soooo true.
Forum's with nice and active admins are always more active.
It's important, as an admin, to stay calm in every situation on the site, be patient with everyone, be nice, talk to people...ask them how they are...etc. That way people like you, and want to be more active on your sites.

[huskette]

I've just read this whole post and I find the discussion really interesting, but I think there's something that hasn't really been mentioned. As an admin, it's important to really be careful about the presentation of the site. Not just how you act with members, but how you describe boards and what you put in your rules. This may be minor compared to some of the horror stories I've just read, but for me, when an admin is incapable of following a rule, I don't think it should be there. I once was on a board where in the rules the admin asked that members pay attention to their spelling. This admin had a spelling mistake in their title and every single one of the board descriptions had errors in them. I didn't leave, but I did (politely) point this out to the admin, who was very nice and made the corrections. I understand not being able to spell or having strange grammar especially since English is not my first language nor the language I use in every day communication, but an admin should be able to live up to their own rules and not demand of others what they cannot themselves provide.

[HoudiniDerek]

Jun 12, 2008 23:06:16 GMT -8 huskette said:

I've just read this whole post and I find the discussion really interesting, but I think there's something that hasn't really been mentioned. As an admin, it's important to really be careful about the presentation of the site. Not just how you act with members, but how you describe boards and what you put in your rules. This may be minor compared to some of the horror stories I've just read, but for me, when an admin is incapable of following a rule, I don't think it should be there. I once was on a board where in the rules the admin asked that members pay attention to their spelling. This admin had a spelling mistake in their title and every single one of the board descriptions had errors in them. I didn't leave, but I did (politely) point this out to the admin, who was very nice and made the corrections. I understand not being able to spell or having strange grammar especially since English is not my first language nor the language I use in every day communication, but an admin should be able to live up to their own rules and not demand of others what they cannot themselves provide.

I can agree with that and you make a good point. A lot of admins have rules that they themselves do not follow. If the admin won't follow it, why should anyone else? I think you handled that situation admirably and I am sure the admin sees you as a valuable member for it. It is a good lesson to all admins.

[PITATASTIC ?!]

Wow. This entire thread has been really informative and I'm glad to see I am not the only one who has experiances with less-than-stellar admins!

Most of my experiance has, admittedly, been as a member. While I haven't had too many bad experiances I had had enough to make me sit back and think about what I would want in a forum and how I would like to see things run. For example, my very first rp site was a learning experiance. It was laid out like a forum but also like a website--the aesthetics were crazy good. I joined up before really reading into the rules and such. (Remember, it was my first time =P) A couple month into it, I've pretty much gotten the hang of everything...but no one really talks to me. At first, I wrote it off as the site being a little inactive but then I noticed that there were actually a lot of active people on there. They just gravitated towards a certain group because they were all friends in real life. At this time, the site was starting to pick up some and new people came that I rp'd with . Soon, they left again and I couldn't figure out why.

Then one day, lo and behold, I stumble upon another rp site of the same genre. They were bursting with members, everyone was happy, there weren't any apparent cliques and they just did everything different. At the first site, which I now will confess both sites to being Harry Potter site, everyone started in the same year. A novelty among most HP rp's as anyone will tell you. I am not against this, in fact it is my list of pro's for harry potter rp's. At the first site you had to have a certain number of posts to move up--or that's what they told you. After two years of being active for the three-month-long semesters and being rejected every time it came to apply to move up a year (yes, you had to fill out an application to move up. It is almost more difficult than the standard character application.), I became frustrated. Especially when I saw certain other members being moved up, getting special titles and priveledges and I wasn't when I had worked just as hard as they had. It was a standard case of favoritism.

My last year there I began to pay special notice to everything that happened. I kept checking the rules, re-reading them, realizing the little things they had put in there weren't matching up with some things around the site. For one thing, no one was allowed to have more than one account/character...yet every staff member (and by now, the number of staffers had grown to rival that of the actual member list) could have at least two. While they stated that your post count was the only thing as to whether you moved up a year or not, they actually counted how many homeworks you did and how well you did them. Let me just say this, the homeworks they were giving out for the students to do was that of college freshman level--not something most 11 to 1 year olds (their major age bracket) could easily keep up with. Along with this were other "what the--?" moments. Like how one day there would be a new member who'd joined and the next they were a staff member. This is both shocking and a slap in the face for someone who had been very active nigh-on three years and was still a first year.

I just got fed up with it. I wrote a post in the area where they were most likely to see it, as they very seldom answered private messages, and layed out my grievances. They, of course, moved it but not before one of them wrote a reply. They proceeded to tell me that as staff members they were allowed perks regular members weren't, in basic term that the rules did not apply to them (i.e. they were all allowed edit buttons but we weren't because we weren't to be trusted to not write something against the rules). To the newbies-becoming-staff-members issue, they were vague. They stated they only created adult character/staff members to give the site a boost as the activity was low and that if I had wanted one of these positions I could have pm'd a certain staff member for one. My question was: if that were true, why wasn't it advertised for everyone else on the site who might be interested could see?

Needless to say, I left my post as it was and haven't returned there. Since then, I have become more active on the other sites I have been on, now co-admin a site, and own my own. Now that I am an admin myself, I see both how difficult and rewarding it can be. I am not saying I am perfect, nor are these site that I am on/own. What I am saying is that I am glad I no longer have to deal with power-hungry admins. I am proud to say that I have created/help create a positive rp enviroment where every one, so far, feel s welcome and happy with the way things are run. If someone has a complaint or problem, they come to me and I work with them to resolve it rather than telling them off and keeping things the same. Though I am a new admin, I believe I am a good one. I welcome every new member, whether on the tag-box on the site or through PM, and I try to keep an open relationship with them.

I also try to keep the atmosphere casual and unhurried. No one likes to be rushed into posting, finishing an application, etc. It only creates discontent and, I believe, brings down the role-play standards of your site. Also, when guests have questions, I try to answer them as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I am not a strict person, so my rules list is fairly short and mostly about keeping the site fun and literate and the general standards high. The time has not yet come for me to enfore any of them, but I hope I will stand firm and be fair when it does come. I am on everyday for hours at a time updating announcements, checking in with members, and doing small maintenence on the site. I agree that to admin a site your heart and soul must truly be in it.

I also agree that you must be extremely picky when choosing your staff members. Just because someone applies to be one it doesn't neccesarily mean they are the best for the job. My experiance is limited in this area, but I believe that is you talk to whoever is applying, create a relationship with them, take into consideration work they have done in the past or at other places and then make your judgement based on that, you will fair so much better than if you randomly chose someone or even chose a close friend. After all, just because they are your friend doesn't mean you should create a site together. It will most likely end up straining your friendship as well as endanger your site.

I also think you are better off choosing people that work alot like you because they are more likely to think like you and therefore represent your ideals better in their decisions. Everyone has a different personal opinion on everything, but your general opinions like criteria for banning, how you inforce rules, etc. should be the same among your staff members. Maybe this could be resolved by anything from a simple conversation with your staff or just choosing ones with opinions similar to yours. This might anger someone, but it's better for your site in the long run. You and your staff should stand up together when a conflict arises rather than on opposite sides. Remember the old adage: "together we stand, divided we fall." EDIT: I don't mean that everyone on staff should act and think like little minion robots, because it's cool when the admins/mods have different personalities. But if everyone one of those admins and mods had a different way of dealing with things it would make it hard for your members to know the consequences of breaking a certain rule or how far they could push things before they got a warning--if that makes any sense? I think that as admins, you should talk to your staff regularly in a private place where members cannot see. That way you can hash out things, toss out ideas, and all together brainstorm without appearing as if you are having an arguement to the members your may not be very close to or your guests who are browsing your board. END EDIT

When it comes to character applications, I believe you should keep your standards at a medium level. Personally, I hate them filling them out and so I don't require as much info as perhaps I should. Nor do I demand lengthy posts. Sure, it would be nice to have an extremely literate/experianced rp site but demanding 8 paragraph posts would not only be hypocritical of me but would turn away alot of talented writers. Sometimes the muse just escapes you and scratching out a paragraph or two is like a pulling teeth. Thus, another reason why I encourage a laid back atmosphere so that my members don't feel rushed into posting something they will only hate later.

*shrugs* Maybe this isn't he best way to run a site, and I'm alway open for suggestions as to how to improve. My site, like a lot of others, has a suggestion board for anyone, including guests, to come in and post. There is also a help board for those who are new to roleplaying itself or proboards or BBC code can go and ask questions that I or anyone else can help them with. Even on my bad days, I try to maintain a good attitude with guests and members who I am not close to and might not understand. Even then, I try to keep hold of both my tongue and my temper. I don't believe things like that should be done in a public tag box, though I am guilty of doing it.


Again, I loved this thread. I've made some notes, teehee, and hope that I can put to use what I've learned and avoid some of the situations I have read here. Thanks to everyone who share their experiances!

[mightymole]

the way i see it a gud admin is a quiet 1 who only steps in as a last resort or/and if there is no othe option.

on my site it's opinions what count if a memebrs opinion is valid even if i disagree will accept as that members opinion is here own and why should i have ban/have a go/inflame situation just becuase someone has a different opinion.

be a boring world if everyone had the same opinion

[An Error Has Occured]

Well, I have to admit, I used to spam my site. I had a few friends that we would always post maybe one smiley to maybe a sentence. But, as I realized, my members, (staff mostly), started to quit because they were fed up with the spam. So, I deleted all of those threads. And it is like running a wild fire through a forest. You might be down quite a bit, but, you grow back rapidly. And now I have more members and they love to post. I have more enforced rules which help a lot.

[mirium]

I've been mod/co-admin/temporary admin of several boards over the years, always by invitation. The admin decides what the tone of the place will be, but can set it by approval of certain attitudes in others; find yourself helpers who have the traits you lack. The roles that need to be filled are:

a social director (makes sure everyone's welcomed and no one's a wallflower)
a creative type (thinks up cool threads and activities)
a technician (sets the board up, deals with glitches, bells & whistles)
a sheriff (keeps the peace, by protecting the vulnerable and quelling aggressors),
a diplomat (nips feuds and spats in the bud), and
a clown (keeps everyone in a good mood with their goofiness).

You don't need a separate person for each role, or just one for each role, and a helper might be a regular poster who's just good at what they do; I'm usually everything but the social director. For example, on a board where my screen name had a canine flavor, I combined sheriff & clown by threatening to piddle on anyone who misbehaved. Don't bother "appointing" anyone to these positions -- you're looking for individuals who are going to act that way without being told.

The other rule of thumb I try to follow, and expect everyone else on the board to follow, is "if you wouldn't want it said to or about you, don't post it -- here or anywhere."

I can still be tough. An admin has to be. I just avoid using all caps, italics or boldface in anger. If they're a troll, they're hoping I'll lose my temper, so -- I don't. ;D Someone who shows up spewing venom is probably a drive-by troll, so I'd ban their screen name (they rarely return); rinse and repeat if necessary. (Ban IP addresses, delete their account.) If someone's just having a bad day, I don't humiliate them and drive them away -- I'll deal with it in a PM, but let them know that on this board, members have to feel safe enough to relax and have fun, and attacks will not be tolerated. If they repeat, the board doesn't need them if they can't play nice. If it's a newbie mistake, show the joy at their being part of your forum -- if you move a thread they started, post on it that it will probably get more responses where you've put it and maybe a sentence or two explaining the difference between the two locations. Followed by a PM that congratulates them on their First Thread and lets them know they should ask by post or PM if they have any have questions. If you were that newbie, wouldn't you come back?

Members not only feel free to let me know if there's a problem or potential problem (they'll recognize Problem Posters from other boards); they also feel confident that the staff will take care of it and they can go back to playing. That's the most important thing an admin has to do, IMO -- behave in a way that gives members a secure feeling. Give 'em that, and they'll mostly make their own fun -- and tell their friends! ;D

[matrix934]

I used to go onto a forum where everything was ok except for the admin. At first I didn't know he was the admin - He had 700 posts - most of which were spam. I thought this other person was. He had over 2200 posts, was kind and considerate, only he was just a staff member. However for some reason the forum suddenly became really inactive. People just stopped going there. Only me and a couple of other members still logged on. Only a few days ago, the admin posted in the chat box "Wow, people still hang around here in this dump. Get a life," Some admin.

[Support KL]

Your words are true to people who have been to other forums; however, if a person has never been to an online forum or visits an online forum rarely only to see what's going on, and creates a forum so visitors of his or her website may give suggestions on the forum or the main website and ask for some feedback, then I don't think your mentioned words will apply very well, because the public forums will be used as an aid for another website, not as a website for itself.