The "Do Nots" Of Your ProBoard

[.::Rebecca::.]

Personally, I think having a few boards closed to guests is good. My past experiences with almost all boards open to guests have been bad. Especially on the art board. The art board (if your site has one) should be closed off and only accesed by the members. I've seen numerous attempts at stealing by guests and having the pic or poem up on another site saying they did that piece of art.

I don't think you understood my point. I'm talking about where it says "Log In Only" and I don't recall mentioning to leave all boards open. I think it's important to close certain boards, especially if you're afraid of copyright. I make sure that boards with written material are closed from guests, for example. I keep the announcements forum open because I believe it's important for guests to view it. That's where the rules are and what not. I also keep forums like "Intoductions" open so guests have an idea of how polite the staff are. How welcoming the board is.

[Freebird]

Don't be unprofessional
- nothing turns me off of a BB more then reading Admin posts that sound like a 10 year old wrote them.

Also, don't let your personal feelings interfere with BB decisions (in other words, don't just ban someone just because they like Bush and you don't.)

Don't forget to always use correct spelling and punctuation. Seeing an Admin post tings that luk like this reely turns me off.

Don't go on other BB's and post thing like "I just started a Message Board and I reeeaallly need members, so puh-leez join mine!!!"

Don't have an all black board with dark font color - do you even KNOW how hard that is to read??

[Shentino]

All the talk about banning can be summed up thusly:

The ban button is not a toy.

[Black Angel]

blackangel said:

Do not allow your offline issues spill on to the forum.

I think that it is very important for staff to keep their personal problems off of the forum, and to avoid taking it out on fellow staff and members.. because while there are some who will understand that you had a bad day, there will be a lot who don't.. and this can hurt the relationships that you have established with your members..

My brother and I recently merged forums.. he wanted to see more serious, and in-depth discussions, and liked the overall attitude of the members on my forum.. so he suggested that we merge and i agreed.. and we get along..

But before that, we did not.. he would take out whatever personal grudges he had against me (offline and in person) out on me on the forum.. so let's say we had an arguement offline, he would get mad and suspend me for it online..

I told him that if he did not unsuspend me, and if he did that again, and didn't learn to separate offline issues, from online issues, that i would leave permanently.

So he unsuspended me and apologized..

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Do not play favorites.

I also dont agree with favortism.. I don't care whether it is your best friend, or girlfriend, or a member who was there since the day you opened your forum.. If they know you personally, then that is all the more reason for them to listen to you, and back you up.. otherwise, if they don't follow the rules, then they should be punished. end of story..

There was this one incident where 2 of the members (one of them a veteran) started flaming each other throughout the forum, and i told both of them to stop, and said that if they did not, i would suspend them.. they persisted, and so, I suspended them.

My brother saw what happened, and in turn, he unsuspended the veteran..

My brother is the kind of person who would show favortism to veteran members, whereas, i do not.. He believes that because they were there, and active from the beginning, that we should cut them some slack if they blatently, and repeatedly disregarded the rules..

I believe that since they were there and active from the beginning, that that is all the more reason for them to know better, and would have a better grasp as to what is, or isn't acceptable behavior on the forum.. if it was their first major offense since the beginning, then i will give them a verbal warning, but if they keep it up, then they should get the same punishment as other non-veteran members..

But instead of addressing this issue openly, we handled it in the staff area, and we came to a compromise..

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Do not undermine your fellow staff members.

I think that it is very important that the staff stick together and back each other up.. we do that now, but it wasn't always like that in the beginning..

The members used to have the attitude that because I am his sister, that they don't have to take me as seriously as they do him.. but whenever they got into trouble with the other admins, they expected me to come to their defense.. they figured that since i was the 'nice' admin, and i was laid back on the forum, that i was some kind of pushover..

That was when I told them that since they did not take me seriously as an admin when they were breaking the rules, then how could they possibly expect me to do them any favors by coming to their defense.. and told them that should think about that the next time i ask them to behave themselves and they decide not to listen.

My brother set them straight on that.. he said that I may be his sister, and I may not be the owner, but I am to be shown the same respect as he is, and to those who believe that I wouldn't do anything, he referred them to a list of banned users and their reasons.. and that while i am the nicest of the admins there, and very laid back, I am also the 'executioner' and have punished 85% of the members on that list.

I simply stated, "you don't have to listen to me, but by the same token, don't expect to get away with it, and don't expect me to do you any favors either."

He also stated that anyone coming to him or another admin, to undo a punishment will receive double the length of their original punishment.

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Do not lose your cool.

I think that an admin should always remain calm, regardless of what is going on with the forum.. so if you have some yahoo, who randomly joins, and starts flaming everybody, then the admin should handle that with a calm and cool head.. and not respond with the same ignorance of the person flaming. It makes you look bad, and it reflects badly on the staff.

So we have 'roasts' where the members get a chance to respond, and post their thoughts about this person.. and after a few posts from the members, we lock and then move the topics to an area that only the staff has access to.. that way everybody gets a chance to get what they had to say out of their system.

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Do not address conflicts with your fellow staff members openly on the forum.

I think that any staff conflicts should be brought up, and then dealt with in the staff area, and that it is important for it to not spill onto the forum..

Having an open conflict with a fellow staff member presents an opportunity for one to be played against the other.

There was this one kid who figured that he could turn me and my brother against one another, by attempting to exploit a conflict between the two of us..

so, even though my brother and I weren't talking at that time, the kid figured that he would im me with some things that my brother 'allegedly' said about me.. so, I asked my brother if he said those things, and he said no.. so then we called a truce, and then we teamed up to catch this kid in a lie.. and it worked.

The kid was expecting me to go and cuss my brother out for something that he did not say, and vice versa. He wasn't expecting me to actually ask my brother up front.

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Do not be afraid to do your job.

The admin/staff should not be afraid to punish troublesome members.. and should back up any and all threats with an action..

I have seen this all too often on many boards.. one guy signs up, and starts posting porn, so what does the admin do? he tells the guy yo stop, and removes the links.. as opposed to banning them.. when asked why he didn't ban him, he said that he doesnt want to be too strict.. because he wants more members..

I have also seen members, over power the admin.. as in the admin, bending over backwards to please every single member.. i understand that you want to please everybody, but, in truth, you can't.. the admin should remember that it is their forum, and state as such, that while he/she wants to be your friend, and want you to be happy to be there, that you are also an admin, and you are not afraid to take action if necessary, and that what you say, goes.. and if they don't like it.. then they should leave.

As for me, I'll verbally warn you once.. and if you don't listen, then you get a warning.. and if you keep it up, then you are banned.

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Do not have too many codes.

Too many codes will slow the forum down, and, in turn, make your board look cheap..

On our board, I use only practical codes, that would make a nice feature if it were integrated in the forum's software already..

Such as a user legend, or a code that enhances your skinning options (image borders on the left and right side of the main table of the forum, head and base images for the posts, or the forum index) or remove certain things like the navigation menu.. or move the google ads above the table.. or a money hack that can be used to purchase certain things from the forum.. like a name change, or a level decrease.. etc..

there is no point in having unnecessary bells and whistles for a forum.. such as making the forum look like the hosts competition.. PB resembling VB etc. etc..

To many of these kinds of codes make the board load slow even for users on broadband..

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Do not use an image host that has alloted bandwidth.

Make sure that your images are hosted on a reliable host..(such as imageshack)

I like that host because they have never failed me, and they are very fast when it comes to loading images.. they also have unlimited bandwidth, and space, so if your image is small and it tiles, it, as well as other images, will load fast..

I have found other hosts to be not as reliable or as fast, as imageshack.. so i use imageshack for all of my forums images.. be it skins, avatars, or smileys..

But if I want to show off my images, then I'll use a host that has a customizeable photo album.. that way i can make the album match my forum or website..

This is all i have for now.. if i have more to add then i will just quote this post, and then add the additional points under it..

Do treat your members with the respect and dignity that they deserve.

I cannot emphasize this enough.. it is exactly like your parent's always told you.. Respect is a 2-way street, and so, if you want respect, then you have to give it.

I have been on many boards where the admins, and staff felt that just because they were responsible for the other members, that that gave them every right to be a first-class jerk to them.

The thing is, while yes, it is your forum, and yes, you do have the right to ban, or punish someone at your discretion, with, or without good cause, that that does not give you the right to be a jerk to them.

I have been on active forums were there were a lot of members, and the staff believed that because there were so many members, who were dependent on their board for whatever reason, be it subject matter, or resources, that that gave them the right to be arrogant, rude, or downright disrespectful of the members there.

Here is the thing, you can have topics from A-Z, you can have the hottest skins and codes in the world, and while that is all great, you need to remember one thing:

It is the members that turns a forum into a online community..

Because while having all of that stuff is all fine and dandy, it doesn't mean a thing if you don't have anyone there to see it.

So while you as an admin, can do as you see fit, as it is your board, you need to remember that if all of your members got angry, and tired of your disrespectful behavior and decided to leave, all you would be left with is a forum.

[Gamoc]

Okay, yes, there are many do nots to your proboard, Here are the ones that I can think of.(some already stated)

Favoritism

When an admin shows that they like one member better than another member, especially if the member did nothing to deserve it, then they shouldn't even be an admin of a board in the first place. it is a little different if a member helps you a whole lot with your board, and you make them an admin or a mod, and a member complains about favoritism, then you aren't doing favoritism.

Cursing your members

Just because a member makes a mistake, or a member doesn't know something does not mean that you should go and curse them out. If they are having a hard time doing something, have patience with them, don't go and cuss them out for being stupid, not everyone are experts when it comes with the things that you are experts at. A admin should not ever curse out one of their members, even when it seems most necessary.

Spamming

If an admin spams, but they tell their members not to. Then that completely destroys the significance of a spam rules. If you don't want people to spam your forum up, then don't spam yourself, unless you have a board dedicated to that.

Giving staff

It is not always wise to give members staff positions for having high post count or something like that. If you already have a couple of staff, then you really don't need anymore. If you make everyone staff, then chaos could go throughout your forum of people locking and unlocking each others threads. It is just wise to let most of the people who join, members.

Always be an ADMIN

If your members are doing horribly terrible things, Breaking all your rules. Don't hesitate to ban or warn them. If you hesitate too long, other members will think that you don't care and will start to do the things that the other member did. It is just unwise to let that happen. It never makes a successful forum.

No admin

If you are going to leave for a while, make sure you have a strong moderation team. If you don't have a strong moderation team, then your forum could be in deep chaos and a lost cause when you come back. I have seen this happen before, Members leave, guests spam horribly disgusting. It just doesn't work. If you are going to leave and you have a heads up, give you member a heads up also, it always helps if they know that you will be back.

Don't overdo it

Don't overdo your board. Don't put in thousands of codes, especially if you don't know what they do, and expect to have the best board. Don't put in random really fancy graphics that you find. It may not always look good when you put it together and will drive off members from coming to your board.

Don't rip images or codes

If a code is not to be used on your board, or the image is not for use outside of that board. Don't take it, use it, and claim it as your own. A lot of coding/designs boards have images that are supposed to be unique to their board and to none other, same way for codes. Ripping images or codes could help you on getting your forum deleted.

Don't complain about everything

It is best not to complain about every little thing. A lot of admins think that everything wrong in their life is also their members problems. Well, news for those admins, it's not their problem. The members come to a forum to have fun and talk about what the want/need to talk about. They don't want to have to deal with complaints. This too, could drive them off.

Don't be afraid to have fun

Being an administrator of a forum does not mean that you have to be uptight about everything. Members want to see an admin who will join in on all the fun, even if the admin makes a seperate account as a member. No one said that the admin can't have any fun just because they are the boss of the forum, live a little.




Those are some of my views on the Do Nots of having a Proboards Forum. If I think of more, I will post them.

[Miss Adventure]

Going overboard on Staff-only Boards -

I think having too many staff-only boards can cause a forum to become inactive. Staff categories should not have general discussion just for staff. It should be used to discuss upcoming events on your forum, important new updates, to help each other out, to plan surprises (though you shouldnt keep everything secret) or to give rules and resources for staff members of, for example, an RPG site. Having too many staff-only boards will drive discussion of staff there, and have them wander away from the main public boards, which causes inactivity on a whole, and you lose non-staff members, because there is little discussion on the main boards.

Most sites should only have one staff board. If you are starting a general conversation (eg. "Do you like Black Eyed Peas?") then put it in the general areas.

I don't like forums that have the staff sections or boards on the forum...unless it is a "Ask the Staff" kind of board. For my site I have all staff boards only viewable to the staff which you and easily do by setting the categories to be viewed by specific members and the boards to be view by staff only. That way you can skip that whole, "Staff is Special" ordeal that some members have.

if you want feedback on your website, or want to offer technical support, on the feedback or tech support boards, do not restrict it to members, especially if you're gonna get people that only want to ask one or two questions on your forum.

I agree with this entirely, my site does offer some help topics for frequently asked questions and that is the page where we get the most traffic through. And we have several spots where people can make suggestions or post comments about our site.
Including an e-mail form that will send the message directly to the staff e-mail account.

Do Not Be Rude To Your Members

This is especially important. Especially when you have someone who is brand new, and they keep asking you these dumb questions, and you're getting agrivated. Trust me, I've been there. If you had to learn by yourself (like I did), don't let someone else have to do that.

Yes I agree with this, and that is the exact reason for why I did all the help topics. I got so tired of answering the same questions day in day out, questions that they only had to scroll down a few posts to get the answers for.

Creating that forum with the help topics has been a life saver for me and my staff because all we do is post a link. Very rarely do we get any questions after that.


Do not give a lot of powers to your staff members

That is a BIG one for me, having been a part of a staff a few years ago in which another mod got angry with me for deleting a post of theirs that was against the site TOS.

The battle kept escalating and hit it's high when the Admin sided with me because I was smart enough to save the original post. Well this mod got bitter about it and really went to town on the site. Including changing my name to something very inappropriate in the censored words.

The result of such a thing was devasting to the site and it crumbled very quickly. Since starting my own site I'm very picky about who I choose for the staff of my site and definately limit their access to things on the site.


Do not lose your cool

I also agree that an admin should do their best to remain calm and leave rants to staff only boards or to the walls. Which let's face it is not an easy thing to do...and not a lot of people can grasp the concept of how hard it can be to be a site admin.

I also will say that this should also go for the staff members as well. As a moderator on another site I saw an instance in which a staff member became so immature and angry toward a member that they actually deleted their account.

I won't even go into the details of the damage that was done by that one act of pure stupidity. But it took months to correct it even though the staff member was instantly taken off the staff and banned from the site for several months.


THE ADMIN IS NOT A GOD

Someone mentioned this and I completely agree with it. I have no problem with the staff editing my posts when needed or moderating me. Just because I'm the admin does not make me perfect...especially after a full day of updating and fixing site issues.

I also don't know everything and rather love it when someone else has an idea or a better one. It's exciting and I love it when everyone contributes to the site.

And lastly,

DON'T GO OVERBOARD ON THE RULES

Rules are great to have but I'm in agreement the petty rules are just ridduculous, and being me there have been sites where I made fun of some of their rules.

One of them was "We use our indoor voices here so never use your Caps lock button." I was in awe with that one among other rules they had.

You'd think they would make more of an emphais on nudity and spamming not the caps lock button.

[Thing-Thing]

Well, about the flame thing:
I'm a member of this forum where the admin is pretty much gone, and one day, this (sorry to use this word) idiot joined. He broke rules from day 1, and the mods don't got the power to ban, so we put up this "court" thread, where we deal with the "bad guys". It's pretty much like reality, with accuser and judge, but it is seemingly the only way to control the spam, as our mods = SCARY, and they got everyone behind them. Also, there is this thread "Famous people", made to show who are, who can become, who are not and how to become famous/popular. Is this right, or is there anything else to do?

[Former Member]

I think another big "Do-Not" is using chatspeak. I think all forums should at least not use chatspeak in their categories and such. I mean, it's a little bit of a put-off if you go to a RP forum and the board description is "post ur charries stuff here". I'm not saying they should all be 100% grammatically correct, because everyone makes mistakes and not everyone is an English buff, but I think they should at LEAST take out the chatspeak. It's an abomination to the English language and makes the administrator look like an idiot.

[Thing-Thing]

And/or 1337... Those ways of speaking are, as you said, an insult to the English language. Li3k \/\/|-|0 (4|\| 1234|) 7|-|15? Or sumtin liek dis? If the members do, OK, give them a warning, but the admin and/or the mods can't be like that.

[eagletalon]

An Admin CAN, however, use 1337 on a Forum based on it (Usually just there for fun, or to make fun of people who use 1337)
But yes, banning Capital letters is a pain, as I often use those as a substitute foor italics, as they're faster to use, and add emphasis to the word.
But another one, especially for RPs:
Have a sense of humour
What's the point of having an Ådmin that's serious? Basically, one of the reasons why many people regard people such as Stalin to have been good orators is that they involved the crowd, and made their speeches more interactive.
You should also chat with the members more. There's no need to act 'above it', since that's just what the whole 'Admin is God' thing is about. Admins thinking that if they act like a common member, then they're violating some unwritten rule of Adminism. On my site, I usually make extremely random, but amusing, plot twists, add in '' smileys as often as I do on other Forums, and basically just merge with the members, though still enforcing the rules, but not too harshly.

[Thing-Thing]

Yea, it's best to keep a relaxed atmosphere, a forum that looks just as organized and grey as Hitler's speeches scares people away, but if the admin goes personal with a funny display name and chats with the members, it goes fine. If the admin or mods act like gods, it all seems a little "scary". And a good rule would be: Don't think you own the place. I once met this guy who were completely new, saying: Seriously, this is going to hell, just leave this forum to me, now mess off. Those people are just for the trash bin

[rivenriver]

Here's something that I don't think has come up...

Do not just state a member did wrong. Explain it to them.

In my experience, a member who breaks a rule very very rarely does it on purpose. This is even truer for small forums. The kind of members who join and start posting porn, they need to be dealt with. But the kind of member who joins and makes 20 posts with some effort, then does something wrong, I will bet they didn't realize they were doing anything wrong.

And because they don't realize they did something wrong, you can't warn them. You can't even PM them saying "You've broken a rule - don't do it next time". What you have to do is PM them saying "Remember this post? It actually breaks this rule for this reason. A better thing to do would have been this. If you could edit/repost, that'd be great. Also, have a re-read of the rules and this article about the site, just to make sure you've got everything down. Thanks!"

You need to EXPLAIN it to people. Because I think most people will agree that there are few things worse than being in trouble and not understanding why.

That's something I'm big on, and my site is doing well because of it. I've gotten a few compliments from members as to how useful my explanations have been to them, and I can see the improvement in their posting too. It really works, and I think its one of the most important things.

[Konstantine]

myke said:

Do Not Allow Public Fights/Flames To Remain

[/i], nothing can shatter that image more then seeing members fight on the boards. This is particularly important when it comes to staff. Staff should not publicly disagree with one another on important forum matters, and should never argue in the public.[/ul][/quote]

I've never really seen the problem with public arguements in boards. I don't think I've ever met anyone that didn't enjoy watching an arguement between members. You may be trying to build a community of friends, but a forum with no fights is unrealistic. I doubt that if potential members see a fight, they're not going to want to join, or have an altered view of the site. I just think covering up public fights is being fake, and since it doesn't offend most people(mostly entertain) then I say let them fight.

[Jesusfreak]

konstantine said:

myke said:

Do Not Allow Public Fights/Flames To Remain

[/i], nothing can shatter that image more then seeing members fight on the boards. This is particularly important when it comes to staff. Staff should not publicly disagree with one another on important forum matters, and should never argue in the public.[/ul][/quote]

I've never really seen the problem with public arguements in boards. I don't think I've ever met anyone that didn't enjoy watching an arguement between members. You may be trying to build a community of friends, but a forum with no fights is unrealistic. I doubt that if potential members see a fight, they're not going to want to join, or have an altered view of the site. I just think covering up public fights is being fake, and since it doesn't offend most people(mostly entertain) then I say let them fight.[/quote]

I have to agree with xkamelx. Having a fight amongst staff members and members on a board is unprofessional. As I told you on Digital Inflection Konstantine, if the member has a problem with the staff member, or vice versa, it should be handled over PM.

[eagletalon]

I don't mind them as long as they're just arguements/fights, but don't go into flaming... (I've done that before, of course. )
However, if they do start flaming each other, then you have the riight to be 'fake' and delete it.
However, this depends on what the boards are for. On my Pokemon site, for example, I get rid of fights (Pokemon seems to attract huge amounts of members... That's why I did it. ... But on-topic...), it depends on what age group you're targeting.
If you're targeting teens, allow fights, if you're doing something such as pokemon, then disallow them, as the audiences will probably be younger.
Fights are entertaining, flaming is annoying.
(Fighting mainly being thought out insults, flaming = 'YOU SUCK! YOU @^&#$« = Q = »^#@#^!!!!')