[Debate] Why do you want to be an admin?

[Tix Mascot]

I don't know how long it normally takes to reach 80 or 100 members, but I had figured to be far above 17 after five weeks. The number would have probably doubled or even tripled if everybody that said so had joined and recruited a handful each from their network. So now, I'm vacuuming the Internet trying to spot useful hints at how to attract new members. There are plenty of guests, though, judged by their IP addresses, they return frequently, too, but very few decide to register, which I find very strange.

[Little Ani]

I've been an Admin since 2010. Might not seem like a long time but it is to me. I've been role playing for almost six years and running role plays for almost five now. I became an Admin because I hate not being in control. I hate seeing people breaking the rules and knowing I can't fix it. I hate seeing broken code or pictures that need updating and not being able to change it.

I love creating and writing and helping people. I want to do these things my entire life. It's that simple. I love to create things. I love to help. I want to run things and see how players take my ideas and tear off into new places with them. It's an incredible experience for me.

[Gator]

Well with me i just love to build and wish i could get people to join in them to help bring them more to life. I like to take the lead but have leaders under me to build a system to run things. I can't build things my way in others peoples world but i would help admin for others if they let me and maybe work the forums together as one system sending people back and forth.

[Jeanette]

I admin because I want a forum that I can work as hard as I want to make it successful and a safe haven for fellow my fellow rpers. So many just give up or worse let members bully their fellow members. I have joined forums RPs that were so horrible I had people spread rumors behind my back to the admins and been booted for reasons I am still unsure of. Disgusting behavior that no one should ever have to endure and I want to make sure of that none of that happens on my forum, that's why I choose to admin.

[drut]

I didn't choose the admin life, the admin life chose me.

I was a member of a conspiracy forum but the admin there was a total dork, he keeps banning people and deleting their posts if he disagrees with what is written, and anyone who complains is "a Government shill".

So anyway I was telling them all how their forum should actually be run and they were like "so go make your own forum"

In the end, I did.

The great thing about it though was I learnt that I really like graphic design now (I hated it in highschool because it was boring and anal). But I love it now! (does that mean I became boring and anal?)

[Elijah]

I've been a member on forums and I've also been a moderator on a forum. For me, being a member limited me in so many different ways. Of course I'm not opposed to joining sites where I'm not an admin but I feel like I can't exactly express my ideas because of how the staff members are on the sites that I have been members. So I had this goal to make a site that's successful so people don't feel limited and they can run their ideas passed me to see if they would flow good. I wanted the opportunity to create a friendly atmosphere and have a good connection with my members because I've been part of sites where the staff forms clicks with certain members and I honestly believe that is childish. I have a creative mind and I have so many ideas that I want to see come to life. So basically, I wanted to become an admin so people can have a place to call home and have a place where they love to write and meet new people.

[TVC]

You can improve many real life qualities through being an admin, such as leadership and organization skills. As an admin, it is your duty to diligently advertise your site, so you also increase your marketing skills. You have to talk to members, which revolves around communication skills. Overall, you are essentially preparing yourself for high positions in the real world. If only you could write RPing down as a skill or job. xD

[Lynx]

Considering a friend of mine and I are starting our own company to make games, it would've been harder to not become an Admin. Between the 2 of us, he's more hardware savvy (which is great, because if my comp breaks down, I can just call him ). As such, dealing with things like JavaScript, CSS and HTML - he's completely lost. I took computer programming back in school, so I had a head start. Granted, it was the old GW-BASIC I learned on an IBM PC-XT 8086, but I was one of the top students in my class. So, it just made sense for me to be the Admin for our site.

Edit: As a side note, I still have a copy of my old Timecard program written in GW-BASIC ... 25 printed pages long at 80 characters per line / 60 lines per page.

[The Apocalypse RP]

I admin because out of all of my years of RPing under other people's forums, I thought it was time I had my own and did things my way and try to create a super chill place to RP. Plus, back when I created mine, post-apocalyptic role-plays weren't that big of a thing. Or maybe I just didn't look in the right places.

[redape]

I wanted to be an admin for the simple fact that I couldn't find the type of forum I was looking for. Or even anything that remotely fit with what I had wanted. However, all previous forum attempts by me have failed so I'd hardly say I've ever been an admin.

Right now I have been working on a new forum. An attempt at a roleplay forum. Why? Because I want to create/find a community with similar interests to me. I want to give others something to enjoy. I want to tell a story. This is something I haven't seen done in a forum for a long time. (At least, not any I've had any interest in.) Telling an actual story in a roleplay. I want to provide that feeling of progression in a set plot while also allowing members to be free to make their own choices and have their own experiences. In all roleplays I've seen they are typically one or the other. Either it is strictly set to the plot or there is no plot/the plot remains stagnant to allow for members to create their own smaller stories and the forum is just used for a setting. I'm not a fan of this. I look at these forums as a game and therefore wish to have some sort of validation or progression to show that I am actually doing something or having some effect on the world or other characters around me.

Why do I want to be an admin?

Because I just want to run my own forum in my own world, meet people who share a common interest, and attempt to run things a little differently than what I've seen.

ALSO, yes, I realize it's a lot of work, effort, time consuming, yada-yada-yada. That doesn't mean I won't at least try. Honestly, I believe that most everyone should at least try to make a forum, if they've been a part of the proboards community, at least once. Don't even have to open it. Just spew out a random domain name and try it out. If they like what they've created they should definitely open it to the public. It's just another experience.

[Yuno]

I have been a forum admin and a forum moderator for so many forums back in the early and some parts of the late 2000's. I wish to become an administrator as I feel like there's far too many anime/manga forums that let their community become toxic as do the staff of these forums. With me you'd see fair moderation and a less toxic community.

Along with that, being an admin and/or moderator has improved my IRL skills on how to deal with people and how to be a leader.

[Mixed]

I was a regular member and then a staff long before I was an admin. And while I'm not sure this is a valid reason for a debate, I really considered becoming an admin once a previous admin disappeared and never transferred ownership. Therefore, I decided to become an admin to create a reboot of the abandoned, once thriving forum (it was thriving until people started realizing our admin wasn't returning, I think).

Now I had no misconceptions that this would be easy. I have been working on this forum for going on a year now (piece by piece); I registered the forum name in December last year. Truth be told, I was working on the world map for this forum far longer. But becoming an admin has shown me the true amount of attention a forum needs even in the preparation stages.

I look forward to the things being an admin can teach me once the grand opening has passed and members begin to join and interact with the site. Leadership qualities, mediating and decision making, even the capability to recognize when you need help and to recognize those that could truly help you. Then again, just being a part of ProBoards Support has shown me that asking for help isn't a vulnerability at all.

I'm not sure of how much this adds to the debate, but it is my 2 cents from my current perspective.

[spenceer]

I started my site because it seemed like every HP board I joined was either super canon-focused or had a ton of rules about what you could and couldn't do with your character. I wanted to create an HP board where people could create the character they wanted, not the character they were allowed. Within reason, of course. I just felt that "within reason" was super restricted on other sites and I wanted a place that it was more open.

[Former Member]

I wanted a place where I found total relaxation and enjoyment and will strive to make that feeling mutual with all my members!

[Deyana]

What @momad said! ^

I've been an Admin at my forum for nearly 6 years now. It's been a real interesting time and a learning experience. When I first started it, I never thought I'd ever have as many members as I do and some have been there since the beginning.

I really enjoy the time I spend on there.