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

[Beatle Aimee]

I made my forum for a bunch of my online friends to all meet each other. There used to be a VERY ACTIVE yahoo group but a hacker deleted it. (At first I thought a hacket attacked mine yesterday but it was the profile clearing bug. LOL!)

Also other people hate me on forums so I just made my own and I'm better at admining then being a member. Hehehe.

[Admiral Refuge]

How I became admin on my forum...it's a long story...one I'm not going into.... but to sum it up: I always liked creating games and sprites, so I decided to make a gaming and spriting forum(non-proboards) with my friend, this way we were able to make comics, and design and rip sprites. But the person that was "protecting" our site hasn't logged in for months, so we banned his global access, he got mad and cracked our site.
He cracked the site about 4 times(I didn't know that much about security then) until I gave up with sites and forums..
That's not where it ended though, I was mad and I wanted revenge. So I began to learn the techniques on cracking, I guess you could say I became a black hat cracker(the bad guy). I went on a rampage searching for random known crackers, and "deleting" their site, and their computer. Eventually I found the one that first cracked my site to begin with, and I got him too.

Soon after the allies I used was known to bring fear in the cracking underground, one of my older friends(the co-admin on the sprite and gaming site I was at) found out it was me and was able to talk to me. Eventually I accepted, that cracking the crackers, was making me just as bad as them. 2 wrongs do not make a right, and I came to accept this.. I gave up cracking, and began to learn hacking as a hobby(the good guy).

Then one day, I looked around the proboard community, and saw all the forums that were being broken into and the admins were posting in the support board asking for help.

I knew something had to be done about this, so I created my forum which researches on internet security, and hunts down crackers and puts them to justice.

[Shentino]

One good reason NOT to have a forum is to go on a power trip.

It's like founding a kingdom just so you can be king. It's selfish, and absolutely uncivilized.

Running a forum is rife with politics, meritocracy, and all that other gibberish that comes with social engineering. It is not for the faint of heart.

Best advice I have?

The key is not whether you want a forum, but whether you need one.

[Admiral Refuge]

Amen to that, I agree completely to what Shentino said.
In the topic of politics, I know this one forum(I'm not giving the name or link) where you can run for office as admin every 6 months. And the people of the forum elect who the admin should be..

[Kaythara]

Personally, I became an admin so I could be the one in control. I kept looking around at the forums I was a member on, thinking things along the lines of, "That could have been handled better." I discovered that it was a lot more stress and work than I had anticipated, but was well worth it. As an admin I can do more than make suggestions and, when success finally started coming to my site, I was able bask in my own pride. From my experience, I am now much better able to appreciate the hard time admins can have which is a win/win for myself and the admins of other sites I participate in.

[McGani]

I became an admin for numerous reasons. My first reason was because I would rather be the one controlling things rather than the one being controlled. I had experienced some nasty-tempered admins out there, and I wanted to be different, better, than them. Kind of like when some people become teachers to show that they're better than their grouchy history teacher back in grade school. You want to make things fun and enjoyable.

And now that I am an admin, I notice that I like being one more than I like being a regular member. By far. If I want something changed, I don't have to ask anyone. I just do it. If I make a graphic that I want up on the site, I can put it there. I have responsibility and control, and it occupies my time better than being a forum memberm because I'm always looking for something new to change or add. I was a member for about a year before I made my own forum, and you would never recognize it if I showed you screenshots from its first day open and present day. I love that. I can do what I want, when I want, how I want. It is my forum and every member I gain makes me feel that more satisfied with myself.

I also make a lot more friends as an admin, probably because everyone thinks it's cooler to be friends with the admin over a normal member. Whatever the case, I have friends who I talk to as if we had sleepovers on the weekends together and have known each other for years, and I also have friends who I say a pleasant hello to whenever I'm online. It's just...I dunno...nice.

conqueringwolf said:

I still see new Harry Potter forums being opened daily along with LOTR and many others where there are already hundreds of forums that exist with the same topic. Do you feel you can create a better forum than the other people who already have one?

Of course not. I have seen many HP Forums out there that I don't even compete with as of now. I made a Harry Potter forum because I love Harry Potter, it's a passion of mine. I want to share that passion with others who have the same passion as myself. I wanted to make something different, unique.

I think that's what we're all trying to do, actually.

[HaloMasta88]

I want to be an admin because I know this place is awesome. AND that it would be thrilling to be a moderator OFF my own site. If I log back on later as an admin, I would owe all of you big thanks.

[Black Angel]

You know, I have been running a site with my brother for more than 2 years now and I gotta say, I can't ever remember wanting to be admin of anybody's board.. let alone my own..

But seriously it is like whenever i sign up to somebody's board they automatically make me an admin.. there are just some times when i just want to be a regular member, and let someone else worry about all of the b.s. involved with running a forum for once..

I guess that is why I still come back here even though I don't use PB anymore..

I am quite active at the support board on my forums' host, for the same reason, but that still doesn't change the fact that i get like 3 pm's each day from different people asking me to be an admin on their board because they need help..

And as if that wasn't bad enough, I've members of my own board that have decided to make their own boards, and without fail, they ask me to be an admin on their board as well..

I don't answer, and next thing I know I get a pm from another member telling me that that person had copied our forum..

naturally, i go, and lo and behold, there it is.. images, topics, forums, board names, descriptions, usergroups, post ranks, post icons, the whole nine..

i sign up, pm the admin about copying from my board, and next thing i know, i myself am an admin.. so it is like i signed up, just to ensure that they didn't copy me anymore, even though that was not my intention..

that crap happened to me today..

[kelendria]

I've had that experience too. When people need my help they've made me a Mod or Admin, then I'm left running their forum. When I ask to be made a normal member they aren't around.
I've also had people copy my board, in a way it's flattering but also highly annoying. One person copied my topics, layout, ideas everything. I hate when that happens

[Des]

My main purpose for opening my *only the latest one* board was that I had a brilliant idea (Especially stressing the point that there are one million Harry Potter RPG's, all the same). I wanted to remove the stereotypism, I was sick and tired of it.

My ahem...earlier attempts, ones I'd like to put behind me, were due to thoughts of power. I wanted to be the 'Head Person' in one forum back then, but I had no preservance, I didn't even like my plots, and I had no idea how to make a proboard. Since then, I have changed so much...that my entire concept of actually having a proboard has changed. I no longer do it to because of the power, but because of a pursuit to make RPG different. I read somewhere 'If what you want is not there...make it yourself' (In the context of writing books) and that is exactly what I did in this case.

[Avery ♥]

conqueringwolf said:

This is something similar to my thread on being an admin or a regular member. What I want to know is what has made you want to be the admin of your forum instead of just joining an already established forum and helping them to be successful? I still see new Harry Potter forums being opened daily along with LOTR and many others where there are already hundreds of forums that exist with the same topic. Do you feel you can create a better forum than the other people who already have one? If so then why do I see so many people in GOAYB coming in asking for rates with default or single color forums and no other customizations and saying they have the best looking forum ever and everyone needs to come check it out. What makes these people want to create a forum if they are not going to put the effort into it to customize it and provide content for their members. They want their members to do all the work for them while they just sit back and say they have made an awesome forum.

So really, what made you want to become the admin of your own forum and has it worked out for you?

Myself I have always had forums that were on topics that there were not many other boards about and those boards that were around I did not much like the design, activity, and overall feel of the forum myself so I created my own in efforts to have a large thriving community that would be of help to others. I take pride in being an admin and providing someone with a community they can be proud of and they want to return to to chat with others.

I think that some people find it to be some sort of competition to see who can make the best forum when it comes to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean. That's one reason they decide to just create their own instead of registering on another. They want to see who can get the most members, the best looks and everything. Basically to see who is the best 'ProBoarder'. Others may make their own forum because they just don't take interest in the other forums and want to see what they, themselves, can do. Not necessarily competing against the other forums.

[Drewz]

As far as posting I don't want to be an admin, and I hope I'm not really viewed as one when I'm generally posted. The only reason I am the admin is that I wanted to create a wrestling site that works. I wanted to create the perfect wrestling forum and IMHO, I've already done that.

[Merovingian Meg]

i needed (lol) to make my forum because there was too much flaming going on at others
my forum's about changing skin-colour, there are allot of skin lightening forums where people use dangerous creams containing high levels of hydroquinone or worse mercury, to bleach their skin
my forum is for those wanting to remove colour completely, gothlike you could classify as, but lol.. shouldn't

i try to be fair and balanced with my members but am finding out that people i'd consider friends *online* can do some really pathetic things
being a mod at times tests my patience, to a certain degree i have to try disassociate from some people yet not make them feel awkward, i get stressed easily, but for the most part i'm happy that my forum is around, and that those like me have somewhere friendly to converse

[gimel]

i just like the creative process. i enjoy making the sites more then just being on them, and i like having at least some control over what happens. its just the kind of person i am i guess, but its mostly just the whole process of creating something and changing things around and stuff that i like.

[Saxor]

I became an admin for many reasons, but I will only say a few of them. I am not the kind of person who puts a lot of work into something, so I started my forum so I could try to change this, and so far I have put countless hours of work into my forum. I also like a challenge, and I knew that being an admin would be one. Another reason is because all of the other forums about this topic were horrible or confusing. I tried to make one that was just right.