How should I staff my forum?

[freakaboutsims]

I agree with you, that is why the only person on my avatar site that almost has the power of me is someone I have been around Avatarfans.net and know quite well. He has really be loyal to my site and really respeats other on the site and most inportently me.

Now my new site I am the only staff member and I noticed something you mentioned before, do not let strangers but staff members. Because I know someone who bought back his forum, but he said he was going to be the only staff member since last time he made it, his staff deleted it.

So I agree with you.

[Kristina]

I've found that Admins tend to have a, "First # people to register will be moderators!" thing when attracting guests.

I tend to find that unless you have built the board with someone, it is best to just tackle moderation alone for a while, until you decide that you really do need someone to help out, or if you are going away for a while.
When my friend and I made our non-proboards forum, Simzine Diaries, our first moderator was appointed mainly so that she had more power over the help section of our board, as she was writing many FAQ's to help people with writing and images. It was only after we gained fifty to sixty members we let her have full power over that catagory, and brought it another to look after other sections, then and third simply to help out with a few extra things during different areas of the day, as he was heavily involved in the planning of events.
When the mods there were chosen, it was people who had been there with us since the beginning, and continued to visit when we were lacking activity, and were convinced that they were responsible for helping liven it up again, so we realised that they were sutible for the position when the forum eventually gained activity again

I don't see what is wrong with applications, but I wouldn't use them myself. It does let the admin know who is intrested in the position, as long as you remind them when posting, that they may not get the job.

I've never given moderators more than the simple modify, lock, and move thread options, to make sure that they don't delete content, or do anything else to the boards, and am always certain that they can't access the admin panel.

I've seen people who have immediatly given a lot of power to strangers, and normally end up with moderators who abuse their powers. My friend on another board, who is almost thirty, let someone have power over one board of their forum, as they were submitting content to her website. This person had a small guestbook, and I think it got roughly twenty replies. The member then locked the thread, and editted all posts in it.
I mentioned ito the Admin, saying it was a bit power abusive, and she agreed. She then unlocked the thread, and demanded that all the posts should be returned to normal. This moderator then relocked the thread, after being told off, and eventually lost her powers last week. Silly power abusive person...

# = Insert number.

[Venomi]

i think when you choose staff you should choose people you trust and not just any body unless you are from a graphics forum like mine where graphics mods have no powers it is pretty much just a title but shows they are graphics staff. if you just pick random people and give them powers chances are they will just ruin the forum or not post as much as they should because they think they dont have to i visited a forum that had 120 members but they had about 60 staff members there about 30 admins in total and the admins had about 6 posts each i dont see the point. my forum has 2 admins 2 g-mods and 4 mods-2 g designers and 1 coder and 102 members so far i think that is more than enough for the amount of members and we have

Venomi

[unistar]

When I started to staff mine I went to a site thatI have been a member of for two years and I sent pms to the people that I wanted. They were people I have talked to and watched to see how they handle themselves. I was very lucky and got everyone I wanted. I trust each one of them with the jobs they have taken. But I let them each know that it was an honor for them to come to my site, just to look around cause I valued their opionions so much. Each one is a dedicated Harry potter fan and each one has read the books over and over again. So they picked up on how to navigate the site quickly and they all signed up after their first visit.

[kelendria]

My staff seem to come & go & I don't have much luck.
The people I've had in the past I've trusted (I've not just gone out & advertised for staff for the sake of it)
Now I'm down to two, me & my G Mod. I base it on activity, loyalty, posting etc.
You should get to know the people you have as staff, give them as much power as YOU feel comfortable with giving them.
Watch out for back stabbing, disloyalty & rudeness, it could turn people away from your board, if they should choose 'sides'. It happened to me.....

[$hØ©Këyë]

Well I staff my forum very well because I never post staff appilcations on my forum. And anyway, I hear people saying that they had staff members that had ruined their forums and also they took control of their forums.

Anyway, my staff is my brother and and also one of my friends at school. I think that if you want staff for your forum, try and ask some of your friends to help you maintain your forum. If that don't work, try asking some family members who use the internet a lot like, your brother/sister/kids or even parents. But I think you should try and see how they do well by making them a test forum for them to use and see how they maintain it well. That's what would I have done.

Emperor Shockeye, ;D

[Avery ♥]

I have a question. Is it even a good idea to make a person staff if they are helping you make the forum? I have members who are staff on the forum and they are helping me make it with the skins, more coding to enhance the features, graphics, etc. I'm just wondering if that's even a good idea, even if I have set guidelines as to what is needed.

My forums aren't always the best so I usually go to admins of other sites and they help me with mine. They make grapics, give me ideas to make my site better, overall make my forum while I observe. Is that even a good idea? I'm starting to get a bit curious about this all.

[HoudiniDerek]

I see no problem with NOT making them staff, especially if specified up front that you just need help with designs and are not looking for active staff members.

I have been helping set up forums lately and I didn't think about making myself staff as part of the bargain. I like to help people...I don't NEED anything in return.

Besides, some of the stuff you are getting help with, can probably be found either in the support board section or in the codes section. Before you rely on them TOO much, maybe you should go look there. Then, go to admins of other sites...and finally to those people who are involved directly with the site.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. I think it is good to have a plan for it, but until it comes up, leave it alone.

[degrass1fan]

I made the mistake in the past of giving anyone who wanted to be, staff powers and lets say, it didn't turn out good. Right now, I have nearly 100 members but only a handfull are active so I really only need one GMOD and 2 MODS. I think it depends on activity. If you have 13 members, it isn't wise to make 7 of them staff memebers.

[lordparadise]

Here's a thought:

Why not let the members decide?

Our board is pretty set in our staffing, so we haven't used this, but good old-fasioned democracy might work as well as everything.

Organize parties, identify the major issues on the board, and have the parties select candidates. Vote every other month or so, and get a freshly circulating supply of mid-level moderators who your members think are best for your board.

Having the admin choose seems sensible, but the admin can't have good judgment all the time.

[HoudiniDerek]

lordparadise said:

Here's a thought:

Why not let the members decide?

Our board is pretty set in our staffing, so we haven't used this, but good old-fasioned democracy might work as well as everything.

Organize parties, identify the major issues on the board, and have the parties select candidates. Vote every other month or so, and get a freshly circulating supply of mid-level moderators who your members think are best for your board.

Having the admin choose seems sensible, but the admin can't have good judgment all the time.

Not a HORRIBLE idea, but would you have enough interest on the part of the members in order to do it. Plus, after watching campaign ads, I am not sure that doing it that way would work.

[lordparadise]

houdiniderek said:

lordparadise said:

Here's a thought:

Why not let the members decide?

Our board is pretty set in our staffing, so we haven't used this, but good old-fasioned democracy might work as well as everything.

Organize parties, identify the major issues on the board, and have the parties select candidates. Vote every other month or so, and get a freshly circulating supply of mid-level moderators who your members think are best for your board.

Having the admin choose seems sensible, but the admin can't have good judgment all the time.

Not a HORRIBLE idea, but would you have enough interest on the part of the members in order to do it. Plus, after watching campaign ads, I am not sure that doing it that way would work.

There's a difference, of course. If you got your members excited enough, and there were the right number of them, I think it would work. On our board the members do vote for a lot of the issues that the mods themselves aren't comfortable in implementing without voter consent. A lot of members who only post occasionally will go on the Congress thread first thing after logging on and placing their votes on the Bills in place. We haven't tried it with selecting moderators, but it's possible.

[laurendawnie]

I have a co-admin on my forum. He's someone that I trust and know is as dedicated to my forum as I am...And I know him in real life, because he's my older cousin. I've had a bit of a rough time this year, and he's been keeping the forum alive. Recently on Forbidden Forest I've posted a moderator application, asking for anyone who wants to be a Mod to submit their application to me. Because of time differences (I'm Australian) I can't moderate the forum all the time, so I'm going to let some highly active members who already act as moderators anyway, become moderators. I think that I will give them a small amount of power and increase it if they prove themselves to be good mods.

[pcdude]

lordparadise said:

Here's a thought:

Why not let the members decide?

Our board is pretty set in our staffing, so we haven't used this, but good old-fasioned democracy might work as well as everything.

Organize parties, identify the major issues on the board, and have the parties select candidates. Vote every other month or so, and get a freshly circulating supply of mid-level moderators who your members think are best for your board.

Having the admin choose seems sensible, but the admin can't have good judgment all the time.

Personally, I don't think that the actual choosing of staff members is something that should directly involve members. What if the members choose someone who goes and destroy's your forum? I think that asking for input from members is a fine idea, but when it comes to actually choosing staff, that's a task I'd rather take care of myself. That way, if there is a problem no one is to blame for it but me. And I don't think anyone else would know better than me what I'm looking for in a staff member.

[fladnagbi]

dont forget making this if someone asks to become a mod you should use your powers wisly and pick carefully because thwey could take over anyones acocunt!heres soem rules you need to know just in case!

1.you should know them

2.you know they will be trustful

3.they would use there poweres right!

remember these and your fourm will stay rocking!