How should I staff my forum?

[Roger Semaan]

People should be base on their activity, their love to the forum, their dedication, and ofc if he's good at gfx or coding etc....

[Enchant]

Jun 27, 2008 13:27:51 GMT -8 Roger Semaan said:

People should be base on their activity, their love to the forum, their dedication, and ofc if he's good at gfx or coding etc....

Please make sure that your post consist of at least four sentences per rules. Perhaps add some personal experiences to back up your coments.

[Jackaroo]

Jun 27, 2008 22:13:48 GMT -8 Enchant said:

Jun 27, 2008 13:27:51 GMT -8 Roger Semaan said:

People should be base on their activity, their love to the forum, their dedication, and ofc if he's good at gfx or coding etc....

Please make sure that your post consist of at least four sentences per rules. Perhaps add some personal experiences to back up your coments.

I don't know if this counts as rule breaking, but you didn't exactly follow the rules then yourself. That's only how I saw it.

Now, for my actual reply; When choosing staff make sure they have been with the forum for a decent amount of time; two months minimum. This shows their dedication in my view; furthermore it also shows how they wish to keep going with the forum, and how they're enjoying it and such.
Secondly, choose when there is a number of members you feel you might start needing help with. I personally can deal with up to 100 members myself, and after that, I choose a moderator. If the moderator is doing a good job, I ask them if they wish to get a promotion and allow someone else to take their place as Moderator. If they wish to stay as Moderator, then so be it.
Thirdly; Graphic skills. If they have any sort of graphic skills, then they are more likely to be chosen. Let's say they can make super amazing graphics, they have been with the forum for over three months, are a dedicated member, quite popular and responsible. On the other hand, you have a member who is no good at graphics (me) not been with the forum long, illiterate, never read the rules not popular and you don't get on with at all because they are completely irresponsible. Who will you choose? Now, those there are just two completely different people, but it's still an example.

Fourthly I'd say if all else fails, have people do an application for the job. Then at the end of that, when you have your finalists, make a vote. Whoever wins, gets the job. Simple, no?

[Enchant]

Jun 28, 2008 1:09:20 GMT -8 Jackaroo said:

Jun 27, 2008 22:13:48 GMT -8 Enchant said:

Please make sure that your post consist of at least four sentences per rules. Perhaps add some personal experiences to back up your coments.

I don't know if this counts as rule breaking, but you didn't exactly follow the rules then yourself. That's only how I saw it.

I am not sure what your getting at with your accusation that I am breaking the rules, but the last time I checked I was the mod of this board. And as mod, it is my job to inform you that you were breaking the rules. If you have a problem with me or the rules of this board, I highly suggest you take it to the PM system and keep it off these boards. Also, in the future if you wish to post on these boards, you read the rules and follow them.Thank you.

[Harlequinn]

If I am creating a forum that I want to survive I always make the forum myself and I only allow people who I know and talk to frequently to become staff.

Currently a friend of mine and my boyfriend are my other staff, I made a mistake once with staff and hope never to do it again.

Also, never upset your staff. Or, if you do, take their powers away immediatly. Bad things can happen and then you are pretty much SOL.

[Avewolf of the Avaliks]

On my message board at kanoku.proboards84.com, I appoint my most trusted people the staff position, because if I didn't trust them then I probably wouldn't, basically I'm letting my members be staff members if I feel they should be, I am very strict about it, but I'm strict in a nice way.

[Kallison]

I make sure to watch my members closely before I choose new staff members; also, you need to make sure you NEED more staff before you choose. I prefer to keep about 5-6 people on staff for about each 50 members or so. This way, you can be sure that you have moderators to keep an eye on the site most of the time; I've had various times where my moderators have had to take care of problems while I was not online. The people I choose for staff members are generally members that have been on my site for quite a while and I've grown to trust. I would never put a new member as staff, as they haven't proved that they are trustworthy enough. I also make sure that any current staff members have a say in the new staff members before I make any decisions. That way, I can prevent any conflicts on my staff board or whatnot.

I believe that staff members need to be more active than my regular members; this is another factor that goes into my decisions when choosing staff. The staff members of my board are the people I see on most frequently. However, they also must follow all the rules, because if they can't keep to the rules themselves, why should I trust them to enforce them?

[aady]

Myself and three friends from college, I have all the powers evidently, but they have a few less.
___________________
Aady
Addiction Recovery New Mexico

[Dan]

I've currently created a forum on my own and co created a forum with my borther. On the co created forum about the army which came first I made the mistake of making too many people staff straight away so we had

• 2 Admins,
  
• 2 Global Moderators,
  
• 1 Moderator.
  

This was a mistake in my view because we have 19 members at this current moment so really we have too many staff but I know I can trust every member. For instance myself and my Brother are the Admins two of my best friends at school are Global Moderators and a guy who has been a trustworthy and brilliant moderator is the moderator.
Then on my solo forum about sports I've learnt to firstly keep it small as there is only 8 boards on my solo one and to also cater for the size of the forum. For example 1 staff member for every 15 members. I hope my experiences have helped everyone.

[Gamoc]

The 1 staff member for every 15 members might be better off put to like...25 or something. That is still quite a bit of staff members for one forum. It's not a terrible or even bad philosophy, but it doesn't mean that it can't be a little bit more...stretching. It may be good for the first 15 or 30 members, but I would definitely start stretching it after that because your amount of active members is usually very different from your amount of members.

[Takayama]

Conquering Wolf has got it all down pat. I think people you have staffed on your forum, should be people you can trust. You only want people controlling things and making decisions that you would make yourself. Trust is a big deal for me.

[zai]

How should I staff my forum?
Carefully!

Staffing a board is where things can go very wrong, very fast. In general, I think staff should be taken from people who join the forum and contribute reliably, but don't ask for staff powers.

Another really tricky thing about staff is when you involve real-world friends. Sure your buddy is awesome, but their relationship to you shouldn't put them first in line for a co-admin position. If you must appoint your friends as staff, make sure they have spotless credentials, because you will be accused of favoritism.

When looking for staff, I also try to find people who cover my weaknesses. For example, I have a hard time laying down the rules for people; I'm a bit of a pushover. So I look for members who would make good staff and are able to tell it like it is. Perhaps if you are an admin with a temper, you should pick some calmer members to be staff.

Lastly, make sure being a staff member means something. If you gives powers to someone and then they start abusing/not using them, do not think you can't take away their privileges. The last thing any forum needs is a rouge co-admin with power and a vendetta.

[:~:Sarapha:~:]

I only have three other staff members, and they are assigned to a specific area of my site each. These people were members of my site since the day I opened it to the public, and have worked as hard as I have to make it strive. So I just asked them one day, "do you want to be a moderator?" End of story. No other people have any kind of powers at all.

I once made the mistake of having a "greeter mod", whose only job was to greet to new members and direct them around the site, and stay open for questioning and whatnot. She ended up using that to advertize her site. When I banned her, I took over her account and read through her outbox, and sure enough, there were messages to every new member since she joined the site. All of them advertizing, and all of them claiming different things, like how my site sucked, how I was an over-controlling admin, and things like that.

Since then, no one else, other than my staff, has gotten any form of admin abilities.

Jul 8, 2008 9:41:49 GMT -8 Avewolf of the Avaliks said:

On my message board at , I appoint my most trusted people the staff position, because if I didn't trust them then I probably wouldn't, basically I'm letting my members be staff members if I feel they should be, I am very strict about it, but I'm strict in a nice way.

If that's not a rule breaker, I don't know what is, Mr. Advertiser!

[finalfanaticreborn]

I only give positions to those I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY KNOW will not abuse the power.

[blain]

I agree, I am too much of a softy, so I must learn not to give powers away.