Choosing Staff For Your ProBoard

[bandperson]

When and if I get people to join my board I'll probably just have my moderators and such be responsible sounding!

[Karen]

On my site, I am the Admin with a Staff of seven for over 4300 members. I am the only Administrator capable of handling the headers/footers. So far, I haven't needed another Administrator. If I were to ask one of my Staff to be an Administrator, it would be my decision alone. Someone I trusted, had shown they were level-headed, dedicated to the site and had been a member of Staff for quite some time.

Three of these staff members were already on Staff before I took over the site. The other four were chosen by myself and the rest of Staff. On our Staff discussion board, members are suggested/nominated for Staff and then the entire staff gives reasons why they think these particular members should be staff, and what areas/boards need help that we think these members would be able to handle. We haven't tried the application process. I don't think that's a good way to choose Staff.

Most all of the current staff started out as a moderator for one of the boards, with limited powers and then moved up as needed. It gives us a chance to see what kind of job they can do.

The ultimate decision is mine whether or not to invite a member to be Staff, but I almost always go with a majority rules approach.

We pick Staff members based on their skills, friendliness, creativity, helpfulness around the boards, how active they have been, and longevity, as a whole. We look at ALL of these things, not just one. I think you really have to know the member and their capabilities before asking them to be Staff, and there also has to be a need.

[chrisnelson]

I chose mine based on their personalities and their enthusiasm for the sites content, while at the same time being able to deal with the members of the forum and still be able to make non-biased decisions.

[Kirsty geek]

Well at the moment, I have two admins and an moderater. I chose the Mod because she is really enthusiastic about the plot and what it is based on and i chose the Admin for basicly the same reason but she talks more than my Mod so she will be more friendly with the new and old members.

In my opinion that's what make a good site been able to ask for things and not worried if they are going to make fun of you because you don't know what to do.

[Shentino]

Jul 19, 2006 15:45:28 GMT -8 cooooolkid said:

yes i heard of some places that the admin spams and saz if u join i will make u in the staff i got one from a member on a friends site..and the funny thing waz he did not have a fourm.but stupid staff means stupid site thats all i got to say.

Inappropriately worded as it may have been...I basically agree with this.

Your staff very much speak on your behalf, because they report to you and thus serve as your arms, eyes, and ears.

It's one of those "vicarious responsibility" things where you're on the hook for anything your servants do.

All the more reason to be careful when you select staff.

Personally, I would evaluate potential staff on two fronts:

1. Trustworthiness

If you can't trust someone, they shouldn't be working for you. Either they will be quite deserved of your mistrust, in which case you have good reason not to hand them powertools that can easily be used as weapons, or you won't have peace of mind enough to let them do their jobs, in which case you'll likely be so busy micromanaging the board that all the staffer has left to do is twiddle his thumbs and look pretty.

Case 1 can get your board ruined, and case 2 is all prestige and no power. Neither of which is good for a board

2. Competence.

No matter how good a staffer WANTS to be, loyalty isn't the only issue.

It's like driving a car. There's a million ways it can go wrong if you screw it up. You might accidentally ban the wrong person (happened once as an admin, regretted it instantly), misread the intent of a suspected offender, or otherwise figuratively "push the wrong button and blow up the world".

A good staffer knows what to do and how to do it, or at least can easily be taught.

I believe a good way to "prove" a staffer's competence is to give them a battery of cases to "handle" and see if they are indeed up to your standards of perfection.

That's about all I have to say in general.

Cases for specific boards will differ on the details.

[anime1993]

If I may add something else to this. I would suggest when choosing a staff to check some of his/her threads and how well they interact with other members. Try a discussion with your other staffs before changing the persons rank. This is a way where you can get a better understanding from their points of view.

The worst thing a person can do is chose a random person from the forum because they are looking for a new staff. The powers which you will give to that person can work to your advantage and disadvantage. So if you chose a random staff which shouldn't be done, then make sure to limit their powers. See how they peform on their duties or given assignments.

This is just some tips from me Jack.

[Remarque]

I almost never appoint staff unless I've been able to interact with them for a long time beforehand. This way I can usually tell if they're going to be good, responsible staff members.

In the rare occasions that I do appoint staff before I know what they're like, I've always wanted an application form for them. They do what they do until I think they deserve a better position, and then I offer them that position.

...As a general rule I never appoint someone as a co-admin, except for in one occasion where I had known the co-admin for months, and whatever.

[wolfpup22]

I usually make my buddies from other sites staff members. If i have to choose a new staff member than he/she has to meet some requirements. These requirements are, must be active, must be friendly, must follow all the rules. Those are my requirements but i dont usually need to make new staff members.

[Yoon]

When choosing candidates as staff members, I usually select members that exhibit the following qualities:

- Contribution: Contributed to the forum discussions over time.
- Trust: Interacted with over a long period of time and respected by most people on the forums.
- Responsibility: Able to set standards and act accordingly when enforcing the forum rules and is able to check on the forums regularly.
- Competent: Able to identify and act in situations that require their attention, such as board rule violations, flame wars, improper posts, etc.

Once I identify qualifying candidates, I briefly interview with them and see if they are interested in becoming a fellow staff member.

[lalaleah]

all staff has a say in appointing future staff

[Gem]

I see who has a vested interest in the site. If they offer to do advertising or go above expectations I consider them. I also make sure that the people have staffing experience or work well with people, or both. I am appointing a member for staff because they offered to do advertising and they were the only one to.

[Rozic Dixon]

I would probably Chose the members that I trust.I could make a reward for this.And teach them how to administrate the forum.

[ichabod20]

Hi,

On our forum there is currently an issue with our admin. She was gone for awhile and when she returned to find that other people had stepped up and nobody really "listened" to what she had to say, she found it necessary to use her powers and just overthrow our group decisions. A lot of us want to quit. Is there anyway to overthrow an admin? lol. Sounds weird, I know...but yeah. I just need help, it's horrible. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Levi H.]

I look into how active they are, friendly and helpful. If I get good or bad feedback etc. It all depends on what the person has to give to the forum and if it could help or not.

[Sirie]

On our forum if one of the admins finds somebody that they think is a good candidate for a staff position. Then they will mention them in the next admin meeting, and the admins will then invite the chosen person to the next meeting and each admin may interview that person. If a majority of the admins likes the person then we will start him/her as a mod-in-training, under the admin that found them, Until the admins fell comfortable enough to make the person a full fledged mod. And every position up from that is a promotion and most be earned.

~Josh~