Choosing Staff For Your ProBoard

[HoudiniDerek]

snakeair said:

philip1992 said:

Dont make anyone staff. I learnt the hard way.

I wouldn't recommend not making other members staff, you as the main admin can not mod the whole forum 24 hours a day. Pay attention on your forum to your members. If you see 1 member that is always active, or always helping people out on your forum day in and day out, think about making that member a staff member. You could make that member a moderator and give very little powers to start out with. Like only give power to lock, sticky, move...etc.

Once that member after awhile proves to be a good mod, increase powers a little. If you can not trust your staff members to run the forum the way you want to, besides following the proboards TOS then don't make em a staff member. No one can run a forum by themselves. In time your forum will get more members and get more active. There is no way you can run forum by yourselff unless you are superman.

It's a risk you are taking by making someone a staff member, but it's always good to have some help for when you not online or gone for a few day's. Don't think all your members will be good and follow all your rules everyday.

I concur that it is best to have some staff...even if it is just a minimal amount of power or temporary power if you know you will be gone.

On the flip side, I know the schedules of most of my members, so I probably could run the thing by myself. I am on here MOST of the day.

[ungoliant]

in my opinion its best to have one staff member with limited powers for each board. for instance on mine I didnt give them the power to delete threads, in case somebody turns evil then they gotta delete every post one by one which takes forever, and by that time will be reported. besides, just be VERY cautious who you pick to be staff, and with the powers you grant them.

_{ps: sometimes you can make em happy with just a couple of more stars and some minimal power like locking polls and threads..}

[kelendria]

I choose staff who have been on my forum for a long time, I watch how they interact, how they deal with situations & different members.
It's easy in the beginning or when you run out of active staff to just advertise for anybody, but promising things to get them as staff can be tricky & doesn't always turn out for the best.
You should also give them as much power as you feel comfortable with them having.

[quickbow]

Hey, just look at how good PB support is run. There are what, 3 admins, 5 Gmods, and 6 mods for thousands of active members? If they can run this forum so well, then we shouldn't need so many admins, you know?

[Beatle Aimee]

Several things

1. If they stay out of trouble and come to the forum at least once or twice a week, I'll ask them if they wanna be staff

2. A staff power I made up is "Supervisor", meaning they lock, sticky, and move threads. I don';t have any supervisors right now but i have a global supervisor. (which means she has powers to do those three things on all the boards. also she manages skins too. im not good with not bright skins0

[myke]

beatleaimee said:

Several things

1. If they stay out of trouble and come to the forum at least once or twice a week, I'll ask them if they wanna be staff

There should be more to choosing staff then just that. Staff should not be added unless it is needed. Handing out staff positions as rewards is never a good idea. Too many cooks in the kitchen is never a good thing.

[Beatle Aimee]

I mean if I need a staff, and if they prove to be a good member.....usually after 100 or something posts. Not as rewards. Wow I'm confusing myself. #hihi# (I hope i posted enough. )


Edit: Ahhhh!!! I need to remember not to usew my custom smileys!!

[racinfan88]

Heres I pick staff for my forums. I have them sign up for two of my boards as a mod not a global mod or admin. I see how they run it and over a period of time if they do a good job then become a global mod and so on...I dont give away staff positions for free because my site wasnt free. Money wise yes but no time wise. I put 50 plus hours working on my site and I am not going to make some crazy fool an admin or global mod. I just take it one step at a time. Anyway, I say take your time when you choose staff for your forum!

RF88

[mort666]

i personnaly give positions to people i know
i always make sure they have a experiance and that i know them from other places and that i enjoy their company...

[progers]

I generally look for individuals with experience in the certain topics that I have at my forum and ask them if they would like to be a mod of that certain section. That way, it gives that section an experienced person of that topic someone who can contribute to that board and/or answer questions that come up on that particular subject.

I have quite a few staff members but, they are all on limited powers with me having ultimate control.

I have also found that giving certain members mod status that frequent the site on a regular basis, keeps them coming back and posting more. It can be good for business if you work it right.

Giving someone mod status gives them a sense of purpose at the site. It makes them appreciate the site more and they are more likly to bring friends to the site because of it. Once again, good for business.

Now, if they go for a month or so and not show up or post, they have their mod status revoked.



I have:

2 admin (me and my wife) now I have a second account with full power incase something happens to mine, being the owner.

4 ProStaff (glob mod) that have limited powers over the entire site

4 mods - that have limited powers to certain boards.


I have one person that I know personally that has the power to delete posts and/or threads. Everyone else basically has the power to "move" unwanted threads to a "recycle bin" that is in a hidden catagory until I can review it.


I got burnt by a mod that had power to delete threads. He got mad and deleted everything, including his account afterwards. Not a good thing to have happen. CYA!

[rivenriver]

I came up with the concept of my board with two friends, so although I technically own the board (because I use the admin account) we decided we should be equal in power. But that works well, because we own the site and are best friends - we don't want to ruin it or our friendship. One of the people we made it with got exams and etc, and was pretty inactive an not doing much, so we gave her limited powers - Art Department, because she is into the whole graphic design thing. She can do skins, avatars, headers and footers, and stuff like that. But me and my other friend have control over the actual content of the board. It works pretty well.

At the moment we are not big enough to need any extra staff members, but when (if!) we do get to the point where the two admins can't read everything that's posted, I reckon I'd make Moderaters, with the title but very few powers, and limited to one or two boards. Maybe just modify or something, so they can remove vulgarity, and access to a hidden moderater board, where they can tell the admin if they've found anything innapropriate. Then the admin can take a look. The word Moderater puts those people above the regular member level, so they'd be listened to, and it makes the people feel important, so they'd want to help out.

To appoint them, I'd probably put up a general announcement, who wants to, but put an age and or post count requirment on it. Then the admin would consult, the applicants would tell us why we should pick them, and then we'd pick someone.

Unfortunatly, this is all just hypothetical for me!

[afjtk]

I only have staff members as people i know so i am quite sure i won't have any problems. Although in the past i have had a rouge admin account created by someone. I would suggest that you only appount people you know personaly to be staff or if you have to appount a person you don't know personally as a member of staff give them a small amount of power first and slowly increase it until you reach the setings you want they to use. but this can be slow and annoying.

[charleegm89]

i dn't have any staff members at the moment but i know if i want any i'll only be making people i know mods, better safe than sorry ;D

[$hØ©Këyë]

The rules say, Charleegm89, that you posts must be more than 4 sentences.


Anyway, I choose staff if they are admins of forums and I know them. My brother, aquabot and Papalia are staff, because they are admins of forums and I know them quite well. Aquabot is a global moderator and Papalia is a administator. I only make other members who I know staff members if more members join since forums should have more members than staff. But I never accept any stranger a staff member! ;D

That's all for me for choosing staff for a proboard

[whitewulfm]

well I employed a global moderator from the one user that contributed the most to my forum between posting and advertising my forum. She will probably be the only one global i will have. the rest would be mod's. I view it as a pyramid effect. I am the admin then 1 to 2 global and then grow from there.. but at this point i only need one person so thats what i have. I also trust her enough to do what she does on a normal basis. I do most of the work on the forum as it stands now. If there are any changes that might be made I post it in the boardroom and we discuss the options or i let her know whats going on. Its alot like a family or team...