How to find Staff

[Nixeon]

I just wanted to ask some other people and other admins how they find and keep staff members, we've burnt through quite a lot recently and i know school is a busy thing and life happens but i wanted to know if anyone else has staff like a pokemon rp (aka you have to post fairly often), how do you manage staff as we need to get/find/keep some more and want some tips!

[Beckea]

I don't have staff -- the only one is myself.

It all depends on the size of your forum and if you want help.

A small group should not have a whole lot of staff -- a bigger group maybe a bit more.

I know some small groups that may have the owner, and admin (global moderator) and a moderator for certain forums.

In my case, it is only me.

Larger forums may have more -- I think the average for what I see is around 4-6 staff - the larger you may have more. But I am on a forum that has 100 members (active forum) and they have about 6. Another group may have the same amount of members but less staff. It is really open to what you want and who would be willing to help you.

But would like to remind you - you should get to know the potential staff first before you hand them over the staff keys. Moderators not so much but still you need to trust those that you are giving the Global Mod/Mod keys to but also what you give them access to.

Also not everyone will want to or willing to help. So asking you may find that many times people just want to come and chat and that should be okay. If people ask to help you with a forum board or whatever then I say go for it.

If your forum is still pretty new I would say just enjoy it at this time and maybe later as you go along getting to know your members you may find a person you connect well with might just be the perfect helper for you.

I hope this helps -- 

[Nixeon]

It does a little, my thing is we have about 3 levels of mods going from mods to admin and then a middle sort of "busy person" in the middle so people dont get super power once they mod up to the first level but you raise a very good point there.

The thing is for every about 5 members, for pokemon, we ideally need 1 mod which means we need mods quite often and to be around a lot, thats just how the game works, and i wondered how people find, gain and keep mods in that sense. Our site is almost 11 years old, though has now had a few versions, so im wondering whats changed in the last 3 years

[Beckea]

Probably more like people's interest in forums changes and or sometimes life happens.

[Kami]

Nothing has really changed in the last  15 years with how to find staff except people growing up.

Interests can change, sure, though personally I've been a pokemon fan for 20 years + a community manager for 15 years.

But with that 20 years of fandom that means I'm well into my 30s now with a full job and a commute and adult responsibilities, so my free time is limited. Beyond my own projects, I wouldn't be able to fully commit to a game -- much less modding one -- that is time intensive.

On the flip side, however, this means you'll wind up getting more mod applications from people with less experience modding, who probably have more free time but may overbudget how much free time they do have.

All of these conditions are likely to contribute to high mod turnover. Perhaps the question isn't more mods, but rather how can you update your system to be less time intensive for your mods and your players? If you're struggling with high turnover rate, perhaps "that's just how the game works" needs to be re-examined.

[Nixeon]

That is a good point, we have changed how we use and run mods now compared to how it was when the site first opened (like 2011 for real) so thats a good point but we also do ask people to work a certain way and i wonder if the fact RL can throw up issues which last over 6 months for real adults V kids and their exams for a month or 2 is more of a thing to take in to account now.

I shall think on that and work on it, maybe ask some of the newbies with no work before to give it a hand and see if a little teaching and such makes them as good as some of those who been doing it years but got their own issues flagging up here and there

[Kami]

Yeah I closed down a 15 year old site last April, and imo one of our downfalls was not switching our format sooner -- we managed to shift and get a few more years out of it but we might be still going if we shifted sooner.

I agree that it might be worth tapping into your less experienced user base. Maybe one or two to try, and see how it goes from there. Spring break is coming up for the youngins, so that may also boost some folks' availability too.

[Joshua Farrell]

I have been administrating a webmaster and promotional forum for the past 6 years, and what I have learned, is that there are some people that shy away from wanting to help moderate, but when they end up agreeing to help out, they tend to be better at asking for help in making good decisions as moderators.

Not sure how moderating Role Playing Forums work out staff wise, as most of the forums I have seen, tend to be the easier, less technical forums that don't need dedicated time to read things through.

[ZandraJoi]

How is this working out for you Nixeon ?

[Nixeon]

I swing between having enough staff and having not enough quite often, people take on the roll thinking its easy and simple but when told we do expect a minimum level of activity, they over load themself with too many jobs and begin to drown and....yea

This happens again and again because we ask for help, people offer help, they take on too much, burn out even though we tell them not to and try to keep them from it and then they step down, so we ask again and it begins to loop around and again.

I wouldnt trust my RL freinds on my site, they dont keep active really and 1 post every fortnight isnt enough if you are staff and i know its just down to them not understanding the system.

[ZandraJoi]

Do you have it down what is expected BEFORE they sign up? & maybe what is expected, take a poll on what people are willing to do & how often. Then break it down that way. I never been in role playing games so I'm not sure what all it would entail being staff. Maybe break it down for us here; we'd get a better feel of how to help.

[Nixeon]

The jobs are broken down in to what job we ask people to do before they apply, so people can just do the little coding chores or they can do the posting jobs or they can pick from a list basically. I think people forget that posting, posting for your characters and little bits can begin to add up.

It boils down to

NPC posting

NPC pokemon posts

Advertising

Coding jobs


Posts are expected 1 in 3, that means at least 1 post in every 3 days and adverts are about the same rate but 10 in 3. coding jobs are just as and when they come up, things like reseting side bars or generating items or eggs or such, all small jobs but all together, they stack right up and the issue becomes the mods all mod for everyone else, and the longer term ones of us go without our own mod threads due to not having new/other mods to do ours for us

[ZandraJoi]

Why not have more mods, less jobs & advertise that to avoid burnout? Is there any jobs that can be downsized or even widen the time frame i.e. instead of 1 post every 3 days, 1 in a week?

[Nixeon]

Well its an option, but then you have every single member on site having to wait for a post a week and if they dont have other active people posting....thats one RP post...a week...

Which sucks

[Kami]

Jul 12, 2020 2:49:09 GMT -8 Nixeon said:

Well its an option, but then you have every single member on site having to wait for a post a week and if they dont have other active people posting....thats one RP post...a week...

Which sucks

So with more information about your mod requirements, I am just gonna say your expectations & the way you're running your game are probably unrealistic for the size of your community and it's current activity levels.

You ask the mods to do a lot and you're experiencing a high rate of mod turnover — at this point it's time to re-evaluate the entire process, rather than where to find people to continue on. You're putting the strain of keeping the game going solely on your mods' shoulders, rather than splitting the balance between your members and your staff. Quite simply put, your problem isn't dedication; it's burnout, and not because people take on "too much" but because you have a system that allows for it.

My recommendation would be to:

1. discuss internally amongst your core staff (admins, any global mods) about what the team has observed is the biggest stumbling block for mods in terms of their tasks. If you have some mods that do the above tasks, speak with them separately about the challenges they face around their responsibilities, like time spent online vs. off, how they felt about the role when joining versus now, where they feel the process isn't great, etc.

2. once you identify the problem areas—and be REALLY honest with yourselves about it, don't fall into the "well I like it, so it's fine" trap!—approach your members with a frank admission of the problem [this is the problem. we are exploring solutions] and ask for their opinion on what potential alternatives they might enjoy.

3. after enough people have replied (depending on forum size i'd say 25-50% of users) reconvene with your team and see which of the ideas are most appealing to you that balance the needs you have as game runners versus the wants and needs the players have.

4. trial run the new system in a specific section of the RP and ask for volunteers from the community and a couple of your current mods. Get feedback, refine, etc. If not great, and feedback is "back to the drawing board" do so! You should have several suggestions from both groups at this point.

Unfortunately beyond step 4 is nebulous. You may have to iterate repeatedly to try and find what works best for your community, and you may need to keep adjusting as you grow and as your audience shifts. I will have to say, even for a pokemon site (I love pokemon. I've played every game since blue/red came out in the states in '98) I would really hate to be a mod on your team from your description and I have an entire teenage person's worth of experience running a game.