Guide on your Forums' Staff Team [MUST READ IF YOU OWN FORUMS]

[Tate]

The Ultimate guide for your forums' Staff Team

1. Does my forum need moderators?

TaIf your forums aren't really doing well, and you want to get at least a little bit of activity by adding moderators to the forum, who will hopefully invite friends, you're adding moderators for the wrong purpose. Moderators shouldn't be used as a method of getting activity. In fact, your moderators shouldn't post too much. Good moderators do more work than they post.
TaIf your forums aren't very active, as an administrator, you probably read just about every post. If you're reading every post, and reading all of your reports, then you can pretty easily keep the forums clean. If you average 5 threads a day, 40 posts a day, you don't need moderators. If you average 20+ threads a day, and 200+ posts a day, you need moderators. Only when you're unable to read each and every post on your forums, should you put your trust in moderators.

2. Super Moderators / Staff vs. Section Moderators

TaThis is pretty much opinion. A Super Moderator / Staff on HackForums has a light green name. They don't moderate any specific section, they handle banning members, and handle any reports. Section Mods, on the other hand, are specifically assigned to 1 or more sections and they only have power over that section. I'll tell you which kind of moderator you need.

Super Moderators / Staff:

• Generally browse the entire forum, and read it just like a regular member. They normally get sidetracked and get engrossed in an interesting thread.
  
• Aren't experts in what they moderate. They have no absolute knowledge about the post they're acting on a report on, except the general rules.
  
• Can ban people, and normally get a little bit power hungry. (That's not always the case.)
  

Section Moderators:

• Have a smaller amount of forums to moderate, so they're normally more efficient.
  
• Know the rules / standards for their specific section better than a Super Mod.
  
• Don't really get argumentative or cocky, since they can't ban.
  

Obviously it's necessary to have people who can ban, and read reports, but you definitely need to keep the amount of actual Staff to a low amount.

Here's the best ratio of Staff to Mods you should have:
1 Staff Member for every 10 Section Mods

Like I said, Section Moderators are MUCH more efficient at keeping your boards clean. Personally I disagree with the way Omni keeps his staff, I believe he should have more section mods, but that's not what this thread is about, and currently his staff are doing fine.

3. Managing Staff.

Never fuss at your staff. Staff are your most loyal members, and you want them to stay. Remember they're volunteers.

If a staff does something wrong, just try to talk it out with them. If they're banning people for things that aren't against the rules, unban the people and apologize to them accordingly, and go through the rules with that staff members.

If a staff member is purposefully starting arguments, or abusing powers, a demotion is the only solution.

4. Promoting Members to Staff / Moderator.

It's best to find people who AREN'T active members on your forums for staff / moderation team. Find your good friends or people you trust to become moderators / staff.

Make sure your staff / moderators have good grammar, good quality posting, and altogether are quick witted.

If your offsite staff / moderation team is good on all of that, then you're good to go.

That's all I really have to share about your forums staff team, right now. If you want me to do more guides on properly running forums, post and tell me

[Eve]

Good food for thought, although I disagree with your point on promoting friends only. An active, contributing member can sometimes prove to be as loyal a staff member as trustworthy friends.

[Brandon]

I really agree with your first part, Tate. A lot of new webmasters will have like 5 moderators for no reason, hehe.

Also, yes It's good to remember they are volunteers, however you can't be too leanient. I think that a bad moderator can really ruin morale on your forum sometimes. If they're just stuck up jerks then it can be a really big issue for a lot of people and they'll get angry and want to fight back. It's a sticky situation sometimes defusing a moderator vs. member issue..sometimes you just can't work it out when they're always causing trouble.

I have to agree with Eve as well. If someone is a knowledgeable, useful person contributing frequently and they would do well as a moderator, then so be it. Having a friend as your staff member can be conflicting because as I mentioned above, if they are causing issues it can really deteriorate your friendship with them. Hell, they might even be mad at you for a while if you have to demote them or such....Although, if you are friends with them then you should know if they'd be mature enough to moderate.

Good overall guide though, I really thing that new forum owners need to read this and believe in it.

[phire nuk3r]

I agree with Eve.
I think friends should stay friends, and should not really influence whether they are Staff or not.
A users ability to manage a particular section, or ability to run the forum should be the only thing you base Staff promotions on IMO.

[Navineous]

I have to agree with both eve and phire of their opinions.

[TallGeek]

On my website we have two admins and one mod. That's all we need.

[Peter L]

This is how you SHOULDN'T choose staff members:
http://www.supportforums.net/showthread.php?tid=7075

When I open a forum I usually run it by myself until around 500 members.

As for sectional moderators, I've never had to use those. I think it is silly, especially for a small forum. I don't follow any guidelines...just when a new global moderator is needed you select one. Unless you're a huge forum would you need sectional moderators. SF isn't even big enough to need them imo.

[Tate]

This is how you SHOULDN'T choose staff members:
http://www.supportforums.net/showthread.php?tid=7075

When I open a forum I usually run it by myself until around 500 members.

As for sectional moderators, I've never had to use those. I think it is silly, especially for a small forum. I don't follow any guidelines...just when a new global moderator is needed you select one. Unless you're a huge forum would you need sectional moderators. SF isn't even big enough to need them imo.

I think hiring a friend is fine, as long as they're a good mature friend, not just a guy you like to troll with.

Other than that, I agree with you. My website has around 9k members and 10k posts, and we only have one moderator.

[Time]

Yea i 100% agree with this threads and that section mods are important too

[Techno]

I like this tutorial, although when choosing staff I usually get comfortable with them get to know the members a bit more. I always make sure they are in different timezone's as it helps members when I am not online.