[Lord-Adriel]

One of the most prominent issues pertaining to a forum is its staff. For simplicity, this article has been divided into sections; each section as a new article.

2. Choosing Staff

The standards used to determine members of both core (Administrators and Global Moderators) and satellite (Forum Moderators and Elite Members) staff positions are often convoluted and subjective. This is to be expected, but is not an excuse for making unsupportable decisions.

Choosing initial staff is easy because there is no pressure to do so. A founder new to the forum scene can’t delegate initial staff because he or she doesn’t know anyone. However, if there are members a founder knows well, decisions have to be made. The key quality of initial staff has to be loyalty. In the early stages of forum life, dedicated members often put forth effort with very little in return. Only loyal members will continue to help a founder when no one seems to be joining. Talent should be factored into the decision, but as there is little to nothing in the form of managerial matters, staff members need not be extremely forum-savvy.

The first group to which a founder should consider adding members is the Elite Member group, which is intrinsically linked with contests and performance. Contests often boost activity, especially if they are general. Starting your forum off with an easy contest that rewards its winner with Elite membership will encourage hesitant visitors to join. Apart from contests, Elite membership can be used as a way of rewarding someone who has been putting forth extra effort. Elite membership is, at its core, a way for members to feel that their work is being acknowledged. Therefore, this position is also useful when a good, non-staff member begins to decline in activity. There is no requirement for any sort of standard system for choosing Elite members.

Forum Moderators are the next rung on the staff ladder. This position is reserved for the best, most active members in a particular category or forum. It allows the chosen members to have power over the actions in the designated area. Through their title, Forum Moderators are also granted authority over their domains. The founder entrusts rule enforcement and activity generation to the Forum Moderators, allowing him or herself extra energy to focus on the state of the forum as a whole. This position is long-lasting, although replacing Forum Moderators is less drastic an action than changing core staff. As a last note, Forum Moderators are not vital to a forum as the other groups are.

To choose Forum Moderators, the most important factor is skill level. Since they are delegated to simply one forum or category, it can be expected of them to constantly be the best. The next most important factor is how the member is perceived by the rest of the forum. If he or she cannot garner respect or co-operation, then he or she is not the best choice, regardless of his or her skill. Activity level is tertiary because once a member is awarded this position, he or she will likely pick up in posting rate if he or she is slightly inactive. A member usually has to be active to maintain the claim that he or she is the best. The least important factor in this decision is how the member relates to other staff. As Forum Moderators are the lowest level of staff with duties, there is less of a chance that they will disregard rank when they are being criticized or making criticisms.

The next level is the first that concerns core staff; Global Moderators. Global Moderators can also be called Junior Administrators, as they share the same duties but less of the responsibility. Global Moderators are important to have because while a forum has to have influential members with outstanding performance forum-wide, it cannot have every such member at the highest staff position. If all Global Moderators became Administrators, the forum would split apart as gradually, different groups of Administrators come to believe that they are the very best of the forum. Global Moderators are a compromise between Forum Moderators and Administrators. While they have power, they are not at the very top of staff. This keeps them from usurping the forum. Global Moderators are well-respected, usually working their way up the ladder as they become as skilled in all forums as they originally were in just one forum. Oftentimes, this usergroup has more to do with public relations than the administrators themselves.

There are two ways to choose Global Moderators. The first, chronologically, is a direct promotion from membership to Global Moderatorship. The primary consideration in this case should be inter-staff relationships. Since the forum is still new enough for a member to be able to receive this direct promotion, the relationships between staff are still fragile and subject to change. To keep staff unified, any member considered for a direct promotion absolutely cannot adversely affect any inter-staff relationships. The next most important factor is member relation. A Global Moderator must be able to positively interact with all members. This is even more critical in the case of a direct promotion as the members need to feel that the decision was fair. This choice for them becomes much easier if they, too, find the promoted member to be qualified. The third qualification is skill. A Global Moderator needs dedication more than skill, as Forum Moderators can cover their own territory well enough. The duty of a Global Moderator is not so much to ensure the functionality of the individual forums as it is to ensure the functionality of the forums as a whole. Finally, the last most important factor is activity. If a member is honored with such a massive promotion, he or she will become more active as their way of trying to live up to their position. Activity before the promotion is of little difference, seeing as how a new moderator needs to have been active to be noticed in the first place.

The second way for a member to attain this status is to be promoted from a different position. Since Elite Members are simply honored members, the only difference in method of promotion comes from being promoted from the Forum Moderator usergroup. Assuming the member is a Forum Moderator in good standing, the priorities are rearranged. The first priority is skill, as a Global Moderator needs to be skilled over the entire forum; else there is no reason for the promotion. The second priority is staff relation. While a Forum Moderator stands little chance against an Administrator in a major argument, a Global Moderator has the potential to overtake popular opinion as he or she experiences every major event in the forum. As unity is always vital to the success of a staff, a founder needs to be sure that a prospective promotion will not go to the member’s head. The third priority is reputation. While the membership must have approved of the moderator for him or her to have kept his or her position, the membership must now like the moderator even more. Otherwise, the founder may get angry questions as to why a certain moderator was promoted, as opposed to a different moderator that the membership prefers. This, however, is not normally a major issue as long as the moderator is liked by everyone. The least important factor is activity. As mentioned above, a Forum Moderator is expected to be extremely active in one area. To be promoted, all that is required is that energy be spread across the entire forum. The promotion is enough of a change of pace to instigate this change.

The last group is the Administratorship. Administrators are heads of the board, with the founder being the head Administrator. It is their responsibility to make changes to the forum, to evaluate the state of the board as a whole, and to delegate jobs to subordinate staff. Administratorship is the most highly respected position and the position most intimate with the board itself. When something goes wrong, it is the responsibility of the Administrators to both take accountability for the problem and fix it as quickly as possible. Administrators are the most mature members of the forum although they might not show their maturity in their posting style.

Administrators should never be instated from any other usergroup than Global Moderator. This is because if a member is not known to be able to handle the responsibility of Global Moderatorship, he or she should not be entrusted with the pressure and responsibility of Administratorship. While this position may be met with resistance, know that any member truly dedicated to the forum will be willing to wait until he or she has gained the confidence of the founder to be promoted. The four attributes used to describe conditions above no longer apply. There are only two conditions that need to be evaluated. The first is the ability to handle pressure. Administrators should expect to be constantly under fire for their decisions. A prospective Administrator needs to be prepared for this. The second condition is loyalty. Administrators are expected to stay with their forums despite any hardships for as long as the forum founder deems the board to be salvageable, perhaps even after that period of time. While a founder can simply promote other staff members to replace the administration, it is far better to be able to depend on his or her fellow Administrators.

The next topic, logically, is knowing when to drop staff members. The decision is equally as difficult as the decision to choose staff, due to the consequences that can result. Ideally, however, by using the guidelines above, the staff members chosen by the founder will not need to be dropped.

--Copyright Lord-Adriel, 2005. Not to be copied or used without the express permission of the writer.

[+ Ryan]

Excellent. Only thing is.. G Mods don't share the same exact duties as Admins, as the Admins access their master CP.