[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.

1. Initial Staff

Initial staff members may or may not be necessary depending on how quickly a creator wants his or her forum to expand. Regardless, it is always a bad idea to have too many members on staff before your board becomes active.

The only two groups of staff that should define any members at the outset are the Administrator and Global Moderator groups. These two groups are referred to as the 'core staff', as both groups have control over the entire forum and should be held to a much higher standard than the rest of the membership of the forum.

The two available options for a forum wishing to grow rapidly are to either instate Administrators and Global Moderators immediately or wait until the forum reaches a plateau in growth before creating any staff. This is because, while the forum is growing, creating core staff will simply cause the rest of the membership to complain about their lack of position, usually with good reason. If a founder knows that someone is a good member, that member needs to be pre-registered as core staff. Otherwise, when that member joins and is immediately placed as core staff, no one but the founder will see the move as fair or logical. While the forum is growing, it's difficult for any member to distinguish themselves to the entire membership. By waiting until growth slows down, a founder gives his or her members a chance to prove their value to the rest of the community.

Having core staff at the beginning is useful as it distributes responsibility to others who are willing to help. This will allow work to be done more efficiently. However, keep in mind that, by allowing others to have power over the creation of the forum, the original vision may be subject to change. This can be beneficial, as ‘two heads are better than one’, but a founder with a solid image of exactly what he or she wants should consider taking the extra time and effort to do it all him or herself. This also avoids inter-staff dispute, which reflects poorly upon the forum, especially in the early stages.

There should be no Forum Moderators or Elite Members at the very beginning of a forum's life. These positions, referred to as satellite staff positions, are usually reserved for members who prove themselves exceptional in only one area. Surprisingly, Forum Moderators and Elite Members who have not proved themselves pose more of a threat to forum unity than unqualified core staff. As the satellite positions are lower-scale than core staff, members have an easier time justifying themselves as deserving of those positions. Therefore, while a claim for Administratorship may be easily refuted, a founder may find him or herself hard-pressed in validating reasons for not promoting a complaining member to a satellite position.

While satellite staff should not exist at the outset, Forum Moderators and Elite Members can be added at an earlier time than core staff. In the time it takes a member to become established forum-wide, another member may have focused his or her attention in one area and drawn attention to him or herself. With solid evidence, an exceptional member may be promoted to a satellite staff position within a week of joining.

Forum Moderators are useful because they alleviate roughly twice the pressure in one area that a Global Moderator relieves in that same area. This is because a Forum Moderator specializes in one particular area, while a Global Moderator must spread his or her energies across the whole forum, while at the same time a Global Moderator has more energy to spend. It is ideal to have one Forum Moderator per area in the beginning in an attempt to keep staff size relatively small. Eventually, a forum should expand to two Forum Moderators per area. Any more than two and the team might gain the notion that they are self-sufficient. A founder will then have problems keeping the team complacent.

Elite Members are useful because they provide a realistic goal for members to aspire to. Elite membership can be used as a reward for good activity or a prize in a competition. However, this position should also be the most temporary. Since Elite members have no actual job, they can easily become complacent and stop performing to the standard they were at when they received their positions.

Once a founder decides who will be on his or her initial staff, the next step is obviously to open the forum and start advertising. During that time, these guidelines should still be referred to. This means that satellite positions should be filled first. After that, core positions can be added. However, regardless of the time or activity, a founder should always be cautious and patient when choosing who will be on his or her staff. This leads into the next article, Choosing Staff.

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

[Raharu]

Brilliant article Adriel, I enjoyed it. It follows the exact logic you used to make PoI. Love it.