MESKOS Forum Development Blog

United we stand, Divided we Fall.

United we stand, Divided we Fall.
Developing a forum, is like fighting a war! (Exaggerated)

Let me define the title of this article;
“United we Stand” - If your forum staff and members can get along with each other, eliminate as much disputes as possible and create a warm community, your forum will stand and be successful.
“Divided we Fall” - Just like a human pyramid, if we lose each other (separated), we will collapse, same as a forum, if the staff or/and members can’t get along with each other, the forum will slowly die out.

There are many small factors which cause the dis-functioning of a forum. In regards to this topic here are the following:

• Staff abusing position/power.
• Disputes between staff and members.
• Disputes/Disturbance within the Staff team.
• Due to status and power, ignorance and keeping a line between staff and members.

Staff abusing position/power which causes Disputes.

Many inexperienced staff members will sometime abuse their position/power. To be honest, i have as well (back when i first joined a gaming forum). The abuse of power comes from inexperienced members or a members character.

Abusing position or power is when a member of staff gives out warnings without consideration (unfairly), changes situations towards their favor or any act which gains them power by influencing members because of their rank.

These acts causes disputes between members and staff and may cause members to leave the forum. This has happened at quite a few forums i use to visit. As a reminder, act fairly, only make judgments over evidence and never have an bias/opinionated thought over disputes etc.

If you sense a member is abusing his power, warn them or if needed, drop them from the team or it will cause a significant impact on the forums activity.

Disputes within the Staff team.

Disputes within the staff team are extremely common (depending on how well you select your staff). Disputes may be caused by the following reasons.

• The firing of a staff member.
• Favoring.
• Character/Personality/Egotistic Clashes. (A main factor)
• Promotions of New Staff.
• And many more.

To prevent or eliminate as much staff disputes as possible is to take the time to select quality staff. Not all judgments are made on their forum performance but also you need to take into consideration their offside activities/hobbies/interests etc. You can read one of my previous entries; Choosing your Staff, Your Future.

Also as an administrator, try to even out your staff members. Keep them motivated and try to encourage interaction between themselves so they slowly build up a friendship. This will allow them to understand each other a lot more and can reason with each others disagreements etc.

How can you? Invite them to regular mass MSN chat conversations, let them add each other, create a chatroom etc.

Good luck with your forum!

© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008

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Choosing Your Staff, Your Future.

Choosing Your Staff, Your Future.

When a forum is first opened, you will be able to handle all management aspects. But further down the track, you will notice you will have to spend more, energy, funds and time in developing new content and advertising your forum. In most cases, this is when you should consider hiring volunteer/unpaid staff members.

Selecting the staff without consideration may affect the forum and the community significantly. Remember, your staff represents you and your forum. Towards your members, mods are the higher ranked members who keep the forum safe and organised. They are expected to be polite, welcoming, encouraging and an overall A+ superb member. So remember to select your staff wisely.

When is it time to hire your staff?

Depending on your forum genre, i suggest admins to never have pre-hired staff for their forums. You should always manage the forum yourself, it allows a better understanding of your members and then forum. If you can manage the forum yourself, do not hire staff.

An admin should only consider selecting moderator(s) when they notice their time is scarce and they find it difficult to keep up with new members and new posts daily.

A suggested modification would be the one which shows New members joined and new posts made. With this handy mod, you will be able to keep track and moderate new posts made by your members.

Where and Who should i select?

Do not promote a member because his/her is your best friend. I can not stress that enough. Now a days, so many forum owners promote their good friends. Yes, they guarantee a great start when the forum opens but have you noticed, their general activity and performance etc drop after a few weeks? That is why you shouldn’t select moderators due to their friendship status but for their overall performance.

When your forum slowly grows, keep a look out for members who are passionate, helpful, active, uses proper grammar and are not the ones who stir up trouble. Why? Because these members are going to be your future moderators.
How do i select them?

I’ve noticed many forum owner’s find it easier or more comfortable with hiring a overwhelming of new staff members. I suggest you start off with one.

To hire a staff, you should develop a moderating guideline for yourself, which includes the what-to-do, when-to, how-to etc. Once your guideline is complete, send it to the member and ask for their confirmation about working on your forum. If they say yes, thank them and welcome them onto the staffing team.

Once their onboard, educate them with how you would like to them to moderate, which forums you have assigned them with etc.

Awarding Moderators in the long run.

Not matter how dedicated a moderator is, in the long run they will need motivation to keep up a great job. So try to become friends with your moderators, have weekly Mass MSN conversations and just get small get togethers with them and create a stronger friendship with them.

You may award your moderators with small incentives, such as mailing them cards, cash funds, coupons etc. But there are also many intangible awards you can provide them, forgiveness (if they ever make mistakes), kindness, motivation etc.

Firing Staff Members.

In my past experiences, forum admin’s struggle with demoting staff members. Why? because overall it will create an awkward situation. But if a staff member is affecting your forums reputation (or in any aspect), proper actions must be taken or your forum may end up in pieces.

I hope this article has given you a broader picture on selecting your staff.

Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Redistribution of this article will be violating copyright laws.
Please contact me if you would like this doc. submitted to your forum/website.

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Forum Contests, Forum Success?

Forum Contest Ideas
Fresh Contest, Fresh Members, Fresh Forum.

To spice up your forum, refresh the community or just an event to regain members interest, all comes down to a forum revamp or a forum contest. Contests are useful as it brings all the active members together and motivates interaction (depending on the contest idea).

If the forum staff team can manage the contest effeciently and effectively, it can really bring back a lot of old and new traffic.

Here are some contest ideas which can be used as a guideline for your forum(s):

• Referral Contest.
  - Winner will be judged on most referrals.
  - More points if the referrals post.
• Posting Contest.
  - The basic, “Who ever can post the most wins”.
  - Distribute additional post points for quality topics/replies made.
• Advanced Posting Contest.
  - Who can create the most active topic? (encourages members to start interesting topics)
  - Post a statement and allow every member to write an interesting paragraph on it. Most interesting, would be the winner.
• Content Contests.
  - Article writing.
  - Poetry writing.
  - Create the topic concept in regards to your forum genre.
• Treasure Hunts.
  - Create riddles in different parts of the forum.
  - Let your members find their way to the treasure.
• Digital Contests.
  - Award the winner by using their design on your forum. (Eg. Banner).
  - Photo Contest. (Who ever can be most unique in a photo?)
• Simulation Contests. (Used on one of my old forums, was successful and loved)
  - Create a simulation (depending on your forum genre) and judge the best response.
  - Example: I use to run an admin forum, where administrators could share managing tips etc. I had a section called the “Admin Simulation” where i would develop a situation where members had to put themselves into the situation and reply with a well written response.
  - The winner can be selected on the quality of the response.

I hope this will refresh your ideas. If you have any new contest ideas, feel free to submit them through the comment feature.

Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Redistribution of this article will be violating copyright laws.
Please contact me if you would like this doc. submitted to your forum/website.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Daily Tip #2

Securing your Password.
A basic but extremely important tip. Keep your admin. account secure with a strong password. In your password, include symbols, numbers, signs and lower and capital letters.

If your curious on how secure and strong your password is, visit Hotmail, then visit the Sign Up page and test out your password in their password box. They provide a useful tool to measure how strong your password is. View an example here.

© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008

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Daily General Tip #1

Once in a while i will post up short general tips which will cause the failure of a form or the success of your board.

• Do not create a forum for the sake of becoming an Admin. The admin role is heavily weighted and the mental note of wanting to become an admin will cause immediate failure. You must be skilled in many aspects to qualify to become a “successful admin”, including interpersonal, decisional and information roles.

Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008

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