dojo Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I see a trend in many new forums to have an army of 'mods' who are there to actually help with content, since there's no spam/trolling in a new inactive community. I, for instance, like to start a forum on my own and build up from there. It can be years until I hire someone to help with moderation. What about you? jodiann12 and beans902 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljepilo Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) I see a trend in many new forums to have an army of 'mods' who are there to actually help with content, since there's no spam/trolling in a new inactive community. I, for instance, like to start a forum on my own and build up from there. It can be years until I hire someone to help with moderation. What about you? I would definitely go with an "army" of moderators ,since my forum gets ranked real easy. I buy high quality backlinks and its just the matter of few days until the forum starts to get spammed by "bots" or real people,so yeah I go with the "army" option. Edited May 21, 2012 by ljepilo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessi Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Just me usually. There have been a few times where there were a handful of us that really wanted to build the community, so I did the majority and had them as moderators right off the bat because they were working hard on the site, too. It was more of a group effort already and we had known each other for years. One of the times was as a side-site or a splitoff when another site was falling apart, so we immediately started with quite a few people, too. I wouldn't have done it that way had I been seeking brand new people and needing time to build up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHiLL Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I've never had my own forum, and I doubt I'll ever have one. That said, a new forum with a small user-base doesn't need many moderators, as there isn't a demand for it. beans902 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumblepie Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 For one of my forums, I got moderators right from the start but it was no use, because I couldn't get new members on time and the moderators eventually lost interest as there was no activity on the forum. I have another forum that I am managing myself, and it's hard work having to moderate all the threads myself. The only reason I don't want to have moderators on this one is because the spammers have created some threads that a LOT of people have replied to, and if the moderator deletes that member's threads, all those posts will be lost. So I can't risk it - but I could definitely use the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackClarke Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Just me and perhaps one other admin if he's involved. If you make too many people moderators up front and the community doesn't grow very fast then it looks really unbalanced when there are more than 50% staff on your board. It can also put people off, if you were the only person listed as member when everyone else was a moderator you'd be slightly annoyed wouldn't you? I personally think you should avoid having lots of moderators at launch unless there is already a large community that you are adding a community to because otherwise the ratio of members to staff would be wrong and this can scare people away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted May 22, 2012 Administrators Share Posted May 22, 2012 I get moderators You can't possibly be online to monitor you community 24/7 so mods can help. They can also help with new topics and posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeTheLobster Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Just me. It doesn't take long to moderate an active forum - at least until you have more members than you can shake a pack of biscuits at. And then you just need to ask and some mods will pop up. I still have the same dilemma as I've always had, though - pay them or not? I would definitely go with an "army" of moderators ,since my forum gets ranked real easy. I buy high quality backlinks and its just the matter of few days until the forum starts to get spammed by "bots" or real people,so yeah I go with the "army" option. That'll get you slapped since Google Penguin - just so you know. They're getting really twitchy about purchased backlinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetutato Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I would definitely go with an "army" of moderators ,since my forum gets ranked real easy. I buy high quality backlinks and its just the matter of few days until the forum starts to get spammed by "bots" or real people,so yeah I go with the "army" option. Being ranked on google is easy but the hard part is bringing in new members. Has that been working out for you? If you have an army of mods, the forum doesn't look that great since there seem to be no active regular members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardison Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'm in the process of launching my forum. I hadn't even though about having a team of moderators. I was going to do it myself. Now, I'm reconsidering the wisdom of that decision. I didn't think bots would be an issue until I had a lot of members posting content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherlock Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Just me to start with then I hire a Moderator or two to help with posting ect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Melody_Of_Rain Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Just me. I don't believe in just hiring mods who have posted nothing in my community. If they post a little and show they are capable I will make them a mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Depends on the moderators. If there are people there who are willing to help the site grow and put the effort in, as well as moderate then I make them moderators from day one. At the end of the day thats what a forum needs to begin with more than the moderation of members. These people generally end up supermods on my site. As for administrators I have only ever promoted one person to admin other than the people I started the site with, and that was because of his dedication to the site and technical expertise. From holland and actually comes over here now and then. Quite cool really lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryce12 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I start on a small scale and include more mods as my forum gets popular. I don't recruit mods, I usually contact members who are active and helpful in the forum and ask them if they are willing to participate in forum moderation. You can take opinion from forum members or have a poll to decide who should become a mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridwan sameer Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 just myself uinless it's a partnership deal. Then hire mroe mdoerators as the forum sees fit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tosaytheleast Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I started my forum with only myself managing it and that was 5 months ago. Now I have two moderators but all of them were my friends online that I have met 1 year ago so basically I didn;t put up a "Wanted Moderator" on my forum because I think that I'll just be dealing with people that I don't know. It is always good to have moderators because it lessens your job as the admin. All you have to concentrate on is to improve the forum while moderatoors gets to the members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Leigh Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I have been giving this matter quite a bit of thought. An army of mods sounds good for the initial assault to secure a beachhead, so to say, but I won't call them mods. Maybe I will call them Forum Starters, or Seed Members, or Charter Members. Only problem is what to do with the army after the forum has started. Dismiss the army? I have been playing with another idea to jumpstart a forum. Let's call it, say, Postathon. The Postathon will run for, say, 48 hours. During the Postathon, the virtual currency generated will be doubled. Then the virtual currency can be used to buy lottery tickets. Maybe if the lottery prizes are good enough, a Postathon may attract quite a bit of action. What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beans902 Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 I've never had my own forum, and I doubt I'll ever have one. That said, a new forum with a small user-base doesn't need many moderators, as there isn't a demand for it. My thoughts exactly, if I was just starting out l would not hire anyone until l saw a demand for it and people do not work for free so why put yourself under that kind of pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashwinr1 Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I see a trend in many new forums to have an army of 'mods' who are there to actually help with content, since there's no spam/trolling in a new inactive community. I, for instance, like to start a forum on my own and build up from there. It can be years until I hire someone to help with moderation. What about you? I prefer the same option just as you Initially it is always good to start of as a single moderator and try to take it up from there. Based on the increase in activity we can make a call as to whether we need more mods or not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingpost Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 MODS are neccessry on any forums. I would like to add some mods to start forum. But its hard to get very good staff , If anyone there wanna be good staff you can contact me please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshSmith100 Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 When I start a forum I will go in it with another admin. You dont need a whole team of moderators when you first start, you and the other admin just need to be dedicated. After a month goes by you have moderator applications and choose who you think would do the best job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridwan sameer Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 I like victor's idea. Competitions, That attracts a helluva lot of people.Problem being, If your forum isn't interesting enough, those people will leave when you no longer run competitions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulwatcher Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I started my forum off with just myself, because I had a bad experience in the past. I had a moderator and a lot of the members liked her and when she left the forum a lot of the members left with her. I plan on running my new forum until I can no longer manage it myself and then I plan on using a paid moderating service. That way you know that you are going to have a moderator that you can count on. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisfromwa Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I started mine with just me, then over time I added some moderators. Then again over time, as 'Car Audio' started to die in popularity my mods left. So currently I'm back to being the only one managing the forum. If it picks up again, I'll try and find someone to help out but for right now I actually don't need anyone. Nice thing about Vbulletin, it does a good job at auto moderating new users for spam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivebysix Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I generally start a forum with just me and then based upon the website and amount of traffic that we're getting to the forum I may add other moderators. However, I run a few forums so it's important to me that once I set up a forum I am able to move on from it in some capacity. Having a board that mostly runs itself is a good goal to have. Besides the occasional troll attack, having members of the board who are also moderators allows the board to somehow formulate a culture of it's own which increases board longevity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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