Catchall

As your forum grows, you’ll need more people to help you maintain the site. You essentially have two options for recruiting forum staff.

1. Post a public application for members to apply
2. Privately invite members to join the staff

If you have a small community of dedicated members, then posting a public application will work fine. But if you have a large community or if you don’t know the members very well, I suggest privately inviting members to join your staff. Otherwise, you’ll waste time going through applications from unqualified members.

Then the question is, who do you invite? Watch for members who:

• actively post and contribute to discussions
• answer other members’ questions
• welcome new members to the site
• suggest ways to improve the community

Members who already show an interest in your site and care about the community will continue to do that as part of the forum staff. You can teach people how to moderate forums and how to deal with rule violations. But you cannot teach them to care about your community, so look for that quality first.

Other qualities to consider as you’re looking for candidates:

• Clear writing. The principle form of communication in online forums is text, so you want forum staff who can express themselves clearly in writing.
• Objectivity. Part of the fun of online forums is that you get to debate and discuss topics with people from all over the world. You want forum staff who can participate in conversations, but who can also remain objective and clear-headed when arguments heat up.
• Cooperation. Forum staff members have to work together to maintain the site and deal with problems that come up, either from members or technical issues.
• Integrity. Depending on the set up of your forums, you’ll be giving a lot of authority and power to your staff members. Make sure they are people who will use their position responsibly and honestly.

Watch members in your forum and make a list of potential staff members. Your list should have a few names beyond the number of staff members you need to add, so that if someone declines your invitation, you have alternatives.

After you have identified the candidates, send each one a personal message. Tell them that you’re looking for new staff members to help maintain the site and explain their responsibilities. Let them ask you any questions they have about joining the staff. After they’ve accepted, change their settings and assign their areas and duties.

Following these steps will help you build a dedicated forum staff whose first priority is the community on your site.

Low activity, growing pains, inactive staff…these are all problems that online forums face. Here are a few tips to improve your members’ experience on your site. Everything here is based on my experience as an administrator in the Supernatural.tv Forums. 

1. Welcome new members. People want to join active communities. They want your forums to be worth their time. The least you can do is say hi after they sign up.

2. Add more content. Start discussions. Contribute to current topics. Keep the conversations going.

3. Clean up your policies. Update your rules and revise them as necessary. Be sure they are clear and concise.

4. Buckle down on the rule breakers. It’s one thing to give second chances. Another to let a member break the rules over and over. Ban members who don’t respect your forum policies. Otherwise, they’ll keep disrupting your community.

5. Promote your site. Use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs to attract new members. Be smart about it—promote in relevant places and do not spam. The more ways you reach out to people, the more people can interact with you and discover your site.

6. Redesign the site. Or at least freshen up the banner at the top.

7. Reorganize. How can you improve the navigation of your forums? Do you  need to add new sections? Clear out old, dead discussion topics—either delete them or move them to an archive section.

8. Encourage the staff to interact with members. Your staff should talk to members—not be aloof.

9. Add or replace mods. If some of your staff members have become inactive, replace them. If your membership has grown, maybe you need to add moderators to your staff. Different people on your team gives your site a different kind of energy. Be sure the staff members are passionate and have the same goals as you do for the forums.

10. Plan activities or incentives to keep people interested in your forum. Fan of the month. A competition or a contest. Special areas for long-time members. Think about what’s relevant for your community and what will encourage people to stick around, and then do it.

11. Ask for feedback. Your members may suggest something you haven’t thought about. You won’t know what they’re thinking unless you ask.