Are there certain forums that perform well without a staff?

[Cryckit]

Some people think there are certain forums that do not need any staff, except for the lead Administrator of course. They feel that there is not a sufficient amount of work for them to perform. They believe that the exception to the rule would be where the lead Administrator does not have the time to execute all of the tasks that he/she needs to perform due to other priorities in life.

I think that every forum should have at least one staff member, in addition to the lead Administrator. This takes a lot of pressure off of the lead Administrator when it comes to the activities/duties that need to be performed on the forum. This evenly distributes the specific tasks that are to be carried out. No one can do everything themselves. It can be tried, but it is extremely difficult over the long run. That's why some forum owners get burned out and close their forums. I've seen this happen before. I have even seen it happen to a few forums recently. All forums need staff members in my opinion.

What are your thoughts about this?

 

[Cam]

It really just depends on the forum. Plenty of forums can make it with just the lead administrator, but chances are that means the forum is pretty inactive. Personally, I always want to have at least one or two staff members alongside me to help out, but I don't know if it's necessarily essential for all forums.

 

[Drew]

As Cameron stated, it really depends on the forum type, size, the content etc.

If a forum is filled with hormonal teenagers then yes, moderate the piss out of it.

If it's something like WebsiteForums where all we have to really worry about is spam and making sure the users are following posting guidelines then I do believe a few moderators should be present. As a former forum owner myself, I find it hard to moderate while i'm working on the website and improving it.

 

[Corey]

It depends how active the forum is, I mean if you getting maybe 50 posts per day you don't need a moderating team! If your getting 20,000 posts per day your going to need a good moderating team.

 

[Mr.Bishop]

I personally believe that any website that wants to be successful needs staff.

The caveat there is what you define as successful. If you're just looking to have a community where a few people yammer on endlessly about a topic, and it doesn't matter if there's much direction or not - well fuck it whatever works.

However if you're actually trying to have one (or more) people actually live off of it, focus, guidance, leadership and building your business are vital.

 

[Shortie]

Forums that are just starting out are forums that I believe can thrive with just a lead administrator and nothing more, it's when you find you are getting a lot more activity and it becomes hard for you as an individual to monitor the forum in a way you need to that you may need to consider adding staff such as moderators to help with the load.

 

[JennyorAlice]

If the forum is pretty new, you can probably get by with a lead administrator or forum owner. But, as the forum grows, I think it's better that they have more staff around to help manage things (especially as the forum grows more active). Otherwise, you could end up with someone ruining the ambiance of the forum if there isn't staff to help you catch the person and put a stop to it.

 

[Cryckit]

It really just depends on the forum. Plenty of forums can make it with just the lead administrator, but chances are that means the forum is pretty inactive. Personally, I always want to have at least one or two staff members alongside me to help out, but I don't know if it's necessarily essential for all forums.

Absolutely. I thinks that's a wise decision. Depending on the forum, having one or two staff members there to assist an Administrator is better than having none at all.

 

[xXInfectedXx]

It does depend on the forum. Generally speaking, forums which have just started out that have under 100 posts do perform well without any staff members. Use common sense if your a forum owner, if you can't handle the moderation, start to hire a couple of staff members to help you.

 

[Bizarrio]

It depends on how large the forum is. Some forums require a lot of staffs while some may not require any staff. However, I always feel that every forum should have at least three staffs. If one staff is sick or something, other stuff can do the job.