Bringing in an off-board Admin?

[Cedric]

Has anyone ever brought in an off-board admin for their community? Whether it's to help with moderation, provide a fresh perspective, or take on specific tasks, there can be benefits to having an admin who isn't a member of the community. Have you ever done this, and if so, how did it go?

Pros:

• Introducing an off-board admin can bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the community.
• Since this person was not a member of the community, they may be able to make unbiased decisions and bring a neutral viewpoint to disputes.
• Could be more motivated to work and prove themselves to the community.

Cons:

• Existing staff may feel offended or undervalued if an off-board admin is brought in to help.
• After initially working hard to prove themselves, the off-board admin may become complacent or less motivated.
• The off-board admin may have a different way of doing things than what the staff is used to, causing friction and disagreements.

 

[Cory]

I'd be afraid to bring in an off-board administrator that I don't know too well, like someone that applied to an application on another forum. Though, I tend to have trust issues, which is probably one reason I'm the only staff member on my own board. Also, someone that doesn't know how well the forum operates from the experience of using it for a while could cause some confusion between them and members.

 

[Strawberry]

I don't see anything wrong with it if all other avenues have been exhausted. Like you said, the usual protocol would be to promote from within your forum, but if they're not capable of bringing anything new to the forum and activity remains stagnant and doesn't have a clear direction, then it may be worth getting a completely fresh pair of eyes. Definitely a risky move, you would need to ensure you had a knowledge of them off-board, perhaps on a personal level or having built a reputation from being on other forums. You would also need to be confident that it wouldn't cause any detriment to the forum.

 

[Arantor]

Most common situation I've seen is if someone is brought in as a technical admin to shore up missing functionality/fix things and otherwise do things that aren't strictly *community* management but *site* management. Less common, of course, in the hosted environments such as Jcink/ProBoards/CreateAForum/XF Cloud/IPS Cloud where they have support staff who can deal with that, but much more common in self-hosted lands.

 

[Kale]

Been an off board Admin before and it can work out IMO. I will say that I never have had much luck with my tenures back in the day as most of the time I either would get demodded or the forum would shut down. I was not exactly the smartest Admin back during those days, sadly.

I've seen tech admins and such before or even admins who are there just to be community managers.

 

[Clarice]

I have to know and already trust them before I am willing to promote them on any board of mine.

 

[fords8]

I have to agree with @Kim Winchester on this one. Unless you don't give to much control, but then what is the point on making them an admin.

 

[Kyng]

I've never done this - but the one time I've seen a friend doing it, it went very badly. The offsite admin had a completely different way of doing things from my friend - and they just couldn't work together at all.

(I don't remember many of the specifics - but the off-site admin demoted half of the staff. Those people just left, and their departure essentially killed any remaining activity >_< )

 

[Mamberroi Jr]

Depending on whether we do not know the Administrator that we are going to add external, it is always good to know to whom we bring their knowledge about what they are going to face and develop their position. But if there is the possibility of giving way to those who show that they can handle such a charge on the site