Member:Staff Ratio

[Reverie]

What are your thoughts on Members to Staff ratio? How many staff members should there be if a forum has... let's say 100 members? Does that change at 150 members? etc. What do you think is the best ratio?

Sometimes services and the amount of requests also require a few extra staff members I'm sure - but in the end there is kind of a formula for the best amount of staff sometimes!

 

[Ravenfreak]

I say it comes down to how active the forum is. If there are hundreds of members and 50 of them are active, two moderators should be fine to keep up with posts and reports. A forum can have hundreds of members but they all might not be that active.

 

[SDL]

I feel like there isn't so much a specific formula, it just depends on the needs of the forum and how much time the staff have. If you're a small community and you have lots of free time, then there may be no need for additional staff. If you don't have much time to moderate all of the posts, then one moderator in addition to yourself could work. However if that moderator is in the same time zone as you and you get lots of posts in different time zones then a second or third moderator would work if there's enough activity to keep them interested. But if that one moderator has lots of free time and is up late and awake early then you wouldn't need those additional moderators.

As you can see, there are a lot of variables so it's going to be different for each forum. I guess if I need to give a specific answer, I'd probably say no more than 5% of your community are staff members, with the exception of admin forums or any other forum that offers services and goes beyond the standard moderator/admin roles. I feel like more than that would be overboard.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I don't think there is a ratio.

I have a rule of thumb.

Either start with one (just you) or two (you and someone else) and don't include a new staff member until it is too overwhelming for you or you and your one extra to manage the forum and keep it active and engaging at the same time.

That's my strategy.

A forum with an oddly large amount of staff but fewer members and member activity is a bit odd looking.

 

[Cory]

I too think there's no "secret" ratio and it all depends on multiple factors, such as activity, how many troublesome users you have, the workload, etc. I've been the only staff member on my board for years now and although it's not really an active community, I accomplish the primary goal of the forum.

 

[Empire]

From my last post, it can be hard finding the right person for the job that is willing to work and support. But if you are just a single person dealing with it then that's fine however a team of people so better in terms of building and coding in the background. More people working on different things to greater a better site. As a single person you can able to achieve it however takes longer to complete, having too much staff on the front end can put off members, but if it's good content and active not all would be put off from it. depends.

 

[Shortie]

How many staff members you have per so many members I would say depends on the activity and how busy the forum is. For example, we have just shy of 50 members on Chat Addicts at the moment and we still have only myself and @Smokey as admins on there at the moment and we are managing. I would say at around 100 members a moderator may be ideal though.