Staff Management The "I've been here this long and I deserve to be staff" member

[Cedric]

With all the experienced community leaders here, I'm sure we've all encountered them at some point – the long-standing members who feel they've put in their dues and believe they deserve a staff role. It's a situation that can bring about interesting discussions on the balance between earned positions and entitlement.

So have you actually encountered members who assert that their seniority alone should qualify them for a staff role? How have you handled these situations in your community? Have you ever promoted a member solely based on their tenure, and how did that work out? Or perhaps they are a friend of yours and believe they should be staff?

On the flip side, what criteria do you believe should determine someone's suitability for a staff role? Is it primarily about longevity and loyalty, or should it be based on other factors, such as active participation, leadership qualities, and their ability to contribute positively to the community's growth?

We can also discuss the potential benefits and challenges of promoting long-standing members to staff roles. So does their experience and familiarity with the community outweigh the risks of potential bias or complacency?

What are your thoughts on members who believe their longevity should earn them a staff position? Let's have an open and insightful discussion!

 

[Millie]

I hate members who make such claims. Staff promotion is not a token of appreciation, activity or loyalty to the forum, its purely merit based on their application. I've never promoted anybody for being the longest serving member or most loyal 'fan'. I've always opted for people who can get the job done and want to be involved

 

[MrDawn]

Over the years on a span of different forums, I've worked with fellow staff members that have high post count and those moderators didn't do anything, so having a high post count doesn't automatically make someone good staff material even if they are an amazing member.

As for myself? No. Just because I crap out 10 thousand plus posts on a forum doesn't make me any more special than the next member. I'm sure that community appreciates the contributions, but that doesn't make me deserving of any staff role. I take up roles because I want to help out and if staff thinks I serve better as a member, that's great.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've thankfully never ran into this myself. I know that if someone did send me a private message begging to be staff for being on the forum for x amount of time, I would just ignore their message and make sure to never promote them if I ever need staff in the future. It's best to hire those who are fit for the job, because even if someone is great at posting on the forum and is active it doesn't mean they are qualified for the job.

 

[Arantor]

I've seen this not only in the forum world but out in the real world where length of service implies a seniority that isn't matched by the skills and abilities demonstrated by the individual.

I once worked with a very lovely person who'd been in the role for years and was fed up that they weren't being taken seriously for a promotion - but at no point demonstrated any of the skills that the promotion would require, and some negative indicators in fact if they did get the role.

Someone asking to be a moderator based on length of time they've been around is not only a red flag for me, it's an instant no for a minimum of a year. Demonstrates a critical misunderstanding of the function of a moderator on a forum.

 

[joelr]

Some thoughts:
1. I think it's important as a community leader to outline alternative pathways of success. For the best posters, they may not actually want to be moderators, once they understand it's a totally different skill set and set of daily activities. For the best posters, they are likely internally rewarded by reputation, by reach, by trust, by friendship in their postings. Those rewards are nothing like moderators, where you get excited about things like conflict resolution, rote activities, operational maintenance. This needs to be verbally communicated and talked through, to help them understand a moderator position may not be best for them.

I do strongly believe you should give weight to a trusted and experienced poster if they express interest. They likely understand the community more than most, so the learning curve is much lower, but it's also different skill set.

2. Online communities are designed to scale exponentially with very little overhead. You only need 1 or 2 moderators to comfortably handle the moderator reports from 100 users to 10,000 users.

I encourage those of you with staff churn to really evaluate how much value you actually get from each of your staff members. Your staff are probably nice folks, they post every once in awhile, but can they do that as regular members? And while many of you bring on staff members for free and as volunteers, there actually is a hidden cost: every time someone starts or quits, it's a cost to your sustainability, your momentum, and your foundation. It's hard to grow when you don't have the basics down, like one consistent and trustworthy moderator. You, as the community leader, want to focus on the bigger community initiatives. But that requires a trusted staff, and it's better to have 1 trusted person who does consistently good work than 5 rotating people who "get busy" and need to resign next month, only for you to rinse and repeat.

 

[ZandraJoi]

While I haven't run into this, I have had some members ask to be on Staff. I've only had temporary staff & prefer to keep it that way. If I got out of Proboards, I'd have to have some Tech Staff but otherwise I prefer to run it by myself. Too many staff members can cause conflicts especially if they have differing views.
I would not promote somebody to staff "just because" they were a long term member. If they feel entitled, they'd be on my Do Not Hire list. I don't go for Entitlements.
The criteria would have to be somebody who is personable & believes in the forum. Who could be trusted to do their job. I'd see how they were on other forums, Staff & regular member, to determine. Also, I wouldn't want somebody to be Staff on mine who was Staff on a bunch of other forums. I don't feel they'd have the time.

 

[an0nym0us]

To get someone into the staff, first of all, you have to see the biography, that is, all the activity he had in the forum and his attitudes towards the members when the need arose..

The best way to reward an old member is moderation (we all know this), the problem is if he changes after moderation and catches the supercat feeling, turning him into another person.

 

[Kale]

I honestly never have promoted a long time member to staff like that. You should be someone who is on the forum already and somewhat active. I tend to still allow applications and such, but sometimes I pass and ask a person completely out of nowhere if they'd want to join instead. As someone said above, I have ran into members asking to become a mod and it's usually a no.

 

[She]

My community is fairly new. So far, I have had one person become inactive after being offered the job. OO And except my co-founder, I have one other mod who's doing a good job.

My criteria were: someone who's active on the site, who didn't have many personal obligations going on, and someone I know for a time long enough to trust them. If I would have to choose between a man and a woman, I'd go for a man because of the nature of my forum. I want "my women" to be active in posts, not behind the screens. (The man-to-woman ratio isn't too well by nature of the niche).

 

[Sinistra]

I do not like members like that. I recently had a NEW person join, who hadn't been a member for 3 hours, and send me a PM "I want to mod some forums" So I had to make it abundantly clear that anyone who asks, is not being staff. I am currently taking applications for staff members but I will not have anyone ask to be staff no matter how long they have been on my community. This is how the power-hungry end up staff. Then you have those who get mad when someone else who has been there less time than they have gets promoted.

 

[prophet]

I do not like members like that. I recently had a NEW person join, who hadn't been a member for 3 hours, and send me a PM "I want to mod some forums" So I had to make it abundantly clear that anyone who asks, is not being staff. I am currently taking applications for staff members but I will not have anyone ask to be staff no matter how long they have been on my community. This is how the power-hungry end up staff. Then you have those who get mad when someone else who has been there less time than they have gets promoted.

Ironically, I'm 99% sure that the SAME person had joined my forum at the exact same time asking to be a moderator. Once I told him to integrate themselves into the community, they proceeded to ghost for around 2 weeks, came back and asked "What's the status? Am I going to be a moderator?" after making 3 posts, I told them exactly what they've done and they told me "have a nice day!". They posted on someone else's introduction and said, "I'm taking my talents to such and such community! hope to see you there!" lol.

 

[Sinistra]

Ironically, I'm 99% sure that the SAME person had joined my forum at the exact same time asking to be a moderator. Once I told him to integrate themselves into the community, they proceeded to ghost for around 2 weeks, came back and asked "What's the status? Am I going to be a moderator?" after making 3 posts, I told them exactly what they've done and they told me "have a nice day!". They posted on someone else's introduction and said, "I'm taking my talents to such and such community! hope to see you there!" lol.

I am starting to think the same thing! I haven't seen this person online in a few days so, I am just waiting for them to come back and see that I have decided I am not going to allow them on staff. I think people like this are just in it for the status. They aren't going to do anything. We should ask @Senkusha If they have made it over to their community. because it seems they are hitting up anime sites.

 

[prophet]

I am starting to think the same thing! I haven't seen this person online in a few days so, I am just waiting for them to come back and see that I have decided I am not going to allow them on staff. I think people like this are just in it for the status. They aren't going to do anything. We should ask @Senkusha If they have made it over to their community. because it seems they are hitting up anime sites.

I sent you a message with screenshots of what they posted and the comparisons between each site and which alias they've used. It really wouldn't surprise me if they've tried multiple sites before ours because when I pressed them about where they found us, etc.. they really didn't have a good answer. I don't know, just got some weird vibes from them to be honest.

 

[Nomad]

Moderators and Forum Posters, these are two distinct roles. Just because someone has been on the site for a long time does not mean he will also be a good moderator.