Moderators Slipping Away

How do you handle moderators who are becoming inactive more and more as time goes on?

It seems that one of my moderators is losing interest. She hasn't come to me to let me know if something is up (which all of my moderators do, including her in the past - i.e. going on vacation; just got new job and need time to settle in; moving to new house, need two weeks off; etc.). She logs in every couple of days and makes a few posts. Some days she makes more posts than others... but she certainly isn't as active as she used to be.

This has been going on for a few months and is beginning to concern me. I assume it's only a matter of time before she fades away completely.

She is also a Forum Helper and has the responsibility of selecting and interviewing a Member of the Month each month, and posting the thread - which she does do. She's basically doing the bare minimum to barely satisfy me.

Any suggestions?

 

Initiate some form of communication between the two of you. If she hasn't taken the time to give you a reason as to why she has been that inactive, some kind of action needs to be taken. If she fails to respond and/or provide you with a legitimate reason, I'd consider removing her from the team.

 

Yeah, at my old forum, we had roughly 15 mods, and a good 5 of them never did anything, including a couple admins. So I made it my job to step up and PM them and ask them what's up.

However, what you do need to realize is that to 99% of other people, real life comes first, so they won't take the mod spots as seriously as others, as well, they sort of become disenfranchised with the mod position now that they see how much work you need to do.

Just ask them whats up, then if everything is alright, ask them to step it up, if you don't see much change within a week or two, then tell them you gotta demote them until they're ready to recommit. I also usually give them the notion that their spot will be available once they're ready to come back, to avoid hostility.

 

Thanks for the input, guys.

Chris, there is communication between us - just not about her situation. I mean, we converse in the public threads and such.

I don't want to be so quick to consider removing her as a moderator. All of my moderators are a hard-working, dedicated and crucial part of the team; they are more 'into' the community itself than I. Without them, my forum's community wouldn't be the way it is, so it's always a 'big deal' when a moderator leaves the team. We are an extremely tight-knit community so this will possibly take a toll on the members.

I think what I will do is just send her a PM simply asking how she is and how things are going. I don't want to hint any form of suspicion in terms of her decreasing activity.

 

Good idea - let us know how it goes.

 

This is something I'm working on as well. Sometimes one contacts them and doesn't get a reply. Interesting if they are posting on the forums as a member ... As we discussed before, turnover is natural and real life intrudes more than some mods think it will.

I'm going to be implementing some new mod policies, and among them is that if a mod hasn't posted in the mod forum in 90 days, they are opting out and will no longer have access. If they want to re-up all they have to do is let me know. All to be very cordial, and structured/worded so that it is they who are opting out by their own actions (or lack thereof.)

I'm also going to ask each one if they want to carry on at least once a year. If I don't hear from them they are opting out. If they don't want to continue they go on their way with thanks for their service and a free 1? 2? years paid access.

I have active mods who don't know the inactive ones very well. One or two have expressed concern over a disappearing mod (any of them) having access to read the confidential mod forum posts. Many of those posts are pretty frank and would not sound well at all out of context ... the active mods don't know how we know the mod who is never around wouldn't read on the quiet, and then violate that confidentiality.

Human behavior .... people don't trust people who aren't around and they feel they don't know. That's been a problem with disappearing mods. I'm hoping formalized policies will help stabilize the situation.

Not to mention we don't know if they are actually covering the forums they are supposed to be reviewing (if they are around but not visiting the mod forum) ...

 

This may not directly resolve your problem, but in the past, on one of my old forums:

My moderators and I were all very close. In fact, so were the moderators and the members. If there was ever a time when a moderator just vanished, we'd be quite confused. If we couldn't get in contact with that person, we may or may not remove their moderator status. If they were to come back after we demoted them (mainly just so it didn't seem like we had highly inactive moderators), they would usually wind up joining the team again anyway.

 

It's always hard for me to balance this. On one hand moderators are volunteers and I find it very hard to 'demand' anything from them which is why I'm pretty lax. We have a whole voting in thing, where if we think another moderator is needed we'll select some members and talk about it then put it to a vote so every moderator is there because the other mods thought they'd be a good fit.

Lately on my board some mods don't seem to do anything almost as if the moderator title is honorary or something and then on the flip side we have 4 or 5 people who are always on top of things, always give their two cents when discussing things in the mods forums.

It's hard to keep a balance and don't want to flat out demote anyone but sometimes it feels like there's just dead weight there and to be honest when I'm making a decision I give more weight to the opinion of those who always participate than those that don't.

Now on the flip side since I also moderate on a few forums I can see the mods not participating POV too:

1. Real life always takes precedence over online stuff.
2. Sometimes there's just too much work to do, especially when other mods aren't enforcing the existing rule set and the admin/owners don't seem worried about this.
3. The rules are just too confusing: I find this happens most with webmaster type forums where different forums have different post/link limits.
4. The volume is just too much, there's too many posts to look over every time I log in..and even then see #2 when the rules aren't being enforced by others I'm not going to spend half my day sending PMs all over the place and nuking posts.
5. Lack of power.. Don't promote me to moderator then lock my tools down to where I cannot do much more than a regular member. I know the rules and know how to use the tools..Let me do me if I do something wrong tell me, if I do it again then lock down my tools.
6. Lack of activity, it's boring when there's nothing to do. as a moderator I feel I'm there to foster the current community not grow a whole new one, that's the admins job. Want suggestions, sure but you can implement them Mr. Admin.
7. Lack of admin interest: I just cannot stand it when an owner barely posts yet expects the mods to do all the work for them.. You'll see me do less and less on that board until I'm either demoted or get fed up and resign.

Just my .02,
Dan

 

Try and discuss her activity with her. Maybe there is something going on in her life that you don't know about, maybe something's happened at work, she's going through a rough patch in her relationship etc. Let her know that you are there and available to talk about anything, anytime. Then let her know if she needs to take a few weeks 'break' let her know that option is there.

 

This is a very good point. Expectations for volunteers have to be different from those of an employee. I think in all volunteer endeavors there are people who get into with the best intentions but then find they are over-committed. Or even that it's just not their cup of tea. It's about communicating in such a way to find out what's going on and what the best solution for all. I think that's much harder to do online than in person, where it is easier to start an informal chat without alarming the person into wondering if you are unhappy with them.

 

I no longer promote staff who are not committed and trustworthy for such a position. I'm picky, I suppose, but most forums honestly do not need much staff, if at all, to begin.

 

I feel the exact same way.