Hiring an On-Call Admin/Webmaster?

I am starting to realize that I've become the only point of contact when something goes wrong on our site. This is normally okay, but it would be really bad if something happened to me, or if I wanted a weekend away with total peace of mind.

Have any of you ever paid someone to be an on-call Admin? Basically a place for other admins and mods to call if something breaks on the technical side (hacks, bugs, server issues, security problems, etc). Nothing to do with the actual forum content or moderation. Purely technical.

I imagine this being the easiest money in the world. Stuff barely breaks on our site, so the person would be receiving a monthly check often times for doing nothing. But they would need to be 24/7, always have their phones on them and responsive to the admins/mods of our site.

Is this even a thing?

 

It is "a thing", for sure and you are headed in the right direction. It's important that tasks are delegated properly to people with the skill sets to successfully tackle them and allow each staff member to focus more on their duties without being spread thin. Having a day to day Tech Admin is just as important as having a Day to Day Community Admin, or having a day to day customer / member support manager, or having day to day moderators. It's vital to the smooth flow and growth of any online community to have contingency plans and a chain of command. Remove either one and the next unforeseen accident could destroy everything you worked so hard to build.

My suggestion is that you bring aboard a trusted developer familiar with your communities framework, database type, server maint., etc. Dub them the "Tech Admin" or "Tech Support" so everyone can relate to what exactly they do in the community. Work closely with them and have a private area for you both to compare notes with each other and document changes so that you eliminate potential accidents that stem from poor communication.

Maybe look over your staff structure and make adjustments so there's a clear chain of command and clearly outlined duties for each position. Delegating the tasks and dividing them up amongst different staff departments will help you tremendously reduce your workload and stress levels.

Possibly create a new forum title "Tech Support" and assign your new Tech Support Admin to moderate it and receive instant notices when ever a new thread by members or staff is posted there. Naturally, you'll also want an area in your general staff forum for all staff members to share their personal contact information in case of emergencies. That way if the site goes down they can text the tech & you via that info rather than waiting for someone to answer the thread post in your new tech support forum.

Additionally, you may also want to sign-up for a free status alert account somewhere like www.UpTimeRobot.com and set it to email + sms so you get notices when your site goes down (your tech should do the same).

I think it's a great idea that you're considering bringing on a Tech Admin to help out. You're definitely headed in the right direction to a more stress free, organized, and professional business model.

Eric Lyon

 

With the proper Tact, Structure, Open Communication, Outlined Duties / Responsibilities, Etc. You can probably avoid most the negative impact of what Cerberus outlined above. It's important that any volunteers you have remember that they volunteered for a position to help out the community in an area where less technical workload is needed, less hours of the day required, less overall knowledge of business development, etc. Most times volunteers are asked to try and login once every 24 to 48 hours for maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day or so to resolve reports in their assigned section(s), anything more than that is their decision and wasn't a mandatory requirement.

You won't always be able to find an affordable tech / admin with qualified skills needed to keep your forum running smoothly and steadily growing. Volunteers are similar to Interns, where-as, they dedicate their time to something they have passion for, or want to learn more about in order to strengthen their own resume or the community they love. Forums normally have an unlimited supply of members willing to volunteer for various positions. Most communities have an incentives plan drawn up that provides volunteers with extra privileges and discounts as a thank you for volunteering / interning.

Look over your incentives plan for your current volunteers and make adjustments where needed during your staff structure evaluation and duties organization. You should be able to make everyone happy and in the event a few decide to leave, Thank them for all the volunteer work they put in and remind them that you valued all their time. Then, if needed, talk to a few of the other members that wanted to volunteer and outline your new policies so they know exactly what they are volunteering for before they say yes.

As long as the duties and incentives are clearly outlined for volunteers / interns, they can't say they never knew. They knew exactly what the position entailed when they said yes.

Eric Lyon

 

there is no need to have a full time paid tech admin unless your site is constantly broken and needs help. that would cost a lot for little gain.

many people offer web services for an hourly rate. like me basically as a web designer i build lots of site, maintain my server, etc. i am always available unless im asleep. my clients know if there is a issue they can call or text me anytime for emergency service at a fair hourly rate.

I DO have a few service contracts where i get paid monthly, but these also include SEO and other stuff.

 

+1. It's silly to pay someone on a monthly contract for a rarely needed service. I have a few clients that I host and software management (WP, vB, XF, etc) is included with their hosting package. I handle the 'geek side' all the time for them anyhow.

In my case a good buddy of mine who I trust runs a couple forums. If I'm out of the mix for a few days I bump his account up to admin and let my co-admin know to drop this guy an email if anything goes wrong.