Your first experience as a moderator

Talk about your first experience as a moderator on a forum...what thoughts went through your head? What did you feel? Did you fail? (Hopefully not)

 

The first forum I helped moderate, I am still there moderating after a year. I felt good to know I was the only moderator left from the batch that were hired that were still there as a mod after a year.

 

The first forum I moderated was a SimCity fansite back in 2004. I was already making websites (not forums) at that point and was a member at a larger SimCity fansite. I heard about a fairly new forum starting up so I went over to check it out. For the heck of it, I sent the admin a PM asking if I could become a moderator. To my surprise he accepted and made me moderator.

Within a couple months he promoted me to co-admin. I helped with the re-design of the website. Things were going great. The owner had started losing interest in the game though and decided one day to shut down the forums without my input. I would have gladly taken over had he given me the chance. Oh well.

That job is what sparked my interest in forums. Several months after that site closed I started my own forum, which failed. After a couple more attempts, I made a successful (but now dead) forum. With the experience of starting and running a successful forum, I went on to make a few more, the most successful being Talk Budgies.

And here I am today. Several active forums and always experimenting with new forum ideas. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

 

It was dealing with spammers on my first forum. I could not understand why people would run spam bots and spoil someone elses fun. The first forum software I was using did not protect against bots too well. I was having to deal with spammers everyday. That was one of the things that promoted me to switch to VB.

Right after I switched to VBulletin, I disabled captcha by accident. The next morning I got up, checked the site and saw it full of spam. I just felt kinda empty inside.

 

My first moderation job was in 2001, on a smallish custom forum. TBH, I cant really remember much about it now, but 8 years on, I'm still a mod there.

 

Man, it was so long ago I barely remember. It was a health forum that didn't last long due to the owner not really being dedicated.

 

Thread moved to ModeratorAddict.

 

I became a moderator on a vBulletin forum for the first time ever in July of '06. It was quite exciting and it was the first time I experienced that side of vBulletin (I always wanted to and had no idea there was a free demo on the website). I made a rules/guidelines/FAQ sticky in the announcement section. I haven't been there in ages and my thread is still active.

 

I became the mod on a form a few Christmas' ago. They were having a special that people could be the mod of any forum during the holiday season. I did it and kept the job. I eventually lost interest in the site and made my own that was more popular. But I did resign before hand.

 

I was participating on a Compuserve forum in 1993 about Quarterdeck software - I was having problems with a product called QEMM. It was fun learning about it from the pros and I stuck around even after I found the solutions I was looking for.

Occasionally, a sysop (that's what they called moderators on Compuserve) would answer a question froma non-geek type with all these 50 cent words and computerese that a lot of normal people just didn't understand. I noticed they got an awful lot of replies like, "Hu???" So, I started "translating" so people could actually figure out what to do to fix their problems. I didn't always know how to fix it myself, but I knew what the sysop was telling them and just relayed it in every day language. And, of course, I learned a lot along the way.

One day I got an email from someone I never saw participate on the forum, but he had a QD email address. He asked if I was interested in being a sysop. I explained how little I knew. He said I actually helped promote their products on Compuserve better than the paid employees because people knew what I was saying. I took the job. A couple weeks later I got a box in the mail with every product QD sold and then some - and a T-shirt. I would get more software every time they had a new version or a new product.

That job put me in touch with WUGNET (Windows Users Group Network), where I took on sysop duties at a couple other forums. Turned out they also had a contract with Playboy and I got a job with them too. I got bold and applied for work with other forums and I guess I just got addicted to support forums before I made my first venture into the WWW (it wasn't known as the WWW when you were on Compuserve back then).

Now I really feel old.

Jim

 

One of the first forums that I ever posted one was one that I started, this was ummm... 2000 I do believe, wow. I've been a mod or admin on several large and small boards since.

 

That's awesome man, wish I would've networked through like that.

 

A little more than a year being a mod and 8 months being an admin, both were scary in a way.

As a mod I didn't know if I banned the right way, or unfairly, I was always worried.

 

That can be a daunting task, even as a(n) community developer/administrator - using the "ban hammer" wisely is crucial, and is difficult to use in some scenarios. If there's an acceptable alternative to a ban, I'll use it.

 

On the chat you can only ban, we do ban for short periods of times, but usually is for a longer time, I still get worried that I don't make a mistake. x.x As a starting mod that was, uhh, I didn't ban for 3 days and after I HAD to ban some one. Lol.

 

I don't remember. What I do remember is the admin and his new partner being off on vacation when some issue arose on the forums. I emailed them and their response was "You're now the administrator of the forums, deal with it as you see fit". That was only a few months into my moderation career.

 

Wow, you must have felt awesome but intimidated at the same time. I'd be shocked if that ever happened to me. :lol:

 

hahaha, that's awesome

recall the situation?

 

Jim,

That's brilliant. Even playboy eh? :hello:


I think my first sort of mod role was in the AOL 4 days when I was a chatroom 'guide' (sort of a moderator). Though my first mod role I think was related to a car club/website I ran, we used to meet up at shows and what-not, the other clubs had a forum so I installed one for the lads. Nothing special, at it's peak it had only 2,400-odd members (I still remember that figure, sort of). I wasn't a member of any other forum untill I made that one. Since then I've been a member of any I've come across providing it's ran well.

Thinking about it now, I don't think I've ever been an actual mod on any other forum but my own, so admin only.

 

My first Moderator role was on TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums | Tiling Forum and i was approached by the owner ( Dan) and asked if i was interested...i was honoured and took the role up..nervous at first but soon got the hang of it and have since watched the forum grow at a very fast rate and others forums along with it...i now admin 8 ( i think) and would'nt swap it for nowt.....well a lottery win would be good...