Your experience with moderators recruited from outside the forum

This is regarding moderators that monitor member behavior. Not so much other things mods do.

If your mods were recruited from outside your forum membership ... especially if they were selected more for their people skills and didn't really know the forum topic ...

How did it go? What would you recommend looking out for - positive attributes to select, things to avoid?

Would you do it again? If so what would you do differently?

thanks!

 

I've always found that these individuals tend to monitor member behavior effectively, but perform horribly when it comes to socializing with the community - particularly in regards to the subject matter at hand. This (to me) is an issue.

I can't say that I've hired a moderator to simply monitor the day-to-day activity(s) of other members, but I have brought in select individuals who were given the task of catering to the members (i.e. listening to feedback which is then reviewed and reported to me). If this is what you are referring to above, then yes, having these people on your team can work to your benefit. These individuals serve as a medium (more or less) - rather than taking the time to deal with the members individually, the members of this team will make it a point to specifically focus in on the community's wants, needs, and desires. They'll then sort through the feedback received, filter through the unnecessary commentary, and report their findings back to me.

It actually works quite well, particularly if you don't have the time to deal with such feedback yourself!

 

Thanks Chris,those are good thoughts, they are helpful.

I'm considering this for mods who actually monitor behavior ... sending notes about small infractions and large ones, interacting with members, persuading them to adhere to rules or telling them to make a decision. I'm concluding the hobby forum is not a magnet for true member-moderating personalities. Not finding the people needed in the membership.

If I did this they could post in the General Off Topic forum to help people get to know them. (Commentary on news items, personal events, etc.) I agree it would be embarrassing to have them posting in the hobby forums themselves, there is a basic level of core knowledge expected.

 

I have actually met one of my moderated off-site in Cambridge and it was quite nice to meet up. He's a good guy, and I probably would have made him a moderator if I only knew him in the outside if I knew that he was capable of it.

Usually if you hire a moderator off-site you don't know quite how they'll behave on the forums. Usually people will behave differently. While the person in question could be a very sophisticated friendly man in real life, THAI CUD TALK LYK THIS on the internet. So yes, I'd only hire people who I have assessed by their behavior on the forums.

 

I would never allow such a person to be a moderator - on any of my forums.

To be a moderator on my forums - you have to have been a long term member, and you have to know the topic of the forum.

 

I am with the people who would never allow this. Sure, someone recruited from an admin forum like here might be good at managing forums to some degree 'on paper', but each community is different, and it's difficult to manage a forum community with no or little knowledge of how it works, and will not particularly make you popular with the users of said forum.

Yes, I know the last part. Some people I know said they'd leave a forum if the owner added moderators recruited from elsewhere.

 

The problem is that unless some bright gem pops up, after quite a survey I rather think that mods from within the forum mean modding won't be done well. We will loose some of the forum quality we've worked for.

One benefit of an outside moderator would be proven performance in other forums. There would not be so much of a learning curve, which an in-house recruit may never climb.

It is a puzzle to solve. Perhaps continue to keep an eye out inside the forum for better candidates.

 

I'd possibly do it on a short term basis, and let everyone know the timeline, 1 month, 3 months. If you need to change the time line later that can be done, but that way it is not an open ended position. During that time you may find someone from your site.


Most communities are built on respect and no one knows the outside people.

 

That's a good point, but honestly I've never had an issue with moderators from within the community. In fact, I've never recruited a moderator from outside of the community.

A member of the community already knows the forum's subject matter well, and can therefore keep discussion flowing and active. Additionally, they already have relationships with the members and as a result, members are more likely to respect the moderator. It's a fact of nature that beings respect their peers more than they do an unfamiliar power-figure (i.e. a moderator from outside).

You talk about experience and a learning curve: My [now]-best moderator had never been a moderator before I chose her. I had to teach her each and every little thing, and she learned the way things worked as time went on. During this time, our relationship became stronger, I trusted her more and more, and I became confident in her abilities. Members also witnessed her growth as a moderator. They were proud for her when we first announced her new role, but as time went on, people noticed that she was getting better and would make comments that reflect that.

It was a learning experience for all, and to this day, she is my forefront moderator -- the best one, that is.

She is a sweet gal, but that doesn't stop her from doing her job. She knows that when she puts on her "moderator cap", she moderates in an unbiased manner and will even discipline her best friend in the community if she must. She does her job, and she does it well, and that's what makes her a great moderator.


I've never had a single issue with any of my moderators, and they have all always been chosen from within the community. Either I'm really lucky, or moderators from within tend to be safe choices.

 

I have actually separated the roles of thread-booster and new-topic-source from the job of working with rule-breaking members. The main reasons were learning that staff strengths in one were in no way tied to strengths in the other, and also volunteers simply having enough time to do both.

So topic-boosting is already done by people who do not do "intervention" moderating. Some of the best at that role don't want to moderate members, so that really helped that branch of forum work.

"Intervention" mods only have to work smoothly with bad actors. They don't really have to know anything about the topic to send notes " ... against the rules on language allowed in that sub-forum ... " etc. I'm looking for mods who are good at knowing when to send such notes, and wording them in ways that encourage agreement and compliance. And good judgment in referring members who may merit suspension or banning, a call made by admins.

 

i was actually asked to be admin on a forum for someone who saw me posting on another forum like this one, and we get on well, even though we didnt know eachother very well at first.

personally i have to know my mods before i give them powers. the people who are moderators on the main forum i admin on know both me and the friend who i run the forum with, and have known eachother for a few years, or are helpful members who have been on the forum since the beginning (which so far, has been about 8 months)

 

Could you clone her and share the clone??? :p That's exactly the person I'm needing. Maybe I can grow one in-house as you did.

Yes I agree, it's critical to know how a mod candidate behaves in different circumstances. I have some wonderful and wise members whose posting makes them an almost-mod, they can positively influence an upset thread. But they do not necessarily do all that well with sending a nicely-worded 'knock it off' pm, one-on-one. I agree an admin has to know how that will go before making someone a mod.

 

I can't see myself ever recruiting for moderators.

 

I have a Seniors Forum. The first one closed down and now this is my second. Same members and moderators though and have had them for 5 years.

I had a couple of them as penpals for years before that. One is very successful the other hardly comes on now so I am finding it hard to tell her I am thinking of getting another one to take her place.

Another one was a friend through forums and was an administrator of another forum and she was most helpful to me when I first started. She asked if she could be moderator and never comes on.

Lesson learnt here you can't let your feelings run away like I have. Now I want them both out, any tackful suggestions how to overcome it.

 

Nice PM to them letting them know you only want a limited number of people with access to the moderators controls, and that if they do not want to keep up just to let you know. Word it like you have a limited number invitations to a wedding ; )

When you say seniors, do you mean academic seniors, or retired people?

 

Thank you for that advice. I will do that and my forum is for retired Seniors.

 

You are welcome, and you are doing those seniors a great service. Your forum may be one of the few methods of communication they have to the outside world.

Nursing homes are no fun.

 

And also the other way round can work ... you can tell them that because you understand they have less time for the forum, because you need to know the mod tasks are done on a regular basis and because only mods who are active are allowed access to the mod powers and/or mod forum, you are moving them to a special lifetime-access group with honors for their past service. Something like that. You are making the decision and taking the action without waiting for their response.

If you do ask if they want to continue, you might add that if they are unable to respond in the next 14 days you are assuming they are not continuing. That way you don't wait forever.

Reasonable people will understand that if they are not doing the job then a change is in order. It may even be a relief to them, they may be hesitating to tell you they don't really want to continue. If they are unhappy don't worry about it, they aren't reasonable people. And likely they won't be on your forum anyway.

Had to institute a policy on my forum that a mod not visiting for 90 days is the equivalent to an opt-out. They have to be active as a mod to stay a mod. That's discussed up front when they are invited, so it is much easier to take action if they flake later.

 

I did contact her and she was realieved that I had as she was hestitating telling me she did not want to do it and I like the idea of a Special Group. I have a new Moderator and as they all are she is eager and I am hoping it stays that way.

Good advice all around. Thank you.