Contact the staff and/or unregistered section

I have recently considered using a "Contact the Staff" section, somewhere around the feedback/announcement area of the forum. A forum that is private to everyone but the member at the staff; kind of like a mass PM discussion. I could see it being useful when a member needs something or has a question but not to any specific staff member. They'll most likely get a faster reply like this, considering the first staff member to see the thread can answer at their own will.

In addition, I have considering adding another section of unregistered users to post. This could be for technical support, primarily, but I guess anything since you'd have no control over what is posted until after it is posted. I don't see as much of a use for a section like this than the first one, but it's something to try.


Anyone use these types of sections?

 

Yes, indeed. It's quite convenient, actually. I made a post recently about this (I thought) but cannot find it.

Everything you said is true about it ensuring the member gets the quickest response possible, because the first moderator to see it will respond. It's better than members PMing one moderator, because you never know how long it's going to be before that moderator signs in again.

 

I recall the post, too. I couldn't find it when I made the thread, either, so I posted anyway.

 

First paragraph: Yes many times with great success, you need to use a notice or announcement to tell people things instead of a sticky cause no one can see the sticky unless they wrote it.

I would really like to talk to the entire staff at this site on a couple of topics but
- I don't know who is who yet because I'm so new so
- might want to put a list of staff members some place that can see the forum, mentors? admin? mods & super mods too?


Second paragraph: I've been tempted a couple of times but found 'creative' ways around the issue at hand.

 

I'm highly considering creating a forum for the sole purpose of private communication between the members and the staff team. I've seen this implemented on a variety of forums and I must admit, it's quite an excellent idea. While conversing with members via private messaging is viable, doing so in a quicker, more convenient manner would be much more enjoyable overall.

 

At AdminAddict, you can see the list of staff here: http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/staff-team.

 

I'm not sure if you would, or would not, consider Mentors (people outstanding in their field) staff. With luck the number of Mentors will grow, but the more people that can see that forum the less useful it will be for administrative purposes.

It all comes down to how you what you want that forum to be - admin for site, vs many people.

Might want to consider have it be admin/mods only. However you define it people will post accordingly.

 

I never thought about that before, I always figured they could use the contact form.

 

We consider Mentors to be a part of the staff. A staff team consists of varying degrees of positions, but Mentors surely are integral parts of the community.

In regards to topic of this thread, Mentors would not have access to the Contact the Staff forum - only moderators and administrators would.

 

All I'm suggesting is to clearly state who will see the threads in that section besides the person that started the thread. If the mentors will not see it then maybe the words 'admins & mods' in the title or description.

It would also help to indicate how permanent that decision is, if it will always be for admins & mods then maybe the word 'only' in the title or description. Threads in a forum like that last forever as opposed to PMs which are forgotten. Years after the threads are started they will still be available to view.

 

Just noticed Supporting members are listed also, I'll assume they would not see that new forum.

(thinking of joining)

 

No, they would not see the Contact the Staff forum any more than a regular member would. The Forum Leaders page has no direct correlation with who would be handling/managing the Contact the Staff forum. The Forum Leaders page is solely a page to list forum staff members, volunteer 'helpers' (i.e. Mentors) and significant members (i.e. Paid Subscribers).

Feel free to, obviously. :lol: Let us know if you have any questions.

 

incoming....

Wow that was fast! Glad to see paypal is working, it was not working for a few people a couple of days ago for subscriptions like this via vB.

 

Looking good, Abomination. :thumbup:

 

I don't have a "Contact the Staff" section, because at this point I don't really think it's necessary. With myself being the only administrator (and the only other staff member being a moderator), most people figure out that they should contact me (I mention it on our contact page, in my signature, and in the welcome PM), or send me an email through the contact form. Anything more, at this point, would just be unnecessary, though I can certainly see its benefits.

As far as unregistered guests posting, I allow it in our "Public Relations" forum (which is the general site- and forum-related feedback and suggestions forum). I've considered closing it to guest posting because the only guest posts we really get in there are for game support, which is not the forum's intent, but it doesn't really happen too often, so it isn't really a problem at this point.

 

So it appears this was implemented!



One general suggestion: let people know when forums are changed/created in the announcements forum. The changes seem to be coming quickly and at least once my subscriptions to the thread that was moved broke, I was lucky to find an updated thread that I'd started.

It would be good to know when to look for those types of things.

Or maybe I am not seeing where the announcements are.

 

I have no idea why your subscription was lost when we created the vBulletin sub-forum. This isn't normal behavior and wasn't expected/intended.

Other than that, the Contact the Staff change has been implemented and we posted an announcement inside of the CtS forum.

I prefer not to post small announcements because it reduces the importance of the announcements forum. If I were to post a thread for every single change, people would become less interested in checking the Announcements forum.

Perhaps a single thread that only administrators can update with small changes like this would be a good idea.

 

The subscription being lost was a fluke.

I did not know the Contact the Staff forum existed, or at least it took me some time to find it so I did not find that message until I'd already found the forum.

I agree about not making too many announcements because it would dilute the information. Maybe a single locked sticky thread in the announcements forum? "Change log", "latest changes", etc. I normally use latest posts instead of looking at the forums.