Backroom Staff

[Cosmic]

So, this is something which I occasionally struggle with as a staff member on various forums.

Forums, in general, require a lot of work to maintain. There are issues that arise which have to be dealt with, plans, etc. If your forum has enough staff members, it's easy to get engrossed in your forum's backroom. By that, I mean, spending too much time in the staff forums, and not enough time in the main forums, participating in the community. It can get to the point, sometimes, where you lose sight of the purpose of the actual forum because of the pressures of maintaining it. I guess everyone has a finite number of time, and it seems sometimes that there are an infinite number of tasks which have to be done.

Are you are backroom staff member? How often do you venture out of the staff boards onto the main forums? Do you have any staff members who do this?

 

[Chris K]

I personally don't have this problem and never had this problem in the past but I have seen on other forums (Where I became a staff member) they would neglect the main board to talk in staff forums, it was a waste because they were huge in the mid 2000's now they no longer exist.

I have a set routine, check staff forums then go to main board to reply, new topics, answer questions. I don't ever just pick a specific area and neglect the rest.

 

[Tucker933]

If it's not relevant to maintaining the site, then it doesn't belong in a staff room.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

I have not had this problem. I will check out what is going on in the staff room (to make sure and check out any information that I need to be aware of. Then, I make sure and browse through the community for anything that needs moderation and make my posts/replies.

 

[Ashley]

I don't have this issue. My staff and I are pretty good about staying in the main forum.

 

[Agent_Zero]

I have started a mod forum. I want to keep discussions about duties and expectations and problems in that forum so it can develop into a useful tool for future mods/admins.

 

[Ashley]

I have started a mod forum. I want to keep discussions about duties and expectations and problems in that forum so it can develop into a useful tool for future mods/admins.

Well, we have staff rooms, what I meant to say was that we don't spend 24/7/365 in just that forum. My staff and I are pretty good about going all over the place.

 

[Agent_Zero]

I have started a mod forum. I want to keep discussions about duties and expectations and problems in that forum so it can develop into a useful tool for future mods/admins.

Well, we have staff rooms, what I meant to say was that we don't spend 24/7/365 in just that forum. My staff and I are pretty good about going all over the place.

Yeah, I only have one other staff member now so things aren't really that interesting down there anyway lol

I have topics started for various issues like one for expectations and one for site rules. I have threads that give screen shots of how to do things like using the report queue. These can been ongoing staff discussions through the life of the forum and future mods/admins will have access to the discussions.

 

[Thomasss]

For me personally I tend to stay out of the staff rooms because I know this is an issue, and normally most staff boards are rather boring anyway so that makes it a plus.

We have our normal staff banter on my board however most of the staff like to talk to other members instead of just themselves, if the staff want to talk they usually take it to a PM.

 

[Ash]

I don't have this problem on my forum and my staff spend most of their time on the main forum boards. I think this type of problem will persist more on bigger forums with much more staff members

 

[mav3n]

Oh no, I stay in the back, it's scary out there! When I was running a forum, I would always try to come out and mingle with the other users, you know, show that I am an open person and I feel that it creates more of an inviting experience!

 

[Page]

I'm that Admin that likes to be in front then the back-end. being in the back-end is very stressful and by being in the front where you members are you get away and learn new things, plus get to know your members more and members like seeing admins doing that