Do you think it's a good idea to hire someone in your family as a moderator, or even an admin? Do you think it's a good idea to mix family with forum operations?
For me, I would not hire anyone in my family as staff unless I really was that desperate. I'd like to keep my family away from any kind of forum operations, and if they break a rule or do something wrong, firing them (if it came that) would be really awkward. 😛 It's just like mixing family with business. 😛
It really depends on the situation, and whether or not the particular family member would be able to handle the sort of job.
My oldest brother, while he cannot administrate a forum worth anything (using the acp for anything other than moderation duties and spam stuff), he is great at moderating forums!
Personally, I don't tell my family much about my forums and sites, let alone make them staff. 😛
I think in general, though, it's best to be careful with making friends and family staff on a forum, as you may end up having to fire them, which may be a little bit awkward. :lol:
I probably wouldn't just because It would stray me away from talking about certain things and such. None of my friends or family even know about the forums and sites I go to and I'd like to keep it that way.
I think it varies and is based on the family member or person being promoted to staff. I know that a friend of mind has her brother on as staff and he's rarely active. It doesn't seem to be an issue for her though. She kind of see's him as a co-owner or co-founder of her forum since 2007.
I wouldn't even invite them to the forum in the first place. Imagine having rants and getting annoyed at each other because of forum issues (like someone getting promoted and a family staff member didn't like it, or banning a friend for example). Real life and online life just don't mix. Being online on the same forum, and doing staff duties, and being in the same room, is just weird. (assuming you live with the person, of course). 😛
I think it'd be a pretty cool idea. I helped my sister create a forum a few years ago and ran it with her (as the "technical" administrative side) for a while. It actually grew a little bit until she gave up with it. It was always "her" site though.
I also know a couple of brothers who ran a popular forum together a while ago. As the two administrators with about four mods, they ran (very well too) a forum bringing in over 2,500 posts a day.
I wouldn't want to hire family to be part of my site simply because I don't really want most of them on site to begin with. (My site is not one they'd really fit into for one. Plus I wouldn't want them dragging things that happen online into the offline space.)
There was one family member whom I would hire, but they have absolutely zero interest in being a member... let alone staff. So it just wouldn't work out. But if they were interested in being staff, I would still hire them cautiously and make sure they knew what their expected role was.
To be honest, this situation wouldn't be handy to me. None of my family members have any interest to be on forums..or online..at all. It wouldn't work out and I wouldn't want them to work on a forum..or be on any forum itself.
I've never hired family members as staff before. The only family member I have who knows of forums and what not is my dad. And I don't want him reading stuff on my own personal forum in the first place. If it is a family based forum or something specific to you and your family then sure, but I don't think so otherwise. 😛
I don't see why not, though I wouldn't do because they're related to me or because I know them irl. If they followed application criteria or showed reasonable interest on site then I'd do it.
When it comes to firing family members, it'd be depend on the context. If they lost interest or went inactive I don't think they'd mind. If they were being a pain about something and I had no other choice but to remove their rights, then yeah I'd do it and tell them not to get to fussed over being demoted on an internet forum. 😛
If it is a family based forum or something specific to you and your family then sure, but I don't think so otherwise. 
