In terms of stress and work, is a mod or admin position harder

[RedVelvetCupcake2009]

I have only had the position of moderator in my lifetime, but I have seen people in both areas and I saw the obstacles they climb. For administrators, they have to make sure the website looks pretty. They have to start conversations on how to promote the forum, be in charge of public relations, questions, FAQ, banning, be in charge of final say on decisions, etc. Moderators do a lot too. I've talked to people about this question, and some of them had a bias against moderators. Moderators don't do as much work as admins, if at all. It's not a serious position. It's just a title to make people feel good. Admins do all the work, and the mods are lazy. I want to be clear. These are not my words. 😀 These words are just what people have told me. I think moderators have a lot if not as much responsibility as admins do. The reason I say this thing is because the administrator hires them for a reason. They obviously can't be at the site all the time, and even one on a forum I once moderated hired me for this reason. He needed to delegate, and he needed our help to keep the forum looking beautiful, spam free, and clear up issues. Given that people on the Internet are immature, these responsibilities take a lot of work. An admin on a forum I used to visit went MIA out of nowhere and did not tell anyone. Well, because of his decision, his responsibilities fell on the moderators, and his former co-admin became power hungry and started bullying members on the forum. It was a disaster. If moderators were not there to balance her out, it would've been much worse. The lesson I learned from this situation is that delegation is important. You can't do everything by yourself. What do you guys think?

 

[Bluezone777]

It's not really wise to insult and degrade your staff because they only became staff because you hired them so if they are lazy fools then what does that make you(the admin(s) that were mentioned above)? You would essentially be degrading yourself by doing it though they are likely not quick enough to pick up on it.

Another thing is if you feel like you are doing everything then perhaps the problem lies with you not delegating your work load? Once again, just goes to show that those judgmental people condemn themselves when they judge the actions of others.

I think the people you are listening to don't know nearly as much as they think they do. I am also sure that pointing this out will get you a lot of drama and other foolishness because they likely won't be able to take what they dish out to others.

Workloads are relative as it is as much to do with what you do then it does with the person in question. What is easy to one is hard for another so it's really hard to say which is harder as it depends on the person as much as it does what task they are doing. I have noticed from my own experiences that the job of admin or mod is harder or easier depending on the forum I was at.

 

[Marie 1988 Forum]

It depends on the niche of the forums. On almost every forum Administration is definitely one of the most demanding positionso out there. Niche specific forums however duties can vary depending on the topic the forum is based on. On my forum, administration are only expected to make sure posts are up to date and maybe handling punishments. Moderatorso are expected to do likewise only not as much as admins.

 

[Mozzie]

I think it is only as hard as you make it. Over the years, i have seen new Admins and staff fall into the old power trip hole. many boards have closed because of it. Respect your staff, don't be a dick about everything, listen to your staff and take a back step to staff that may know more abut stuff than you

 

[RH-Calvin]

I would say that the admin and mod have the same stress to maintain their forum and staff reputation. Engaging in new conversations and keeping up with staff activities help to build your forum reputation.

 

[Corzhens]

From what I understand with forums, the moderators are concerned with the posts only. When there is a troll, that's the job of the mod. When there is a flame war, the mod is also there to break the fight. He's also authorized to block or ban spammers. With the admin, he has more responsibilities although he also handles moderating when there is no mod present. I guess the strss level is greater with the admin atlhough the mod can also experience excessive stress depending on the situation. Just my thoughts.

 

[Shannon Apple]

We trust our moderators to deal with problem users themselves. If a user needs to be banned for longer than 14 days, they can post it in the mod forum and we'll deal the correct punishment. They can ban spammers using the spam button, they just can't issue custom bans to regular members since that option isn't available on Xenforo. I put a 10 point infraction onto the warning system that is basically a 14 day autoban by the system if the mods need to use it in emergency.


On the large forum we had before, I was a supermoderator before I was admin. Having experienced both sides, I think the stress levels are about equal. The admins there never handled user issues. Mods were trusted with the task of dealing with them as they saw fit leaving admins free to do other essential stuff.

Sometimes, you'd get some crazy person attacking staff and saying that they shouldn't have an opinion on the forum. They think that mods/admins aren't members too. This happens a lot and it happens to both mods and admins. That can make your position really painful at times. lol.