Mentoring new moderators

[MasterA]

Do new moderators on your forum get mentored by other moderators who have been around for longer? If yes, do you find it useful for the development of the new moderator?

 

[Geoffrey]

I usually promote people that don't need much training or mentoring, and so they just jump right in. I've seen forums have an "intern" phase before being full staff to learn the ropes and improve yourself, but it's not for most forums.

 

[Reverse Flash]

I don't. All of my mods are well-trained already.

 

[Cierra]

Yes, I have a team leader who trains all new hires. I've also wrote a pretty extensive staff guide and how-to.

 

[Thomasss]

I have actually started a system that has Intern Mods and have my current staff of the same group train them on how we do things around the forum. Of course hiring people that can start right away is a plus but they tend to have a different way of approaching things, etc. so to have that extra phase of training keeps everyone on the same wavelength on how do to things.

 

[THF_Martin]

I normally offer it myself - I own the site so seems only right that I help them do what they are there to do correctly to a way that I want. This is of great importance for me as I often hire internally from people actually interested in the niche, who don't usually have moderator experience previously.

 

[Mikaya]

There's never really been a need for it. New mods tend to learn from others by witnessing things that have already been resolved, and get to grips with procedures pretty quickly. If they had a question, an admin or another mod would be happy to help.

 

[Rinirinirin]

I used to be a moderator on a friend's forum. His system was having some little how to's and do's and don'ts in the staff forum, and suggesting the mods to read those.

That is basically what I have done, and it seems to have worked well.

 

[flash_drive]

When I used to own a forum before I went out to become a host, I used (IPB) and coded a application witch logged all of the new moderators actions, restricted some power, then the system would give the moderator's power little by little, and if they used the power wrongly, they'd be set back to user group and a H.A + Would have to review it and make a final choice.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

Honestly, I would rather have a training group, or do one on one training with any new moderators, than to assume that they will either watch and observe how things are done, or jump into moderating, because you may not always know what you are getting in terms of a new moderator.

You might get a moderator that is great at moderating, but on a small forum, when you have a big forum that needs quicker decisions and more focus and maturity.

 

[Vocal.]

If the forum is big enough then yes. I know one forum that had a system were members became "interns" before they were given full fledged staff positions. That way they could learn and develop their skills.

 

[Sharon]

I can definitely see the advantages of practicing this. For me personally, most people I work with have already ran their own forums or have experience as moderators and other positions so there really isn't anything new to show them.