When it comes to how your staff interact with members, are you strict, or do you not have that many rules? What I mean is something such as a member and staff member talking in a thread and joking around (nothing inappropriate).
On my forum, me and my staff generally just have fun and hang out with the members. Being a rule enforcer is necessary.
I've noticed on FP that we (the staff) get along well with most members and tend to joke around a lot.
I'm not strict on my forum either. Heck, it's a general chat forum for cryin' out loud, no need to be strict! We do like to lay back, goof off, and have all kinds of fun. I remember a Marie 1988 site I used to have when we were all seriously going off topic and discussing things like you wouldn't believe... nothing inappropriate of course. I almost wanted to change the logo from "the official everything and anything forum" to "the land of the Crazies!" because that's seriously what it was turning into. It was all in fun. In fact, I believe that no matter what kind of site you run, it's always good for staff to interact and chat with members. As long as they're polite, curteous, and everyone is having fun, that's what matters in my opinion.
I think you have to give the staff freedom within limits. Everybody is different and it is not really possible to (successfully) force all users to act the same like a team of identical robots. It is important for staff to have a bond with the users and not just appear and post when a user breaks a rule. Different types of staff when it comes to situations means that there will always be one or more staff members that appeal to a user in terms of personality and they way they act. If all the staff had strict instructions to moderate and post the same, if a user doesn't like the attitude of one staff member, then he/she isn't going to get on well with the rest of the staff which leads to trouble.
No one wants to be staff on a forum where they have to be serious all the time and be told what to do in every situation and have a set out procedure for everything. It is nice to have a joke with the other staff and members and to have the freedom to do what you think is best in a situation. No user wants to be on a forum where the staff only appear out of the darkness to warn you. It makes the staff look like evil monsters just waiting to pounce on you.
But ya i agree. People come on here to have fun not to have a bunch of rules thrown in their face, thats what real life is for. Sure you need to have rules or it would be chaos but you dont have to take it too far.
Everything is ok in moderation, well at least most things.
I just generally monitor them, see how the work around the forum, if I feel that they could have handled a thread/situation/member better then I will clearly point it out. Only way to learn from mistakes and gain experience. I like to keep all staff members happy and ensure that they are enjoying the forum as much as members, so I don't impose strict rules or guidelines of sort.
