What rights would you give a admin?

Casper001

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Hi, I'm starting up a new forum (PHPBB3) And I have been notoriously known for giving out to much rights, Which is why I would like your opinions on what you would give each rank. Just bullet points will do
 
For me, I'd give more rights to people I know, worked with and trust. If it's my first time working with them I wouldn't give them as much permissions as I do to the people I know/trust.
 
Yes, I believe trust is a major factor in deciding the permissions of certain members, just as Rocky said. If it's someone you know real well, and you know that they would do their job right, then that's probably the kind of person you would want to make an administrator. You also have to take into consideration how much experience they have working with websites (I'm talking about specific things, like coding, graphic design, etc.). I wouldn't hire someone I barely know as an administrator. I would make sure that the person is a close friend; someone I've known for a while, and know wouldn't mess with anything on the site.
 
If you are making someone an admin, they should have just as many powers as you do on the forum itself. But, you probably don't need to give them passwords to get into your cPanel on your hosting account or FTP login's though. You can keep up on all the maintenance yourself. Its better if only one person handles that anyway.
 
Personally, I never make anyone an admin if I do not know them. I don't necessarily mean I have to know them in real life, but there are people who I have had prior experience with who I would trust with administration permissions.

1) Do not hire an administrator that you do not need. A small to medium forum can generally get away with having one administrator.
2) When you identify that you need another administrator, look for someone you either know or others have endorsed. If you cannot find someone, next look at your current moderators and pick one that seems very active, loyal, and mature. If you don't have any moderators, maybe instead of making a new administrator, make a moderator instead.
3) Once you find an admin, only give them permissions to actions that can be undone easily. And there's no need to be all awkward about it: let them know that they are currently in a probationary phase during which they will have limited permissions. As they prove themselves, they will get more and more.
4) As you come to trust them more, you can give them more and more permissions. However, if you are the site owner, do not give your password to your CPanel or FTP unless you explicitly trust that person, and have a need to give out that information, because with those credentials they can effectively destroy the website fairly easily.

Using CPanel you can create limited FTP accounts. So you can give those out to your admins if you need them to do something for you, then you can taken their work from their folders and apply it on the main site.
 
Casper001 said:
Hi, I'm starting up a new forum (PHPBB3) And I have been notoriously known for giving out to much rights, Which is why I would like your opinions on what you would give each rank. Just bullet points will do
The fact you say you are starting up a new forum sounds like there is no need for staff members yet. The forum can easily be managed with one admin, which i presume would be you?
 
Well GamerPerfection, it's always good to have a Co-Administrator to help you. Trust me he/she is definitely needed. I've done it alone a LOT of times and it's a lot of work starting off (promoting and getting content on the forum).

You can be the only admin but it's a handful of work but if you're up to it then go for it! 😀

You'll be holding a ton of power. :rofl:
 
I did it myself for a while, but a RL friend got involved and so i made him a moderator. I only considered it because I know him in real life. But yeah quite a bit of help is needed with advertising.
 
You really need to trust the person you are hiring. Then, you have to be sparing with the permissions you grant. Don't let them dig through your entire ACP system, none of the server permissions should be available to them, and don't let them just plow over you in public. Assert yourself, and make sure they know that they can't just tromp all over the ACP doing whatever. I am in a strict partnership like that, and it's working quite well 🙂
 
I actually agree with GamerPerfection. As much as running a forum on your own is exhausting, in starting a new forum you may not need another staff member so far. They are needed as your forum grows anyway.

Still, if you decide to get someone to help, permission wise it depends on what the job description for this fellow administrator. If he is only a back-up kind of administrator, you may not need to give too much permissions, just basic ones related to users or forums maybe. But if you two are going to work together and run the community together, you may as well give him full permissions like you have. cPanel or domain details are a bit more sensitive which I think can only be given under emergency or urgent situations.
 
I agree with most other people here. As phio_chan said, I personally do not think small forums need two admins, all I think they need is an Admin and a moderator, however this can change depending on what genre the forum is.

If you do want another admin though, I would start off small with the permissions and work the way up from there. If the admin is going to be a technical admin, then choose someone you trust, or know has had the position on other forums before, as they will have the ability and permissions to take over your site.
 
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