How to recruit forum Mods for old forum

[mediaguy35]

My main biz is Copywriting, but I own an old forum and took a second look at it and kind of like the idea of doing it again. I know its going to need Moderators, but am clueless about how to recruit them - any tips would be appreciated.

Not sure how many I will need, maybe 3?

 

[mediaguy35]

Thanks

I did think of what you suggest, but what if none of em want to do the job, then I'm back to square one. Think is, will new m embers want to do this for free? as I dont want to pay em if I can help it.

Forum is offline at the mo, has about 950 or so members and 3000 posts.

 

[lynxus]

Thanks

I did think of what you suggest, but what if none of em want to do the job, then I'm back to square one. Think is, will new m embers want to do this for free? as I dont want to pay em if I can help it.

Forum is offline at the mo, has about 950 or so members and 3000 posts.

If there are a lot of active members then the chances are people will want to Moderate the forum. for the power trip or simply to help out.

In most cases, the people who have been around for a while, help people a lot and "Report" spam, offending users etc.. These are the people to ask if they would like to become a moderator.

If someone is reporting posts and is pretty much 99% on the ball. Then why not give them the chance to just delete the spam themselves.

 

[Kay]

You're basically wanting people to work for you for no pay. What's in it for them? You have to be able to answer that question or it's not very likely that anyone will want to do it.

If the forum is currently offline you'll need to bring it back on line and do some work to revive it before trying to recruit anyone. If it's not busy at first, then you won't need mods anyway. First you need an active and busy forum.

Running a forum is a heck of a lot of work. You obviously know this as you run this one before. In the early days of starting up (or for a relaunch) the owner practically has a full time job starting discussions and encouraging people to join in until it reaches critical. Plus you might need to pay some people to post just to kickstart it again.

Meanwhile, the forum is offline. Where have all the members gone? Are they just waiting for you to restart? How long ago did you take it offline? Maybe they've gone off and got settled into another forum and they'll be hard to win back.

You have a tough job ahead of you and recruiting moderators seems a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

Good luck.

 

[Ian J]

Use your own employees who have good knowledge in respective subjects, pick from the member who has the highest and most authentic posts in the forums.

Forum moderation is ensuring that members and posts comply with the forum's rules and not arbitrating technical arguments so a good knowledge isn't required at all.

You need to look through your member list to find people who have been regular visitors, helpful posters and above all even tempered and approach them

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

Out all the donkey work in yourself, working 12 hours a day, grow it with lots of members and the those that on there a lot will normally like to help out. Then sit back and take a break. By the way though, will the moderator's posts have to be perfect English?

 

[mediaguy35]

Where have all the members gone? Are they just waiting for you to restart? How long ago did you take it offline? Maybe they've gone off and got settled into another forum and they'll be hard to win back.

Yeah - that's a point hmmm didnt really think about lost members ahhh. But I think a few were just spammers hoping for a free link etc, and managed to get nearly 1000 members first time round, as used other sites to plant the seed so to speak. I dont anticipate problems getting new members - just need loyal ones.

I did enjoy starting it up, making posts it was my little baby, but now worried about whether to go slightly niche with it (build a few sub forums) or to remain as a Biz marketing with news forum.

Trouble with me is I cannot settle on one idea and jump about from one idea to the next. Got like 10 websites to run already, but something in my gut tells me to add a forum to dunno.. add to our portfolio??? not to be everything, but offer a social aspect and forums.

So tempted, but am probably panicking over what the competition is doing nect. If doesnt work all ive lost is a bit of cash and some time -- i still have the content working for me - but then a forum has to be alive with posts or its loses what its supposed to be right. Thing is its got some good content in it alread and want to make use of it at some point, shame to lose all that work already done, and why Mods could be useful to help make posts and run things.

Was going to give Mods a lifetime free link, company logo etc, SEO it somehow, and monetise it with paid options and ads. Maybe later key Mods could be paid an hourly rate or something.