Are Moderators Needed?

**Lee Lawson** · 21 July, 2010, 15:22 PM

When I think of all the time I've spent recruiting, training and handling issues related to moderation I wonder if it would be less of a headache to not take on any mods and just deal with everything on my own.

I suppose each forum has a different set of dynamics and needs.

Any thoughts?

**StephenM** · 21 July, 2010, 15:24 PM

I've often wondered the same thing myself, *but quickly realized that as a site grows and does more and more activity, it becomes near impossible to moderate everything, and make sure all is in order.

If you had a really active user base, that used the report function of most online communities, these days though, the job would be infinitely easier, and perhaps even doable at that point.

**kayls** · 21 July, 2010, 17:18 PM

i dont seem to need mods at the moment, as i can manage it all by myself, although when we get more popular and it gets to the point where i cant do it on my own i will have to get some.

the problem is that i could trust anyone to be a mod on my forum, as one of the other forums i have been on had a mod who went a bit crazy and started deleting everything...i guess when i do choose a mod, it would have to be one of my friends (all three of my best friends are members of my forum)

**Lee Lawson** · 21 July, 2010, 19:01 PM

Well to be honest I wouldn't need any moderators till 50 members and possibly 5,000 posts. I have about 3 - 4 competitions opened up for the grand opening one a posting competition, FOTM, battle ladder, and two other secret things. So a moderator would come in handy to moderate these competitions, also I have an administrator and some review/package/content team so they can take charge and all that.

Once you find you are struggling at a big milestone hire atleast 2 - 3 members not going beyond 4 because do we really know who our staff are?

**McStormify** · 3 August, 2010, 23:51 PM

Yes, I have wondered this before, but I think you should have moderators and maybe even at least one administrator on your forum. If your forum gets very active, it will be too big to moderate and administrate at the same time, by yourself. Also, if you were unexpectedly inactive, for example if your computer broke, there would be no one to moderate the forums at all. It would be chaos. Therefore I strongly advise you to hire moderators.

**Macster** · 4 August, 2010, 01:29 AM

I think we all thought about this before, I always thought about just running my own forum by myself no help whatsoever, and I am planning to do it right now with my own, but I won't know if I need people until I need them.

This is pretty much how it works lol. Ya won't know until ya know.

I agree that it should only be done in increments. Don't hire like crazy but instead 2 or 3 at a time depending on if it's needed, and just distribute them where needed.

Holy cow, I'm a moderator now

... I need a dance dance icon.

**Felly** · 5 August, 2010, 06:50 AM

I think moderators are necessary, yes. The admin can't always be around, so moderators help out with deleting spam and whatnot when the admin isn't there to do it his or herself. It also takes off some of the workload from the admins.

**About Lee** · 8 August, 2010, 16:29 PM

Thats a tough question. It should work on how active members are on the forums. You could have around 5 daily active users which would only need one member of staff. But if you have over like 30 plus active members that would be a different story.

**Will.Spencer** · 9 August, 2010, 04:44 AM

If you don't have moderators, you can never sleep or take vacation.

Plus, it's good some times to have alternate viewpoints on management issues. Moderators will often give you feedback that regular members don't feel comfortable sharing.

**Regice** · 11 August, 2010, 03:10 AM

Moderators are important to have on larger communities, and I wouldn't hire a mod unless I'm sure that they are a really involved member of the community, staff that know the community are better picks to help run the community and make them grow, but you to know when is enough. I was on a forum, the first forum I really ever joined, and the owner gave out admin and mod positions away like candy on halloween, no joke. It was a mess. Hackings...I know for a fact that there were 6 within a 3 month period, and the last one of those hacking got all but like 600 posts deleted from the forum. I heed you this advice: Know when is enough.

He promised a member a staff position for life just for being the first to join, he did that for the first like 3 or 4 members. Then all of us staff would argue about how to do stuff because there was no real rules. Pick your mods and any staff carefully.