Staff Overkill

[Jazzy]

I was going to join a forum today but then thought twice about it. The problem I had with joining was the amount of moderators/admins the forum has. It's a small forum with a member base of less than 50 members. There are, from what I could see from stats shown, about 15 active members (that includes staff). So what's the problem you're going to ask. The forum has 6 moderators and 2 admins. To me, that's overkill and turned me off. It's not like they are all in different time zones either. I just don't understand why they need so many staff member for such a small member base. Also I want to mention that these staff/admins are not making new topics daily.



My question to you is:



Do you think this is overkill too or is it just me?

 

[DrLeftover]

If the forum is really busy. even with a low number of members, it might work for them



But it does seem like a bit much.



What do you think is a good ratio of ACTIVE users per active staff member in a reasonably busy forum?

 

[netsavy006]

It could be overkill if the forum only has 50 members and 8 staff. Why do they need so many staff people so quickly? Are they worried about too much spam? Also, if they (staff) aren't going to post in their own forum, how are they going to attract others to join and post on the forum?

 

[Jazzy]

If the forum is really busy. even with a low number of members, it might work for them



But it does seem like a bit much.



What do you think is a good ratio of ACTIVE users per active staff member in a reasonably busy forum?

The key word here is ACTIVE. The staff aren't active and the members (what few there are) are busy playing forum games.

It could be overkill if the forum only has 50 members and 8 staff. Why do they need so many staff people so quickly? Are they worried about too much spam? Also, if they (staff) aren't going to post in their own forum, how are they going to attract others to join and post on the forum?

Amen and I agree with you 100%

 

[spleenbegone]

I agree. A single admin should be able to handle that amount, and if it is a small forum, the admins should probably have the most posts, because one of their jobs to start out is to reply to everyone to make sure they don't feel left out.

 

[Sinon]

I actually think I know what forum you're talking about, and I've raised the very same issue there. A forum that size can easily survive with a single admin and at most two mods. More is pointless until such a time arises that more are actually needed.

 

[Kahnai]

I think there should always be only one admin. Forums need the 1 for every 100 rule. This means a forum should have a mod for every 100 active members. Not just members, active members. That's my opinion anyway...

 

[Evil Eye]

Maybe the staff all came from a different (larger) forum

Sure it's overkill, but it's not like it really hurts anyone.

 

[Jazzy]

Maybe the staff all came from a different (larger) forum

Sure it's overkill, but it's not like it really hurts anyone.

It's a fairly new forum. Hell, members who have just registered become mods within a day or two. Having that many staff members for such a small forum base, is a turn off for me. It's like all they are doing is watching and waiting for you to say something and then...BAM! They aren't making new threads and they are also complaining how inactive the forum has become. Don't think this one will be around much longer.

 

[spleenbegone]

It's a fairly new forum. Hell, members who have just registered become mods within a day or two. Having that many staff members for such a small forum base, is a turn off for me. It's like all they are doing is watching and waiting for you to say something and then...BAM! They aren't making new threads and they are also complaining how inactive the forum has become. Don't think this one will be around much longer.

Natural selection of the internet world?

 

[hissae2]

That's way too many staff members to have. With that many active members, you should really only have 2-3 staff members, because there is no need for more. Having that many would turn me away as well. There should really only be one moderator for every 20 or so active members.

 

[Locke]

I think not joining a site over such an arbitrary fact as the number of admins or moderators is a bit silly. What's far more important is whether those moderators and administrators do their job properly. There's any number of reasons why a site may have more staff than you would personally use.



For example, say an admin has a lot of technical knowledge, but he's socially stupid. He'd want somebody with the ability to deal with the setting up of rules (easier said than done because the same rules don't work for every site on the net), the recruitment of moderators, the training of moderators, and a host of different people-centric issues. The fact that admin is technically competent means he is also free to recruit an admin based solely on their social skills.



As far as moderators go, that can be explained several ways. Nepotism is certainly a possibility. But so is specialized knowledge. Or assigned forums. Or a host of other factors.



What it really boils down to, for me, is how the site's managed by the people in charge. Not how many there are in charge.