Too much staff?

[Randy]

Do you find it to be a turn off when a forum has a ton of staff members?

 

[Briggers810]

Well, some sites have a large amount of staff (promotion sites, News type sites) for multiple reasons.

I myself have a large(ish) number of staff for the main reason that my site is currently both running its own Gaming news website (so needs people to be working on the content for the site.

I've also then got 2 sites that are having their forums on my site (as in having sections of the site for them, so those sections have got their own staff members from their own sites running those sections.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

A forum should have enough staff so that nobody gets stressed out and quits because they are overwhelmed.

 

[Princess]

A forum should have enough staff so that nobody gets stressed out and quits because they are overwhelmed.

Good point.

 

[Ashley]

[quote name='Nebulous']A forum should have enough staff so that nobody gets stressed out and quits because they are overwhelmed.

Good point.[/quote]



I agree. It also depends on what the site is based on, like Briggers said. If it's an advertising site, where they offer loads of services, then yes, you will practically need all hands on deck to get at least some of the projects completed. However, if it's just a general chat forum, and depending how many members that forum has, then I would say that you don't need a whole lot of staff for a forum that has everything and anything to discuss.

 

[Peace2]

It depends on the size and genre of the site. I wouldn't give too many people access to global moderation if I were any of you. Really you wouldn't need much staff if you allowed some type of mediators watching over your forum in the community section. Less moderators and the global mod can make sure they are doing well.

 

[Princess]

At FA we had mods and Admins from all over the world. That worked really well, because there seemed to be always someone online to handle whatever came up.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Ive been to a couple general chat forums with.. for example.. 50 members.. 10 of which were staff. I thought that was a little odd.

 

[Evil Eye]

Depends on their plans and positions doesn't it?

 

[Ashley]

At FA we had mods and Admins from all over the world. That worked really well, because there seemed to be always someone online to handle whatever came up.

Sounds like a forum I once had. We tried to get as many people from various time zones on the staff team as necessary so that there would be around-the-clock security. Actually, with all the spamming and hacking attempts about, and even DDOS attack threats, I actually wouldn't mind doing that again, really, because these days, your forum needs all the protection that you can get your hands on. So sometimes, no matter what the genera, having a few extra staff members can probably be a good thing.

 

[Madyy]

We have three admins, a manager (me), and 2 staff members...as well as 10 interns since we're in the process of a new program. We all have our things we do...all 3 of our admins are designers (it's a resource forum), and 2 of the 3 post regularly and the other is in UK time and posts a bit, but he's in university, so that limits his time. I post and design and one of the staff members posts and the other doesn't post much, but designs. It all depends on the type of board...the board I work at is a resource forum with a pretty big community focus as well, so we need staff to keep the posts coming in the community area, as well as filling requests, posting resources, etc.

 

[Payton]

The member to moderator ratio should be balanced, in my opinion. A forum that only has twenty two registered members and more than four moderators wouldn't work; a forum with one hundred fifty registered members and say fifteen moderators would work perfectly.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

The member to moderator ratio should be balanced, in my opinion. A forum that only has twenty two registered members and more than four moderators wouldn't work; a forum with one hundred fifty registered members and say fifteen moderators would work perfectly.

Well we have nearly 800 members so how many moderators should we have (in your opinion)?

 

[Evil Eye]

150:15 => 800:80

 

[Flurry]

150:15 => 800:80

I think 80 would be over kill o.0

 

[Jazzy]

It's not the amount of staff, it's the quality of staff.

 

[Evil Eye]

I think 80 would be over kill o.0

Definitely

 

[Flurry]

It's not the amount of staff, it's the quality of staff.

Agreed. Why there is only 4 of us at IC F.

 

[Payton]

[quote name='Payton']The member to moderator ratio should be balanced, in my opinion. A forum that only has twenty two registered members and more than four moderators wouldn't work; a forum with one hundred fifty registered members and say fifteen moderators would work perfectly.

Well we have nearly 800 members so how many moderators should we have (in your opinion)?[/quote]

I think you have a good amount right now. I forgot to consider that:

It's not the amount of staff, it's the quality of staff.

While the amount of staff does in some cases matter, you also have to keep in mind the quality of your moderators.



Also, rethought that 150:15 thing; I think five moderators on a forum with 150 members could probably do the job.

 

[Blake]

I dont mind how much staff there is as long as theres more members then staff.