forums

Assembling your Forum’s Team

by on October 6, 2010

Some forums can’t be run without some staff. So, what should you look for when hiring staff?

Well, you sure don’t want a bunch of unprofessional leaders on your staff. So, here are some tips on how to hire some good, trust able staff.

  • 1) You can’t stop the willing!

    • When hiring staff, you should always look for the person that is either most active or most helpful on your forum. Always make sure to pick the people that are most willing to do the job, because you don’t want your staff to find that visiting your forum is a task.

  • 2) Literary Analysis

    • One the most important things that I look for when hiring staff is how good their grammar is and how well their sentences are formed. Let’s face it, no one wants staff that can’t correctly form a sentence, it’s just unprofessional. Spelling is important, but not as important, most software has spell check built-in, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to it.

  • 3) Past Experience

    • When you are hiring staff always look for the most experienced in your forum’s niche. Having the most experienced members as part of your staff will allow things to be done more efficiently, then someone who hasn’t had past experience.

  • 4) Communication

    • Can you easily communicate with the person you are planning to hire? Will you be able to contact them outside the forum (Skype, MSN, or Phone)? Communication is a key for preventing staff confusion. So, when hiring staff make sure there is another way to contact them outside of your forum.

  • 5) Are they truthful and have good behavior?

    • When hiring someone make sure to check that they haven’t been in any trouble or have caused in trouble in the past. Make sure that they are not banned on any other forums. Also, make sure their alias is not located on any “Malicious” sites or listed on any spam lists. You can simply ask them and if they do answer truthfully, then don’t penalize them. If they do lie to you, then don’t hire them, because if they lie to you before you hire them, then what’s going to stop them after?

    So those are some basic tips that can help you Assembling your Forum’s Team. What are your tips for hiring staff? Also, what was your worst moment during hiring a staff member or being on a staff?

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    How Spammers are Using Your vBulletin Forum

    by on July 18, 2008

    Right before the 4th of July Holiday I was doing some regular maintenance on one of my forums and discover that spammers are finding a new little way of spamming your forums without even posting a post or sending private messages.

    So what are they doing?

    Well since the new vBulletin 3.7 came out with the new expand profile comments where yourself or other members of the forums can leave a messages. Well spammers are now using this comment section to show their porn links or whatever else spam link they have. Here is an example:

    vB Visitor Spam

    I have installed a new spambot system, but you really can’t stop the human spammers. But if you have had what you thought was a spammer but didn’t post or send private messages. Check out their profile, you might just find something.

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    Managing Online Forums: A Must Read!

    by on July 3, 2008

    If you have been following my blog you know that a couple of weeks ago Patrick O’Keefe contacted me via Twitter to see if I would be interested in reviewing his book; Managing Online Forums, I said of course without even hesitating. I used to listen to Patrick’s podcast that he used to do a couple years ago. It was a shame when he stopped. Well I finally finished reading it from cover to cover and ready to give it my full review.

    So onto my review:

    Whether you are a seasoned forum owner, just starting out or thinking about staring a forum this book is for you. It is an easy guide from choosing a topic along with a domain name and to setting up a forum without getting to technical and moves on to how to manage and deal with difficult members as well as choosing and managing your staff and much more.

    The chapters are well thought out and planned so whether you’re either thinking about or just starting a forum you will be able to read along as you’re starting the process. One thing that I did find myself doing was taking notes, not just for this review, but for my personal use.

    Patrick uses real life experiences that he has dealt with and gives plenty of examples from developing your forum guidelines, to examples of dealing with those difficult members and how you should manage your staff. These real life examples include e-mails that he uses when there has been a forum violation or dealing with an absent staff member. All are there for you do read and implement them on your own forum.

    One of the curious things that he states in the book is that he does not have a feedback/suggestion forum for his members and he gives a reason that he/administrator has the final say and you shouldn’t let your members decide what should be implemented into your forum. The other thing is that most problems could only be fixed by him/administrator so now he just asks that people contact him directly and he can deal with the suggestion or feedback first hand. I kind of like this idea because as I have seen on other forums, including mine, once a member comes up with a suggest on what to add or implement everyone starts commenting and then your almost left in the position to have to implement the suggestion.

    I could go on and on about this book, but I am telling right now this is a must read and I will be pulling off my shelf from time to time.

    * The above is my own personal opinion and I did not receive any compensation other than the book itself.

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    Upgrades and curling up to a good book

    by on June 11, 2008

    Yesterday turned out to be busier then I thought.

    I decide to take part of the day off and spend sometime away for the computer. Although the weather sucked, it was 55 degrees out side and it’s June, something is definitely wrong around here. But it was nice o just get away.

    So after spending most of the day out and about I thought I would upgrade OpenX to the latest version, I have been slacking on upgrading it. I was upgrading from OpenAds2.11. It went pretty well, although I am still having a little difficulty with importing my database from OpenAds where my banners are being stored. I will figure it out sometime today.

    Also I decided to upgrade my last forum to the vBulletin 3.7.1 PL1, which was just released, I have been running 3.6.8 for a little while and thought since I was upgrading OpenX, I mine as well do another upgrade.

    Then my wife got home and she brought a gift from our PO Box, A copy of Patrick O’Keefe’s book “Managing Online Forums”.

    Patrick contacted me a little over a week ago on Twitter, (gotta love the power of Twitter) seeing if I would like to review a copy of his book and then afterwards contact him about doing an interview. How could I pass that up? I started to read it last night and looking forward to finishing it up in the next couple of days, although it’s around 290 pages in total. So look for that interview in the near future.

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    Getting it done with cold calling

    by on May 16, 2008

    I had to call on a potential new advertising partner for one of my forums yesterday. I have never spoken to before, although I have talked to some of his co-workers before, but never to him personally.

    So hear are a couple of tips that I have learned and use when making a cold call.

    Always be positive, remember that cold calling is a powerful business strategy. First be positive with yourself. You must have some enthusiasm in your voice that the person your calling can feel it right away.

    One of the things I do is to prepare a list of whom to be called and how the introduction should be done. Things may not go the way you want them to, so have always have some type of backup plan in place. Being well prepared can turn a simple cold call into real business.

    Anticipate that you’ll be declined, that’s it! It’s really hard, but never ever take it personally it just may not be the right time.

    Be patient and learn from your mistakes it will all work out in the end. If you’re rejected, ask them with “May I call you back in 3-6 months?” Always leave the door open.

    Oh and I did get a deal done with him and look forward to a lasting partnership.

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