How do you approach the chain of command when managing your message forum? For example, if you have three staff ranks such as:

 

 

1. Administrator

2. Super Moderator

3. Board Moderator

 

 

 

 

 

Do you stick with this structure? If so, do you have multiple admins, super moderators, or board moderators?

 

 

Or do you prefer to create a more customized hierarchy with unique titles like:

 

• Owner

• Chief of Staff

• Supervisor

• Team Leader

 

 

What are your thoughts on coming up with creative staff titles and positions for a forum’s chain of command? Do you think it adds value, or does it come across as over the top?

For a professional forum, until it breaks out and creates a sub-culture of its own, I would stick with the default titles of Administrator and Moderator.

 

For a niche community, I would start with something unique and then ask for community input later to create engagement and to solidify the culture at that point.

 

Same would go with the user title ladder — with the option for users to customize it on their weighed on a forum by forum basis. As for me, I'll never take donations, but that would be one example of how an admin should approach it: You need to add value to that donation (or subscription), and that's the easiest to contemplate first.

if you have a lot of staff members and a lot of users who create a lot of posts every day, I think having a chain of command will help you with your forum management work. However, I have never owned big forums and there was only me to manage the site

if you have a lot of staff members and a lot of users who create a lot of posts every day, I think having a chain of command will help you with your forum management work. However, I have never owned big forums and there was only me to manage the site

I Break it down into categories where my staff will succeed. i put people in positions where i know they are going to excell at it well.

For my sites I only have Admins and Moderators. I think section moderators are a thing of the past unless you have a promotional forum with services, then your content members are technically section moderators.

I stick with simply Administrator, Global Moderator, Forum Moderator (moderates a singular forum).

Since I've been flying solo for many years, there's only an Admin group. If I have a fully-fledged team for a resource board I would probably have three user groups for staff members: Admin, Resource Team, and Community Team