I recently became a moderator on a fairly large forum and it consists of an owner who is difficult to reach and logs in only once a day but sometimes takes like a week to login. Hasn't typed on the forum since 2020 (not counting PMs) and that was when a staff member mentioned him (that staff member has since gone inactive as well). The forum was overtaken with spam I cleaned up most of the forum as the only really active staff.

 

Moderator permissions is also messed up as I can't issue warnings or delete posts however I can use spam cleaner (purge all of a members messages) and ban permissions (he said he was going to contact XenForo as he said those perms were enabled for me I suggested him to check node permission overwrite didn't hear back). The forum still sees decent daily growth as in members/posts. Communication with him is difficult as he does minimum and doesn't always respond to everything if I include it in one message, any thoughts? (Members also asked over the years if he'd sell and he told them six figures he would)

If he can't be arsed, why are you? Create a competitor, stick a link in your signature, and take any active members with you.

Honestly, run away. Waste of time. You are being treated as his slave. He doesn’t care, why should you?

why are you?

why should you?

Because it takes a couple of minutes to check in and maintain and he still checks PMs every once in awhile. His site still ranks really well on Google.

But does your site rank really well on google? You could be putting this effort into building something of your own, not maintaining something belonging to someone else.

Because it takes a couple of minutes to check in and maintain and he still checks PMs every once in awhile. His site still ranks really well on Google.

Honestly, I’d create my own community and focus on driving the members from that community to the new forum.

 

When an owner is inactive for that long, he’s just reaping the benefits from Google.

 

However, if a new competitor is launched with better content and a better owner, it won’t last too long ranking high on Google. Especially with word of mouth growth, users linking to the new forum, etc.

 

You have the opportunity to create something special and make it magical, I’d go for it!

I'm with Al and Cedric on this. I would move on, and start your own forum. It's clear that the owner doesn't care about the forum anymore sadly, if he can't be bothered to log in at least once a day to help out and he's ignoring your DMs it's time to move on

Do you have too much time on your hands? I honestly don't see why you're trying so hard if nobody else is - it is a proper waste of time. The owner is obviously not committed to running the community (anymore). Of course, that can happen in what, 5 years? However, it does not seem like he is planning to get a second (active) administrator or sell it to someone genuinely interested in the community for a realistic amount of money. Also, as some of the members already asked if he would sell the forum, they seem to be very interested in having the type of community it is around. There's a good chance that if you'd create your own community instead, they would actually follow you there.

That is what you get when you have a limited moderation permission and it can be so frustrating especially when you are dealing with a problematic post like yours or when you have too many spammers trying to destroy the forum with stupid posts. Perhaps, you should continue to reach out to the owner of the forum with the hope that you would get an answer someday.

Either create your own community or leverage your efforts to negotiate greater permission sets and compensation with the existing community. If he’s got the infrastructure but no drive, utilize what he’s built in a higher capacity. If this second plan doesn’t work out, default back to creating your own community, market through his existing infrastructure, and drive traffic to your location.

If you really don't want to walk away (which I get, the community might be relatively large and have useful content there), then arrange a proper discussion with the owner about being given some limited admin permissions. Reassure him that you're fine with him limiting those permissions to not allow you to do anything harmful, but tell him that it's clear he doesn't have the time to dedicate to the forum and you'd really appreciate the opportunity of helping out and clearing the place up. If you've already been doing a good job of keeping things ticking over with the limited moderator permissions you already have, he might just be willing to offer that extra bit of trust.

 

Ultimately, I do feel that what Al specifically mentioned should be your realistic option - if the current owner wants a six-figure price tag, I'm guessing the community is either huge, or is in a niche that has huge potential for advertising and associated income - if you have the time on your hands to take on such a site, then you almost definitely have the time on your hands to have a real crack at doing your own forum in the same niche, and attempting to migrate over the members that are also disillusioned with the inattention paid to the current forum... you'll find plenty of resources, advice and support here at Administrata too to help you along the journey. :)

If he can't be arsed, why are you? Create a competitor, stick a link in your signature, and take any active members with you.

That's a little extreme, and will likely get you banned for trying to poach members. I'd ban you if you were apart of my staff, and did that.

That's a little extreme, and will likely get you banned for trying to poach members. I'd ban you if you were apart of my staff, and did that.

Since the owner isn't around, I can't see them finding the energy to ban their only staff member.

Sounds similar to a number of other forums I've heard about over the years. Forum Administration or Owner goes inactive, moderation staff are having issues because of lack of the Admin help. If you can manage it, get the owner to actually fix stuff and not just say he will look into things. An inactive owner never fixes stuff that they think they have a low priority to do.

 

The few active large forums that had active staff but inactive owners, also had issues with permission sets for the moderation staff. What I remember, is that the staff eventually got around to testing advertising by staff, and eventually managed to publicly advertise a successful move over to a new community ran by the staff, because of the lack of response from the owner and administration.

 

Not saying you should do that, but it might be a viable option in the future, if you are dedicated enough to the community base to want something better for them.

I recently became a moderator on a fairly large forum and it consists of an owner who is difficult to reach and logs in only once a day but sometimes takes like a week to login. Hasn't typed on the forum since 2020 (not counting PMs) and that was when a staff member mentioned him (that staff member has since gone inactive as well). The forum was overtaken with spam I cleaned up most of the forum as the only really active staff.

 

Moderator permissions is also messed up as I can't issue warnings or delete posts however I can use spam cleaner (purge all of a members messages) and ban permissions (he said he was going to contact XenForo as he said those perms were enabled for me I suggested him to check node permission overwrite didn't hear back). The forum still sees decent daily growth as in members/posts. Communication with him is difficult as he does minimum and doesn't always respond to everything if I include it in one message, any thoughts? (Members also asked over the years if he'd sell and he told them six figures he would)

It sounds like you’re in a tough spot with the owner being so hard to reach and not really involved in the day-to-day running of the forum. It's definitely a tricky situation when you're trying to keep everything running smoothly but don't have full control over the necessary permissions and communication channels.

 

Since the forum is still growing, that’s a great sign that the community is strong, but it also sounds like you're picking up a lot of the slack. I’d suggest documenting everything you’ve done and keeping a clear record of your communications with the owner—just in case things don’t improve or if you need to escalate things down the road. If the owner isn’t responsive to suggestions, maybe you could consider having a conversation with the members themselves about the situation—sometimes a little transparency can lead to better collaboration within the community.

 

If the owner’s really not actively engaged, you might want to consider proposing a clearer staff structure, with defined roles and responsibilities, or even finding a way to share admin access if that’s possible. I know it’s not ideal, but the last thing you want is to burn out or let things slip due to lack of support.

 

Another suggestion is the same suggestion as [mention=2]Al[/mention] , create a competitor forum and be a bad ass forum owner who will be active and help your staff and forum grow.

 

Hang in there! You’re doing a great job keeping the community alive, and I’m sure others appreciate your effort. Hopefully, the owner will come around, or you’ll find a way to make it work more smoothly!

If he can't be arsed, why are you? Create a competitor, stick a link in your signature, and take any active members with you.

Very true honestly, if the owner doesn't even care it's hard to keep being motivated and want to continue with the forum.

Honestly, run away. Waste of time. You are being treated as his slave. He doesn’t care, why should you?

I agree with this as well, though first I would start with trying to see why the admin is away, hopefully things will improve. If not they should definitely run.

That's a little extreme, and will likely get you banned for trying to poach members. I'd ban you if you were apart of my staff, and did that.

If the admin isn't around anymore, I doubt he'd be upset about members joining a new forum. It's one thing if the admin was active and the people coming together were creating a new community out of spite but this isn't the case here.