What makes a great moderator?

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BuSo Pro
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I'd like to start a discussion about what makes a great moderator in a forum. Which traits are the most important? What do you guys and gals expect and want to see from any new members of the moderation team here at BuSo? What guidelines should a mod have to live up to?

Thanks!
 
  • Being a "super partes"
  • Able to lead and be a role model without becoming totalitarian (except when user go against rules of the forum )
  • Able to think/act as One ( the forum/community ) and separate the ego and personal from his role
  • Able to make a call
  • Able to keep order without drama ( God's hand effect )
What I have seen in many places it is that there is often a glitch/difference of view for the forum aim between Owners and Mods team and inside Mods team as well and this is the seed of any future problem.
People can have different opinions but they need to be united as in every good family and good company, expressing ONE voice toward the public or it creates discrepancies within as when children/ employees start to "play" twisting words and making bigger the hole the parents/employers create showing in front of them they disagree with each others. It is not the fact that they have different opinions but that they show they are not as One and that could be used in future against each other.

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  • Good working knowledge of the overall mission and initiatives of the forum (e.g. IM, SEO, automation, etc).
  • No signs of a "God complex".
  • Strong communication skills and overall participation.
  • Able to put aside personal differences and do what's best for the forum as a whole.
  • Ability to make decisions and take responsibility for the outcome, both good or bad.
Far too often I have seen mods start off good then as time goes on, they seem to retreat to the "ivory tower" where they feel their role is more to oversee rather than participate. To sum that up, I respect the mods the most that can lead from the trenches. The disconnect begins when forum management stops listening to the community. People want to be heard and also want to see progress. I could touch on the topic of loyalty as well but honestly, the only way to test loyalty is time.
 
Transparency. I've founded and am an admin on a large state-based forum, have been involved with and participated on countless other forums, and have seen some crazy stuff over the years. If there's one thing I've seen that can cause a whole lot of problems that can derail a site, it's a lack of transparency. Everyone doesn't always have to like every decision, but when mods/admins are fairly transparent on why they did certain things, it goes a long way towards building trust with the user base.

The second people start imagining shady things going on behind the scenes, favoritism happening, people being unnecessarily censored where it's not warranted, etc. things can start going downhill fast.

Lastly, a forum can and likely will eventually be a source of revenue for its owners, and rightfully so. After all, it takes time to build and manage. I'll never understand it but, on some of these types of sites, owners treat the revenue generating portion of the site in some fairly odd ways. Some act like they're slanging crack on their street corner, and if they perceive you threatening their corner, they go nuts. Others treat it like its a day job with no accountability, where they can be as lazy as possible, have horrible customer service, and nothing matters. Don't be shitty customer service guy or street corner crack dealer guy about it. Just give them good, timely, customer service and make sure they're getting what they pay for, and things will be just fine.
 
Although I am new here, I have been a part of many forums in the past. Including several small forum startups, similar to this one. I have seen many of the implode. I can tell you what went wrong with them as this one seems pretty cool and I'd like it to remain.

One forum that I became staff of started out great. It was very popular in its tech niche but fell from decay. The moderators were dedicated to the community and well loved, but they didn't contribute much content. The moderators were better at people management than the technical aspect of the forum. I was brought on to maintain a major site project to provide value and generate revenue, but looking back the forum was destined to fail before I jumped on board.

The forum lacked content that couldn't be obtained elsewhere, and the moderators were unable to provide the value. The community began to slow down and eventually flickered out. I can provide specifics over PM if you would like.

A startup forum I was a founding member of faced an explosion in popularity when the admins weren't prepared. They got into a dispute over revenue and everyone took sides. The drama kept people there for a week but then it died.

Ultimately, what a forum needs is an administration team that is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. They need a clear plan and need to understand how to deal with growth.
 
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