How to manage the forum when it grows a lot?

Harrison76 · Post by **Harrison76** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:35 pm

Hello to all,
I have been running a forum for 5 years, and in these years it has grown a lot but above all it will grow even more in the years to come. I try to fix a lot, sometimes renaming discussions, moving them, dividing them, sometimes correcting important inaccuracies.
Then I read everything, I read almost all the posts thanks to the "unread messages" tab. I don't have any moderator yet, because I haven't found anyone with the skills to do it yet.

I get to the point: now that it has grown a lot, I got to the point that I can't read everything anymore, so how should I behave? How can I read only some discussions and not others? Wouldn't it be bad, for example, when I'm very saturated, to suddenly reset the unread messages so that I can start again, is it possible? Finally, if I had to find a moderator, how could I manage the corrections to be made? I often rename titles, but if he and I see it differently, we would risk renaming each other over and over again, entering into a loop.

Let me know how I can manage this, any advice is welcome
Thanks

Post by **KevC** » Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:45 pm

I don't read everything on mine, haven't for a long time. If there's anything 'bad' I rely on members flagging them up with the report button. I basically visit the site like a regular user would, I read and post what I like to and leave, having said they I do often pop in several times a day to check it's all looking ok. Once a site is set up there's very little back end admin work that needs to be done.

Choosing moderators can be tricky. Look for the people who post or visit the site the most. They're more likely to be the sensible responsible ones that understand how the site works and what it needs. It's always useful to make a hidden forum that only the admin and mods can see so you can discuss things in private. That's where you can set out what you want them to do and how. If you're concerned about topic renaming you could for instance make a new report message (title edit needed - or similar) so that they can flag topics up for you and then you're the only one who goes in to edit them, or you can lay out the sort of edits that are needed and hopefully come to an agreement on the style you'd like.

Harrison76 · Post by **Harrison76** » Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:15 pm

KevC wrote: ↑
Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:45 pm
I don't read everything on mine, haven't for a long time.

I, on the other hand, would like to read everything, but if it's not possible I'll get over it.
If then you start not reading everything, what do you prioritize? Surely the new discussions, but then?
I, for example, follow with unread messages, 50 per page... and up to now I've managed to stay within 50, but it's a bit that I can't go back up from the second page.
Of the discussions that I read, I often read the last messages and amen, I miss all the messages of the internal pages to do first.
Do you use unread messages too? Do you start with the first or last? How do you understand what is more important to read or what is not?
Thanks

Post by **KevC** » Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:20 pm

I prioritise the topics that I'm interested in, just like any other forum.

I use the new posts link and just skim down the list to the topics that I have an interest in or that I've posted in. The rest I don't bother with.

Whiskerfish · Post by **Whiskerfish** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:46 am

I have 22 forums on my site. Almost 17,000 members, 775,000 posts. No way I can keep up with everything. Main areas are Social, Tech, Barter, and Board. Then broke down into subs from there. I have about a dozen Mods and assigned at least 2 per forum. I ask that a Mod read every post daily in his/her forum. I have a hidden forum (Round Table) for the Mods only to discuss issues. There I have what I expect of them. Been running it like this for almost 15 years. Members come and go but giving the Mods ownership of their forums seems to anchor them. Naturally I check up on them and very seldom do I have to take action. Can't remember the last time I had to override one of them. They are there because they want to be and care about what we do.

Harrison76 · Post by **Harrison76** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 4:45 am

but the moderators divide them by sections? i.e. they can only act in some forums and others can't? I thought I read that moderators now have the same power throughout the platform, so they can overlap with each other, can't they?

Random American · Post by **Random American** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 5:28 am

Harrison76 wrote: ↑
Sun Sep 06, 2020 4:45 am
but the moderators divide them by sections? i.e. they can only act in some forums and others can't? I thought I read that moderators now have the same power throughout the platform, so they can overlap with each other, can't they?

Global moderators can moderate the entire board as their name suggests. It is possible however to create groups that have moderator powers in some forums and not in others, or have a Moderator hang out mainly in a particular forum. One of the two might be what he is doing.

Post by **KevC** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 11:06 am

What is the need to read every new post?
If there are problems, that's what the report button is for. Your members will let you know soon enough if there's an issue.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 2:41 pm

as far as I know, you can create a group, give it moderator permissions to a specific forum. put your moderators in that group.
that way they only have moderator permissions for that forum not any others.

then, if you wish to have global moderators you can put people in the default global moderators group.
by the way, the reason you are able to moderate all forums is because you are in the global moderators group.
when you created the board you are automatically put in the admin group and the global moderator group and the registered user group as well as being a founder.

robert

DTMWC · Post by **DTMWC** » Sun Sep 06, 2020 10:03 pm

It depends on the subject of the forum you run,

I run a football club forum which I originally needed to check every post because there are opponents fans that also sign up to post before/after a game etc, there are also one or two members who disagree with each other on every topic oh and spam, checking every post became a chore, time consuming and depressing as working full time / personal life / also having a constant worry about someone posting something slanderous gets you down, I was lucky that we some exiles who may have moved away years ago but have kept following the team ever since, I reached out to one in Australia and one in Scotland whose posts were always very balanced etc, they agreed to take on moderator rolls, the advantage with this is with the difference in time-zones the forum is regularly checked 24/7, Caution: you do really have to be able to trust the people you choose to become moderators though,

On the flip side I also run a town for sale forum, basically anyone in my town with something to sell can list it there and anyone in the town can buy it, (address/details verified before accounts activated etc) and that has a general chat category, this runs perfectly smoothly, I rarely read posts, I've never had a post reported, it doesn't need any moderating - This is probably as everyone has to verify their address, people hiding behind a username often act differently to people who are using their real name etc, however depending on the subject of forum you run - not many people would be happy giving their address when signing up to join sites, so I wouldn't recommend anyone implements it,

Any forum with 40+ new posts per day really needs to have a moderator, depending on how busy the admin is and the subject of the forum - even a forum with 10+ new posts a day could need a moderator.

To get to 17,000 members without a moderator - is a massive achievement in itself.

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