Is it fair to ask this of your moderators?

"On the internet, or at least in this niche, our forum comes first."

Should I be able to reasonably expect this of my moderators? I know that at least two of them are very influential on another (in fact, two other) forums in the same niche. And I sort of resent my forum coming somewhere between first and third, rather than a solid first.

 

Personally I'm just thankful for their assistance. I know just about every moderator on my board has accounts on other forums in our niche one or two also hold moderator positions on some of those boards.

I really don't see a problem with it, so long as their committed to my site too I'm okay with it. I feel if we make a good enough site for them to visit eventually we'll be the #1 stop in our niche. But then again I'm easy.

The only thing I really worry about is the conflict of interest having a moderator also moderate on a competitors board but thus far I've had no problems arise out of that.

 

I personally don't see a problem with this, either.

Once a member is brought on to the moderation team, all I ask of them is that they dedicate the majority of their "online" time towards assisting the community in one way or another - this does not include avoiding other forums that may be based around a similar topic of discussion and/or subject matter. This has never proven to be a problem and, to be honest, it'd be a bit controlling of me to ask them to stay away from other discussion communities.

 

I think Chris "hit the nail on the head", as we like to say here.

 

One of the people in question mods MTGNews, the original forum in this niche.

I suppose.

 

I think that restricting your moderators to only participating on your forum (meaning, they cannot do so on competing forums) is a bit unfair, no?

 

Are you paying them or are they volunteers?

If they are paid employees with set hours to moderate your forums then you can restrict their actions while they are working for you.

If they are volunteers there is not much you can do. If you try to enforce this they would find other sites to volunteer at. Most likely they will migrate to the sites owned by your competitors.

 

These were exactly my thoughts.

What Chris said was very true as well. Honestly, I couldn't care less what my moderators do on other (and perhaps competing) forums/websites. Well, I could - but it's not something I concern myself with.
As long as they are fulfilling their duties on my forum, doing what they volunteered to do, etc. I don't worry about them - even if they are a super moderator on my biggest competition, for example.

 

I don't think you can reasonably expect people to put your site first no matter what; people are going to flock to the site they perceive as best, or serves their purposes at the time. If your mods are doing a good job (and not poaching members for the other site) there's no reason you should try to limit them to just your site. Besides, don't you want someone who can tell you what's going on on the competing forums?

 

Gwuh, I don't even ask that of my Elliquiy team and there's some crazy loyalty going on at times...

I believe there are a few things that can be reasonably asked of moderators:
1) That if you want to remain a moderator on my forums, you need to be active on them. Seems a simple issue.
2) That you will keep confidential issues confidential.
3) That you generally care for and desire to make the forums a better place.

Sometimes, Elliquiy is not going to come first for my staff. It sure as heck didn't when one of my members (who started her own forum and we shared a couple moderators) passed away.

Sometimes, a forum as thick as E requires a break.

There can be few or many other reasons. Regardless - no, I don't ask that.

 

All I ask is that what is said in our Staff forum stays in our Staff forum.

My other Admin was a mod on three other sites when also a mod on our site. He got 'fired' from all other forums when they found out he was also a mod on ours (he was just a mod then). I know him and I know he never told us anything about the other forums, of course, we also never asked - it was his business. Besides, I can't ask them to do what I don't do - I help out our 'competition' with vbulletin and server issues when I am able.

 

I agree with the others, if they are paid and work certain hours then yes you can put limitations on them...

However if they are volunteers it is not fair to tell them what they can and can't do!

 

That pretty much sums it up, right there.

 

Sometimes it can be helpful if they share happenings from other forums. So far none of mine has revealed anything confidential from another forum, but they do pass along information known to anyone who frequents those forums. No one can keep up with all of them, so that's useful to me.

The mods let me know that one of the recently booted has nestled in on another forum, and based on her behavior they are sure the other forum would like to send her back. Ha!

 

Must be missing something.

If someone is a mod/admin on a competing site, why would they be made a mod/admin on the site you own?

If they are a mod/admin on your site and they decided to be one on a competing site, wouldn't there be a discussion about that?

 

Ah. If they were to become a staff member on a competing website/community, then yes, that could become a problem (for me, at least). I have absolutely no problem with them participating on/at other communities as a regular member, but as a staff member? That could cause some concern.

 

I suggest you buy their loyalty. Send them some gifts, or something else that will win their favor. Then you will not have to ask them to do such things.

It worked for Julius Caesar during the Gallic wars, and its worked ever since. Money, gifts, praise and favors will win people over.

 

That is my position as well.

Re-reading post #1 it was regarding staff being regular members on other competing site. That is fine by me as long as they don't spam my site on competing sites (Hey check out the site where I'm a moderator! www. whatever . xyz).

 

Exactly that. I wouldn't want to go visit my competitors every day, but if somebody happens to talk about what they're up to you can bet I'll listen.

 

I honestly don't see the problem with this. Personally, I wouldn't mind if my moderators were moderators on the forum of a direct competitor. As long as they are fulfilling their job on my forum, I'm fine with it.

Some things I'd have to be on the lookout for are whether they become less active on my forum and more active on the other, and if they leech my forum's topics to create discussions on the competitor's forum.

Generally though, I don't think it's a problem.