When you go away, what do you do?

If you know you will be away from your forum for a while, is there anything you do to prepare your forum to stay safe without you?


I did something different on my old forum. It was quite active, and I did a lot of moderating myself, in addition to my great moderators. We were discussing my leaving in the staff forum and came up with an idea. At the time I used both regular and super moderators. We temporarily promoted a few of the regular moderators to super moderators for only the time I was gone. This worked out quite well, and they understood when I came back we would no longer need them to be super moderators.

 

That's exactly what I do. Occasionally, I *may* promote a super moderator to an "invisible" administrative position for the time that I am away, but I rarely do that.

 

I normally leave things as is since there are two other admins with full admin permissions, I just announce in the mod forum that I'll be away for a bit. Aside from that I keep someone on retainer that can do vB security patches instantly. Normally upgrades will wait until I get back, unless it's a security thing then I'll either find the time to do it or hire it out.

Aside from that both my co-admins are listed as contacts with my host, therefore they can open support tickets under their own login as if they were me. So if the server crashes they can handle it without me, and I trust my host's techs to fix things without breaking anything.

If I'm going to be away for a while and know beforehand I may not have internet access, I bump one of my super mods who works with php/mysql powered websites to admin and give him an FTP account so that someone has access who knows what their doing without worrying wheather the other two admins can find their login credentials for my host's ticket system.

 

I make sure to pack my Laptop and BlackBerry before I hit the road lol

Seriously, my IT guy is able to access the Admin account...I use a mod account as my primary posting. Anyhow, It's not really his job but keeps an eye out for spammers etc. If all else fails, I also have some goods who are members that I could promote.

 

I don't go away, simple as that LOL.

I've got a very boring life.

 

I'll send you to my lake house for a week of relaxation. But there's a catch - you can't use the computer while you're there.

 

Heh, I can sympathize with you there.

On all my boards, I try to have reliable and trustworthy co-admins who I can rely upon. Generally I had the most technical aspects, like MySQL database tweaks, but the other admins can handle anything administration related. I generally don't like to advertise that I'll be unavailable, just makes me think someone will do something incredibly dumb.

 

I have a couple of people I trust to look in on my sites. But I so rarely ever go anywhere, it's not even necessary.

 

I have also seen some administrators completely shut down when they go away - or turn their board offline. Odd...

 

That is something I would never even consider doing, but it is what it is.

 

The messages that they put up are hilarious, though:

Away on vacation. Be back whenever!

 

ugh no way would I do that.

 

I think it's probably one of the worst moves that you could make - particularly if your forum is already inactive as it is.

 

To be honest I can't see why any Administrator in their right mind would do this. Maybe they have an issue with trust, and they don't think anyone else can 'do' it.

 

I've seen it done on multiple forums, and I can only speculate as to why they do so. Either way, it's not helping their community in any obvious way - unless there is some sort of "secret plot" behind all of the madness.

 

I've always made sure my staff has my cellphone number in case of server emergencies, but now I'm thinking I should really should teach one of them how to contact my host.

 

That's a great idea, Michelle. Let's say that you're in the middle of the woods (without internet access) and something server-related goes wrong. Your staff team will be able to get in touch with you, but you won't be able to resolve the problem yourself (unless you walk them through it).

 

My staff has my cell number, and one of them is able to contact the host as well.

 

We have several forum admins and a couple of other server admins, so one person away is generally not an issue. They have my mobile number as well.

 

Either the co-admin, or a very good friend of mine who is a host himself. He knows more about IPB than I do.

Okay, that answers my question. :lol: