Your Opinion: What Makes a Good Staff Member?

[Indigo]

I personally think that a good staff member must be kind and always willing to help. I know that sounds vague but, those aspects are very important to me. This was my first forum, and personally the reason I love it so much is because of the staff! They're always helping me when i'm confused and never seem too frustrated at me! Thank you PC staff!

 

[Corvus of the Black Night]

As an admin on a smaller forum, these are the things I notice on PC.

• Your job is to ensure people are following the rules, not to be instilling your own opinions. While I would prefer not to name drop, I do notice that some highly opinionated posts tend to be labeled as "noncontributory". Such a definition is extremely debatable and unless they are stupid things like saying how much you hate this person or blatant spam or half-assed posts, you should really not be deleting a post for that reason. Discussion is fluid and having people who disagree with you, even if you think they're somehow irredeemable, is all part of a healthy discussion.
  I've read quite a few posts that, while I disagreed with wholeheartedly, I felt that the person was at least entitled to have that opinion. It is not your responsibility to censor opinions that you do not like; forum members will handle such opinions independently.
• Be clear in your judgement. In several cases in the past, poor explanations or rules (or even rulings that were never listed) have caused conflict with members on the forum. I know people who absolutely hate most of the staff here because of their continued incompetence regarding several issues that make their forum browsing experience difficult or frustrating. Stick by the rules. When someone points out that your decision was likely incorrect, don't throw a fit; explain to them why you feel that was justified, just because you are staff doesn't mean you're always right - and in the instance I'm thinking about in particular, they were wrong and perpetuated their claims basically because "I said so".
  
• You are no more superior than anyone else. This goes for community supporters as well. This tends to creep up every so often on the staff. You are not any more important than any other member of this community. Just because you were chosen as staff does not imply that you are somehow more entitled to have any sort of opinion or that your opinion is immune to criticism. Thankfully I haven't seen this lately. Remember, you're a moderator on a Pokemon website, not the CEO of a major corporation. Such an "accomplishment" truly doesn't mean much to most people and acting like it does is just plain rude.
  
• Don't talk about members behind their backs. I know there are people who do it, I've seen it personally, if you are a staff member, I absolutely expect you to have some more professionalism. It's likely that the person you think is "ignorant" or an "idiot" is simply someone who doesn't agree with you. This promotes a hostile state. Unfortunately I have seen this one going up.
  

Ultimately, highest staff is the one that suffers from the least amount of problems.

 

[Ray Maverick]

I feel like I'm late in this discussion. Reading through the thread, I'm glad to see people have formed a more or less consistent general idea of what qualities a mod should have. Maybe I'll be repeating one or two things that have already been said, but I feel the need to voice my opinion, and I'll start with what qualities a mod shouldn't have.

I know from personal experience, and the experience of various friends of mine either from this or another forum, what a bad mod is like. It's that person who is a terror to all new people in the community and an unpleasant quiet menace to the old ones, that person who has attached themselves to an environment in which they have been granted superficial powers which they mistake for a truly important honor which automatically deem them better than any other people in that environment. It is that person who'll use their power of deleting posts, moving, locking threads and handing out infractions right and left with the slightest provocation, or even simply their bold blue name, to strengthen and preserve their status while discrediting people who speak against them. And they might even strike back! Why not, after all? They know they'll get away with it, so there's no problem.

I think it goes back to the way people are chosen for modship. I can't tell for sure as I've never obviously been part of the process, but I think more thought ought to be put into the question who gets the big bold blue name. Just because forum moderators are lesser staff, it doesn't mean the standards should be lower. On the contrary, they're the first in the line of sight of the average member who's active in a forum, the first to receive complaints, observations, suggestions, ideas. Their face is in their forum quite a lot. They are seen, they are recognized by most; in a sense, the posts of the moderator are important to people, valuable in their domain.

To land on my point, it's unwise to choose to make a mod of a person solely on their skill to manage one or many forums. That's not enough, in my opinion. The moderator needs to not only have good management skills, but to be a genuinely nice person with a sense of fair judgement. Why? Because it's readily apparent to members of that forum if they are not. It shows on their posts and on their comments if they are bad, and the good people are repelled, so that is a portion of people you are in danger of losing from that forum and possibly from the community as a whole, because of a wrong choice when electing the mod. Maybe I'm wrong about this, this isn't science or facts, it's what I've noticed. Good people tend to flock together, and if the head of the forum, who is unarguably an instrumental part of it, isn't one of them, they tend to find other places to hang.

Let me get to the qualities I believe a mod should have.

They are responsible for maintaining in their place a healthy, friendly environment and robust discussion. That much we all agree on, I'm sure. It takes skills in management and organization, people skills and leadership skills. Furthermore, to be a truly excellent mod, it takes a certain methodical, organized way of thinking and clarity of the mind. As some of you have already said, a mod is a person like the rest of us, and while my friend tells me that is such bullshit, especially here in PC, I have some good faith left; at least the staff is now starting to realize it and some of them echo that opinion.

You don't need to be humble, as a mod. Let's not place personality barriers, just because a person happened to become a mod, and let's not wave our humility card threateningly against mods, hoping to scare them away from wrongdoing. They will have to delete some posts, and they will have to lock some threads, and they will have to stand their ground and say no to people, because that's what they're chosen for. But if you are a decent human being that has donned the bold blue suit, you don't need to be humble in order to avoid being arrogant. You won't forget that the suit represents your duties to the forum you're modding, and you'll not abuse it intentionally, and even if you do it unintentionally, decency will require you to be brave and admit what you did was wrong. Dignity and correctness is the first trait we should seek in mods. Personally, another way I have of judging a mod is how approachable they are. If they emit an aura which pushes me away at first, if they do not respond to my messages or generally aren't responsive and actively involved in their own forum, I assume they are only fit for indirect management of their forum and will avoid messaging them with any problems I have, instead resorting to take my message to their superior - which would bring shame to me if I were in their position.

 

[Leviathan]

Without hopefully heading into generic territory, I'll share a little bit of what I like to see in staff members, having drifted around forums of several different fandoms for close to a decade now (man, that's kinda scary).

I love to see the higherups engage with members, whether it be in some kind of IRC chat or via posting. Sure, some guys are standing on taller perches than other people, as is the pecking order of any forum, and whilst rank should always be respected, it should never give them a license to look down on lesser ranked members. Now, I must stress that I'm not accusing PC of this sort of conduct; I'm simply stating what I've seen happen on other forums down through the years, and as a result I felt kind of alienated from that one site or another, gravitating more towards places where mods and admins alike would occasionally fool around with their members, making for some memorable moments. Of course, it was all business in the end, but a bit of levity now and then helps a lot, and would do wonders to bridge the ever-daunting staff and member divide. It's a pity that this formula didn't save some forums from ultimately biting the dust for several reasons (BlackCharizard forums and Flamer, you are still dearly missed </3) , but when it worked, it really improved my time spent on those sites.

 

[Melody]

Wow been forever since I posted, but might as well since the thread sucked me in.

A good staff member need not be super popular. I see a lot of that mentioned here and I find that to be a little bit disappointing. They need not even be extroverted or chatty, just approachable and likable. Some of our best staff members are not the "super popular" type, but are actually very fun, yet quirky...kind of like Psyduck or Wobbuffet.

Having a cool head is absolutely essential, as is having a quick response time, but not be hasty in serious actions. Obviously if they're using any tool not already granted to a user, they should definitely not be hasty or rush/impair their judgement while moderating. Ideally, they should never be legendary for their 'Primal Reversions'.

Naturally their activity should at least be above average, both in contributing and in consuming content; and unlikely to suddenly enter a state of extended Hiatus unless confronted with unexpected life circumstances. They can be dark or ghost in type, just not the rare kind that vanishes into the Dark Void forever.

Maturity is preferable; but this need not be chronological. Different people grow at different rates. I was a horrible n00b. Some users I knew joined new and got modded in the same year. Even a newly evolved newbie has potential here!

Passion is also a good quality, they should be passionate about the domain they rule; just not excessively or obsessively so. Remember the Rival in Generation 1 and 2? He was passionate, too passionate. I like the rivals in later generations who are more friend-like.

Skills are a plus; but I've seen newbies do better than veterans in this department before. You need not be a computer wiz to mod this biz. Just the same, you don't have to be a Gym Leader to save the town; you can do a lot by being in the right place, at the right time, with the right tools for the job and good guidance.

If they must inspire some emotion in you, or anyone; it should be respect, and NEVER fear.

 

[Starry Windy]

I might have my say about what staffs should be, given from my personal experience as a regular member, and as part of the staff somewhere.

For me, one of the most important key for any staffs is that they shouldn't be arrogant to any non-staff members, or thinking that they are right and the others are wrong, because that might cause the barrier between mods, several forum sections and users at the same time. I believe that they should be friendly, having fun, and able to interact with everyone just like any regular PC users should do. When they deal with rule breakers, they should approach him/her friendly to make sure that he/she won't break the rules again.

I believe that staffs should maintain the friendliness of the forum, and able to make some staff decision when it's necessary, too. They also need to have some fair judgment, not just hearing the random report of someone, but also check throughout the rules if anyone break it or not. Good staffs would be nothing if not for wise decisions, as well.