Lords of the community. Brotherhood of Ban

Creating and maintaining a community on social networks implies responsibility to users - both for the volume and relevance of the content, and for its content. The larger the community, the more difficult it is to moderate. At a certain stage, it becomes difficult even for a large community management team to struggle with spam and communicate with participants.

Today we’ll talk about how to form a team of moderators from members of the gaming community.



Our life without moderators is sad and colorless, and the process of their search is long and thorny.
A few tips to help you not only facilitate but speed up your search:

When you create a post about moderator vacancies, you should already know who will occupy these posts. Of course, a post can reveal new talents, but the best are visible. There are several reasons why players who are not known to you who have submitted applications are unlikely to become good moderators:

• If you do not know the player, most likely he writes a little. The likelihood that after gaining administrator rights, such people are activated is negligible.
• Unsuccessful pun of successful thought: an unknown moderator does not know how he will behave. Anyway, it’s very difficult to verify the adequacy of a person with questions in PM. In the community - much easier. Knowledge of the mechanics of the game, of course, is acquired, but our candidate should still understand the game better than the average visitor.
• A person who is inactive in the community is most likely not familiar to the players, but for the moderator it is important to be an authority among others. Otherwise, his work will be reduced only to explaining elementary things to beginners, and even then the players will say: “Well, well, let the chief moderator tell now” (by the way, such phrases are a good indicator of the level of authority).

What are the findings? If you just started working in a new community, do not rush to start looking for helpers. Take a closer look at the players, lead discussions with them, watch how they answer others to questions about mechanics. A good moderator, even before his appointment, tries to help other players. Its main incentive will not be bonuses, and this is important.



So, several sensible players wrote to you and, what happens very often, several players with whom you have had intense debates. Do not rush to refuse such people if their reasoning is logical, criticism is fair, if they can reasonably tell what they think is wrong, and even give advice on how to fix it. Think, if you take such a player to the post of moderator, it will be easier for you to gain his trust. You will not only get rid of balamut (and trolling and claims lovers are always attracted by such players), but you will also get a reliable ally who can explain to players that a new update is for the better.

The previous paragraph does not negate the fact that it is easier to work with well-known brand advocates. Several times I noticed that players who reason sensibly on the forum and help others do not submit applications when the search for moderators begins. In this case, you do not need to be upset and take those who are less suitable. It is worth writing to such a player and offering him administrator rights in person. Such attention will not leave him indifferent, and very soon you will receive an indispensable assistant. No player refused my refusal to make an offer in this way.

If your community is active enough, then a lot of applications can come for a moderator vacancy. Having found suitable candidates, do not rush to answer the rest with a refusal. It’s better to put all applications together and think about it - perhaps these people will help you in other areas: in creating a Wikipedia or in writing articles on mechanics. Players who actively communicate in all informal communities can be helpful in writing reviews. By the way, you must also be in these groups in order to know such players.

After you make a decision, the moderator begins the trial period. This is a probationary period not only for him, but also for you as a leader. In a week or two you need to explain the basic principles of moderation, a person should see that they are paying attention. In general, prepare the moderator for the fact that his position includes not only the answers to the players, but also the protection of the brand.

The moderator passed a trial period, he is already in the team. Now our task is to help him become a person with whom it is not scary to leave the community for the May holidays.

• Moderator chats are something you should definitely watch in the morning. During your absence, they have accumulated questions, try to answer everything, because the quality of the responses of moderators to the community depends on this.
• If the moderators are not active on the forum or are not responding as you would like, do not hesitate to tell them about it. It is best to explain with specific examples: the screen of the post and the best answer. This takes some time, but the impact is enormous: the quality of the responses of moderators improves on the same day. However, do not forget about the personal qualities of moderators: if they are touchy, comments should be delicate. Explain that you want to help and make it easier for everyone.
• Do not forget that some issues are best addressed in PM. If you have a claim to only one moderator, it is better to talk with him separately.
• Moderators should feel exceptional. Therefore, if you learn something personal about them in correspondence, try not to forget about it and sometimes be interested in how their life goes. One of my moderators has a favorite dog, and the question “How is Bear doing?” Does not take me much time. And informal communication ensures the loyalty of the moderator and a good mood for both of us.

Luck with searching!