Dealing with moderators that think they 'own' your forum?

[cornnfedd]

I agree with you, sometimes a compromise from both sides actually gives the best result for everyone.

pity this doesnt happen more often to be honest.

 

[PeacefulMind]

The third one:

That is a standard feature.

This feature can now be disabled. Only root admin account (which I don't access unless needed); has this; as well as I set them to another Admin group that looks the same -- but different. To lower their abilities to abuse both member privacy and make changes that I don't authorize to the board.

 

[SamIsFab]

mhmmmmmm

 

[Steve]

mhmmmmmm

Do you have anything useful to add? You have 6 posts in 4 years that are pretty meaningless.

 

[Smokey]

It's never gotten to that point with my staff, especially over the years, but if it did, they'd simply get demoted and if they continued then a suspension/ban would occur.

 

[Emmanuel03]

Rachat de crédit plus rallonge argent
Small steps I guess, but the first thing I would be doing would be to remove their admin privileges, you could always make up another admin group with less privileges and assign to them so that the members still think they are the admin. You don't want people with the ability to wreck your forum or hold you over a barrel if they disagree with you, it doesn't end well.

Maybe just try and make small changes over a longer period of time rather then any significant changes straight away, also they may have a point about announcing a new owner - you may want to think how other members will view this, a lot of the time its a negative reaction.

hmm its a tricky one.

Yes personally we are trying to make small changes over a longer period

 

[Joeychgo]

Never happened to me.. Honestly, I cant see it happening either. I'm too involved.

 

[Alpha1]

One stepped down and other is still bitterly there. But it's a lot less tension once I told them 'this is the policy and you can agree to it or not -- your choice'.

Do you still have one bitter admin with admin rights?? Am I understanding you correctly? If yes, why are you taking this risk with your community?

 

[Abizaga]

If it was on my old forum, I would have demoted them thr moment they thought they could bypass me and make edits without my permission. Bottom line.

 

[cornnfedd]

Agree, better to weed out the annoying ones and put them in time out instead of letting them interrupt the class constantly.

Its your forum so run it how you want, but if you have other admin or mod that disagree with you all the time then I would get rid of them before they turn your site toxic.

 

[ALMUSA]

I had a similar situation with one of my moderators where he bosses users around and uses the warning/ban continuously. I received a lot of complaints from members and reached out to him multiple times to ease it down. He would say ok at first but as soon as he leaves, he goes back to his bad habit. I did not want to demote him because he was very very active on the forum and I knew if I demote him he will leave. He left me no chance so I finally decided to demote him. He did not stop there, he went on asking other moderators to do some moderation on his behalf. I then replaced the whole team. Sometimes you find yourself in a very tough situation where you outweigh the benefit/risk and then come to a conclusion.

 

[FriendlyPerson]

The easiest and most obvious is to remove their moderating permissions and demote them to regular members. Then you can start the search for new moderators. Another approach would be to remove their permissions to view PMs and delete member accounts. My moderators cannot do either of those things. Since you have spoken with them to no effect, it would seem a more radical approach is the only option you have left. I can tell you for sure if one of my mods acted like that, they would be removed from mod status forthwith and if they caused a stir after that, they would be gone - in a heartbeat.

Agree sometimes no matter how much you "oil the wheels" you may just need to replace them entirely.

 

[PeacefulMind]

As an update, I was a forum member on the site since 2012, and was very active in-the-community; and a site I love, cherish, and want to flourish. When I took away the permissions they were abusing, and the one stepped down, and the other, stopped posting, the site tripled in logins a day, and posts. Eventually I removed the mod as she didn't login for 6 months. The thread of ownership change went over really well. As the community knew me and my ability to stay calm, rational and collect. There was not a negative comment.

Members felt less judged by their jaded and clinical attitude and the new moderators respect the forum guidelines, and moderator guides I have set and are active (not just moderating); but active, friendly, part of the community.

Less banning, more talking through with members and a lot less tension on the board. I was sad they couldn't accept the changes because I wasn't some marketing company coming in and changing things without knowing my community.

I went through the feedback (I was PART of the feedback); and took what members highly recommended and requested and the reasonable ones I helped less censor the site. I looked at the back end and why some of their past actions had any justification (found non that they kept from members). Which solidified things needed to change right away and not wait in slow movements.

Bluntly, everyone here was right. I set boundaries; guidelines; moderation guidelines; because what they where doing needed an extreme overhaul -- but everything turned out for the good. They did get a bit of member base to switch over to their discoid and announce their plan for a new site - which never came to surface.

 

[zappaDPJ]

It's great to hear such a positive outcome

 

[PeacefulMind]

It's great to hear such a positive outcome

Thanks. The site has 30,769 legit non spam members, and new members join everyday. Most of the members either knew who they were and glad they are gone or don't know who they are and find the site very pleasant. The site has 77 members online in the past 45 minutes a month before I took over the site at any given time the site had maybe 10-15 at high end. It's taken a lot to re-build trust from the staff to members (as members I found out from the horror knew what was going re: privacy breach). As the mod that acted like an admin would call members they were friendly with and laugh with them PM logs (prior to me taking over...) they now know that can't happen and the steps to their privacy and feel a lot more comfortable.

 

[Zelda]

I am delighted to read about your success. I wish you continued success in your endeavors. I am also a little curious to know where I can find your site. It sounds like an excellent place to be a part of (as a member, of course).

Like you, I have purchases a few communities in the past. Places I felt very passionate about and whose previous owners had withdrawn from nearly all memory, leaving their staff with near full autonomy. Some of my experiences have been pleasant, but more times than not, buying a community on the verge of going rogue with overlords for staff has not been the most fantastic experience.

Usually, as you have experienced, I was called an 'outside' and more or less instructed to know my place. Of course, I attempted some civil dialogue while remaining true to my vision, sometimes even diplomatic, and offer some compromise. Still, not everyone is willing to listen to reason, and things can turn ugly. I believe the worse case I experienced was when the staff knew people in person and decided to promote their own website. The result was a community divided, more or less canceling both sites in unnecessary pursuit drama. I am thankful not all ventures end in such a fashion, but I have come to accept that there is always the risk one faces.

I digress. I am pleased to hear you managed to turn things around successfully in your favor, and for your luck, your past moderates had a much larger "bark" with no bite to follow through.

 

[PeacefulMind]

I think what sealed it for members who were on their side (that got a twisted story) was I posted the internal moderation guides and said "this is what they are upset about" (pointing out the moderators being upset over certain changes) and members where like 'why would they be upset by that? Why would they need access to that when there are two active admins here daily?" so they kinda shot themselves in the foot with any support they got.

 

[PeacefulMind]

I am delighted to read about your success. I wish you continued success in your endeavors. I am also a little curious to know where I can find your site. It sounds like an excellent place to be a part of (as a member, of course).

It's a rather niche site for people with certain interests of adult [but not outwardly sexual] nature site, to talk through their certain interest within that spectrum of fetish (obviously following all laws and not a Craigslist ad-like site). But not something I want to out myself here on. (as I plan to talk about other sites I manage )

 

[Bionic Rooster]

It's a rather niche site for people with certain interests of adult [but not outwardly sexual] nature site, to talk through their certain interest within that spectrum of fetish (obviously following all laws and not a Craigslist ad-like site). But not something I want to out myself here on. (as I plan to talk about other sites I manage )

Care to post a link??

 

[Zelda]

It's a rather niche site for people with certain interests of adult [but not outwardly sexual] nature site, to talk through their certain interest within that spectrum of fetish (obviously following all laws and not a Craigslist ad-like site). But not something I want to out myself here on. (as I plan to talk about other sites I manage )

I humbly respect your choice. Although I am not shy concerning sexuality, I can respect your choice to retain your anonymity.