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I'm building an online community in gaming, design and development. I have a forum, website and a Wiki for us. We also provide a Teamspeak³ Server which is well visited (50 People at a time).

How do I choose moderators? Like the SE System, with just getting enough activity in the Community even if they are just playing the whole day? Or something like a application for the role?

2 Answers 2

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There are many ways you can decide on who becomes a moderator on your site(s).

  1. Wait until the site has been up and running for a while and see which users have been the most helpful around the place, doing things like showing new users the ropes, flagging up questionable content, editing (if that's allowed) etc. Then approach these people to see if they want the job.

  2. Ask for volunteers, but make it clear that they'll be vetted. Then use the same criteria as outlined in the first point to decide who'll make a good moderator. If you ask people to post their nomination (or nominate someone else) then you can also get the feedback from other users who will undoubtedly comment on those posts.

  3. Run an election - get people to nominate themselves and have other users vote on who they want in the post. This is only really a viable option if you have a reasonable number of users and the community has been running for a while so there's a good chance people will know the nominees, at least to some extent.

  4. Build in moderation to the system so that people with more useful activity on the site get more privileges and responsibilities. Stack Exchange does this through reputation earned by posting good content. You could use things like the number of useful edits made or posts flagged etc. To some extent how this works will depend on the system you are using and whether it allows you to track user activity in a meaningful way.

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  • To pay someone is not an option for me, cause its a non-profit community without any donations. And i also don't want to "sell" a job that someone is just making it for money. But thanks for the Examples :) I'll try some of these ;)
    – CentrixDE
    Sep 22, 2016 at 7:23
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    @CentrixDE I didn't say anything about paying anyone. Yes, I did call being a moderator a "job", but that doesn't mean it's a paid one ;)
    – ChrisF
    Sep 22, 2016 at 7:50
  • Oh then i'm sorry in Germany(where i live) its normal to pay a volunteer :D
    – CentrixDE
    Sep 22, 2016 at 7:56
  • @CentrixDE - in English, "volunteer" is often used specifically to mean someone who isn't paid :-)
    – Rory Alsop
    Oct 6, 2016 at 13:58
  • Oh ok thanks for the information :) It seems that some positions or definitions are a lot different o-o In german we have the word "Ehrenamtlicher" which means almost the same as volunteer(just not paid(In Germany))
    – CentrixDE
    Oct 6, 2016 at 14:02
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I would create a Form that Moderators can apply to :) You also could provide a little "Test" for the Mods to see if they are worth it :)

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  • What kind of test? Are you talking about something simple like a multiple-choice exam or Stack Overflow review-audit type tasks, or are you considering something more subtle (as I see that you put "test" in quotes)? Jan 2, 2017 at 16:43

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