Forums… Online communities… Conversation and discussion. Meeting new people, making contacts, having a lol and passing out the rolf’s – If there is one thing they all have in common it’s the Moderator. They need them like steak needs flame.

If you work from home. it is likely you’re on a forum. I’ve been a part of a lot of communities – forums – over these many years and I’ve dealt with a lot of Moderators in that time. For the most part, it has always been a positive experience and though I wouldn’t soil this blog post with any bad ones, it does happen.

Let’s take a moment to explore the Moderating position, as it happens, I have a little experience – from both sides of the tracks.

Wikipedia states: The moderators (short singular form: “mod”) are users (or employees) of the forum which are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion (similar to arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots etc)

And that pretty much sums it up nicely. It’s not a complex position (I waver on the term “job”) however it does have it’s up’s and down’s and while I won’t go into details, suffice it to say that they are really no different online than they are in the real world when it comes to dealing with different people and conflicting personalities.

If you are an Owner or Admin and need a Moderator there are few options available. The most obvious option is to source the forum for users with a respectable background and history of helping people and promoting them to the Moderator position.

A second and least popular option is to call upon a personal friend to sign up and promote them to the position. In both cases the criteria is essentially the same – must be trustworthy, stable and respectable. Typically start-ups or niche market forums require specific knowledge or talent that goes beyond the general forum topics as are computer skills and a good command of the forum language.

A new option for sourcing Moderators is ModsAreWe, an online community of Moderators from around the world. ModsAreWe also helps Moderators, Admins and Owners from different boards meet, discuss ideas, form alliances between boards and share their stories, warn about spam attacks and pick up services such as paid posters and content writers.

If you think you have what it takes to be a Moderator, sign up at ModsAreWe and post your offer. You can also scan offers made by Admins and Owners who just might be looking for you.

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jay.