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Staff to member ratios


Morrigan
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Super simple question, how many staff to members do you like to have to the amount of members of the site? Does how involved you are in the site (creating stories, pushing plots etc) affect how many staff you need?

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As many staff members as needed. Yes, I think  how involved you are in the site (creating stories, pushing plots etc) affect how many staff you need. I don't believe in "x number of staff at y number of members", because many tasks don't depend on the number of members. One does the same research and plotting, no matter how many members there are (Or it depends in reverse - the fewer members you have, the more the staff has to write NPCs in order to supplement the absent members and allow the plot to unfold as planned). . 

 

It is also a matter of availability. If most staff members have jobs, families, and less free time, they need to be more, in order to share responsibilities.

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I believe you need as many staff members as you have things for them to do.  Having overlap is okay in some instances but everyone has a part to play.  You don't want your entire site to consist of staff either.  There is a happy spot for this number, it all really just depends.

 

 

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I have three staff members on all three of my sites, regardless of member count. I couldn't do without my co-admin--she keeps things up and running when life becomes hell for me. The only lament I have is that we're all in the same time zone, so if one of us misses somebody because of the time, we're all likely to miss that person. Ah well. Nothing is perfect. 

 

TO answer the question though: the ratio doesn't really matter to me unless we're talking a site with 20 staff members who lord their role over like 3 members. Then I'm gonna be questioning their decisions. 

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On BtL we currently have 2 staff (1 active, 1 on hiatus due to life stuff) to 14 members. We manage just fine, but I’d imagine if we had more like 50-100 members we’d probably need a bit more help.

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Depends on the site and what's needed. But, I also will only count Mod/Admin rolls that directly affect the story in questions of "staffing ratio". For instance, if I have a site with 1 Admin, 2 Skin/Graphics mods, 1 Advertising mod, and 2 non-staff members, to me that still only counts as a 1:5 ratio (instead of 4:2) because of the nature of the other staffing "jobs".

As far as ratio itself goes, the amount of staff I need is directly based on how active the other members are - the intent is to be able to keep up with and follow what's going on around the site. Though, I would think that if you start climbing past 50% you're going to face a situation of over-saturation (Anything under 8 members doesn't count for this, as a general statement).

 

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I don't think there's a specific ratio that can be applied to all sites. I've staffed alone on sites from anywhere from three to twenty-five active members with no issues. I've also seen sites that prefer to have several mods in order to cover all time zones even though they're just starting out. But if I see more than three admins, or an equal staff-to-members ratio, I don't join because in my experience that results in the site folding in on itself due to staff drama. 

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I used to look at staff ratios, that was before running my own site. I now fully believe it's what's needed versus how many. I ran my site alone for the most part (with only a couple of times with 1 other person) and that was taking from my time to write or do anything on the site. Now I have 3 staff outside of myself and things seem to run smoothly. 

 

On the mention of staff drama, for me it wasn't the number of staff that was the reason. It was the people. That's my personal experience though. I've seen places have 2 staff and plenty of staff drama. I've also seen places with more as staff and the drama persisted. So I can't say that that's been a real factor for me. That's just drama period and enough for me to Nope right out.

 

Back to OP: Ratios now no longer factor in for me. I look to see for other things now. 

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I like the magical number three. I have seen it have more and its been a crap show. There is two working admin and one admin who handles the back of the house so to speak. We do have a few Discord monitors but that is simply to have someone there to handle questions when we are not.

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Our sites are too small to worry about staff to member ratios. Right now, I am the only one. Go me! LOL.

 

However, I would kill to have one more person at each site that could take up the slack when I am not able to be online. Sort of a back-up Me. ;)

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I don't think there's any cut and dry ratio that works - some days it feels like we have an overabundance of staff, others that we have not enough xD Life and all that jazz!

    

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For two of my sites, it's just me, and I prefer it that way, due to the size. As we grow, I may add 1-2 more, but that'll be the max. I don't have, and don't need, a ton of staff positions. If I bring in a second person, they'll have a large stake in what we do moving forward.

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I think so long as things get done, the number of staff isn't all that material.  In fact, I'd say that a larger staff roster may not mean all people on it are actively staffing, for whatever reasons that are theirs to know I suppose.  So as long as:

a) there is someone to answer questions and approve apps 

b) the show is still running

c) there is no visible in-fighting

d) no-one is sitting on accounts and getting in the way of staff doing their work...

 

I think the quantity of staff doesn't quite matter. 

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*chuckles

 

Well, that's one huge plus to being the Lone Admin. The only staff infighting is with myself. ;)

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Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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RPG-Initiative

*your one-stop RPG resource site!

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Four has been our lucky number. I'm the early bird, there's a night owl, and two with general activity (my early-birdness was pushed up by working in Ireland this summer, meaning 3/4 admins are now in different time zones). We require that two admins approve apps, and our knowledge specialties tend to be in different places, so it helps to have two sets of hands on deck at any given time. That being said, this was a hell week on the back end, with one admin on vacation, one in work hell, and me coming down with the plague. But hey, no member drama so far! /knock on wood

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