Membership Admins: Rare, Medium Rare or Well Done?

[StormWolfe 557]

I am always seeking ways that I can improve my sites, improve how I manage them and interact with my players. I am pretty sure that perfection is next to impossible, but I am service oriented so I will always keep trying. As always with my topics, I appreciate any and all feedback. Answer one or more of the questions or ignore them and just give random opinions. It's all good in my book!

1. How communicative do you like to be as an admin?
2. How communicative do you like your Admins to be?
3. Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.
4. Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

I'll start off this topic by saying I am a very hands-on game manager. I enjoy being involved and staying engaged with all of the members. Unless there is a major site or member issue, I prefer being just one of the gang. Since we have guided site plots as well as allowing all levels of sandbox writing, I do a great deal of communicating plot updates and the like. OOC drama on the board is strictly prohibited and handled behind-the-scenes. Honestly, I can't remember the last time we had a major player issue of any kind.

 

When it comes to keeping members engaged, I believe it is a two-way street. If every effort has been made to keep a player engaged and they are just not responsive, they eventually get left in the dust. I am not running the Daycare of the Damned! I believe in providing writing opportunities and the means to find other members at the game to engage with. After that, it is up to each individual to stay as active as they wish to be. We are moving to allowing a 30 day grace period. After that, if the player has not put up an absence notice or made any effort at all OOC or IC to stay engaged, we'll archive their accounts. After 90 days, we'll delete them. Harsh? Yes. However, I have found our other attempts to be lenient and understanding because it is just a game gets taken advantage of.

 

When I look at joining a site myself, I browse to see who is who and who is engaged. I find not having any site updates / announcements at all rather off-putting. It makes me wonder if the site creator and staff have just put the site together and leave everyone to their own devices. I am not criticizing this form of site management. To each their own! For me, personally, I like to see routine member and staff engagement with one another (on the site, in a cbox, Discord, etc.).

 

As usual, that's just some of my two-cents worth!

 

 

 

[Samantha 64]

1. I like to communicate as much as possible as an admin from general site stuff, updates, changes to member issues. I think it's the only way for your members to know where they stand - I think it's also important for members to know that you're there for them when they need you to be. 

 

2. I prefer the admins to be around and be communicative. The last site I was on started to have issues in the last 6 months or so and I think the main reason for that was the staff basically disappeared and when they came back it was to hand out punishments and everyone was on edge. 

 

3. We try to keep everyone as updated as possible on things going on around the site (even though we announce these things in our discord server and in the header of the site and there are some people who *still* miss it, lol). 

 

4. I think admins should be a part of the site, writing characters, staying active as well as dealing with actually running the site. It's a lot of work, but I think it makes for the best sites. From what I've seen skewing heavily towards one or the other is bad. If the admins don't really put much work into maintaining the site and focus only on RPing the site starts to slip. If they're only focused on managing the site and don't really RP then they can seem disconnected from the community - only there to lord over people. 

 

I'm a lot like you in terms of how I operate as an admin. I engage in a lot of plotting, I post as much as I can and when I'm in chat with everyone I'm not just being an admin, I'm participating in the community and having fun. 

 

When it comes to member engagement, I feel like too much pressure is put on the existing community and the staff. Yes, the community should be welcoming and I feel like most communities are welcoming to newcomers. But when I see complaining about cliques and whatnot I feel like those members just haven't tried to engage very much. You can't pop into a new site as a brand new member and expect to feel completely involved immediately - I mean, sometimes it happens, but most of the time it takes time. I also don't think that deleting accounts after 90 days of inactivity is harsh, if anyone is upset about their account being deleted after three months of not coming online, then really, that's their problem. Keeping inactive accounts around just skews your numbers when you're looking for accurate counts; plus, I would rather see a site that has 15 - 20 really active members than 100 accounts that haven't been active in months. 

Edited February 10, 2018 by Samantha

[Elena 546]

How communicative do you like to be as an admin? How communicative do you like your Admins to be?

 

I like being communicative. It's a collaborative story, so people should communicate.

 

Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.

 

Definitely yes.

 

Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

 

No. I think they should write both NPCs and characters and be involved in the story. If they aren't, who will? (And I think also it is a two -way offer - I love seeing writers who write NPCs too, not only the staff).

[Morpheus 14]

• How communicative do you like to be as an admin?

I like being accessible but I am under no misconception that I am not a people person and I utterly fail at social things and usually I'm not the sole admin/mod. Ask me questions about the lore, the site and I'm good, I can deal, but I'd rather be the little gremlin updating your claims and making sure the board is all snazzy and up to date - that's what I'm good at. I literally am that nervous wreck wishing another staffer would magically appear and save me from social things and idle chatter. I'm sole admin on my current board but we're all friends, or friends of friends and the chance I have to pull on that hat to potential members is slim as we're a private/closed site that does not advertise beyond word of mouth.

 

• How communicative do you like your Admins to be?

Depends on the size and needs of the community but for general members, some boards move super fast and are crazy active and have insane levels of staff helping drive it. For the record I've only staffed small to mid range boards and there are quiet times on those smaller boards that require that extra push from staff from time to time to keep the community feel going and there is more need to engage with the members you have. Staff should be available, approachable and they should be welcoming and friendly to all members and not just the ones they have plots with/are friends with. 

 

Also I will add that staff need to be communicative with each other, their plans, plots, tasks and what they are doing/if they need help. 

 

• Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.

Yes! I need it. I like to keep members updated on what we're doing and actively seek feedback and ways to improve. It's important to be aware of your community, what they want, what they're doing and include them where possible because if you don't care for them, they will go elsewhere. I'd rather be a collaborator than a dictator. When you join a board, don't you want to feel valued, that your characters have a home, that they can make a difference or contribute to the progress? 

 

• Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

As long as they're pulling their weight and contributing I'm cool, though I personally would veer towards hiring staff (should I ever need to) that compliments my shortcomings and fills that void I cannot, so I'd be looking for more extroverted candidates. Though I would never want anyone to go play in their corner and stay out of the way unless it was how they worked. 

[Kit the Human 759]

How communicative do you like your Admins to be?

I like to be both available and approachable so that people feel comfortable talking to me about any problems they're having with the site. Even if they just need to let off steam. 

 

I also have a discord channel that's just a list of what I intend to get done.

 

Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.

I do, but staff actively RPing is more important to me.

 

Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

No, I want them involved and excited!

[Kaycakes 78]

On 2/10/2018 at 11:38 PM, Kit the Human said:

How communicative do you like your Admins to be?

I like to be both available and approachable so that people feel comfortable talking to me about any problems they're having with the site. Even if they just need to let off steam. 

 

I also have a discord channel that's just a list of what I intend to get done.

 

Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.

I do, but staff actively RPing is more important to me.

 

Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

No, I want them involved and excited!

 

Okay, I have to know about this discord channel you're talking about. That sounds sort of brilliant. We have a channel in the staff category just for nicknaming people on theme months / weeks. One of my mods created it on his own initiative and I approved it. We have documentation (for issues), and test lab (for playing with bots). I think if I have a channel of list to get done, I'd let it be public for viewing, just not for chatting in. Hmm. Planner Channel. That sounds cool. *ahem* Anyway. . . back to programming.

 

On 2/9/2018 at 3:59 PM, Stormwolfe said:

• How communicative do you like to be as an admin?
• How communicative do you like your Admins to be?
• Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.
• Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?

How communicative do you like to be as an admin?
Pretty communicative. Absolutely. We have changelogs on site that lists feature updates, story updates, and so forth. I have an announcement channel on discord that we use to post updates, announcements, and reminders. We do all that in the cbox, as well, and chat a bunch about what's going on in the main chat on discord. I tend to privately DM people and ask them how they're doing, how I can help with their story arcs. This answers the question after this -- all my admins do this, as well.

I'm super introverted, one of my co-admins is friendly in between, and one of them so extraverted she baffles me. One mod is a cranky hermit but he entertains new members who come in and keeps our discord maintained. The other mod is basically the info giver. So, yes, much communication, much welcomes, veddy hands on. We also leave people alone when they want to go quiet and lurk. All good here.

Do you like seeing routine updates on the site as a whole, plots (where applicable), general input and engagement from admin staff.

I doooo. My first site didn't really do this much. We had a newsletter and occasional announcements. I remember when I drifted to another site as a secondary home for a little while and saw how they updated everything, kept members in the loop about technical tweaks and new features and updated open threads. . . I was like, that's how I'm gonna run things. I love this. Going a step further, I love having our team engage the whole group. Honestly, the whole group has become a team rather than just the staff. Their input is SO VALUABLE. 

Plus, routine helps. Getting into a routine of updating lists, plots, jcink features, code tweaks, etc keeps the machine oiled soooo shiny. It keeps my muse in order, too. Just knowing that this routine is there gives me a sense of having routine in writing, too.

Would you prefer they just chill out, write some NPCs or their own characters and stay out of the way?
You mean, the admins? Honestly, I don't have a preference in this when it comes to being on a site that's not mine and playing there. I love seeing them engaged, but don't really expect them to engage with me. If we click, yay! Let's do it. I see them as being part of the membership they created, just as much as I see myself as a player on my site. Admins should write their own characters and engage those characters with other people's. I'm not sure I'm fully understanding this question properly, lol. 

What I don't like is tripping up ideas or being offended if someone had similar ideas. That's where I'm like, okay, I get you're hands on with your site, but chill. Get out of the way, your ego is causing issues. I'm hands on, but when someone comes up with an idea, I say go for it. I'll stay out of the way and request that they keep it in order using the various features we have for this kind of thing, particularly plot arc listings. All us staff are gonna do is make note and help you recruit. 

In other words, I think my team is medium rare. We get hands on, we play well with others, but we also get out of the way when our players' muse grows wild. We keep things in order, but are lenient about how that gets done. Our schedule isn't strict and things aren't perfect. Maybe? I think that sounds right.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Kaycakes

[Kit the Human 759]

2 hours ago, Kaycakes said:

 

Okay, I have to know about this discord channel you're talking about. That sounds sort of brilliant. We have a channel in the staff category just for nicknaming people on theme months / weeks. One of my mods created it on his own initiative and I approved it. We have documentation (for issues), and test lab (for playing with bots). I think if I have a channel of list to get done, I'd let it be public for viewing, just not for chatting in. Hmm. Planner Channel. That sounds cool. *ahem* Anyway. . . back to programming.

 

It's not much! Just literally this:

I'm using Tatsumaki bot for my to do list. There's probably a nicer way to do that? It'd be cool if there was a bot that created a dynamic list, rather than me just spamming t!todolist, but I've also not looked into that too deeply.