Staffing Why do you have a lot of staff?

[Lucky Cat 83]

Every now and then, I will come across normal small-to-moderate sized RP sites (not counting resources) that have 4, 5, 6, even 7-9+ staff members whether it's a just-starting-out forum or a seasoned forum.

 

From my experience, having a lot of staff like that isn't actually beneficial. So far, I'm finding having only two staff members (myself and my mod) a lot easier to work with, and faster in every way. Perhaps this is just the teams I've worked with, I can't say? If my site gets much bigger, I might consider taking on a third but I don't think having much more would be all that necessary?

 

So, my question is: why do you have a lot of staff members? What inspired you to have 5-9 staff? Do you find it beneficial in any way? What are the cons to having a lot of staff?

[CovertSphinx 710]

The only time I've been in a situation where the Newish site had 4+ staff members, was because all 8 or so members all came from a different site together and were basically partners in creating the Admin's dream design. So, that would be my guess. 

[Shades 676]

One reason I have seen for some more active sites is that they like to cover several time zones, so they bring in staff from different places to make sure there's always someone around to cover the site's needs (like answering a question or solving a quick problem).

[Elena 546]

For the sites I knew who had lots of staff:

- some created the site together, sharing the worldbuilding, graphics, coding, etc. on criteria of strongest points;

- some sites, no matter how small or big, needed the same work to be done by staff: the same research, the same brainstorming for plots, the same writing for NPC where needed, chronicles to be written.

- people were busy and had less hours dedicated daily to be online, so sharing the tasks meant each one had as many tasks as she could manage in her available time

- when one entered a hiatus (it happened, for school/work/ family reasons) there was always someone to take her tasks

[Lucky Cat 83]

3 hours ago, Shades said:

One reason I have seen for some more active sites is that they like to cover several time zones, so they bring in staff from different places to make sure there's always someone around to cover the site's needs (like answering a question or solving a quick problem).

This ^ is actually a good idea. I can respect that reason.

 

9 minutes ago, Elena said:

- people were busy and had less hours dedicated daily to be online, so sharing the tasks meant each one had as many tasks as she could manage in her available time

- when one entered a hiatus (it happened, for school/work/ family reasons) there was always someone to take her tasks

Funny enough, the last site I helped staff at (as a mod and then promoted to admin over time), there were 7 of us and it was ^ for these two reasons. However, it was only ever 1-2 staff people (always the same people) actually staffing. Even when those 1-2 staff members were busy/away themselves, the others almost never stepped up to the plate. Even when firing and hiring, they seemed to fall into the same habit of not doing anything. It was a bit stressful. xD

[Morrigan 1,826]

Because staff are a pain in the ass. My staff knows I love them but I rely on them to do their job. When they don't do their job.... it means I have to. I'm not being a jack ass, I'm not dogging on the people that offer their time. But overall? Even as a resource site manager, there is only so much I can do. I may seem omniscient (hell I think even my staff may think I'm omniscient) but I'm not. I rely on other people to help me and to be there for me as much as I'm there for them.

 

A staff is a group of people with a common goal. How, how many or whatever they do to reach the common goal is up to the cumulative staff people.

[Scout 26]

We currently have four, which is two too many for the size of our site. However, we all came over from a previous site and plotted it out together. In my experience, having more staff than needed creates a "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe - and confuses members who never know who to talk to with questions.  

 

In the past I was a mod on a relatively popular, busy site, and we added one new mod (promoted the senior mod to admin) every 10 new members (members, not characters). We ended up with about 6 of us, but there were about 70 individual members on the site, which was a pretty good balance of people i thought!

[To The Minamobile 14]

I can't speak for the motivations of any of the other staff members on my site, but I can say that in practice, having five staff members has allowed us all to work both together when we need multiple perspectives, and separately from one another on other smaller things that don't require as much coordination.

 

Basically, having five of us means that, as long as we trust one another to work independently of one another, things like reading applications, advertising, maintaining a clean board, doing claims, fielding member questions and so on, can all be done by whichever one of us happens to be online and present at the time. It also allows for us to have staff members in separate time zones cover times when others might not be around, and for some of us to develop an area of specialty when it comes to the lore.

 

For things that need discussing, e.g. a problematic application or a member question that we want a second opinion on, we can still wait for someone else or even all of us to weigh in, but for the most part, things run smoothly without us tripping over one another. The same goes for larger things, like sitewide plots or additions to the site - when we all need to be involved, we are, and if we don't need to be, then we aren't.

 

A lot of this comes down to trust between the members of a staff team. This particular system wouldn't work with a group of us who didn't trust one another to work separately most of the time, or who had any inclination toward trying to stage powerplays. Thankfully, I'm blessed with coworkers who are reliable and sensible.

[Sage 289]

I think it's weird seeing games with a large staff team that either don't need it or aren't setup to support a game that can grow into it. Coming into a brand new forum with 9 staff members is kind of intimidating. Unless it's obviously setup with clear divisions in staff.

 

We started out with 4 staffers, but that's because we're a very staff-involved site. Our site is more d&d-style, where both the players and their characters rely on a GM/DM to sort of "direct" the story/encounters. It's not your typical forum rp. We recently (I say recently, it's been several months) upgraded from 4 to 7, and are now sitting at 6 staff members because we've grown so much. We currently have over 100 active accounts and roughly 25 players. With this style of game, it can be very stressful for our staff to run events and intervene in threads appropriately as the omniscient "Fate" so, to support that level of involvement, we're required to be staff heavy.

 

However, we are divided into teams - we have a general admin team, an ad team, a stats team, an items team, etc. These teams overlap and I think everyone is on at least 3-4 teams, but this way we make sure tasks get done, we know who's responsible for what, and things get done faster. We also publicize these teams on our "Meet the Staff" page, that way members know who they can go to for what kinds of questions. This division avoids the "too many cooks in the kitchen" problem, and we trust each other to make good decisions. I'm also blessed with great co-staffers!

[StormWolfe 557]

*chuckles*

 

We're way too small to warrant much in the way of staff. However, I'd kill for just one person other than myself that would keep things moving when I can't be online (am old and have health issues). So far, everyone I've brought on as a mod or second admin have flaked on me.

 

I can see the need for adding staff as a site grows, but not from the get-go. Even then, I think it should be somewhat based on activity levels.

[the torture artist 21]

There's just me staffing my site at the moment and while more probably isn't really warranted workload wise since I've cultivated it to be relatively laidback and ideally member driven, I'd appreciate another staff member just to be around when I'm not! Especially since I live in the UK and consequently miss a lot of potential members from the US due to timezone differences. It'd also be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off and basically quality check what I'm doing in terms of announcements, events, etc.

 

More relevant to the question asked, I think the staff should definitely grow and change with the site as it grows and changes. What works for one type of site or community wouldn't necessarily work well for another. I've been on sites before with 7+ members of staff and as long as there was a clear hierarchy and duties set out, it seemed to work just fine. It's when communication was poor and there was no guidelines or expectations given that stuff started to fall apart, but as long as you've got those things done and sorted, there isn't any reason more staff shouldn't be a help rather than a hindrance.

Edited May 7, 2018 by Sailor V

[coastaloceangirl 9]

I have never been a big fan of a lot of staff either. Especially when the site is small because then it just feels a little Oprah-ish with the members on the site. 'Here you be an admin! You be an admin!' At some point it just looks like every member ends up with the admin title. Right now I have a site that I opened with me and a friend. We have only been open a week and actually promoted two members to admin. The reason for this was because these two people are serious rockstars in our chatbox and discord talking and welcoming folks. Helping point them in the right direction of things and just offering to help when my friend and I can't be around. In doing so it has created a lot less pressure for my friend and I who will begin traveling for work soon and won't be available as much to do the admin things. Now I won't be running it solo. I never foresee getting to a point where I would ever need more than 4 admins but I am completely grateful for the three I have with me!