- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Step 3
How to become a better Founder: Moderating and The Ninja Users Manual
Being a good founder is something good to be. There are alot, Psyched, Doctor Evol., Blackhawk, and alot more. But you can't just become a good founder. It takes hard work, perserverence, and most of all, dedication. This guide will help you become a good founder of a chapter that is open to the public.
When you first open, [color=white]you're not instantly going to be a big, successful chapter[/color]. You've got to work for it. Try getting yourself liked and you'll become a more respected person, founder, and a better chapter.
Databases/Resources: Your databases should be varied. Some should be informative and some should be ones that the members fill out. Be creative, try and get something new. Or something rare. Informative databases should have to do with something your chapter is based around. If it's around Halo, give out facts about Halo, not facts about you toe fungus.
Forum: This is the most used part of your chapter. Lay down some ground rules, get some mods(Who you trust) and you've got a great forum. Keep your topics interesting, not about your meeting with the loser club last night.
News: Keep news imformative and focused on your chapters topic. Other news is always welcome, but it has to be important.
Staff: Keep a group of staff to help you run a chapter. Give them forum mod privs, post news directly privs, and more. Admins CAN kick you, so make sure you trust your admins.
Members: Keep your membershappy. Keep a suggestion database around. Check it regularly.
This should help you become a better founder.
Additional tips:
Authors: Psyched, Banshee Barron, SurgeK
Before you start bringing in the members, have your chapter firmly established.
Good advice is; get something unique going in your chapter. Make it good for it's purpose.
If members like your chapter, they will be more active. So keep them happy, and make sure you stay active to help out and bring new content. The more mature you handle your chapter, the more likely people will want to join, so take that into account.
Organisation is also a good idea - keep your chapter organised, and keep your content organised. You want to be able to present everything clearly, so that's helpful.
Charisma on the founder’s part is also very important. You have to be trusted or likeable, or both, for people to wish to join your chapter, and keep your members in mind at all times. Give them a way to leave suggestions and feedback. Let them know you want their constructive critisism and get them involved.
A final point I think you should consider is something catchy, to grab potential members' attention, and draw them in.
Moderating
So, your chapter has a forum. But how do you keep it under control, I hear you ask?
Well, you should start by setting up some basic rules for your forum. Some of the likely points you'll want to cover are such things as spam, advertising, and flaming. Whether you want to expand on that (add additional rules or go into detail) is up to you. Probably the best method of posting these rules is to make a topic in the forums, then pin and lock it. Of course, you can always post your rules in one of the resources, but the forum is the best way to make sure members see them.
Now, let's get down to moderating (this guide presumes you have full moderation powers). For starters, check out your brand new options - in addition to the new topic, reply and edit post (for your own posts)/msg user (for everybody else's posts), you now get a Moderator's Toolbar at the top of threads/reply screens with four sub-options (Delete, Move, Pin/Unpin, Lock/Unlock), and the abilities to edit every post and Unleash Ninjas.
When do you need to moderate? If somebody breaks your rules or does something that you don't like.
The Edit Post button can be quite useful if you want to 'snip' (cut out) a part of a post (or, indeed, the whole post), to make it acceptable. And of course, there may be some posts that just deserve deletion, if that is the case then click reply or edit, then delete in the new Toolbar that appears (please note; you cannot just delete the first post of a thread; doing so will delete the entire thread, so use edit if you must remove it).
If you see a thread that's out of hand, or wants/needs no further replies, then you can lock it. As soon as you have locked it, it will return you to the thread with the oppurtunity to add a last action (edit or reply). Bear in mind -- not even you or other moderators may reply or edit posts in locked threads, you must unlock to give you that option (remember, you can just unlock then lock straight after, which will allow you to do whatever you want). Don't forget your powers against individual posts, and that if you use delete in the thread (or first post), the whole topic will get deleted.
Your final power is pinning. Pinning a topic makes it a 'sticky', and it will remain pinned with other stickies at the top of the forum. Use this for important/useful topics. You may also unpin topics just as easily.
As of yet, the Move function has no effect (there is nowhere to move the topic to), so ignore it.
If the member's offence is enough, you may want to ban them. If this is the case, you can either access the blacklist through Admin Tools, or Unleash Ninjas (temporarily banning the member for a period of 7 days).
Now get moderating!
Examples of moderating:
[li]
Posted by: antin00bdude
j00 stoopid n00b, im gunna smash u up
Moderator's action:
a) Edit post to: Post snipped by Moderator. Lay off with the flaming.
b) Delete post
c) Either of above & Ninjas
d) If it is a repeat offence, blacklist.[/li]
[li]
Posted by: iluvHaLo
i wish halo 2 could have more spartans.
Posted by: antin00bdude
u stupid n00b! thats nut gunna happen. ur such a stupid n00b.
Posted by: iluvHaLo
i wish halo 2 could have more spartans.
screw you stupid blammer.
Moderator's action:
a) Snip/delete posts as appropriate.
b) Lock/delete thread.
c) Any of above & Ninjas for both.
d) Any of above & Ninjas for anti, PM warning to iluvHaLo
e) Other blacklist options.[/li]
[li]
Posted by: iluvHaLo
i've got a great idea! what if this chapter had a huge halo guide?
Moderator's action:
Pin.[/li]
Ninja's
As you can see you now have a verry important and powerful tool, Ninja. Ninja is a tool which alows you to blacklist anymember who is violating b.net and/or group rules. It helps suport good discipline and order as well as protect other rule obbideing members. However it is a powerful tool that can have serious consiquences if used improperly.
Unleashing Ninjas
If you havn't notice before. Under everyones avatar (including yours) in the forum you can see the words unleash ninjas. Clicking on that link will automaticly blacklist any one temporarily for 7 days. You can blacklist youself and any one else so please don't click on it unless you have to. All baned personel cannot view the forum, post news, or make any entries in any fields in the group resources. Any thread the banned use has posted will have a message inplace of his post. Any replies to another thread will be hidden.
The Blacklist
The blacklist is the list of all banned members. It is where you can ban someone, set how long they are banned for, or remove some one from the blacklist alowing them back in. If you accidently banned someone you'll need to delete their name from the blacklist.
Removeing and blacklisting users. Next to the member list you may see the words blacklist or remove. Remove just removes user from member status. A way for removing defunct or inactive users. Blacklist will ban a user. blacklisting user wil bring up a blacklist screen.
Username: Name of user being blacklisted
Blacklist reason: A message to the blacklisted user telling him/her why he cannot post to the group.
Experation Date:Date when blacklist ends and user can get back on the forum. Leaving this blank will result in no experation date and permanitely bann user.