Do you pay moderators?

For the most part I would have to say that paying moderators is not needed but if you are starting out with no, or little members then paying a little bit, say % of add revenue or something just to get it going isn't a bad idea. Especially if you make sure it is someone experienced and can bring in lots of referrals right away.

 

At ForumPromotion we give team members a permanent affiliate in the overall_footer file for their duration on the staff. We've never offered Payment in real currency for their services. Especially considering the forum makes no money.

I agree with this. Ideally you should have members wanting to be staff at your forum. The moment you have to ask or offer payment for them to do their job is when you have problems.

 

Moderators are given special previlages but nothing in terms of monetary value its a volunaty act

 

When I was a supermod on a forum that was relatively busy - 100+ users at most times, I wasn't paid because I enjoyed the job and volunteered. I don't think mods should be paid, unless they're spending huge amounts of time moderating (ie, all day). Then again, if they're on all day then they should go outside for some fresh air.

 

Even though moderating for my site is a 'privileged', i've always sent my moderators nice gifts at the end of the year. 2 years ago i sent them all $100 gift-cards for Best Buy, last year i sent them all $500 cash via PayPal (note that i only had 3 moderators)...
This year earnings are down, so i'll probably just send them an e-card.

 

This is interesting subject. I recently started my own forum and I am still struggling to get enough members so the forum should live on. At this time I can do all the work myself but if my forum becomes very active & populated I plan to chose a few members to become moderators.

I have been thinking to offer them some kind of reward, maybe to give them a free advertising space at first and if money starts pouring in, I plan to reward them occasionally with cash. I think that would be fair.

 

I don't think it is really that necessary to 'have' to pay moderators. Many will just do it for that key emotional driver in life which is authority.

 

I pay my moderators on my hosting support forum but they act as temp employees if I either get too far behind, I'm on vacation or if I'm out sick.

 

I do volunteer moderators.

Paid Moderators - Know what they are doing but, not fimiliar at the theme. And They don't try as much as volunteer moderators.

Volunteers Moderators - Know's and fimiliar about the theme. Also, They are very active. !

 

never y shud we pay for moderators wen i own a communiy site , sommunity means helping each other , so we dont pay mods....

 

Are you trying to prove to us that global recession is not a hype or hoax but a real thing?

 

I can't believe the wide variety of outlooks on this subject. No matter if you do or do not pay for moderation it still comes down to having the right moderator. Some are motivated by money, some are motivated by authority, and some just do it for the extra hits they can get to thier site. Whatever the reason that motivates a person doesn't really matter as long as they do the job well.
I know in my case I have a small forum that is just starting out. I spend so much time with adding mods, advertising, and looking how to build the site bigger with more software takes all my time. I don't have time to mingle in the forum much. For me, I need a moderator that has experience and is motivated. The fee that I am willing to give is not much but has potential of more earnings if the mod does their part and helps the forum grow. I am looking for someone with experience that would take a percentage of the adrevenue quarterly for moderation. I still can not find a good moderator. What I would like to know is how to attract a good moderator.

 

i would never pay a mod unless i desperately needed more

 

why brother to send ecard?!
so sad to hear that if i was a moderator of your forum.

 

i don't pay my moderators they is always others who works without paying

 

True. But where to find a good moderator? Being a good moderator requires experience (as a moderator), proactiveness, knowledge and love for the community...It IS a tough job to go through hundreds of threads and make sure that no guidelines are being violated...

Most existing moderators already have a lot in their plate So, the question remains: how to motivate somebody who has knowledge but lack experience as a moderator?

 

Well I finally found a moderator. Was hoping to get one that had experience and could bring a lot of members in at the same time. What I ended up doing is making one of the members a moderator that had no experience at all being a moderator and has only been at marketing now for 6 months or so.

The reason I am using the newbie as a moderator is that he showed a great willingness to make something out of the forum. He even told me not to worry about paying him referrals until the forum started pulling a profit. He places ads all over the place and in one day from a solo ad he brought in like 20 new members. None are paying yet but that will change when I get my ptc/ptr site going. just have to Finnish install and editing now. Oh ya, and he is even writing a newsletter for me while I work on getting the site up. Excellent writer as well. His suggestion.

With dedication to the building of the site like that I just had to make him a moderator. I'm not paying him now but I plan on in the future giving him some type of compensation for his dedication and help. I mean "aren't we all in it for the money?" Just because you don't meet the person you are working with doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't treat them like you would a friend or coworker. I know if a friend or coworker goes out of thier way to help me I would reward them in some way for thier help. Same should apply to people on the Internet. There is enough look out for #1, and the heck with the next guy in the IM world.

 

Nothing yet but I am planning to give premium membership to my moderator's one family member or friend of their choice. Let's accept it, without our moderators it would be impossible to run the forum on our own.

 

Am engaged in developing a education forums for engineering students and lectures. My friends are helping me (4 members) to vastly increase the post, can any one tell me how can i reward them on the basis of money that im going to receive after monetization (I dont even planned well for monetizing my forum but will definitely do once my forum reaches 1500 users)
Thanks in advance.

 

Moderators should be so passionate about the forum that you don't need to pay them. Essentially, that's the point of moderators- they are regular forum users with extra privileges.