Just wondering what you guys thought are good incentives to attract a forum administrator. And another question is, what makes a good administrator?
This depends mostly on: 1. The forums genre and if it's casual or professional. 2. What your needs are and what you're capable of. 3. If you want someone who's already a member or someone outside.
Either promote someone to admin from the memberbase or hire someone. I can't say I look for forums to join to be an admin. I'm aware of a few individuals that do this but those would imho be less trustworthy people. Realistically most forums only need 1 maybe 2 admins. The rest should be moderators. Professional, level headed, mature, and well-versed with the software you use.
One of the key things I always look for is that they never take the Internet too seriously. An Administrator that takes everything way to seriously ends up being a buzzkill for the entire userbase and it ends up killing the site. Another thing - and I'm sure this point is debatable - don't be too hard on your rules. Sure, enforce them, I'm not saying to let people get away with things, but if it's a minor break and it's their first offense, there's no need to ban then, or even issue an infraction, or even bother with a warning... Just drop them a friendly PM perhaps, it makes you look relaxed, calm and level-headed. But perhaps the best one to abide by is converse and interact with your members! Show the members that you are there, on the same ground as them, you should NOT appear as some higher power (I know some people prefer to, but I think that is bad practice). Participate in regular discussions, don't be afraid to make a joke once in a while, always try to respond to feedback, suggestions and complaints quickly and never appear generic in your responses (anywhere). You want your members to think you're always there, alongside them, just as an average Joe, like they are.