How to keep the Forum clean ???

[kiddokid]

hello friends

I am planing to launch a forum...
I am wondering what exactly is the best way to keep my forum clean from bad posters and crap....
If the answer is moderators then how many moderators are needed?
lets say its a growing community then how many mods I will need to manage the forum.
Is it possible for any forum to keep every bad post/poster away?
Whats the best way to find a moderator... I will be paying $50 for the best poster every month... how can I utilize this to recruit moderators?
your ideas and suggestions are most welcome
thanks a lot
:):)

[vangogh]

It's not easy. It's also going to take a lot of experience to recognize what is and isn't spam. You'll also need to determine what constitutes a bad post and what does't. And once again it's not going to be easy.

Depending on what software you choose for your forum you should be able to find some add ons to fight a certain amount of automated spam. That can help quite a bit, however the rest us going to be up to you and your forum staff to remove the forum and remove the bad posters. Paying people to be the best posters is only going to lead to garbage. You'll get people posting just for the money and not because they genuinely want to contribute anything.

In the beginning you probably won't get much spam, because you likely won't be all that visible. Pick moderators from people who contribute and who you think post in a way the represents what you want the forum to be. Ideally these people will have spent time on forums beyond yours and be able to recognize spam. One more time it's not easy.

You need to determine what the rules of your forum will be and then you need to enforce those rules. You need to recognize when something could potentially become a problem and deal with it before it becomes a problem. You want to recognize the members that will make the best moderators and ask them to moderate. There's no set amount of moderators you need. It depends on how much traffic you get and how well the moderators you have are able to get rid of spam. A few good moderators who visit every day can probably keep your forum cleaner than dozens of poor ones who visit here and there.

Just start your forum and learn as you go. Set up whatever automated spam fighters you can and do your best to learn the tricks spammers use. Decide what constitutes a bad post and then make sure to delete all of them.

There's no easy answer. It's a lot of work and experience.

[kiddokid]

thanks a lot Vangogh

I only know how to use the internet. Can I still manage a forum?
If not the reward for the best poster, then what can motivate people to write good posts on my forum?
on guru.com they are asking around $ 1200 to develop my forum from scratch on Drupal (price also includes design)... is it OK or should I start with even lower and only go up if things work positively?
and does the plagiarism issue also go for forum rules..m asking because I guess most of the rules for many forums will be the same... or should I hire someone to write all the rules for me?

[mhovingh]

I am wondering what exactly is the best way to keep my forum clean from bad posters and crap....
If the answer is moderators then how many moderators are needed?
As VanGogh said, depending on the software you use, there may be some addon (or even built-in) options. This forum uses vBulletin which has the Report Post feature built in. What I can't remember is if vB has a built-in option to auto-hide a post after xx reports until reviewed by a mod, or if that is an addon. Something like that can help you put your members to work, helping to keep the forum clean, without handing out moderator accounts to everyone. If you have even a small group of loyal members, you should find quite a few of them not just willing to help, but eager to as they hate seeing the spam as much as you do (and many love that they have power to punish).



Is it possible for any forum to keep every bad post/poster away?
Aside from a private forum, no. As long as you have signups open to the public, and have a forum that is indexed in search engines, the spammers and their bots will find you. Some forum softwares do have, either a built-in or addon feature, that makes users enter Captcha to post. It might be an annoyance for your legitimate members but, if you are straightforward about why it is there, you should find the supporters outweigh the complainers (though the complainers might get a little loud as they often do).



Whats the best way to find a moderator... I will be paying $50 for the best poster every month... how can I utilize this to recruit moderators?
As VanGogh said, look for active members who seem to really get some good use from your forum. I have found that simply making an announcement post about needing volunteers to help keep the forums clean of spammers and keep members in-line with the rules will get you some good folks who are eager to help. I have never needed to offer to pay moderators, though on one site where it was a support forum for a product, I did give moderators discounts on the product (which every one of them loved and did not expect to receive - there are some good people who just want to help and be a bigger part of a forum they like).


I only know how to use the internet. Can I still manage a forum?
If you can use the Internet (most popular ones have settings that are point-and-click) and are willing to do a little reading on how to set things up, you should be able to get a basic forum off the ground without too much trouble. If you pick a popular forum software with a good support community, the security is usually pretty solid and there is almost always someone willing to offer you a little help if you run into a problem.


If not the reward for the best poster, then what can motivate people to write good posts on my forum?
Be active and interested in what your forum is about. People will join and become good posters because they want to talk about what they are interested in. You give them someone to talk to.


on guru.com they are asking around $ 1200 to develop my forum from scratch on Drupal (price also includes design)... is it OK or should I start with even lower and only go up if things work positively?
If you get a basic hosting account with a company that uses cPanel (something like shared hosting from Hostgator), there should be a feature in the control panel that offers a 1-click install for some popular free softwares. There should be a few forum softwares in there, including the very popular PHPbb. You can get started for less than $20 (cost of first month hosting and a domain name) and build up from there. It will give you a functional forum and you can test things out to see if you can handle operating a small forum for real cheap.



and does the plagiarism issue also go for forum rules..m asking because I guess most of the rules for many forums will be the same... or should I hire someone to write all the rules for me?
You should find that most forum softwares include a default set of rules that it has new members agree to. I have always found it a good idea to write my own though, in addition to the default, to suit my needs, and list them in a sticky post in the main section. There isn't some law saying that you can't add rules to your forum after you have been running it for xx time, so make them as you go (things will come up you hadn't planned for).

[kiddokid]

Thanks a lot once again for your your response,

So instead of giving money for the poster of the month, I can find someone who is educated in my forum topic and have some sort of arrangement with him behind the scenes? and this person will post frequently in my forum?

I am considering the option to make it a paid membership forum which I hope will keep the posts relatively clean.
If I got it right, poster of the moth reward is not gonna work in paid membership forum either?
But what if I am seeing good posters in my forum... how to reward them? If I am getting it right, I can choose some of them to become the moderators and again give some money behind the scenes?
But One question still remains... how the gradation of the members will work? for example there will be some posters writing many good posts.. I have seen forums where they have gradations like basic, intermediate , advanced etc
so if I am getting it right, even when the things are working great and I have good members writing good stuff on a paid membership forum, I should never have any money reward advertised on the forum? and grade the members according to the number of posts they have written? no reward or anything?
hope to hear you soon...
thanks

[vangogh]

I only know how to use the internet. Can I still manage a forum?

You can, but the more you know the easier it's going to be. Software needs to be installed and upgraded. Understanding how people interact online will help you manage a forum in general. Understanding the web in general will help you understand how to come up with a successful business model, assuming you're doing this to make money. You'll likely need to hire people to take care of some of the aspects of running the forum. Think of it in a different context. Imagine you wanted to own a auto repair shop, but other than knowing how to drive you don't know anything about cars. You could certainly open a shop, but you're going to have to hire other people to do much of the work.


If not the reward for the best poster, then what can motivate people to write good posts on my forum?

Interesting conversation. People come to this forum because they want to talk about business. Some people have questions. Others have answers. Some like to talk shop or share good and bad days. What will motivate people to write good posts is having a topic they're interested in. You'll find a small group of people will contribute most of the content. You want to find that group and do what you can to keep them.


$1200 to develop my forum from scratch on Drupal

Seems reasonable. If anything the price is low. Do you need more than the forum though? Drupal is a full content management system. Are you planning on creating content outside the forum? We're using vBulletin here. The software costs $285 if you want the full publishing suite or $195 if you only want the forum. It wouldn't cost an additional $1,000 to install and set up. That's not to say the Drupal way is the wrong way, but it may be more than you need. Free forum software also exists. Like mhovingh mention your web host may offer some one click install options for them.


look for active members who seem to really get some good use from your forum.

Exactly. Step 1 is getting people there in the first place. Then it's about observing who is contributing the most and the best and who might make a good moderator. Odds are one person could moderate the forum for awhile. By the time it grows past the point where another moderator is needed the community should be large enough to have some good candidates.


Be active and interested in what your forum is about.

Again yep. I think too many people forget this when starting a forum. They want to turn the software on and be done. No one is going to care as much about your form as you do, at least in the beginning. I think forum owners should be among the more active posters until a time when the community has grown large enough. If not the owner then one or two people connected to the owner.


So instead of giving money for the poster of the month, I can find someone who is educated in my forum topic and have some sort of arrangement with him behind the scenes? and this person will post frequently in my forum?

Unless you already know someone who's willing to post you're either going to need to post yourself or hire someone. Hiring someone isn't paying them for the best posts, though. Ideally you'll be starting a forum on a topic you're interested in and you'd be creating the majority of posts for awhile. If you aren't interested in your own topic why would you be starting a forum about that topic?

It's not that you can't reward people for posting. Just keep in mind that if your community knows that whoever does x the most or y the best gets a cash reward, you're going to have people posting solely for the money. You're trying to build a community. That needs real and genuine people interacting with each other because they want to.

[Watchdog]

In the beginning you probably won't get much spam, because you likely won't be all that visible.

I have a couple VB licenses and I made an attempt at a couple well thought out forums - and put them up and with them just being up there live with no traffic I was getting spammed and no one really knew the forums were online.

I have an industry forum that has been online since 2003/04 I find it best to approve all registered users that seem like they actually belong there and will use it and contribute - No moderators. I work it like a business, I have sponsors that trust us to be the best of the industry.


What is the purpose of your forum?

Is it niche?

How do you plan to grow it or promote the forum?

[vangogh]

just being up there live with no traffic I was getting spammed and no one really knew the forums were online.

People may not have known, but it doesn't take much for machines like search engines to know the forums exist. Many spammers will search for new forums that meet certain requirements like being run on vBulletin. That's enough for their automated programs to attempt to register an account.

Still the amount of spam you get early on isn't going to be a lot compared to what it will be once the forum is more active.