Hi there
I currently try to find out if there are learnings on a critical relation between User/Superuser and Moderator posts. What I try to find out is, if there is a "threshold" were you can tell that it is a "healthy/sustainable" relation.
Thx
jan
Hi.
Well, I am not aware of any metrics/treshold that defines a healthy relationship between superusers/moderators but I know that in my communities the moderators have a good relationship with most of the superusers which is expressed in the ability to have open and healthy interaction in the inner circle, a two-way communication (an unhealthy relationship usually shows in the fact that superusers do not respond to PM's at all), superusers helping out moderators by reporting abuse. I think it is the overall relationship "picture" that's important. It's also not a given that superusers who are more quiet/less communicative are in a bad relationship with moderators. They just like helping other users and don't really involve themselves in anything around that. We have a couple of those as well. But if all of your superusers are like that and nobody interacts with the moderator and communicates openly I would indeed consider that to be less healthy.
What's your story? Care to tell a little bit more (problem statement?)
Cheers
Wendy
Well, I am not aware of any metrics/treshold that defines a healthy relationship between superusers/moderators but I know that in my communities the moderators have a good relationship with most of the superusers which is expressed in the ability to have open and healthy interaction in the inner circle, a two-way communication (an unhealthy relationship usually shows in the fact that superusers do not respond to PM's at all), superusers helping out moderators by reporting abuse. I think it is the overall relationship "picture" that's important. It's also not a given that superusers who are more quiet/less communicative are in a bad relationship with moderators. They just like helping other users and don't really involve themselves in anything around that. We have a couple of those as well. But if all of your superusers are like that and nobody interacts with the moderator and communicates openly I would indeed consider that to be less healthy.
What's your story? Care to tell a little bit more (problem statement?)
Cheers
Wendy
Learning from others and helping where I can!
Community Passionista!
Community Passionista!
Hi @Wendy_S
Thanks for the quick answer. What you describe is the more "qualitativ" part of health and I think it is the most important.
What I'm trying to find out (and I'm not sure if this is something of value, but I'm curious 😉 ) is if there is a "number" or "ratio" between moderator posts and user posts that is healthy (we have to define "healthy" though). For example it could be 80/20 (80% of all questions are answered by users, 20% by moderators).
I investigate this focused on support communities. I also could think that a the beginning of a community the ratio is maybe 80/20 but toward moderators and changes over time as the community grows.
Jan
Ah, I see, sorry, I looked over the "user" piece.
We did have a ratio we considered healthy but the split was more between users and HP support agents. Our ratio was 70% should come from users and 30% from agents/moderators where the moderation piece was a very small piece. I think it depends a bit on the community where in a lot of the cases the moderator works more behind the curtains and only engages in posts when they need to educate/explain/reinforce specific rules to users. In other communities the moderator also responds to customer questions (as in our case, an support agent would) and then perhaps the 30/70 rule might apply more. I think the ultimate blue sky is to identify where moderators engage the most and see if there is an opportunity to shift this to other user groups such as superusers i.e by education, giving them the proper tools.
I think the overall picture is still important. If community members are helping other community members and moderators engage only where they should and your kpi's indicate your community is doing well, a ratio might not add much value to it. I don't think there is one sweet spot...it's depending on the nature of your community.
My thoughts (not sure if it helps)
Perhaps this does
(older article but perhaps good for thoughts)
http://www.managingcommunities.com/2011/01/06/what-is-the-ideal-moderatoruser-ratio-hint-there-isnt-...
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-ratio-of-moderators-to-posters-on-the-best-forums-sites
there's some good articles on the topic on the WWW 🙂
Cheers!
Wendy
We did have a ratio we considered healthy but the split was more between users and HP support agents. Our ratio was 70% should come from users and 30% from agents/moderators where the moderation piece was a very small piece. I think it depends a bit on the community where in a lot of the cases the moderator works more behind the curtains and only engages in posts when they need to educate/explain/reinforce specific rules to users. In other communities the moderator also responds to customer questions (as in our case, an support agent would) and then perhaps the 30/70 rule might apply more. I think the ultimate blue sky is to identify where moderators engage the most and see if there is an opportunity to shift this to other user groups such as superusers i.e by education, giving them the proper tools.
I think the overall picture is still important. If community members are helping other community members and moderators engage only where they should and your kpi's indicate your community is doing well, a ratio might not add much value to it. I don't think there is one sweet spot...it's depending on the nature of your community.
My thoughts (not sure if it helps)
Perhaps this does
(older article but perhaps good for thoughts)
http://www.managingcommunities.com/2011/01/06/what-is-the-ideal-moderatoruser-ratio-hint-there-isnt-...
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-ratio-of-moderators-to-posters-on-the-best-forums-sites
there's some good articles on the topic on the WWW 🙂
Cheers!
Wendy
Learning from others and helping where I can!
Community Passionista!
Community Passionista!
Thx @Wendy_S
Very helpful indeed 🙂
Wondering if others see similar ratios, but again as you also mentioned it really depends on the nature of your community.
Cheers
Jan
