Each and everyone of us will have to say that we are members of some forums before we started our own.

Did becoming an Admin and owning your own board changes how you post? Surely one doesn't evolve into a good admin overnight with the members looking up to you. What were your preceptions of the admin of the board that you frequent before you opened your own? How did you evolve over the years in being an admin?

All the while during my 'members' day, I was intrigued of message boards and to me post counts mean you're KING.

Then came those large smilies and it's was the 'IN' thing to have those super large smilies in your post. However I haven't been banned in any board yet up to this day.

Over time, I have learnt to be subtle in my posts and take note of what I post as it generally sets the tone in the whole community.

Very good question...

When i started this forum i was a bit nervous to post my views and take part in the discussions due to my lack of good knowledge in english and hesitated a lot...

But soon i realised i am making a mistake and thought myself to be natural as my character and post my views frankly in my style...

I am satisfiied now and learned a lot...

So i think act your natural way is the best thing to be and never change it becz you are admin...

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I'm usually more carefull of what I post as a user... after all I can't ban myself from my own site

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i hadn't been around forums too much before i got mine up. i had roamed around a few and noticed that most were full of censorship and if you didn't agree with the top opinions you didn't belong. i wanted freedom to post and say what i thought and let others do the same.i actively post on mine and say what i think, just as i would expect others to.

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in goth we trust

I was easy going at first. Then I found people trying to compete and stepping all over me. I had no clue how to deal with this. My perception of real life and internet communication were different so i never considered that people could be so vicious online like in real life. This was in 1996 of course. I didn't handle that negative behavior well and it really dragged me down to the point that if anyone even stepped out of line I lit them up which led to a bad method of admining forums. I learned quickly and assessed my weaknesses and had to rethink how I ran a community. it was through huge success to complete failure that I learned valuable lessons that keep me balanced as a forum admin today.

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Regards, John Briggs
UltimaBB Lead Developer/Founder/Project Manager

I was a member of a number of forums before I started my own. Some of the forums were admined well some were admined badly. Like Jamie, I was finding most places were full of censorship so that they could attract younger members. So I wanted a place where everyone could be themselves. Unfortunately, as I'm still learning, this isn't always a good thing. I'm still learning that some people, no matter what, are still out to piss on someone else's parade. So rather then really lose my rag with people when they step out of line (something I used to do a lot, especially when I took over a forum that had a lot of censorship rules) I send the member a quiet PM or e-mail gently reminding them of the forum's rules. I don't think I was a perfect admin over night and I don't think I'm a perfect admin now, far from it but I think I'm better for learning from the mistakes I made early on.

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The biggest lesson folks need to learn is that you should not enforce rules on your forum that you would not abide by yourself. I believe censorship is key to some extent only when people have stepped way out of bounds. Many express there views but do so in poor taste or choice of words and since written communication is one of the most difficult processes to understand as far as conveyance goes it comes down to the person reading to receive it in the end.

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Regards, John Briggs
UltimaBB Lead Developer/Founder/Project Manager

lol it changed how I posted a lot. I mean becoming a admin means you have to start new things and keep up with topics.. with a member you can just post as you please


so ya it deff changed how I post

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Not really. I'm more apt to stick up for staff on other forums though. I've always had pretty proper grammar and yeah... I haven't changed really.

~Crystal

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Mercury Ice has a new home!

Well, when I started RF I was all gung ho with big dreams. After some time with my poor choices in overstaffing, I started to wear down. I was snippy with my staff as they were overstepping their boundaries. We had a big blow up. I cut all but two, telling them to basically go to Hades. Now we're rebuilding. We're getting our "sense of community" back. I took a step back and am less involved, letting the two run the show. Things are running much smoother now. I act more as a registered user now than an admin, while not letting go of too much authority. I'm focused more on development and marketing now.

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