by Rex Trulove

Created on: September 11, 2008

There are basically four levels of support on message boards. Administration is at the top, then the moderators, the senior members, and the members. Each give a corresponding level of support, if the message board is to be successful, and every one of them is capable of giving support of one type or another.

Members help one another by relating their own experiences. Sometimes their views may not be totally accurate, but they are at least trying to help. So often, people honestly trying to help is lacking in today's world.

Senior members do much the same thing, except that for the most part they have more experience. They also know how the particular board works, because of the length of time they've been using it. Their advice is valuable and more likely to be accurate simply because of the added experience on the board.

Giving proper support becomes much more difficult at the moderator level. Up until then, members can and often do disagree with one another. Moderators are people too, and they have thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They often also have information that many of the others don't have. It doesn't make them superior at all; it just means that they have more pieces of the puzzles presented.

Moderation means being in the middle, or moderate, though. This is definitely not easy to do. At times, they will be human and may let that side come out. However a good moderator will look for the worth in any question or concern, and try to address the question or concern as directly as possible, giving as much direct information as they have to give, even if they don't agree with a premise as it is stated.

To a moderator, the questions and concerns are the point, rather than whether or not they personally agree with the person with the question or concern. Again, this is not easy. Moderators need to state what they believe to be true, but since they might not always be, they need to also be willing to recant and admit when they are wrong. Patience is a very necessary virtue of a moderator, because people are no doubt going to test that patience.

At the very top is the Administrator. A good administrator listens to the moderators, but needs to be able to make up their own minds in regard to what is said on the board. Many times, they will be mostly invisible, reading the posts and threads, but not saying a lot, leaving that to the moderators. If they need to answer something quickly, though, they are adept at doing it and quick to do so.

Administration is the most

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