"Oh cool. You're a supporter! What is it that you do,... exactly?"

[Patchisou Yutohru]

I usually hate hate hate making PC-related threads... Buuuuut, I was daydreaming at the library (shows how much of a life I have that I go to the library during my spare time and daydream of a Pokémon forum!) -- in the restricted section and I read something rather odd about a bit of rare magic... and I thought, perhaps, you could illuminate me. -- and came to a question after reading something I've read so many times. So, here's my question!

What do you think the primary responsibility of a moderator, a super moderator, an assistant administrator, a staff administrator, and an administrator are? Additionally, do you feel that supporters and regular members have responsibilities to uphold? If so, what are they?

[Forever]

Moderator: To help users. Mod actions are important in keeping the forum clean yes, but I think helping people is primarily the more important thing. I feel much more rewarded if I help someone on a small thing like signature limits or where a thread should go than if I lock a thread saying "please go to Quick Questions".

Super Moderator: To make the tough decisions. Broad term yeah, but I think smods are pretty much responsible for making the decisions that we aren't allowed to/can't/don't know how to make. This also includes voting in people who should be moderators based on informed decisions that moderators in general don't know the background information of.

Administrators: I regard every admin rank as the same pretty much. I think their primary responsibility is to support the moderators in running the forum, whether smods or just moderators (including things like making necessary forum changes and basic vBulletin administration things) and to make the tougher decisions related to both of the other ranks.

Supporters: To not act elitist. I know in the past that was an issue with the coloured usernames and the special forum and the extra perks, etc. I think that they shouldn't necessarily always be role models, but be role models in the sense that they should treat everyone the same no matter what username colour.

Members: To obey the rules and be good members pretty much.

[Toujours]

Regular Members - Only responsibility imo is follow the rules. Other things are nice, but not necessary.

Supporter - I would say that I generally expect supporters to be more mature than regular members (with exceptions of course). I would also say the bulk of the reporting should come from them.

Moderator - Obviously take care of their forum, I would say that more problems should be fixed via the mod looking at the forum as opposed to through reports, but that's kind of hard to gauge.

Okay once I get above this I get kind of hazy.

Super Moderator - To be the stepping stone between admins and mods for the most part. Since a super mod is closer to the moderator position than admin, they can notice things that admins don't, and because they can see HQ, they can see things that mods can't. So if they see something that mods don't like or something they can bring it up in HQ, and then bring the result back to the mods. Oh and also doing reports once in a while when the mods aren't around, modding modless forums, etc.

Admins - I have to agree that I see all admins as pretty much on the same footing. They're all expected to be the most reliable, trustworthy people on PC, and imo their biggest responsibility is to take everyone's opinion into account when something is voted on in HQ, so the voting is between people that can be trusted but it still takes into account the userbase and what they might think of the suggestion.

[Mew~]

Without the normal members this forum wouldn't be active. So I'd say any normal members responsibilities are to keep the forum active and follow the rules.

As for supporters, it's in the name. Support the community. Well, it's maybe not a responsibility. I don't see why they would have to be seen to be any more mature than normal members, they've donated money to keep the forum running, other than that they're no different than normal members, just a coloured name and small perks.

As for mods, be helpful, keep their section clean, active, and not so very boring.

I'd say or s-mods, try and help out with mods when they're not on, eat naughty members. I don't really know about anything else.

Admins, bleh. Sort out all the techy stuff. Help solve members problems and sort the forum stuff. Thats all I can think of I'm afraid.

[Scarf]

Everyone: Have fun. Be nice. Follow the rules.

Regular Members: Same as above.

Supporters: Same as above. Try to be examples to other members.

Moderator: Maintain a healthy environment in your forum(s), i.e. do what you have to so that people can enjoy themselves. So, like, talk to people who are being troublesome to other members or keep discussion and interest going.

Super Moderator: Watch the moderators' backs and step into and deal with any problems they can't or aren't around to deal with.

Admins: I don't really know what they do, but I suppose I would expect their main jobs to be more... administrative. Basically negotiating all the different things that go on at PC and making the big decisions that will be best for the forum overall.

[Destiny Demon]

Members: Follow rules and keep forums active.
Supporters: Same as above.
Moderators: Enforce their forum rules and moderate.
Super Moderators: Enforce rules of all the forums.
Administrators: To manage site stuff (server, host, and all that).
And of course every usergroup should enjoy posting in the forums.

[Drew]

I'm going to lose the formatting, and just type up a general post. To make what could be longer descriptions short (Forever pretty much took the words out of my mouth), I'll say that with the Supporter rank, I do think of them as being somewhat more mature or responsible than normal members (though it really all comes down to the the person), but in terms of helping the community, I believe they're equals. They can both suggest things CQ&F, or pitch ideas to staff via PMs, and help each other to keep the community going.

Likewise, mods may not have as much power as higher staff ranks, but if they know what they're doing, they can throw out ideas just as good as any h-staff member. Like most have said, their most important job is to help the members. In my book that should come before locking a thread, even if both are important (of course).

Anddd.. s-mods are still closer to mods than admins from my POV, but maybe in reality it's a bit of a medium. Seems to me like helping the members and being there for them is still what's most important, second would be to help make decision alongside the admins. And of course, instead of being stuck in one area, we keep an eye on the entire forum. That's a chore in itself, at times.

& Admin ranks, I don't really blur them together. I value their opinions equally just the same as with mods and s-mods, etc, but I still realize they're a separate rank. Both of them still need to do their best to help out members, and keep the forum going, but it seems like Staff Admins need to do less of the helping newbies out, and more of the decision making (Not never, just less of, because so many lower staff ranks already help out so much). Also, it seems to me like the final word of an SA would overrule whatever was said by an AA, because to be technical they are different ranks. =w= Feels like an Assistant Admin could be promoted, and really would get a legit rank boost for it, even if the difference is slight.

lol whoops tl;dr

[Vendak]

I just think it's the duty of everybody to try and make the forum as fun and friendly as possible. Supporters are no different from regular members I don't see why they're treated separately.

The mods just have extra powers to help make that possible, and then the admins just take care of the technical side of things. That's all there is to it imo.

[Loki]

Mods to me have always been an extremely integral part of the forum. I feel like, as they can really be in touch with just one section and the members in that section, they really get to do all the nitty gritty and focus on the details. To me, they should keep their rules updated, stickies organized, and strive for fun events and activities to have in their particular sections.

S-Mods to me are the sort of the second-line-of-defense. They don't touch reports unless a mod hasn't dealt with it for a certain amount of time, and they don't butt in where they're not needed. They keep an eye on sections without mods, and help out when a mod needs the extra boost. And of course, give input at HQ. Oh-- and of course, deal with those pesky VM fights and issues where there is no specific mod to step in and slap everyone on the wrist.

.... In all honesty, AA's and SA's have always struck me as highly similar. Of course, not exactly the same, but I feel like everyone in the higher staff works together based on their knowledge and expertises. You can't be in all places at once, so everyone pools together the things they know in order to make the most informed decisions. =v=d AA's and SA's always make me think of more of the technical aspects of PC. Like, they put in a new subforum, or they slot in fancy things that members can use like emblems and blogs. The forum forum of PC, and the inner workings, y'know?


Supporters uh...... Well they.... are just normal members with fancy names. XDD I suppose. The extra perks are just perks. It's not like they're any different from a regular member otherwise. In my opinion anyway. XD

[The Last One]

members- keep activity

supporters - keep activity

mods - enforce rules of their certain section

s-mods - enforce all rles ALL throughout the forum

Admins - keep site running

I dont see why some people see supporters as more mature, just because someone dosent support the site means they are not as mature as someone who does?

[Harlequin]

Why is there a difference between what the supporters should uphold and what the members should? As a supporter, I feel like I'm just a member with added perks. That's all. There shouldn't be a difference between what we should uphold, we're all (staff included) bound to the same basic rule: follow the rules.

However, staff have the added responsibilities of enforcing the rules and being role models. That's not to say they can't be like us and let their hair down once in a while, right?

[PlatinumDude]

Regular members: post in the threads and talk to other people as long as it's within the rules

Supporters: same as regular members except that they donated money to help PC

Mods: make sure everyone is following the rules where they moderate

Super mods: make sure everyone is following the general PC rules

Admins: same as super mods except they also do site-related activities like PC-related events and making new skins

[Cirno]

I'm a neat freak, so I'll be using the cleaner format~ This is what I'm most used to from my past experience.

Members and Supporters: Supporters are the same as regular members; they don't have any moderation powers or anything and aren't exempt from any rules just because they donated. So yeah, their main "job" as members is to help keep the activity flowing, follow the rules, and have fun.

Moderators: Make sure their respective section(s) aren't cluttered with unneeded threads/posts and, of course, help members out! The community's most important since the forum can't live without it, so I feel like helping people is the best part of being a moderator. I tried to prioritize helping people when I was still a mod on BMGf and would always feel very fulfilled when I did so. XD Helping members is a given for any staff member though, so I'll just assume everyone is aware and exclude it from the rest of my post.

Super Moderators: They're super moderators because they have more experience with the part of the forum they work for, so they should make the bigger decisions. Have the final say in things that would have a bigger effect on the section(s) they moderate, with the input of the moderators of the same section of course. Other than that, they're pretty much the same as mods imho.

Admins: Work their "magic" on the whole forum rather than just one or two sections aka make decisions that'd affect the entire forum rather than just a select few sections, like changing how the infraction system works and etc (looong sentence ftw). I see the types of admins here as two sides of the same coin.

[Karpman]

Members: Pretty much what everyone has said, just contribute to activity, make the best of their time here and follow the rules.

Supporters: Well Supporters aren't really higher up on the 'forum ladder' than members, since all they did to attain their rank was donate to PC, however, donation does make a bit of a statement, in my opinion. Most users that donate have already integrated themselves into and started to enjoy PC, so they take the next step and donate to better enjoy the forums, so I'd say that most [but not all] supporters generally enjoy PC and have an idea of how things go at PC. Even though some users lack the resources to donate [I had to win a contest to get my supporter status], most that were able to donate, have and generally understand the forums better. So as Toujours said, I guess you can tend to expect more maturity in posts and reports.

Moderators: Moderators usually have to enforce the rules of their section, but also find ways to make it active and interesting, as well as connecting with the users that frequently post in their section, pretty much everything user Loki said.

Super Moderators: Super Moderators seem to watch over moderator behavior and look out for potential ones, I guess, in addition to that, I'd say they deal with large-scale forum issues, enforce the rules in all of the forums and handle all unhandled reports. They seem to be very in-touch with the forum.

Admins: Mainly admins just do things for the betterment of PC, such as installing plugins, coordinating events or adding new emblems to the database, as well as performing the tasks of the Super Moderators, when there aren't any S-Mods around.