Traditionally, in order to become a staff member here at the SitePoint forums, you had to be spotted, nominated and then voted in by existing staff. It is a long and cumbersome process that we do because it’s the way that we’ve always done things. I think it’s time for a bit of a shake-up because we’re probably missing a whole bunch of keen and motivated candidates, simply because they’re not extroverts.
So, I’m offering you the chance to volunteer for a place in a group of potential staff-members, if it’s something that you are interested in. Anyone can put their hand up, and they will be given a place in an entirely new group that sits between general members and our current Mentor group. Call it an internship if you like.
There are a few guidelines around this group:
Group size - ~20-ish at any one time
Expectations - continue on in the public forums, visit and take part in a private group forum, report posts
Duration - ~3 months before being upgraded to Mentor or automatically rotated out of the group
Other - Inactivity or lack of performing given responsibilities for a month’s time will lead to removal from the group.
Once removed, you must wait a minimum of 3 months before volunteering again.
If you change your mind for any reason you are free to pull out at any time
If this sounds like something that you’d be keen on trying out, send me a PM.
[font=calibri]If you’re interested in this but not sure whether it’s for you or what you’ll get out of it, here’s a few random thoughts:
We have about 40 staff here on the forums, all of us (except HAWK) volunteers – and we do it because we enjoy it, that’s the first thing to know!
Staff are mentors, advisors and team leaders. Advisors and team leaders do the actual moderating, but we rely on mentors to be our eyes and ears across the forums and to report any posts that they think fall foul of the forum rules (we are happy for anyone to report problem posts, but it’s something we specifically ask mentors to do), so that we can deal with them appropriately, because we won’t always spot them ourselves.
What else do mentors do? They can nominate people for the “member of the month” award and vote on the award each month, and can also volunteer to carry out the interview with the winner. They get to be involved in discussions about changes to the forums and to try out new systems before they go live. They can help with managing the FAQs and other bits and pieces that all help the forums run smoothly.
And if they are good at that then, in time, most mentors will be offered a chance to take on some real power as an advisor!
So if you would like to get more involved with the forums then do get in touch with HAWK, and we’ll be happy to have you on board [/font]
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