Planning for succession

[ArtG]

Whether you have an active or sleepy forum, the data you curate is important and should be around, hopefully, longer than you are. As the admin, you can get hit by a bus or just get burnt out, either way you end up leaving your forum.

Will it continue without you?

This is a question my members have been asking given that a 15 year old forum is teetering due to leadership change. It's an important question many of us don't really think about until it's happening.

My question: How do I maintain control for now while giving someone else the power to take over if I'm gone?

Yes, I am the Super Administrator. Fine. I can make someone else an Administrator. But, will that allow them to run things without me? Can they somehow be promoted to Super Admin if I'm not here?

In the meantime, what powers do you give your Admins so that they can manage things but not intentionally or unintentionally screw things up?

I appreciate your thoughts very much.

 

[Suzanne O]

Whether you have an active or sleepy forum, the data you curate is important and should be around, hopefully, longer than you are. As the admin, you can get hit by a bus or just get burnt out, either way you end up leaving your forum.

Will it continue without you?

This is a question my members have been asking given that a 15 year old forum is teetering due to leadership change. It's an important question many of us don't really think about until it's happening.

My question: How do I maintain control for now while giving someone else the power to take over if I'm gone?

Yes, I am the Super Administrator. Fine. I can make someone else an Administrator. But, will that allow them to run things without me? Can they somehow be promoted to Super Admin if I'm not here?

In the meantime, what powers do you give your Admins so that they can manage things but not intentionally or unintentionally screw things up?

I appreciate your thoughts very much.

Ask your closest mates to be staff while you just be the founder.
Give the staff your account details if they need to make any changes to the site.

 

[Mr Lucky]

My question: How do I maintain control for now while giving someone else the power to take over if I'm gone?

Well they are going to need not just control of the forum, but control of the server. So I would find out what the host needs in regard to handing over to someone else. At the very least it needs to be a signed document that is stored with your will, if not a clause within the will.

These are sorts of things that lawyers are used to dealing with now.

But with no legal paperwork I would hope that no host would just hand everything over.

 

[Mouth]

My question: How do I maintain control for now while giving someone else the power to take over if I'm gone?

My will/end-of-life instructions, that a couple of trusted family members have access to, briefly sets out the essential structure of my site(s)and their supporting services, with - and perhaps most importantly - instructions on how to access my password manager with all logon/'keys' to these systems (and many other aspects/systems way beyond online activities they would need to to 'close out' my life)

 

[AjayJunkies]

If you get burnt out (or you're still around), you can still plan for a graceful exit. You can hand over the forum to a trusted member, you can sell it, etc. In short, you can still manage your exit.

If you get hit by a bus , I consider this one to be the scarier scenario since you won't be around. You will need to pre plan. You have some options:

• You will likely have an executor of your estate (to handle your real world assets). You would simply notate instructions for your website.
• You can appoint a backup successor in your community. This is the same as business continuity planning in the real world.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Give the staff your account details if they need to make any changes to the site.

That's unlikely to be sufficient in the long term, especially when it comes to domain and hosting renewal plus for the given scenario, you might well be breaking software licencing terms.

It would be better to appoint an executor and ensure they have all the information necessary to transfer the site to a named party willing to take it on.

 

[ArtG]

Thanks.

Do any of you have admins helping you today? If so, what powers do you give them to make sure they can control but not do anything you wouldn't do?

 

[Suzanne O]

Thanks.

Do any of you have admins helping you today? If so, what powers do you give them to make sure they can control but not do anything you wouldn't do?

I have full control
My 2ic is also admin but is a regular admin that also has full control.
My mod has full moderator control.

That's unlikely to be sufficient in the long term, especially when it comes to domain and hosting renewal plus for the given scenario, you might well be breaking software licencing terms.

It would be better to appoint an executor and ensure they have all the information necessary to transfer the site to a named party willing to take it on.

I'd give it to my family. Especially the kids.
It would stay in the family. A bit like how a family business is run.