Revenue sharing with mods?

[steven s]

I'm thinking of starting a new forum and will need help with some of my current mods.
I make a little money through adsense and site supporters.
My current site is very much a community and mods are eager to help.
There is a definite sense of ownership among my members.

If I start a new forum I'm hoping for that same sense of community, but I can do it without help.
These members all asked to help. Now I am asking them to help start something new.

I wonder if sharing in the revenue gives mods more of an interest to help.
Does it open a can of worms when others want to be mods for a little cash?
And I mean, a little cash.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I think its a dangerous idea when you have mods helping out for the wrong reasons. A mod can always just leave if they don't want to be a mod any more... when you involve money, things change.

 

[Erik]

Does it open a can of worms when others want to be mods for a little cash?

Yes.

 

[steven s]

Thanks both of you. I think I just needed a reality check.
If I build it, they will come and volunteer to help.
It will take time just like my 3.8 forum.


Damn I wish there was multi quoting.

 

[Erik]

Damn I wish there was multi quoting.

Just click reply multiple times.

 

[Dean]

Direct cash would not be a good thing. That said, I try to be extremely generous during the holidays.

 

[CurveGotti]

I tend to agree, I actually had a site that we paid staff on years back, 1999 or so. Everything stayed the same as when they were volunteers at first, but over time they wanted more for their work and grew rather lazy. Over time they started to do much less work and started abusing permissions that we gave to them. I never had as many problems with staff on any site as I did with that one. The worst part is that all of them were real life friends and the two kids that I ran the site with did not really want to let them go, but after much persuasion on my part we finally ended up having to do just that. Ever since then I have never even thought of paying someone to help, if they don't want to help it's much easier to demod them when there is no promise for their participation.

 

[Onimua]

Unless it's a company with employees, usually giving payments to moderators/revenue sharing is going to cause a lot of problems sooner or later. CurveGotti's example shows such a case.

 

[borbole]

Personally I think if you paid mods than they will be more motivated and you will have more or less a professional atmosphere. That is if you have a site that you are earning from and not a hobby one. At least that has been my personal experience.

 

[Floris]

Unless it's a company with employees, giving usually giving payments to moderators/revenue sharing is going to cause a lot of problems sooner or later. CurveGotti's example shows such a case.

word.