Blogs & Moderating Forums

[wanty1974]

After the shenanigans over on Mumsnet (see Pie & Piston) can I ask if anyone on here has experience of writing corporate blogs or moderating simple forums?

We want to incorporate both into our new website (forum will be used by local teachers) and I'd like an idea of blog pitfalls and potential time spent modding the forum! Ta!

[philthy]

Delegation is the secret.
I run my own forum, which is pretty quiet at this time of year, but does get very busy wintertime. When I started out, I knew I was going to need some admins and mods. I've got quite a few already, and we've only been going a year. Quite simply, if you are going to keep an eye on it 24/7, you, or someone you trust, will have to be online at the same time.
One of my mods only comes on at night as he works shifts. In the past there has been the odd drunken posting which never saw the light of day because he read and deleted them during the night. Others delete and ban as they see fit. If I can't be contacted by a forum member, one of my mods always can.
I have no idea about blogs, as I've never read one let alone written one.
HTH

[thepassenger]

Both forums and blogs can have 'bad word' filters put on them so that if I wanted someone posting to my blog with the word "Petrol Ted" in it would have their post/comment rejected.
The form these filters take (built-in, 3rd party plug-in) depend on which software you are using.
If either are going to be public facing I would install Akismet if possible to keep spambots away.

Not that I have anything against Ted but... oohhh so that's what the sin bin looks like

[maxed]

Have 2 forums and as Phil said delegation is the key.
And as thepassenger said good filtering.

Horses for courses if you choose this advice but the advertisers have to be kept 'happy' or contracts are lost

Edited by maxed on Wednesday 9th August 19:01

[thepassenger]

Another quick thought for you to consider.
The mumsnet.com thing kicked off because their server is hosted in this country and is subject to the local laws.
If they'd had used a US based hosting company then US laws would have been the order of the day which consider I belive the forum to be an inoccent bystander in the process.

So delegation to moderators, good software running the site (phpBB, WordPress or WordPress-MU, etc), well integrated content filtering and potentially out of country hosting with a reliable host.

[wanty1974]

The forums aren't customer faing - they will require user password access, and I doubt we'll get 'much trouble' in the form of abuse, although I know how teachers can moan and occasionally, very occasionally, they moan about our organisation!

Thanks for the guidance chaps. I've built in most of the security you all mention to the website rebuild.