All paths lead to God...

[I, Brian]

Well, I started out with foundationist.org in April.

After three weeks a serious hack attack brought the server down.

The following six weeks have been spent redesigning the site under a new neutral premise, testing it on uncertain servers, before finally finding a safe and secure home to grow and expand from - reluanched as comparative-religion.com

If anyone would like to help me build up it's forum, I'm looking to take on moderators. So just contact me.

Brian

[Mark T.]

You might have already been told of this, but it is better to look for moderators in your own memberbase. With people recruited from other places, you never know what you bargain for.
People from your own memberbase already have some affinity with the website and moreover have some sort of dedication towards the purpose of your website. Now since your forums contain religious conversations, an insensitive moderator might set a lot of bad blood.

In my opinion it is best to look for capable moderators in your own memberbase in stead of recruiting them elsewhere. That said, good luck with the relaunch of your website, it is a real good initiative and good luck in the search for good moderators .

[I, Brian]

Ah - thanks for the tip. I'll try to be a little more cautious.

[Mark T.]

There is no harm in asking for moderators on other forums, as long as you stay cautious. What you could do with the responses you get is ask those people to become active on your forums so you can evaluate the way their input is received and the way they work with you (and the other staff members). That way you can get to know these people a bit better and they can show you that they are really interested in this position of moderator.
Just in case you thought this was a big no-no (after re-reading my message I myself would think it was not done to ask for moderators on other forums, and that wasn't really what I meant ).

[I, Brian]

No problem - I would have actually kept moderators to single boards, their powers strictly limited, and ensured I kept full db backups in case of malicious use. But I guess you're quite right - it's aking for more trouble than it's worth.

Softly, softly is perhaps better here.

[Anat]

I have 10 wonderful mods. All of them have moderating abilities in all forums. In 3 years (and different mods) I have never had a mod who abused her/his "powers" to harm the boards. Of course, I knew these peopel as contributing members BEFORE I asked them to join the team. Do be careful - I have made bad choices with mods in the past, all I'm saying is that none has tried to harm the forums in any way. They were simply not very good at being mods.