Voluntary Staff Compensation

[¬./Anonymous¬]

A primary question to the staff of this board. 

 

A lot of websites don't have the funding to pay their staff for their work.  I have no problem with this as I administrate a forum currently that can't pay real cash. On top of that, I am moderating at two others.  However, we find alternate ways to thank our voluntary staff for their hard work. 

 

My question to you is how do you compensate your voluntary staff?  How do you make it worthwhile for them?

 

The forum I administrate, we are constantly trying to do new things to thank our staff.  Some of our reward schemes include:

 

Our forum's currency

Reduced Service Prices

Free Name Changes

Free Other Cosmetics

Employee of the Month Scheme

Staff Affiliates

Reduced Paid Services

 

We are constantly working towards coming up with some new ideas as well. 

[*Jess♥]

thanks for your input.

I think this would be an excellent idea if the site was collecting a lot of ad revenue.

unfortunately, I mostly pay for the whole thing out of my own pocket so there is no real fund with which to enact any kind of compensation scheme.

 

also, it's not really a profit driven enterprise. it's mainly a voluntary and charitable thing. everyone who helps out is certainly appreciated for the help they lend to me and I always try to be grateful when I receive assistance.

[¬./Anonymous¬]

If you don't mind. I have another question. 

 

What are your thoughts on forum affiliates and sponsors? Is there a difference between the two in your opinion? 

 

I think both "support" your website/business but I think sponsors actually pay a monetary value in support.  Where Affiliates simply link back and are willing to associate themselves with your website/business with the assumption that there is a mutual respect between the two. 

 

Do you consider Affiliates and Sponsors the same thing or are they different to you?

[durendal]

What?  We're supposed to get paid?  And here I was already grateful for Ryuki in giving me free peanuts for the translation work I do.

 

You may have missed some of the things that happened in the previous years, but there was a contest way, way back, where they are giving away Kamen Rider Merchandise.  But the results weren't encouraging so they had to stop.

[¬./Anonymous¬]

You may have missed some of the things that happened in the previous years, but there was a contest way, way back, where they are giving away Kamen Rider Merchandise.  But the results weren't encouraging so they had to stop.

 

Das ist nicht schwer zu begreifen. Aber wenn ich raten müsste die Ware war wohl mehr als wert verlosen.

 

That's understandable

[durendal]

Oh, I think the merchandise was more than worth it. It was around the time when Kamen Rider Decade was airing. The prize was a Kamen Rider figure that transforms. People would love to get their hands on it. But I guess we just didn't have enough members to make an impact. I think there was also a time that we were giving away Guyver figures.

[¬./Anonymous¬]

How long ago was that? Those sound very rewarding. We don't even get that from where I'm administrating at.

 

If we're lucky and the 4th owner is feeling very generous and she's a great owner and senior administrator of the site. She's one of the 4 owners of the Anon forum I'm from.

 

She paid us really well because our forum received a lot of donations. So we got a cash reward for helping around the forum that month.

 

That isn't often though she will do that. It was considered a gratuity. Lately they've had me managing their twitter page. We have a lot forum affiliates and was gifted with the honor of being their rally mule for a few months. Hopefully I can turn the twitter page over to a more deserving member. It has been a great honor though.

 

Sadly I'm thinking about joining the retired staff soon. I'm not as active.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Anonymous

[*V Guyver]

Just give us the prons. We will be pleased with such compensation. Aww, it would be l33t. =P