Ok I have a couple people on Dreams of Stone Staff whom... well... are rather inactive. Two of them have reasons, but even when they've said they would be done with their vacations or whatever, they still don't log in or help out like they're supposed to. Another girl is pretty high up on my Staff team, and as much as I really do like her because she's one of my best friends when we actually talk... she's really flighty. I mean, I don't want to piss anyone off, but I need help and I don't know how to get these people to actually do what they're supposed to do. How do other people handle these situations?

The high up one I kind of asked to be kicked in the rear, because she has a history of being severely inactive so that's my fault. Funny story that one though, because she was admin on one of my role plays for a very long time and was only active during the beginning. Well I eventually [after a year and a half] booted her from admin and she acted like I was the biggest female dog on Earth, and even went as far as to post on one of my big advertisements about how horrible it was that I didn't even tell her she was off of the Admin team when she never logged on aim, never messaged me, never bothered to log on the site and tell me what was going on and why she was so inactive... nothing.

The others were put on the Staff team, and like I said before, they've told me they were going to be inactive for specific periods of time, and still a while goes on after they've told me that they were going to be back and neither of them log on. I feel like it's just a big circular thing and I'm not really sure if I should just give people a little more time, or try talking to them, or what I should do. I'm always trying to talk to my staff to get them to do their jobs but it never seems to work. Any advice at all?

What I do is put up like an activity check in a mod lounge or something. Then if a few members haven't responded, I PM them and give them a chance to explain or if they don't plan on being active, ask them to step down. If I still don't hear from them after awhile, I send them another message saying that we need active staff members and I am now asking them to step down, at least for the time being. At that point I will demote someone and bring new people up.

Sometimes you have to just 'lay down the law' with people. If you are the head person, you need to be able to be stern with your staff. I'm one to talk because I have a hard time with it, but I'm learning too. Nothing will ever get done if you're too soft (bad word, but I think you get what I mean).

Good luck!

Staff should know that if they're not active, they'll be replaced. They should be responsible enough to step down if they can't be active enough. I've stepped down from staff positions because I wasn't able to keep up with the site.

The sort of person who throws a tantrum because they got replaced or sacked when they weren't active is the sort of person who tries to get on the staff so they can feel special or have one up on the rest of the members.

It's not worth stressing over whether they'll be upset. It's more worth stressing over finding someone who can do the job properly.

"Retired Staff" group ftw.

I used to be on a forum where I was a moderator. I disappeared for two weeks due to school and stuff, and when I came back, I was just a regular ol' member. No "hey, you alright" or "dude, you need to come back or you'll be demoted" PMs . . . nothing. Just a notice on the board saying "hey [name] can't be active, so we're replacing her."

-_-

So if you're going to replace your staff--which it sounds like you need to do--send them a PM or email or whatnot. If they don't reply, just move them into a retired staff group. If they do reply and insist that they'll be more active, give them one more chance and move them to "retired staff" if they fail to follow through.

I've always struggled with staff on my own site, too, and I confess to a bit of envy of sites I've seen that don't seem to struggle at all.

Like, right now, I can't get anyone to apply for jobs and it's been like that since our conception two years ago, so I really do understand your reluctance to let go. :)

Having said that, I think you really do need to give these people the boot.

I don't think you need to make a big thing of it, really. Don't drag it out, just PM them each individually (try not to use template PMs because it's very impersonal and offensive). Let them know that you've noticed their inactivity and you're sorry but if they don't log in by X then you'll be forced to demote them. Give them a week. If they don't reply, PM them again to thank them for their time and work on staff, and remove their staff privileges.

Hopefully, they'll either start being active again and doing their job or they'll let you know they can't do it anymore. :)

I nowadays make quite clear from the start what I expect from my staff. If they don't live up to that, and even after serveral pm's of *poke where are you* they don't respond and haven't logged in, they're likely to find themselves stripped of moddy powers and their character positions might be given to someone else. It's a big bummer, but I'm not gonna wait around until they come on and explain why they weren't there. I've had this problem way too many times before on old RPGs, and I'm not gonna wait a year anymore before someone comes on again and 'then' decides they're leaving.

In my mind it isn't 'that' hard to come on for just 'one' minute and tell me what's going on and if you wanna keep the position or not. I mean if someone says they couldn't come on at all for months at a time, thats bull in my opinion XD. I mean you can't even come on for one minute? I'm sure you check your mail daily lol.

Ehum, that's my sarcasm talking, but it makes it pretty obvious on how I stand on the fact of staff inactivity.

I would agree with ShinLi. Too many people wander off and never return, and if it's staff then their work isn't getting done. My fellow admins and I make sure to collaborate on every submitted application, so if one of them didn't turn up for a week or two, we'd have a backlog of applications just sitting there and I'd be mega-cranky.

When I recently did a search for new admins, I made it a point to let them know that their activity would be required. They're asking for responsibility, and when you take something on like that, you need to uphold it, even if you're busy. Ask me, I know ;) My job is sometimes upwards of 60 hours a week in the school year and I do outside jobs. And I manage to run a very active site and have a social life.

If you need time away, just take ten seconds and post or let someone know. That's the rule for my members, and it's most certainly the rule for staff. No quicker way to piss me off than non-communication.

Thank you guys. =] A problem I just ran into shortly after I posted this, funny too, was a couple of the members I was talking about whose on staff will be away for a week, not bother to message me or log in, and then suddenly message me out of the blue with "Oh by the way, I'm leaving for two weeks. c-ya bye" and I'm stuck with the "...now what?" feeling.