5000 posts

[Edward Hamilton]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to make this forum such a high quality resource for rum lovers and those just discovering my favorite spirit.

The fact that there are now more than 5000 posts on this forum and as the moderator I've locked only one thread and deleted only one post demonstrates that there are a lot of very nice rum lovers in the world.

Lastly, I'd like to thank every one for their patience with things like the recipe database (http://ministryofrum.com/forums/../rumcock.php) which still needs a little tweak.

[Milicent]

You've done a great job with this site and forum. Thank you. Thanks, too, for everyone else participating in this forum.

[Jerry]

Yes, thank you very much for this forum. I have found it educatonal and just down right enjoyable!

[RumBarPhilly]

Great job on the site!! Three months ago when I joined, I thought this forum had existed for years... thats how well put together it is!

[Tiare]

Thanks for this forum Ed! and thanks everyone for all great posting, now this forum feels almost like a "2nd home" to me. By the way, how long have this forum been up?

[Scottes]

By the way, how long have this forum been up?
Looks like: 03-25-2007 according to Ed's join date.

[Hank Koestner]

Thanks to Ed for creating this forum! And thanks to all the participants for the exchange of ideas, opinions and information I have come to enjoy and appreciate.

[Edward Hamilton]

Looks like: 03-25-2007 according to Ed's join date.

You're absolutely right. I downloaded the software March 25 and uploaded to my server. Within a few hours members were signing up and the rest is history. I've been hosting the Ministry of Rum site since 1995 when it was nothing more than a list of rums and a picture of one book.

Last month there were nearly 12,000 unique visitors to this site and the numbers are continuing to grow. Since this forum started traffic has tripled with a lot of help from the other Administrators who have helped moderate and approve new posts.

There are still some things to work out and new features on the way so stay tuned.

[Paulipbartender]

If you're looking for more moderators can I suggest Tiare? She calls this forum her 2nd home but I dare suggest it might be her first :)

[Edward Hamilton]

Thanks for the suggestion. This forum moderation role isn't completely new to me. I moderated a rum forum on eGullet for several years until they merged it with cocktails and the lesser spirits.

In my quest to get ahead of the administration tasks of the forums, I've been reading a lot of things on the software support website and one of the common suggestions is that forums shouldn't accept users who volunteer to be moderators but I've yet to read anything about members being nominated from the forum.

Fortunately, this forum doesn't require much moderation, yet. I suppose we are all enjoying this in moderation, as it should be.

[Matusalem]

Keep up the Good work!

[Scottes]

...one of the common suggestions is that forums shouldn't accept users who volunteer to be moderators but I've yet to read anything about members being nominated from the forum.
Having previously moderated on a huge photography forum, I agree completely about the volunteers. I'd lean towards choosing them. Their posts will show their commitment, helpfulness, levelheaded-ness, etc.


Myself, I'll never moderate a forum again. It was quite a bit of work (granted it was 130,000 members and 2000+ online at a time) and took all the fun out of the place for me.

[Count Silvio]

I am currently a moderator at an australian forum at ZGeek.com (http://www.zgeek.com). I moderate the Photoshop & Photography forum there. The forum has 17,197 members. Currently there is nothing to moderate as people haven't posted much in the forum I moderate and all the photography and photoshop competitions et cetera have stopped for a while.

Having said that the administrator asks suggestions from old moderators when it comes to choosing a new moderator or suggests one member and then hears what the old mods have to say about it. The forum also has special editors which are like admins but with limited admin access. They can help clean up the forum etc.

I don't think there is nothing wrong with taking in volunteers as long as the admin trusts and likes him. How ever the moderator is chosen there should be strict moderating rules set in a sticky thread for the moderators at a hidden forum visible for mods and admins only. A forum for moderator logs is also a good idea. That way the admin knows what the mod has done and when it was done if there is a problem.

And having said that I don't think this forum is big enough yet to require any additional moderators as there does not seem to be any problem users or fights.