An Administrator is the person who runs a community from a technical standpoint. The term generally means the person with administrative privileges for the software platform on which the community is based. This may be distinct from the Community manager or the two roles may be conflated.
Best practices[]
- Information about who a community's administrators are should be easily and publically accessible, as should contact information for those administrators.
- Having more than one administrator is typically a necessity, particularly when dealing with online communities whose members span the globe; problems can arise when community members from one timezone find themselves in the midst of a drama but the sole administrator is asleep on the other side of the world.
- Administrators should have a way to communicate with each other Out of band, such as through a private mailing list or forum.
- Administrators should make known ballpark turnaround times for responding to queries and concerns, e.g. "We try to respond to queries within 3 days, concerns within 1 day". The community should be notified of changes to such turnaround times as soon as is practicable.
- Clear procedures should be established to allow administrators to come to a decision on an issue, to ensure that things aren't "left hanging".