How to Become an MSDN Forum Moderator

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How to Become an MSDN or TechNet Forum Moderator

 

This article is part of the Wiki series: MSDN/TechNet Forums.

How to Become a Moderator

To become a Moderator, here are some recommended steps:

  1. Find a technology's forum (on MSDN or TechNet) where there's a huge need for moderation and answerers.
  2. Become an expert in that technology.
  3. Answer a ton of questions (300-500) with quality answers. Check your profile to see how far you are.
  4. Try to become a Top Answerer in your forum. You can tell who the Top 5 Answerers are by clicking the "Next" button on the right of your forum's main page. (It shows "Recent Visitors", but you can click "Next" several times to page over to the "Top Answerers" list.)
  5. Propose a lot of answers (especially ones that aren't from you), and vote for posts that are Helpful.
  6. In addition to Recognition Points, you'll also earn Forum Achievement Medals, which show your experience and value to the Forums. For example, you can try to answer questions with code, which earns you unique Code Answerer medals. Go here to see how to earn Achievement Medals (and how to earn Recognition Points). Try to get a few Silver medals and at least a thousand or so points (there's no right number; just go big).
  7. Track down the Forum's Moderators, or email me (edprice at Microsoft). Or leave a comment on this page. If you're an MVP, ask your MVP lead to recommend you. To see who the forum moderators are, see this Wiki article: How to Find Out Who the Moderators Are in an MSDN or TechNet Forum.
  8. Make a case (given your Forum experience and abilities) to become a forum moderator. It also helps if you're an MCC, MVP, or a Moderator of other forums. However, you can also prove your value and commitment through your recognition, achievements, and general reputation.
  9. If you go through me (Ed), then after the initial assessment (based on the criteria above), I'll have you create a specific forum thread to track our progress. I then add your request to the Forum Answerer/Moderator Request List.

I'm going to drill in on #8 more now.

How to Make Your Case

Factors to make a case to become a Moderator:

  1. Business Case: First you need a business case. Examples:
    1. The moderation in the forum is "little to none". Perhaps the moderators had to move on or don't have time anymore.
    2. The forum still needs a lot of cleanup work... threads need to be moved.
    3. The forum still needs a lot of cleanup work... Spam needs to stop
    4. The forum still needs a lot of cleanup work... conversations need to be moderated more.
    5. The forum still needs a lot of cleanup work... threads should be merged or split.
    6. The forum still needs a lot of cleanup work... thread types need to be changed (for example, Questions should be changed to Discussions)
  2. Experience: You need to prove that you can be a strong Moderator by your knowledge and track record. Examples:
    1. You have 3,000 plus Recognition Points.
    2. You have 200 plus answers.
    3. You have 3 plus Silver Achievement Medals.
    4. You're one of the top Answerers in your forum (preferably the top answerer, but there might be Moderators or others that are a little higher).

If the business case isn't there for the forum to receive more moderation and/or if your experience isn't quite that high, we might still be able to recommend you as an Answerer in the forum.

And, as mentioned above, make sure you include a link to your profile and links to the forum(s) you want to help moderate.

When You Become a Moderator

When you become a Forum Moderator, you should read and follow the Moderating Microsoft Forums instructions and guidelines. Ed or your Forum Owner might also send you specific guidelines to follow.

Once you are a Moderator and experienced in the Forums, you might want to look at becoming an MCC (and continue down the path toward becoming an MVP).

NOTE: The forum owners (most forums have different owners) might decide to make you an Answerer instead of a Moderator. It's very similar, but you focus on marking answers (honestly, that's the biggest need). Make sure you read the guidelines on Marking Answers here: Forum Moderation Guide: Managing Posts and Threads: Marking Answers.

For more information about the differences between Moderators and Answerers, please see The Different Roles in MSDN and TechNet Forums.

See Also

Forums Help (FAQ) (en-US)
The Different Roles in MSDN and TechNet Forums
How to Find Out Who the Moderators Are in an MSDN or TechNet Forum
How to Ban or Report a TechNet or MSDN User Account
How to Get Hyperlinks in Your Microsoft Forum Signature
How to Sort a Forum Thread by Threaded Conversation
Whether or Not You Should Self Propose an Answer in an MSDN or TechNet Forum
Moderating Microsoft Forums
How to Become an MVP or MCC

Other Languages

This article is part of the Wiki series: MSDN/TechNet Forums.

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Make sure you go to the Wiki page, because that's where we/I will update it...

How to Become an MSDN or TechNet Forum Moderator

 

Plus it's been translated into four languages! So click the link to check it out. Have a wiki-licious day!

   - Ninja Ed