Xenocide said:
just a suggestion, i have run a few VERY popular forums in the past. so just consider my advice.
don't ask for moderators, wait for regulars, and when you find a few you can trust then use them.
the worst thing you can do is open a new board, with a staff already, its kind of intimidating and sometimes you can even get power struggles with a small staff to member ratio.
BTW: where in NC are you? im in north raleigh.
I currently run a popular Adirondack Mountain forum (see sig if you're curious).
I've been a senior here for ages (3 years + I think), staff on Icrontic and AOA Forums, and a regular on numerous other forums since 2000.
First, I half agree with Xenocide. You do need some form of staffing, but maybe not a small army like I see on some forums. The Adirondack site I mentioned started with me as admin and mod, then I PM'ed a buddy from Icrontic who had previous outdoors experience and asked them if they could assist. I knew this person for a while and trusted them. Point is -- I never made a general call to arms such as this, I approached people I already knew/trusted and asked for their help. I also made 2 close friends admins, one with plenty of programming background to assist should I not be around/die/whatever and work needed to be done.
So with 4 people total the forum opened. As time grew it was obvious the site was going to show consistent growth, and so I 'promoted' existing active members to moderators. ('Promotion' isn't always a good way of describing it if you've ever served as a staff member on a forum before
) Time went on, some left and others joined and the staff has done a remarkable 75% turnover to where it sits comfortably today. All of us on staff are friends who have met in real life and share the forum's best interests in common. That took 14 months to achieve.
My word of caution -- do something special with the forum, or else it faces impending death. Icrontic was hacked, burned down, reborn and sold to its current owners/staff. It's a solid site with good people, but most of the regulars had already gone and started another forum while the transition of ownership occurred, and that sealed Icrontics fate. I went back a few times recently, and it's (for all intensive purposes) dead. I have asked my account be removed as a moderator due to my infrequency of visits, but I am still listed. The real reason Icrontic died was not just the loss of most of their regular members to another forum, but because they weren't doing anything 100 other computer forums weren't already doing. If you're not home to a clique and/or offering a special resource to the interent, you're wasting bandwidth (and in time your forum will become/remain a ghost town). Adirondack Forum has thrived because we provide a unique resource and there's a core group of 50 or so members that visit daily and exchange information and fellowship.
Just my $0.02
If you need any tech help I can be of assistence.