Hey all, Bronymaster again.

How do you guys think a group should deal with the growth of the user-base? Is it preferable, for instance, for the group to maintain the practices it used with the smaller base, or should the group start looking at re-working how they do things? Do all groups have to handle their growth in a totally unique way, or are there common issues and changes that admins should look out for or contemplate? Should a larger group have more utilities/functionality than a smaller one? What about the Admin team?

I'd love to hear everyone's answers!

Too many people?

Ban a few!

With love, Best Admin.

2867185 the first thing that comes to mind, assinging more admins and such, when you have enough members to choose from.

a small group makes doe with the single founder, but at some point you need help maintining your group, for starters. this is when you ask the members to step up, picking a few of the best and most trusted.
it owulld be a kind of award, some will then strive even harder to make the group even better.

Exactly when the group needs a second admin would depend on the group, both members and intended purpose of the group.

2867185

For my personal answer, I do think most groups have to deal with their growth in a unique way. For some, they will have to change the way they manage things. It's simply not feasible, for instance, to carry on with a "Mass PM" system to all users once your user-bases grows by even a tiny bit. However, for other groups, changes are unnecessary, or could even hinder the way the group operates.

There are things to look out for as growth continues, though. For one, stop trying to remember every user's name. You're going to hurt yourself, dammit!

Just kidding, of course. I mean, really, who does that? *sweats nervously*

But in all seriousness, as you become a bigger group, people are going to look to you to provide a good service, if that's what you offer. Service groups especially need to be aware that, as they grow larger, the demand for what they do also grows exponentially. You will always have more people wanting to use the service than people willing to offer their talents for it. This is a given, and there is no way to get around it. You need to be prepared, hopefully from the outset, for how your system is going to handle the service it provides. Start thinking in terms of teams of people helping each other out. The more machine-like you can make your service (not literally, but metaphorically), the easier it will be to handle the incoming mob. Especially think of splitting your service up into different functions, if that is applicable. If one function starts to slow down because of demand, the rest of your group shouldn't have to suffer for it, or should at least have a minimal impact from the problem.

For community-oriented groups, you need to keep a tight lid on who posts what, why, and how others will act about it. Keep close tabs on people who seem like they might be about to stir up trouble, and it might be good to hire on several contributors to watch over the many smaller sub-communities as you grow. If your group commonly makes use of the forum system, be sure to keep track of which threads are being actively spoken in, and which ones are now dead. Consider whether it is worth cluttering up your forum with dead threads if the thread holds historical value (such as valuable advice that you don't want to get rid of), or is mostly old current-events talk that can be trashed. Also be sure that as you grow, you have a tight rule-set that will keep users from causing too much trouble.

Finally, the Admin team is going to be of variable concern for different groups. For some groups that perform a lot of functions or have a really admin-based service, lots of admins may be necessary. Other groups may more or less run themselves, even as they grow larger, and so a larger admin base would not be necessary. As you grow, I always like to think that 3-4 admins are just what most groups need. It's a good number for making sure ideas have good backing from others, but not so many admins as to slow down how your group is managed.

And that's my take on how a group should/can handle growth!