Asking for payment for moderating a Facebook group?!

[MotherOfHouseplants]

In today’s fresh hell, a prominent post on a moderately useful Facebook group from the admin, asking users to click on a ‘buy me a coffee’ link and make a contribution towards the ‘running’ of the group.

I am almost impressed by the absolute brass neck. I am generally happy to pay for content but there are no hosting costs and all of the useful content on the group comes from the users.

Is this a thing now? AIBU to think that there are limits to what can be monetised?!

By whom, if you don't mind me asking? That sounds closer to a social media management role.

@MotherOfHouseplants is this a location specific festive group? If not, then these requests seem rife! In the group I’m in, the moderators have certainly had a significant number of free trips in the past few months which I think is probably recompense enough.

I follow right guys reviews and couldn't believe the cheek of the bloke the other day when he said it waa his birthday and posted a link to PayPal in case anyone wanted to buy him a drink!!!

@MotherOfHouseplants I admin a really
large parents group. There are 5 admins. The group is almost at 15,000 people. I log on maybe 5-10 times a day to keep the group running smoothly. It’s a friendly and helpful group and to keep that going requires a lot of effort from the admins. The other admins put in a similar level of effort to me.

We don’t ask for payment (and wouldn’t), HOWEVER, unless you’ve been an admin of a large community group you won’t know just how much work it takes! Some days take more time. At a minimum I spend 15 minutes a day, so that’s almost 2 hours a week.

I do it because it’s a brilliant group and I know people get a lot from it (I was a member for a long time before I was asked to help admin it). But it can be a thankless task!

I don’t doubt that there is a lot of work involved and I don’t wish to denigrate that. I do note that you say you wouldn’t ask for payment though, as much of what you describe is familiar to me from the rewards of volunteering. I suppose I’m interested in the difference between someone who would never ask for financial reward for that work, and someone who does

If you're happy to see "good content" on a group you'll happy to pay for moderation - moderation stops good discussion sinking under dross. It's real work. Why should someone do it for free?

I’m the admin of a big Facebook group. I give a LOT of expertise and have in the past considered doing something like this. However, I just find it too awkward, so instead I’ve just stepped back because people take advantage. I do A LOT for it though.

Being admin of a big group is actually draining and time consuming. It benefits others more.

I've been an admin for a couple of meme groups and a political group and it was very time consuming so I stopped.

I don't see how someone paying me would have helped!

I can’t think of any volunteer work that isn’t ’real work’. ‘Paid’ isn’t synonymous with ‘real’.

I'd agree on both counts! But what makes a job "volunteer work"? Why can't volunteer work become paid work? And why is it rude to want to make that change?

Plenty of jobs some people do for free as volunteering, others get paid to do...

Moderation a large group is hugely time consuming. Sticking a link out and saying "if you wanna throw me a few quid, I'd appreciate it" isn't cheeky. They could say "right, this group is going to become paid membership, sign up here by X date or you'll be kicked" but that's not what they are doing.

There’s an established social contract around volunteering in the real world and the various non-monetary reasons why people do it. It would raise some eyebrows if Brown Owl stood expectantly at the door with an upturned hat when you arrived to pick up your DD from Brownies! I think it’s interesting to see how those norms are formed and change in online communities.

That would be very poor business, though. The value of the group is in the tens of thousands of members, which is why the admin has received numerous gifted perks.

A user who accesses a group via FB or similar has already ‘paid’ once to access the platform.

And mine too! Can't get my head around the idea of sending drinks to random strangers.

People are giving their time for the benefit of others. If those people feel appreciated and valued the group will be run better. It’s not compulsory. If you don’t want to tip, then don’t. But don’t be annoyed that they are putting the option out there to make it more worth their time.

it’s cheeky as!

no way would i pay and to be honest if prob leave group if i saw thst

kost groups im on have those moderators who simply love the kudos!

if they don’t want to volunteer i’m sure there are loads of people who’d volunteer to do it

these moderators do it by choice, no one forced them and in a group with good reputation someone would take it on

to previous poster gaining £300, that’s seriously taking the piss if it’s a community group

Even if they have already received several hundred pounds’ worth of gifted items in return for favourable posts on the group?

Ultimately it's their group, not yours, they can do what they like with it and if you don't like it... don't play, leave the group, whatever.

I mod/admin some groups for free, some groups are paid membership, some are free but theres the option of tipping or joining a sub-group, I've also been paid to moderate forums in the past (when it was pretty much unheard of for anyone to be paid for that).

Some groups take a hell of a lot of effort to run and some don't - but it is up to you, the person potentially paying, to decide if you want to take part or not.

I don't think it is cheeky to ask for tips, even if they get other freebies. Most freebies do not equate to cash that covers the hours they put in.

I think its probably more cheeky to make use of other peoples time and effort and then bitch and moan that they're asking for financial support.

But parents will turn up with gifts for Brown Owl at Christmas or after camp etc as a thank you...

Putting the tip jar there as an option just gives you the option

lol I admin a 63k rugby group. It’s a public one as well, it takes a lot of time over big rugby competitions but there’s always daily stuff to do, but no, we don’t ask for tips or coffee 🤣

I’ve spent hours and hours this week adminning my group through a difficult situation.
people argue the toss and treat you as a public resource they are entitled to.

The tip jar might help people remember the page functions as it does because someone has put time and effort into making it.

You may be a really low maintenance member, but the experience you get is almost certainly facilitated by someone managing the higher maintenance members!

I don’t think I’ve especially bitched or moaned but I will defer to your professional expertise

I saw this today on a big FB group. The group admins provide advice for free to people who ask but the group also seems to be a key way of the admins selling products (one of them even posted something yesterday saying that they found it annoying to give free advice to people who had bought items from other retailers). I don't think you can have it both ways to be fair - they must make sales as a result of the FB group and it's their choice to provide free advice. They could refuse to do so but clearly it helps them sell stuff. I imagine the group boosts their sales fairly significantly as they are small independent retailers selling products that can be expensive and do not necessarily have mass market appeal. But equally, no one has to buy the coffee...

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. Sounds like it’s best all round if I leave the group to their monetisation journey.

Sounds like they are trying to make a living out of it. And so what if they are?