Question about Moderators

I just opened a new message board on Monday that focuses on sports in north Mississippi. I promoted it a little bit on some college message boards and local paper's board that has some sports info on it. The member list jumped up yesterday to about 25 and added some more today. I think it will go a little slow through the summer (not much going on in highschool sports in the summer) but have been reading how important moderators are. Some have even said that good moderators are almost essential to a successful board.

So..a few questions:

• How do I recruit moderators? What do I look for in them?
• If someone asks to be a moderator, how do I know if they can do it? I had someone PM me and say that if I need a moderator, he'd be willing to do it. I do believe that he knows the subject matter of the board quite well and I've seen him post on a different board of related subject matter quite often (I'd have to go back and read to see if he's been mature or not.) But what sort of info do I ask/require of him before making him a moderator? Name? Location? Email?
• What specific responsibilities do I give to moderators? What specific actions do I require them to do?
• How do I keep moderators accountable?
• How do I know when I need more moderators? Is there a certain moderator to registered user or moderator to active poster ratio that I need to look for?
• How is it, specifically, that moderators enhance the experience of the board?
• Is it beneficial to create a Mod Only forum on the board, or would it depend on how many I have?
• What am I leaving out?

Thanks for the help and input.

StateDOG

[Steve Machol]

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Thank you.