So You Are Interested in Becoming a 
Genealogy Forum Host! 

Thank you for your interest!  It’s our goal to provide our users with the most pleasant, useful and safe forum experiences on the World Wide Web and one of the best ways we’ve found to ensure this happens is by having experienced and friendly forum hosts.

Our forum hosts are just that---the online hosts on the forum.  Your job will be to keep the conversation flowing and lively, make sure everyone feels at home and welcome, keep the forums free of spam, and ensure that folks behave themselves.  It’s a great way to meet new people who share your interests.

 Do you…

• Enjoy helping others?
• Want to hang out with others who share the same passion for genealogy?
• Love meeting new people?
• Have great tips, advice or knowledge to share?
• Have a burning issue you’re just dying to talk about?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you’re obviously meant to be an About.com forum host!

Naturally, we won’t toss you on the forums unprepared.  Prospective forum hosts are required to complete basic training.  This consists primarily of reading the supplied documentation detailing your responsibilities, and covering such issues as how to be a great forum host, how to deal with problem users, creating standards, netiquette, and more.  The training period will be determined by the amount of time that you can donate to the forum, and will be accommodated to meet your schedule.

Interested?

If you’d like to apply, we’ll need the following information:  (don’t worry, all information is for company use only and will be kept strictly confidential.)

Please respond to genealogy.guide@about.com

1. Are you over 18 years old?
   
   

2. Have you ever volunteered for an online community before?  If so, where, when and what did you do?
   
   

3. Why do you think you’d be a good forum host?
   
   

4. How much time per week are you able to donate as a forum host?
   
   

5. Briefly describe your genealogy background, interests, and experience (keep in mind that a passion for genealogy and helping others is more important than any "expert" knowledge or experience).

Thank you for your interest in becoming an About.com forum host.  I’ll be contacting you soon.