Sometimes, we can fall into the trap of talking and thinking about ideas a little too much. Proper planning and consideration is always important, but there comes a time where we must not simply talk, but also do.

I’ve had banned users and “competitors” who spent a lot of time talking and thinking about me, but little time actually doing anything or accomplishing anything on their own account. (This is certainly fine by me). But, I’ve also spoken to administrators who were always trying to think of what to do… and not actually doing it.

That’s one thing that separates successful people from everyone else: they do things.

I pull advice and inspiration on productivity from all sorts of areas. But, one of my favorite videos is by the brilliant Ze Frank. It’s below. Warning: there are a bunch of vulgarities (don’t repeat them in the comments!). His message, and the way he delivers it, is awesome!

Don’t get addicted to brain crack!

When you are in a position where you must moderate a community (whether as an administrator or a moderator), you really have to be a bit of an online daredevil in that you can’t “play it safe” with links, content, etc. You have to actually see the bad stuff so that you can remove it.

You can’t say “well, that looks like porn spam” or “I think this link is suspicious, better not click it!” You actually have to be the one to look at it and click it so that you can make a proper decision as to its appropriateness on your community or safety to your members.

For this reason, it’s important that everyone in this role (and, really, anyone who uses the internet) have some sort of good antivirus/spyware protection. Beyond just protecting you, often times, it can also be relied upon to alert you as to questionable content on a page or link that you are reviewing. You can then remove it, protecting your members from it.