The job of admin

I always had that question of whether admin should participate in the forum, express his/her opinions, give advice? I noticed Peggy put her picture there, and she is called Peggy, not admin. I have elf members ( me for now), but should the admin be like a member? Should you reveal your personality to your members? In the case of Peggy's forum, i am glad i know who she is , but at the same time i am buying things here, so it is the advantage.
What do you think?

That is different for each forum. That is one decision you would have to make. Me personally I can't see no reason not to show who is the admin and why the admin shouldn't post in the forum after all it is their forum.

I guess that it depends on the type of forum, but the forums where I have been involved at an admin level, have been on hobby subjects in which I have an interest. On these I tend to post quite a lot and use a name rather than Admin, as it is more personal and accessible, also helps to kick start the forum in the early days, when posts are a little sparse. :)

I guess i should make one of my elfs ( me ) a moderator ? I just don't feel like the admin should reveal the identity. Let him be the police. I don't know.

It's my officially first day to advertize in the newspaper ! I hope to get some good members.

You shouldn't really have a problem with mixing posting and enforement, whether you use a title or name, I certainly don't on my main forum and have amassed a huge post tally. :)

If you feel that you need an anonymous authority figure, then why not have two admin identities.;)

I have been told that same thing. But the person who had told me is a admin on a very big site where it is more preofessional then personal. I run a parenting site and I am very active on it. THey r my family members. THough I can see the down fall of being active. When something needs to be decided or there is a argument between 2 members I tend to get pulled in the middle of it and it becomes a iffy situation. I know at that point there is no way to make them both happy and or I will hear that I am favoring one over the other. It is a tough call there r many times I wish I would of stayed just the admin it would of been easier to run and I think alot less stressfull. But I am not like that. I am a personal type of person and I enjoy talking and meeting new people. So I guess it is up to you and your preferrences and also the type of board as well IMO anyways LOL

The downfall that I see in not being an active participant on your forum, is that members will see you not posting, and will think "well, if he/she doesn't care enough to post on their own forum, I guess they don't care about their forum, so I'll go to another forum where the staff does care". I've owned a few sites, both business and "fun" sites, and this is the mindset, regardless.

I have always been an active participant on all of my forums. In fact, every forum that I've ever belonged to, the admin has always been an active post-er. It should always be that way, IMO.

I am taking a research class this semester, and i always ask myself, is there a research based evidence on admin participation, etc. I guess forum world haven't been explored by researchers yet.