I think it depends entirely on how big the board is; How many members, how many forums and most importantly how many posts per day. Maybe if your really busy you could have a couple moderators for each section or category? *shrugs* don't really know.
For me it depends on the size of the community and what it is offering. To start with a couple of admins and then when it really starts to grow than add a couple of moderators. Basically add them when you feel they are needed.
I think you have to take into account timezones, their individual talents and all round general attributes. I feel that you can never have too many staff, sure there's a finite limit but having staff present during all hours through the varies timezones can and will have positive effects in the way of providing support, tackling issue that may occur and a hundred other factors I can mention and/or either can't think of. If you have staff allocated to their areas per the amount of forums then you are set to have everything in place for when activity picks up. Recruiting staff for the hell of it is (in my books) bad practice and rarely will have positive effects. But that is another topic.
I agree - I don't think you can actually set a specific limit on the minimum/maximum amount of staff members. It all depends on the forum niche, the size of the forum, whether each staff member has specific responsibilities/areas to watch/jobs to perform.
I agree with Shelley - I think it depends on whether you need them (i.e. the number of people), the skills people can bring, and of course time zones staff are across.
I much prefer to keep the number involved to as few as possible, but of course I am very glad (and enjoy) bringing others into the mix; it's just a case of keeping people under control
Like others have mentioned, it depends on the statistics, niche and activity. If you have a forum like this one, I think a moderator on at all times is good. So if support is greatly needed, someone can be on point to answer the questions. A general forum, on the other hand, is a different story; and only need moderators to moderate trolls and posts. It all depends.
