Thursday, July 5, 2007

SuperFantastic, via Flickr (CC license) Who let the dogs out in your online community? And how do you get them to play nice?

Yesterday Ernst Poulsen wrote about a common problem that plagues blogs and online communities, including those run by news orgs: hijacking of the public conversation by hostile people or spammers.

There's really no blanket, all-purpose answer to this. Only after evaluating the unique quirks of an online community can you formulate the right strategy. Consider the situation from many different angles (verbal, statistical, etc.). That way you can discern who's really making things happen, what's really happening, and how best to handle the problem.

This may require hiring someone who understands the social milieu of online communities. However, my impression is that news organizations generally cannot afford to invest in hiring qualified community managers. Or perhaps they just don't value the particular skills that come from being social online.

If there's no willingness to hire this kind of expert help, that leaves two options:

1. Publish community behavior guidelines, not just "terms of service." This does not mean limiting free speech. Free speech doesn't give anyone the right to behave without regard to others. Make sure to enforce your behavioral guidelines -- and yes, this can mean banning people temporarily or permanently from your community. I recommend warning people first before banning them. This means requiring participants to register with valid e-mail address, even just to post a comment.

2. Give it time to grow. Wait for participants to make an emotional investment in your online community, and let them police it themselves. This is what used to happen in newsgroups and has happened in Wikipedia. Emotional investments don't happen overnight, and policing won't happen automatically -- so expect that your comments might be unruly for some time.

Bottom line: Online communities aren't easy. Solutions take time and sometimes money. If there's a lack of money and a lack of time, then the Danish site Poulsen wrote about used the only available option -- temporarily banning some participants from posting.

To build constructive online community, it helps to learn what makes communities constructive. Respect people who have mastered that skill, and bring them in to help as needed. Or, if you prefer to let communities evolve naturally, be prepared for a bit of bloodshed.

I recommend Clay Shirky's essay A Group is its own Worst Enemy for understanding online community dynamics.

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