Create guidelines for the community you want to foster
Last week, my colleague and I attended a Diversity & Culture Summit. We got to speak with people from a bunch of other companies and one conversation that stood out revolved around establishing community guidelines. One attendee wasn’t sure how to establish an internal consensus on what type of content shouldn’t be allowed on their platform. The answer came pretty naturally to me, and a few days later, I’m still confident in my response, so I’m going to share some of the feedback that I provided. Here goes!Â
Hold your community to the same standards that you hold yourself.
I’m super proud to belong to a company made up of pretty humble and hardworking individuals. It’s also made pretty clear that any assholery won’t be tolerated. And the same goes for our community. Our first listed community guideline is “Don’t be a jerk.”
Start moderating message boards or comments and it shouldn’t take long to figure out who’s being a jerk and who is actually trying to contribute to a conversation (note: the two might not be in opposition every time).
As Monica would say, don’t take it personal.
If we deleted everything on the internet that a single person found offensive, there would be no internet. While a gut-check is a good filter for determining what is and isn’t acceptable content, don’t rely to much on what offends you. It’s not about you. It’s about creating a space where people feel comfortable conversing and sharing. If someone was visiting your site for the first time and saw the content at hand, would they participate in the conversation or turn away?Â
Establish a suitable “filter” with your team and use it as a baseline for determining what content can stay and what absolutely needs to go. Other examples of filters:
What would my mom think if she saw this? (You can even ask her.)
What type of reputation does this content establish for your website/business?
Is this content hurtful or harmful?
It’s 2015. It’s the internet. If you don’t have community guidelines posted publicly, start drafting them ASAP. Keep them short and sweet and allow yourself some wiggle-room to leave things open to interpretation. Don’t list out every possible offense. You’re creating a space for your best users, not to block out eons of hypothetical bad ones.
Link to these guidelines in all places where they might be applicable (forums, comment sections, chatrooms…are chatrooms still a thing?).
And while you’re drafting, be sure to get the help of the people that will be enforcing the guidelines. Whether this is your Community team, volunteer moderators, or deputized community members, they have the most experience talking to users and have the most knowledge about what offenses are most common. Involve them in the process of creating (and updating) these guidelines.
Let the community decide.
Give your community some channel to let you know about offensive, harmful, or hurtful content. Also give them the opportunity to “up-vote” content that’s good. They contribute actively to this space so give them (a little) control of it.
>> The end! Moderation work can be dark at times, but I really think that a solid set of community guidelines can help a lot. I wrote our current set of guidelines (with lots of help from other Community Team friends), so let me know if you have any questions! :)
p.s. I’ll probably share more from the summit later!
blakekathryn
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