Managing, Moderating, and Mediating Large Online Communities

by Matt Cromwell

Head of Support and
Community Outreach at WordImpress

The Need for Online Communities in WordPress is Real

Types of Online Communities

1. Public/Open Forums
   (like wordpress.org)
    
2. Closed/Moderated Forums
   (like Advanced WordPress)

Attracting the "Right" Members

1. Public Forums

   • Who contributes is highly uncontrolled

   • Which means educating contributors on the best way to request support or give advice is your primary way of encouraging/discouraging activity.

2. Closed Forums

   • Members can request access, but then you only have their public profile to judge by.

   • Make your purpose explicit in your title and description

   • Once they are in, “do your best” to have the rules made really explicit in whatever format your platform provides.

3. Success/Failure Story

Moderating Comments Constructively

1. Get as many admins as you can as quickly as you can. The quality of your forum depends primarily on your ability to moderate discussion.

2. Admins need to have some sort of indication so others know they are commenting with authority.

3. Always comment with “education” in mind. Push back whenever comments are pushing the boundaries of stated rules

4. Rules have to be front and center, and there should never be any doubt whatsoever when a user’s comment is deleted based on the rules. The less vague admin actions are, the healthier all discussion will be.

5. Banhammer is always an option

6. Success/Failure Story

Mediating Problems

1. Always be a gracious host

2. Avoid backchanneling at all costs

3. If a post/user got very abusive and was banned, be sure to make a post/statement to all users that it’s been handled and a reminder of the forum rules.

Summary

1. The more admins the better

2. But admins should be as “invisible” as possible

3. Make all admin actions public -- avoid backchanneling

4. Banhammer is always an option

QUESTIONS?