Online communities with Teresa Nielsen Hayden and John Scalzi

Teresa Nielsen Hayden and John Scalzi have a tremendous, wide-ranging interview on online community management on the American Society of Association Executives's website:

Scalzi: You have the people in charge setting the tone and saying, "This is the way it's going to be," and then you have other people from within the community policing that tone because they value what they get there. There are so many places on the web [where] you can't have a conversation that when you find one where you can, you want to hug it to your chest and defend it. I find that [when] I'm off having a life away from the computer and somebody starts being completely idiotic or that the regulars know I won't like, they'll alert me.

The good thing about that is that it makes my job easier; the flipside is that there are times when I have to step in because somebody will tell somebody else, "You're saying something you shouldn't say here--you need to leave!" And I gently point out that I don't recall appointing that person captain of people who get to tell other people when to leave. So you do have to balance that fine line, but by and large the fact that people are so enthusiastic about the site means that they will help you reach your goals.

How Two Experts Build Strong Web Communities

• [Anonymous]

  American Society of Association Executives?!

• [Dave Faris]

  It’s sad, but probably true — on the internet, you risk becoming a petty dictator and a bit of an asshole if you want to keep your online forum free of pests. I ran an online community for 15 years, both dial-up and on the web. It’s a delicate balancing act. I think many forum moderators apply too firm of a hand for the sake of keeping everything nice and tidy.

  • [Anonymous]

    It’s sad, but probably true — on the internet, you risk becoming a petty dictator and a bit of an asshole if you want to keep your online forum free of pests.

    You risk it yes, but you don’t have to become one. The key is respect. You must respect your community, and they must respect you.

    If you treat your community with respect, they will treat you with respect. Of course they may lapse at times, but you must not lapse. One disrespectful act on your part translates into bad community feelings that last a long time.

    Of course sometimes you can publicly take down a troll and gain respect of your community, but only if the community agrees it’s a troll. If the troll has respect from some of the community, then it’s not going to work

• [_OM_]

  …Kinda funny that the BB mods haven’t chimed in on this thread, donchathink? :P