Managing a local online community without being harassed or worse
I need your advice!
I have been running around with the idea of creating a nice interactive website dedicated to my local community for quite some time now. The main goal is just connecting people around here. Have them share stuff (information, upcoming local events, experiences; historical facts; images; video’s) and find out what they have in common other than living in the same place on this Planet. Just to increase the general well being around here. Lot’s of tools around to create communities like that: forums, wiki’s, blogging software etc. However what has kept me from really going ahead with my plan, other then time, is a bit of fear.
Fear? Why would you be afraid you might ask? Well, the main issue is how to shield your self off from people how somehow feel mistreated by the local community (people who get banned from a forum for example). Of course the basic solution is to set up the site and never reveal your real life identity. However I feel this very much limits the way you can participate yourself in the online community (chance of revealing real life identity just by provinding information is always there) and especially also in terms of the marketing you can do for the community. In order to promote things I think it is a very good thing to express your self about the initiative in a local newspaper (or could that be done anonymously also?)
One of the most basic structures involved in an online community is really to install some rules or guidelines that people need to accept when registering. Something along the line of “respect for each individual; no swearing; no personal attacks etc.” and that breaking these rules means you risk getting banned (only account or worse, your IP address). However, especially given the fact that most participants will choose to stay anonymous there is always the chance that people will start to test the rules. And then these people will be talked to online, and be banned if they still do not comply. But they get really pissed off and need to find an outlet for the anger…
Ok, this is not really a well structured post. Just a set of basic thoughts actually. What I am very much looking for is experiences who created online local communities like the one I envision. How did you mitigate the personal risk? Please comment.
Technorati tag(s): Community, Local, Citizen Journalism, Blogging, Social Software, Collaboration, Web 2.0
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posted Aug 2, 08:25 AM on Aug 02, 2007 |
category: Local web
/ Web2.0
Sorry – I don’t have any experience establishing communities. But I would like to read about others who already made them.
I also would first establish some rules before starting the community. One rule could be no anonymous accounts.
I would start with only few but selected people to gain a common understanding.
BTW: Do you intend to implement the infrastructure (software for blogging, wiki etc.) by yourself? Or could you consider using existing community services like Facebook (just started using it) or Ning and creating a group/network/community there?
— Frank Hamm Aug 2, 11:26 AM #
Hi Frank,
Nice to hear from you again! Good to see we share even more interests also.
On anonymous account: I think you cannot do without them, to get people to post stuff, even locally. It is very common on forums on the Internet! People just like being anonymous I guess.
On your question: yes I intend to do the software myself using some combinations (mediwiki; textpattern; phpbb; ....). I like to get a bit more insight into the tools, although that eats time :)
Best regards,
Marcel
— Marcel Aug 2, 11:36 AM #
Hi Marcel,
It’s hard to know about your local community, but my first reaction is that you’re worrying a lot about how people will mis-use the web site. Many people, when getting started with community sites, overestimate this as a problem. You will encounter the occasional problem, but I think people are generally well behaved if you’ve set up environment that rewards good, honest behavior. The Dutch people I know would make excellent contributors! :-)
Here’s a brain dump…
Think about your online community just as you would a real-world one. The people that would come to an evening meeting may be the same ones who come to a community site. How will they find out about it? What will they want from it?
In the end, to be successful, you’ll need to fill a need or solve a problem. Start with something that the community needs and see who else is interested. Make sure the community has a purpose – and that people know what it is. It can change, but it needs focus for a while. “We’re here to do this”
Be yourself with your real identity – people need someone to trust. Do have rules, but make them short and sweet.
Be ready to let the community make it what they want.
You may have see this post, but it may help:
http://commoncraft.com/party
Good luck!
— Lee LeFever Aug 6, 07:19 PM #
Hi Marcel
Out here in NSW Australia we’ve done pretty much what you are describing for our LearnScope community. LearnScope is a nationally funded PD project which forms part of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework for the Vocational Ed and Training sector.
Our blog – http://www.nswlearnscope.com – has been operational for about 14 months and we have a mediawiki – http://www.nswlearnscope.com/wiki.
Obviously anyone with an online identity needs to be savvy/ literate in navigating and contributing to an online world.I don’t put home addresses or phone numbers online. However we have modelled an open system w/o issue – we do require registration to edit our wiki but mainly to enable better data collection – the blog IS moderated but we only block spam not personal points of view.
After some issues around bullying in another Framework project in the past 12 months we consciously tackled the issue of balancing the wellbeing of users with freedom of speech. Rather than setting guidelines however we threw the issue out to our community and had them design the guidelines for contribution. We have not had an issue but if we did we would tackle it as a community based on the guidelines it has set.
Come on over and have a look. Feel free to contact Alex or myself.
— Robyn Jay Aug 26, 04:03 AM #