How to deal with Madmen and weak content in online communities
Key points:
1)Love your lawyers
2)**Have rules and escalators
3)**Trust your gut
4)**Trust your community
5)**Avoid burn-out – have a team
6)**Moderation strategies
7)**Support your moderation team
8)**Document everything!
Escalation process for abuse/red flags:*
Examples:
-Self-harm
-Child abuse
-Suicide threats
-porn
-harmful content
Liability?*
-Resources page
-Put it in the hands of members – contact your local
authorities for suggestions
-What is your community/site/moderation team responsible
for?
-Consult a lawyer
Issues with user-created/uploaded videos
-Racism
-Conspiracy theory
Process/strategy for offending users:
-Users flag abuse
-3 Warnings then ban
-Look at overall user intent—are they using the site for
its intended purpose in general?
-Remove content if necessary
-Serious abuse/spam warrants immediate removal
-Documentation is key
Abuse Grid:Internal guidelines for dealing w/ abuse*
-type of abuse
-legal issues
-suggested management of issue
How to deal with members who are generally productive, but
also posting content that is inappropriate or inflammatory
-One-on-one contact via email
-Candid discussion about their message you’re seeing,
how it’s received, the sites needs, how they can help meet the sites needs in order
to remain a valued member.
Dealing with difficult content as a team – where do we get
emotional support?
Moderation tools
-prescreening?
-Screening?
can post and see posts, other members cannot see posts or evidence of posts.
User incentive
-reputation structures
-positive activity
-flagging appropriateness
-“user trust scores” – allow high-scored users to remove
content by flagging
-How often are users flagged
Dealing with trolls/abusive members who keep coming back
-Contacting them in person?If you have their info and identity
Trolls nest in niches find what is driving the troll
– conflict?Address that issue with the
member.
-Attention-hound trolls – stop banning, use a moderation
tool to ignore
Guidelines/Rules:*
-Make sure they’re easy to read
-They should synthesize the legaleze in your terms of
use
Page Last Updated: Jun 18 1:59pm by katie.schiavo@babycenter.com