Message Board In A Bottle
I like joking around with my friends. And I also like talking about Important Things like politics and religion. Sometimes I mix it up and joke around about politics and religion. This is how I like to spend some of my time.
This is the point of internet message boards, or forums. You can give it a theme, if you like, but after the theme has been addressed, what you'll be left with is a bunch of people (who share an interest) who like joking around and talking about Important Things.
It's not rocket science. However, in my experience, board after board screws up what should be light-hearted fun and turns it into in-fighting, hurt feelings, sarcastic mockery, cliquism, nepotism, trolling and general unpleasantness. When boards degenerate into this sort of unreadable gibberish, the only people who post are trolls, admins, mods and those who feel a strong sense of loyalty to the admins (because they want to date them, or whatever). When you see this happening, the boards have died. Of course, as is traditional, the people who most need to read this probably won't.
How to Keep Your Boards Successful
1. Be absolutely clear on what your board regards as unacceptable.
Trying to be positive and constructive about content guidelines is a nightmare. It's much more efficient to explain what you don't want. Then everyone can infer that anything not on that list is fair game. However, if you keep slapping posters for breaking ambiguous or non-existent rules, it will create justifiable resentment and your boards will suffer.
2. Discourage cliques as much as possible.
It's impossible to prevent cliques, but you can be aware of the risk, and establish damage limitation measures. The last thing you need is a small bunch of people agreeing with everything any member of the clique says, and pretty much ignoring everything else, or worse, making snide and sarcastic comments about anyone who isn't in that clique. Some ideas: Call them out publicly as often as you see it, but do it with a sense of humour. If that doesn't work, make one of them a mod of some forum and explain that his new job is to stop cliquism, and if he doesn't do it properly, he'll be de-modded. Most posters will trade clique membership for on-board banning power without blinking. This should neuter, or at least destabilise the clique.
The worst cases of cliquism are when an admin signs up to one. Because he's on the inside, he might not even notice what he's doing. If he does not develop the mental capacity to stand outside his boards and look in, he will remain mystified as his boards crash around him.
My constant attacks on EDF cliquism gave rise to the Oh, but when I say it... meme on those boards. Update: EDF is dead now; never mind.
3. Provide fresh, interesting content.
Most posters (including me) are reactive rather than active. This means that you need to provide a regularly-updating structure upon which they can hang their posts. It doesn't matter what the structure is - you can use brain-numbing myspace-style surveys, or find current news stories relevant to the theme of your board - as long as it kicks off some threads. If you have someone on your boards who provides frequent, relevant content to your board, look after her. People like this are worth more to your boards than ten posters whose entire contribution to threads is "LOL".
4. Deal with problems quickly.
There will be problems. Deal with them in as quickly and as low-key as you can. There's nothing worse than a thread dragging out into a stupid fight between the admins and the posters. Whatever you're going to do, just do it. (Note that if you're the asshole in this equation, this can spectacularly backfire. So don't be the asshole.) Once you have decided to hand down a ban or a suspension, stick to it. If you temporarily suspend someone, and he re-registers to post again, ban him forever at I.P. level. Delete without comment any post he tries to make. As long as you're not engaging with him at all, he will get bored and go away.
5. Have a sense of humour.
People will take an awful lot of shit from you if you're funny. I know this from my experience on message boards and from real life. I've said some terrible things to some violent people and as long as everyone around him is laughing, he can't get too offended. This is a bit trickier on the internet, but it can be done. If you're not actually funny, this also can backfire. Don't try to be funny if you're not, and remember, being personally hurtful and nasty to an individual poster (unless he's in on it) is never funny. The rule is: sarcasm only works UP the chain of command.
6. Don't have too many mods.
This is a recipe for disaster, not least because the more mods you have, the more likely it is that they will start fighting among themselves. Also, unless you have a massive, sprawling site, it will cause resentment among some members who feel that they, too, should become moderators, given the low criteria you must have applied. In any case, make sure all your mods are on-message.
7. Listen to your members.
If a bunch of your active members want something, give it to them, even if that something is, in your opinion, really stupid. If a bunch of your active members want you to get rid of something, get rid of it, even if that something is, in your opinion, really cool.
8. Have fun.
If your boards are characterised by constant pitched battles, nasty comments, sarcasm, personal attacks, and so on - no one's having fun. It's fun to have some drama occasionally, but constant stupid, nasty drama is off-putting, draining and no fun. (A good sign that life is draining from your board is if the fun, interesting posters only log on to defend themselves on threads composed mainly of trolling.) Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong. Read the paragraphs above, re-assess, and fix it.
This is the point of internet message boards, or forums. You can give it a theme, if you like, but after the theme has been addressed, what you'll be left with is a bunch of people (who share an interest) who like joking around and talking about Important Things.
It's not rocket science. However, in my experience, board after board screws up what should be light-hearted fun and turns it into in-fighting, hurt feelings, sarcastic mockery, cliquism, nepotism, trolling and general unpleasantness. When boards degenerate into this sort of unreadable gibberish, the only people who post are trolls, admins, mods and those who feel a strong sense of loyalty to the admins (because they want to date them, or whatever). When you see this happening, the boards have died. Of course, as is traditional, the people who most need to read this probably won't.
How to Keep Your Boards Successful
1. Be absolutely clear on what your board regards as unacceptable.
Trying to be positive and constructive about content guidelines is a nightmare. It's much more efficient to explain what you don't want. Then everyone can infer that anything not on that list is fair game. However, if you keep slapping posters for breaking ambiguous or non-existent rules, it will create justifiable resentment and your boards will suffer.
2. Discourage cliques as much as possible.
It's impossible to prevent cliques, but you can be aware of the risk, and establish damage limitation measures. The last thing you need is a small bunch of people agreeing with everything any member of the clique says, and pretty much ignoring everything else, or worse, making snide and sarcastic comments about anyone who isn't in that clique. Some ideas: Call them out publicly as often as you see it, but do it with a sense of humour. If that doesn't work, make one of them a mod of some forum and explain that his new job is to stop cliquism, and if he doesn't do it properly, he'll be de-modded. Most posters will trade clique membership for on-board banning power without blinking. This should neuter, or at least destabilise the clique.
The worst cases of cliquism are when an admin signs up to one. Because he's on the inside, he might not even notice what he's doing. If he does not develop the mental capacity to stand outside his boards and look in, he will remain mystified as his boards crash around him.
My constant attacks on EDF cliquism gave rise to the Oh, but when I say it... meme on those boards. Update: EDF is dead now; never mind.
3. Provide fresh, interesting content.
Most posters (including me) are reactive rather than active. This means that you need to provide a regularly-updating structure upon which they can hang their posts. It doesn't matter what the structure is - you can use brain-numbing myspace-style surveys, or find current news stories relevant to the theme of your board - as long as it kicks off some threads. If you have someone on your boards who provides frequent, relevant content to your board, look after her. People like this are worth more to your boards than ten posters whose entire contribution to threads is "LOL".
4. Deal with problems quickly.
There will be problems. Deal with them in as quickly and as low-key as you can. There's nothing worse than a thread dragging out into a stupid fight between the admins and the posters. Whatever you're going to do, just do it. (Note that if you're the asshole in this equation, this can spectacularly backfire. So don't be the asshole.) Once you have decided to hand down a ban or a suspension, stick to it. If you temporarily suspend someone, and he re-registers to post again, ban him forever at I.P. level. Delete without comment any post he tries to make. As long as you're not engaging with him at all, he will get bored and go away.
5. Have a sense of humour.
People will take an awful lot of shit from you if you're funny. I know this from my experience on message boards and from real life. I've said some terrible things to some violent people and as long as everyone around him is laughing, he can't get too offended. This is a bit trickier on the internet, but it can be done. If you're not actually funny, this also can backfire. Don't try to be funny if you're not, and remember, being personally hurtful and nasty to an individual poster (unless he's in on it) is never funny. The rule is: sarcasm only works UP the chain of command.
6. Don't have too many mods.
This is a recipe for disaster, not least because the more mods you have, the more likely it is that they will start fighting among themselves. Also, unless you have a massive, sprawling site, it will cause resentment among some members who feel that they, too, should become moderators, given the low criteria you must have applied. In any case, make sure all your mods are on-message.
7. Listen to your members.
If a bunch of your active members want something, give it to them, even if that something is, in your opinion, really stupid. If a bunch of your active members want you to get rid of something, get rid of it, even if that something is, in your opinion, really cool.
8. Have fun.
If your boards are characterised by constant pitched battles, nasty comments, sarcasm, personal attacks, and so on - no one's having fun. It's fun to have some drama occasionally, but constant stupid, nasty drama is off-putting, draining and no fun. (A good sign that life is draining from your board is if the fun, interesting posters only log on to defend themselves on threads composed mainly of trolling.) Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong. Read the paragraphs above, re-assess, and fix it.