Community Whisperer
Everything I need to know about community flare-ups I learned from my dog.
Ok, not actually true. Dogs are dogs and people are people (and I have cats, who have mostly taught me how to clean up after them). But there are some amazing lessons we can learn from Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, about relating with any other beings.
- Stay calm and assertive. Community kerfluffles are part of the game, but overreacting to them only makes the situation worse. Make it clear that you’ve heard the community’s concern and that you are giving it thought, but don’t overpromise or give away your own rights in the process.
- Practice discipline. People have chosen to become members of your site for a reason: There is a unique identity to it. So set boundaries and stick to your rules or site guidelines — they define who you are.
- Be consistent. This is a particularly hard one because it requires resources not every company has, but staying on top of rule-breaking content is really important. Christi Ginger, JPG’s awesome community manager, would often reference the broken windows theory. Once a community sees a few examples that break the rules, members are likely to upload more, and the problem snowballs. I’ve heard from a friend at Digg that they have a full-time employee who just deletes illegal content — it can be a very big job.
- Lead the pack. It’s crucial that you listen to feedback, ideas, and critique from the community, but you and your team have to be the ones making decisions and leading. Not only are you the ones with the most information and control over the process, you’d also have chaos without strong leadership.
- Give affection. Positive motivators are your best tools, but they have to be part of the whole package.
Community Whisperer
Everything I need to know about community flare-ups I learned from my dog.
Ok, not actually true. Dogs are dogs and people are people (and I have cats, who have mostly taught me how to clean up after them). But there are some amazing lessons we can learn from Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, about relating with any other beings.
- Stay calm and assertive. Community kerfluffles are part of the game, but overreacting to them only makes the situation worse. Make it clear that you’ve heard the community’s concern and that you are giving it thought, but don’t overpromise or give away your own rights in the process.
- Practice discipline. People have chosen to become members of your site for a reason: There is a unique identity to it. So set boundaries and stick to your rules or site guidelines — they define who you are.
- Be consistent. This is a particularly hard one because it requires resources not every company has, but staying on top of rule-breaking content is really important. Christi Ginger, JPG’s awesome community manager, would often reference the broken windows theory. Once a community sees a few examples that break the rules, members are likely to upload more, and the problem snowballs. I’ve heard from a friend at Digg that they have a full-time employee who just deletes illegal content — it can be a very big job.
- Lead the pack. It’s crucial that you listen to feedback, ideas, and critique from the community, but you and your team have to be the ones making decisions and leading. Not only are you the ones with the most information and control over the process, you’d also have chaos without strong leadership.
- Give affection. Positive motivators are your best tools, but they have to be part of the whole package.
Posted 4 years ago 5 notes
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