The main issue here is ultimately how to let people speak the way they might speak in any environment, that includes if they’re in the pub and some dickhead deserves to be called a dickhead from time to time. The leeway to allow that is useful in generating a trust-based community. Another factor here is that is just happens from time to time. Everyone on these platforms is human - speaking collectively we have workdays, we have good sleeps and bad sleeps, we drink and do drugs, we get grumpy and we get happy. Sometimes something minor makes someone pop off, sometimes something absolutely deserves it.
Building a community isn’t just setting a bunch of rules but it’s also building a culture, and for me this culture and having people in a community understand the above, that everyone there is human, is an integral part of being in a community. People popping off from time to time, arguing, having spats, these things are ok if the activity among people is still all in good faith. They’re just elements of people being human. Some of these negative events even lead to people coming back the next day and regretting some things they said, apologising, and deepening bonds with others over those negative outcomes. Sometimes that’s not the case too and that’s OK.
Your community will suffer immeasurably more damage from the people attempting to harm it, who are acting very much in bad faith, compared to the people that might be a bit rude from time to time but in good faith. A community can’t be built on mechanical factors alone, it has to be built on the interpersonal relationships of its userbase.
If I were going to recommend any particular course of action it would be to tighten the bonds of the community itself around the obvious task that needs to be carried out which is an anti-wrecker campaign. Hexbear carries out these kinds of posts alongside anti-wrecker memes and the like regularly to maintain a community that is well-versed and capable of instantly recognising wrecker shit and dunking on it quickly.
One of the primary things the wreckers want to do is play on your inability to spot them, and this goes 100x for community members who are not privvy to the longterm moderator issues at the backend. These issues won’t get smaller, they will get larger with growth and your instance will need to figure out things like what kind of culture it wants its community to have and how aspects of that culture are important elements of preventing longterm issues.
The main issue here is ultimately how to let people speak the way they might speak in any environment, that includes if they’re in the pub and some dickhead deserves to be called a dickhead from time to time. The leeway to allow that is useful in generating a trust-based community. Another factor here is that is just happens from time to time. Everyone on these platforms is human - speaking collectively we have workdays, we have good sleeps and bad sleeps, we drink and do drugs, we get grumpy and we get happy. Sometimes something minor makes someone pop off, sometimes something absolutely deserves it.
Building a community isn’t just setting a bunch of rules but it’s also building a culture, and for me this culture and having people in a community understand the above, that everyone there is human, is an integral part of being in a community. People popping off from time to time, arguing, having spats, these things are ok if the activity among people is still all in good faith. They’re just elements of people being human. Some of these negative events even lead to people coming back the next day and regretting some things they said, apologising, and deepening bonds with others over those negative outcomes. Sometimes that’s not the case too and that’s OK.
Your community will suffer immeasurably more damage from the people attempting to harm it, who are acting very much in bad faith, compared to the people that might be a bit rude from time to time but in good faith. A community can’t be built on mechanical factors alone, it has to be built on the interpersonal relationships of its userbase.
If I were going to recommend any particular course of action it would be to tighten the bonds of the community itself around the obvious task that needs to be carried out which is an anti-wrecker campaign. Hexbear carries out these kinds of posts alongside anti-wrecker memes and the like regularly to maintain a community that is well-versed and capable of instantly recognising wrecker shit and dunking on it quickly.
One of the primary things the wreckers want to do is play on your inability to spot them, and this goes 100x for community members who are not privvy to the longterm moderator issues at the backend. These issues won’t get smaller, they will get larger with growth and your instance will need to figure out things like what kind of culture it wants its community to have and how aspects of that culture are important elements of preventing longterm issues.
Pretty interesting analysis. Thanks!