So someone I know has studied social media (e.g. working advising the C-level at companies who are building tools for a state-level entity to monitor extremists in social media).
Someone I know has run an online community created from scratch, that grew to thousands of people. At times, there were disputes and controversies, and they came under attack and they managed it well (probably ???).
You can create hot spaces with certain looser norms than the rest of the forum. Then you can direct discussions, people to those spaces.
The strategy of using these spaces are useful because:
This gives a natural outlet to heated discussions, and the explicit looser norms can make the discussions healthier
It pulls out heated discussion from other spaces, so they are less disruptive
The space gives knobs and levers for moderators
You can control how visible these spaces are for the public, e.g. possibly in the way “community” tags have different visibility
You can announce that it is open for X days, will be closed in X days
You can adjust and edit the norms and discussion inside of it as you go
Making these spaces and setting these boundaries also expresses agency, control and vision for the moderator. Expression of this is healthy and builds respect and further agency.
If you want to do this, these hot spaces can be made in many different ways, e.g. posts, threads, sections, tags. Probably some thought about the form it could take is useful. Further planning beyond designing the space is usually less rewarding.
So someone I know has studied social media (e.g. working advising the C-level at companies who are building tools for a state-level entity to monitor extremists in social media).
Someone I know has run an online community created from scratch, that grew to thousands of people. At times, there were disputes and controversies, and they came under attack and they managed it well (probably ???).
I’m writing to give some tools to the moderator:
Hot spaces
You can create hot spaces with certain looser norms than the rest of the forum. Then you can direct discussions, people to those spaces.
The strategy of using these spaces are useful because:
This gives a natural outlet to heated discussions, and the explicit looser norms can make the discussions healthier
It pulls out heated discussion from other spaces, so they are less disruptive
The space gives knobs and levers for moderators
You can control how visible these spaces are for the public, e.g. possibly in the way “community” tags have different visibility
You can announce that it is open for X days, will be closed in X days
You can adjust and edit the norms and discussion inside of it as you go
Making these spaces and setting these boundaries also expresses agency, control and vision for the moderator. Expression of this is healthy and builds respect and further agency.
If you want to do this, these hot spaces can be made in many different ways, e.g. posts, threads, sections, tags. Probably some thought about the form it could take is useful. Further planning beyond designing the space is usually less rewarding.