Nice to hear that you’re planning to devote more time to Facebook group management!
the largest EA-related Facebook group (“Effective Altruism”) has less activity than it could
I just checked, it looks like this group has around one post and several new comments every day. How much are you aiming for?
To me, the main Facebook group is great but already know seems like a bit too many different discussions in one place and a bit too much happening. If most people check it once a week or less, that would mean 10+ new posts every time they check it, of which only some are relevant.
I liked David Nash’s approach of cause-specific Facebook groups (e.g. “Int’l Development & EA”) and then try to focus the conversation on in the relevant Facebook group—thereby improving the “signal to noise” ratio for everyone.
What do you think of that? Could such a position also help manage some of the other most active Facebook groups (such as “EA career discussion”, “EA Job postings”, “Int’l Dev” etc.) if the admins of those groups could use?
The nice thing about having someone working on the biggest group is that it’s a good “test case” for that person (or other such people) playing a similar role in smaller groups. Lots of new content = easier to see whether the work makes an impact.
Other notes on this position:
By “less activity”, we don’t necessarily mean “not enough posts”—but we think that the average post could get more useful comments than it now does, that the average question could get a more thorough answer, etc. Perhaps the listing should have read “less high-quality activity” or something like that.
People who are just starting out in EA are more likely to come through the main FB group than any other space. A major part of this role is being a “friendly face” for newcomers and giving them a good first impression of EA as a community of helpful people. This doesn’t work as well unless the contractor is working where new people tend to gather.
In general, I agree that cause-specific groups offer a better and more focused experience general groups on Facebook, but I also think that “Effective Altruism” is the right place to start this new experiment in paid moderation.
Nice to hear that you’re planning to devote more time to Facebook group management!
I just checked, it looks like this group has around one post and several new comments every day. How much are you aiming for?
To me, the main Facebook group is great but already know seems like a bit too many different discussions in one place and a bit too much happening. If most people check it once a week or less, that would mean 10+ new posts every time they check it, of which only some are relevant.
I liked David Nash’s approach of cause-specific Facebook groups (e.g. “Int’l Development & EA”) and then try to focus the conversation on in the relevant Facebook group—thereby improving the “signal to noise” ratio for everyone.
What do you think of that? Could such a position also help manage some of the other most active Facebook groups (such as “EA career discussion”, “EA Job postings”, “Int’l Dev” etc.) if the admins of those groups could use?
The nice thing about having someone working on the biggest group is that it’s a good “test case” for that person (or other such people) playing a similar role in smaller groups. Lots of new content = easier to see whether the work makes an impact.
Other notes on this position:
By “less activity”, we don’t necessarily mean “not enough posts”—but we think that the average post could get more useful comments than it now does, that the average question could get a more thorough answer, etc. Perhaps the listing should have read “less high-quality activity” or something like that.
People who are just starting out in EA are more likely to come through the main FB group than any other space. A major part of this role is being a “friendly face” for newcomers and giving them a good first impression of EA as a community of helpful people. This doesn’t work as well unless the contractor is working where new people tend to gather.
In general, I agree that cause-specific groups offer a better and more focused experience general groups on Facebook, but I also think that “Effective Altruism” is the right place to start this new experiment in paid moderation.