RC Exodus of Experts

[midgetwaiter]

This type of thing isn't really an internet problem, more of a people problem. How many of you can think of a similar problem that happened with your condo board, book club or sports team? The internet does change the dynamic. It is easy to be rude online, sometimes when you don't really mean to but it still happens in face to face situations too.

The one thing that seems to happen quickly online is that people organize into cliques. Seems to me that spells the end for an online community, I noticed it on RC a while ago. Actually, you eventually notice almost everywhere.

Groupthink can be a real problem too and the standard model that a lot of web forums use can exasperate it. Unfortunately no matter what you try and do giving somebody that Moderator tag conveys "status" and most people don't handle it well. People that are really good mods for online communities are few and far between.

I think the best thing a moderator could do for the community is stay out of the discussion and just provide the occasional nudge when things get off track. Of course for somebody volunteering to moderate a site like RC, that would be boring fast and is probably an unreasonable idea. Things like that RC post by the site admin are a also great example of what not to do, ever. As soon as you try and exclude the average community member from something going on your community is dead and waiting to fall over.

I spent a lot of time researching and developing good moderation techniques a few years ago when my company built an online community for employees and franchise owners. Frankly, it's a bitch to do well and takes a ton of discipline. We had to recruit and train moderators just like you would find somebody to fill a professional position. One thing that surprised me most, the most prolific posters often make the WORST moderators. The quiet people are usually the most reasonable and tend to have less of a personal agenda.

I don't usually volunteer for moderator duties in communities I belong to, given my background it seems to much like work usually. I just watched another web community I really liked go the group think road though so I may have to change my mind about that.

I should note, I haven't been around Canreef long or much but it seems to be a very healthy community. You should all be proud of yourselves.