Online Communities: Suggested whitepapers & reports

Photograph by Moriza / CC BY 2.0

The level of knowledge sharing in this industry has always impressed and inspired me to pass on what I've learnt. Here are a few recommended white papers and reports out there for those interested in community management, user-generated content and moderation.

Moderation in Social Networks
By: eModeration
Published: February 2010
Price: Free
http://www.emoderation.com/about/publications

eModeration have a number of brilliant white papers, a few of which are:
How to moderate teens & tweens; How to encourage participation and player loyalty in virtual worlds; Five techniques for creating safer environments for children.

State of Community Management
By: The Community Roundtable
Published: February 2010
Price: Free
http://community-roundtable.com/socm-2010/

"Community management is emerging as a critical discipline for managing social initiatives. The State of Community Management is our groundbreaking work in aggregating the best practices and lessons learned from our members, who have been leading the practice of community management in a variety of contexts – with B2B, B2C, marketing, support, and employee communities."

User-generated Content & the Law
By: Tempero (UK)
Published: February 2010
Price: Free
http://ow.ly/1r5VR

Although its focus is on UK law this whitepaper provides a fascinating insight into trials and legal precedents being set internationally in relation to UGC & the law. Brought to you by Tempero who provided outsourced moderation for 14 years worth of hours in 2009 *head explodes*

Guide to Community Management
By: ReadWriteWeb
Published: May 2009
Price: $299 (USD)
http://www.readwriteweb.com/reports/community-management/

"A team of five ReadWriteWeb researchers worked together scouring the web for hundreds of blog posts and articles about online community management. We curated that collection down to the very best articles, then excerpted the best talking points, data points, advice and reflection on key topics. We then wove all those nuggets of wisdom into a cohesive report, mixed with our own perspectives on often controversial topics. "

Good practice guidance for the providers of social networking and other user interactive services
(ok, so not a great title!)
By: Home Office Task Force (UK) on Child Protection on the Internet developed in consultation with ACMA.
Published: 2008 (be mindful of publication date when assessing legal information within)
Price: Free
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/operational-policing/social-networking-guidance/

Online Community Research Network (OCRN)
By: OCRN
Published: The OCRN published six reports a year
Price: ranges from $295-$349 but some reports become free after 6 months. If you are a OCRN member ($795), reports are included in your membership.
http://forumonenetworks.com/section/research/published

Recent reports include: Online Community & Social Media Compensation 2009; Online Communities: Surviving & Thriving in the Downturn Economy; Social Media Ecosystems; Online Communitie: Metrics and Reporting

"The Online Community Research Network (OCRN) is a collaborative effort of online community professionals to better understand the principal challenges of building and managing online communities."

Facebook Fan Page: from zero to 40,000 fans
By: Mudo Media
Price: Free
http://www.mudomedia.com.au/
"How Mudo built the largest and most engaged branded Facebook pages in Australia"*

Although this is a white paper geared at social media marketers, there are definitely learnings to be gleaned. The example of how they turned negative criticism about the body size of models into a user-experience is a great one, especially in light of recent discussion surrounding Nestle's actions on Facebook. It would also be of interest to community managers working with Facebook groups, and digital agencies. It does set a great precendent for clever and successful brand engagement.

* ETA: According to a list published today by Laurel Papworth the Supre FB page sits at position 33 on a list of Australia's top 100 FB Fan Pages - based on membership figures.

I'd love to write a book-list but I'd have to call it "10 books I'd love to read if only my toddler would allow it".

What else should I read? I'm taking suggestions....

Developing online community guidelines

Photo by Sacks08

Refining community rules or guidelines is best done in conjunction with your members, however you'll want to ensure you have at least the basics covered when you launch.

A lack of guidelines can create an unpleasant experience for members, and it can be very hard to retroactively change users' behaviour.

Guidelines set tone & expectations
The tone and atmosphere of a community is set in its very early days, and there isn't necessarily a right or wrong. If you want to be known for infamously banning people take a look at the Something Awful forums, or you want to set up a zero tolerance approach to all or part of your rule set, take a look at the Whirlpool broadband forums. Both are highly-trafficked forums with an unapologetic approach to their rules.

Should they be called guidelines or rules?
It is much more common for them to be called guidelines. If they are general or open to interpretation (be nice, show respect) they may be better off titled guidelines. If they are quite specific (no trading, copyright infringement etc) you could call them rules. Either way you will find some troublesome members combing them for loopholes!

Lonely Planet quite cleverly call theirs guidelines with the sub-heading: "The rules we'll shake hands on". This does a great job at reinforcing that as a member you've agreed to these conditions.

Three prominent points to writing guidelines
1) Keep them conversational so they are easy to digest
2) Keep them brief (easier said than done!)
3) Refine them in consultation with members

The devil's in the detail
Regarding point two - the more general your rules, the easier to enforce. That's not to say members won't hassle you for the specifics but it is easier for you to wield discretionary power. Inevitably it is impossible to predict the breadth of issues user-generated content gives rise to.

That said I inherited a community with 40+ detailed rules that had been developed over ten years and I found them effective, but I can't guarantee how many people read them. They were however developed in consultation with members so plenty of super-users were happy to C&P them to remind other users about them. On the subject of...

Self governance
Ensure you have an effective reporting mechanism! I would go as far as saying - don't launch without one due to potential legal implications. Encourage members to own their community and report guideline breaches. A level of self-governance is vital for a healthy community.

Best Practice community guidelines:
Lonely Planet
Get Satisfaction
Yahoo Answers
Trip Advisor
Flickr

I think the use of this sentence on Lonely Planet's site is a great fall back/reference for members who persistently create problems:

"If you don’t agree with them, we won’t take it personally, and nor should you when we suggest www.lonelyplanet.com might not be for you."

These CIPD rules are also worthy of note, they've usefully been divided into two categories: "how to get value from the forums" and "things to avoid".

Rules to consider
Disclaimer: please seek legal advice when drafting your rules and/or guidelines.

Aside from the basic and obvious such as legal restrictions (copyright, defamation, discrimination, privacy etc) here are some issues you may want your guidelines to address. There are a number of ways you can group these to make your message coherent. A number of communities separate the legal and behavioural rules - which is an approach worth considering.

• Stay on-topic and post in relevant forum
• Identity protection / public nature of forums (members sometimes want content removed and can sometimes be surprised that you can't remove it from Google results.)
  
• Clear thread titles
  
• Duplication / cross-posting
  
• No capitals / shouting
• Ghost / multiple identities
• Screen names (not offensive, business names etc)
• Data Protection Act (depending on what country you are based in)
• COPPA (")
  
• External linking guidelines (will you allow contextual links? How will you handle planted requests?)
• Trading
• Trolling
• Impersonation
• Inciting denial of service (encouraging users to visit another site with the purpose of abusing/attacking)
• Bumping (some forums don't allow 'bumping' of threads)
• Post-count 'boosting'
  
• Advice - no professional, medical, legal advice
• False / misleading statements
• Research (ask that journalists, students & researchers contact you first)
• Moderation explanations - I suggest stating clearly that moderation explanations are not open for public debate, especially if they involve discussing members' behaviour(s).
• Freedom of speech - it's always pertinent to remind Aussies we don't have it per se.
• Piracy / hacking
• Images - do not post images of other people without their permission
• Profanity
• Voting - can members solicit votes from others?
• Repetitive debates - it may preserve your sanity to cast a wide net that allows you to shut down the inevitable repetitive debates!
• Languages - will your community be English only? Look to travel forums for advice!

Further resources
Patrick O'Keefe's Managing Online Forums has a chapter dedicated to developing guidelines. His nuts & bolts approach is very useful for those of us in the trenches!

As a community member or manager, what is your experience with community guidelines? Do you have any suggestions or glaring omissions for me?