Jul
Moderating Ourselves
I have just been made a moderator for my friend’s discussion forum. Like most busy forums, an extra moderator or two helps. Better to have two or three people checking instead of one person.
Moderating a forum is not like moderating a spoken conversation. It is simpler. All a moderator should do is step back and let the forum members converse. The only time to step in is when things get too far off topic or people start getting hostile. Even then, it usually takes a mild suggestion to get things back on track.
Every forum has a purpose, which can also be described as a theme or topic. People join because they are interested in that particular theme. The forumites tend to be a diverse group united by that one shared interest. While some may have other things in common, others have nothing else in common but that shared interest.
We can keep a forum to the topic, and do a good job of it. Take a good hobby forum as an example. Folks come because they love the hobby. Their politics, age, religion, personal philosophy, gender, etc. rarely enter any conversation because they have no direct link to the hobby. For instance, a forum for military miniature collectors would not be a good place to discuss theological viewpoints. It would be the place to discuss soldiers and armies.
What turns a forum into an online community?
When people share their ideas about a favorite topic, courtesy demands that they do not interject certain other subjects into the mix. People may bring their personalities, but not talk of such controversial things as religion or politics (unless it is a political or religious forum). To be fair, people do not need to talk of outside topics. Part of who we are is our beliefs. Though we do not discuss them openly, they color who we are. Take as example a discussion of the Crusades in a military history forum. Though religion is not overtly discussed, you can be sure the Muslim forumite’s views on the subject will be colored differently than those of the Christian. If talking of Cold War armies, the fellow from Kiev is going to take a different slant on it than the man from Austin, based on their respective nationalities.
The Germans say, “A tortoise brings his home with him.” It is a way of saying that we bring all of ourselves wherever we go. As in the Mannar Rune, the matter of identity is a balance of who we are inside and what we are to the world. Part of our identity is our religion, politics, ethnicity, age, gender, etc. We do not have to discuss them to bring them with us, for they are all part of us. Even if the topic is something as neutral as hobbies, our individual outlooks are colored to a greater or lesser degree by our identity.
On a forum, a subject may be as neutral as can be. It takes form and shape because of the people on the forum. The things that color their lives enable them to give color to the forum. Indeed, that is how a simple list becomes an online community. The subject is what it is, but it is the people who enliven it.
Moderating is easy. Just sit back and give folks the benefit of the doubt. Only step in when things get hostile or convoluted. The moderator only watches. It is the people who make a forum lively and interesting. Behind it all is a matter of identity. We bring all of ourselves wherever we go, where it be a new town or an online forum.
It is all explained in a Rune called Mannar.
