Navigating the world of web 2.0 is not easy. It would seem that anyone can join the online community in a very simple way. Yes, but it won’t last long. From the very beginning, right after registration, whether we like it or not, we assume one of the roles and consciously or not – we implement it. In order to stay in the community, we need to think about what we want to achieve and persistently act. We also have to watch out for online brawlers who will do anything to spoil what we’ve worked so hard for – our reputation. We will achieve it thanks to basic knowledge about the threats posed by various types of users. There are also those users who register only to argue. Feel important and untouchable because they remain anonymous. Others register in order to appear also in the real world through the virtual world, to form an opinion, some reputation.
Below is the first part of the Community Manager guide. It is dedicated to the types of Internet users.
Administrator
This is one of the most important functions on the Internet. It is at the very top of the hierarchy in online forums. It is slightly less important on portals, where it is usually limited to updating the website. In the first case, he is the creator who determines what the entire page will look like. It has the power to remove users and appoint other moderators and administrators. It can change the graphic design and the most important forum settings. It can delete other users’ posts as well as close the entire forum. In the case of portal administrators, their typical forum function was taken over by the so-called community managers and moderators. They themselves limit themselves to taking care of the functionality of the website. Administrators usually stay away from any arguments on the sites and react as a last resort. Administrator is not only a title that you get when creating a website, it is also the art of managing a community. It takes a lot of experience to properly control the moderators and all the people I write about in this post, to stimulate the discussion and develop the forum, and not to have the opposite effect. A lot of novice forum developers make the serious mistake of not interfering with the life of the forum.
Moderator
He is a person who evaluates the quality of comments and posts by Internet users both on the forum and on websites and prevents abuse using numerous tools. Moderators are most often selected from among experienced users, as well as well-known and liked people on the site. They make sure that the discussion on the website does not turn into a quarrel, and that the Polish language is suitable for reading. When they notice a gross error or an entry that does not comply with the regulations, they can delete such a post or edit it, removing inappropriate content.
They can give warnings to users who, after exceeding their maximum number, receive a typing block for a specified period of time. The most onerous users can get the so-called ban, i.e. a complete blockade of entering the forum or writing. Moderators on online forums are open to publicly admonishing and warning users who are behaving inappropriately, and their decision should usually be justified. The list of people responsible for the forum is public and each user can check who is the moderator. In the case of websites, the moderator does not have to ask users to correct the entry, usually it does not reveal itself, but works. When he sees an entry that does not comply with the regulations, he simply deletes it. It is focused mainly on effectiveness, not polemics with users. Being a moderator is a responsible task, and they themselves are the most frequent targets of Internet troll attacks, who aim to ridicule the person in power.
Social moderator
A person selected from among Internet users who enjoys a good reputation among them and most often has a long guard on such a website. This is called A “man of the people”, thanks to which, if a conflict arises between the administration and users, such a person can alleviate it. There is a conflict of interest and identification here, because the social moderator, when making a decision, may favor users due to the fact that he comes from them himself and he has certainly not agreed with the administration more than once.
Observer
This is a person who is registered on the forum, but very rarely comments on it. He spends a lot of time in the forum but is limited to reading only, writing occasional posts. The observer usually has a lot of general knowledge and expresses himself as a last resort. It is usually a blunt, strong, extensive comment that criticizes the previous authors and / or the whole situation.
Quina, in the discussion about giving way to older people on the bus on the MM Lublin portal, could not stand it and commented: “Visit your grandparents, grandmothers, because you probably do not do it, or you do not have them. Go down the stairs with them, go shopping. Then you will see that you don’t have to walk with a cane to need a seat on a bus. See how much it takes for an elderly person to go down the stairs, and SOME drivers here are like carrying potatoes. As a student, sometimes I have a problem to stand still, and what to say about older people, where strength, efficiency, reflexes are not the same. As for the free seats on the bus … simple advice, you have to sit far from the door, preferably with your back facing, because old people do not like such places 🙂 I am also scared by such a terrible anti-social approach. Probably many of you graduated from free studies, or even two faculties, and why should society be thrown at you? That it is old to the cemetery, that it is not like that in the west. In this matter, there is no point in taking an example from the west, unless you want to end up in a retirement home in your old age, stay at home, etc. ”
In the next part, i.a. about Specialists, Trolls, Conspirators, Moralizers, Collectors, experts, neo children, spammers, cheeky commentators, Flooders, politicians, ironists and agents
