Amanda Lange was next up with her talk, where she went into specifics about communities. Where Will Bonner’s talk was largely about tools to use in connection to moderation, Lange spoke more about moderation and differently themed communities.

Building Community Through Communication – Amanda Lange

Talking about community, particularly on the internet, but not necessarily only that. The talk is slanted toward gaming communities

When the community is smaller and more contained the space becomes safer and more intelligent.
When the community is larger it is more difficult to reach a high quality discussion.

It’s a challenge to keep the comments on topic and relevant to the topic. There are many tech solutions to help out but Lange wants to talk more about the person behind the monitor. At some point you will have to be a moderator or representative in an online community (because we are all on the internet and a part of that community).

Community themes lend themselves to different discussions. Themes also lend themselves to different age groups. As a moderator you have to be aware what the inherent “logic” is in the theme and make sure that the line is never crossed. Different communities have different character.

At Disney Princesses you would expect a certain kind of comments, but in a Mafia community those comments may be very appropriate. This does not mean that a community have a right to scare people away, a community has to grow in order to survive.

As a community participant you have the right to complain and you have tools to use. Don’t hesitate to use them. Don’t escalate any conflicts by stepping it up.

Take responsibility and think before you post. Learn to recognise a troll. Typical troll behaviour is to try to get a rise out of you. The best thing to do is not to react. “Don’t feed the trolls”.

________________________

My comments

Good talk in general but for me this was kind of old news and very basic. As far as I understood it it was however a very much appreciated talk by the audience.