Customizing SMF > Building Your Community and other Forum Advice

Do you put up with negative posts about your forum?

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SteveK:
I'm having a little discussion with my Admins/Mods.  Recently we have had a few people saying negative stuff about the forum policies.

Posts like; "This forum is going down", "this place is run by dictators that censor everything", etc.

We have 2900 members and everyone is very happy except these few members.  Some of the mods think we should be trying to talk nice to these people that post negative stuff.  I say that if you post negative views about the forum or administration your gone!

What do you thing?  Do you put up with negative posts against your forum policy or administration?

DragonLady:
I hear out absolutely everyone, and do my best to address every gripe.  But, if they want to persist in being negative, I treat them just like small children -"I'm sorry you feel that way; perhaps this community simply isn't right for you?".  And then I repeat that every time the same poster makes the same remarks. 

Better the malcontents find another board, then poison the well for everyone.

jacortina:
While it IS your forum and you can set and execute any policies that you wish, if part of your desire is to nurture something of a community, I believe that allowances for people of divergent opinions is a must.

Engage those who declare 'this forum is going down' in discussion to find out what makes them think that and get ideas about improvements (even if you don't agree with it being in decline, ideas for improvement can always be considered). If they simply want to cause trouble, this will soon become quite clear.

And why would you want to CONFIRM any claims of the place being run by censoring dictators?

Remember, that for every one of those who post negatively, there's a body of members out there who feel similarly, but won't post (basic social dynamics say that, frankly, your claim that these are the only ones who feel this way is not representative of how groups of people are comprised). By addressing the concerns of these 'malcontents', you address the concerns of quite a few others, as well.

Mr. Doug:
From my user agreement...


--- Quote ---1: I supply the servers, bandwidth and offer the membership to everyone free of charge. (Pretty good deal!) I have delegated moderators to help monitor this site, therefore, I and they make the rules. This is not a democracy. It is a benevolent oligarchy. The admins are allowed to bend, amend, delete, modify, or outright ignore any rule as they see fit, with no explanation to anyone other than his or her fellow admins.

This is important...you have no First Amendment rights on this site. The admins right to free speech is protected on this site, not yours.

Mini-civics lesson: The First Amendment of the US Constitution restricts government, not private citizens, from infringing on your right to free speech. On this web site, your speech is a privilege. On your webpage your speech is a right. Learn the distinction.

--- End quote ---

I usually follow it up with "when you pay the bills on this site, you can make the rules." (I fund the site out of my own pocket...so I can say this sorta thing.)

It's a slippery slope though...I usually only censor people when they attack another member. In another part of my agreement...


--- Quote ---3: No name calling. Have some respect for your fellow members. If we get into specifics, this list would never end. Just use common sense. Don’t imply or state that someone stupid, for example. If you call someone's post stupid, you must explain why. Attack the argument, not the person.

--- End quote ---

SpilltheBeans:
It depends on the context. If someone said, "you're site is terrible", that's not helpful and I might delete it. If they, on the other hand, give some reasons such as the colors look bad or the writing is not understandable, I'd take that as constructive criticism and keep the posts. Basically, when deciding how to moderate people in general, the approach I take is "are they being a troll or are they contributing to the community?" It has nothing to do with whether you agree with them or not.

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