Hello, My community is relatively new only a month old and around 70 members. There are only 3 posts by members. One of the posts doesn't follow the rules. My question is do I need to be strict specially when my forum is new and being strict will further decrease no of posts.? What is the best approach for moderation should I initially loosely manage the forum ? or should I be strict right from the start.
Thanks
Well, to get an idea what you are referring to what was the rule that was broken? Generally, I find that if you do not moderate well at the start members will do what they want, but yes, that decreases the number of participants because most internet users want a FB kind of scenario where they can post what they want where they want.
Edit the post to conform to rules, with explanation.
You could edit the post to make it conform to rules or you could simply delete the post. I posted an answer on this very forum a while ago commenting on the speed of the website and it was deleted almost promptly lol There is nothing wrong with that, a forum member has to play by the rules of the forum, rather than the other way round. It is your forum, take charge.
Well, there is something wrong with that. You can't go around deleting members posts or editing them all the time. Shoot them a PM and explain nicely about the rules and maybe they will change their own post. If they don't then you have cause to take action in some form. Ya can't just out and out start donin that to members of a forum. Imho.
In terms of moderation, less is often more. If a user clearly breaks a rule, but it's not a huge problem in terms of content, let them know and fix it themselves. If it's something you really do not want on your forum, delete the post and inform the user why you did it, warning them not to do it again.
Rules are only good if enforced, but if some rules are broken repeatedly, or by mistake even once, you may want review your rules too - are they clear enough, simple enough, or are there too many too strict rules to follow?
Wait, what? 70 members but only 3 posts?