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Should anonymous comments be allowed in an online community? Should people be allowed to leave anonymous comments in online communities and forums?

Should anonymous comments be allowed in an online community?

It’s a question that has been debated many times and people have different perspectives on it. Some say that “No, if people don’t say who they are then its easy for discussions to get out of hand”, whereas others say “Yes, if you want people to be honest you need to allow them to be anonymous”. The issue of anonymity when commenting in online communities is actually more complicated than some arguments would suggest. And the answer is both yes and no. What do we mean by anonymity? When talking about anonymous comments we need to consider two types of anonymity: If the commenter should be anonymous to other members of the communityIf the commenter should be anonymous to the site owner and community manager These two aspects of anonymity are often confused. This of course works both ways – in a successful online community neither party should be anonymous to each other. Back to Basics: Want to Know What Your Community Members Need? J.

This post is part of an ongoing series about developing an online community strategy.

Back to Basics: Want to Know What Your Community Members Need? J

As a reminder, all posts will be tagged #ocb2b In my last post, “The Strategy Team & Goal Definition” I discussed the importance of identifying internal stakeholders for a community, getting the stakeholders engaged, and the process of defining initial goals for the online community strategy. In this post, I will discuss the crucial role of member research in creating a successful community strategy. In the most basic form, a community strategy is a balance of an organization’s goals and member (a.k.a customer) needs. Note: I will be using the terms “member” and “customer” interchangeably in this post. Les 5 étapes d’une communauté. When an influential community member goes rogue. Not all members of your online community are created equal.

When an influential community member goes rogue

Some are more popular than others, some contribute more often than others, and some are just more influential than others. These influencers are of huge importance to your online community – and they’re also a little dangerous. You need to keep them onside, but you also need to be seen to treat them the same as everyone else. So how do you react when an influential member starts posting offensive, argumentative or abusive content? Remember your community guidelines Your online community needs to have rules or guidelines. If you don’t have clear, published guidelines then you’ll struggle even more than normal to get your members to accept any intervention you may need to make. When it comes to your community’s most influential members, you’ll want to refer them to the point in your rules that they have broken – you can’t afford ambiguity. I don’t like seeing long lists of rules when I visit an online community.

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