Powazek Chapter 5: Policies and Policing...Setting, Communicating, and Enforcing the Rules

Discussion leader/summarizer: PaulResnick

Key Points/Claims

Some guidelines:

• Set rules wisely
• Communicate them clearly, and make sure that people will see them at appropriate times
• Enforce the rules

Web communities always have hosts. A host not only enforce the rules, but also helps people in need and sets an example of how to behave. If you build a forum and you don't know who the host is, it's you. But it really shouldn't be you. A host's function is more important the more complicated the site is. It's a good idea to have some clear indicator of who is officially a host, in a format that can't be imitated by others (e.g., different color for their posts).

Caleb Clark, the interviewee for the chapter, offers a few other tips:

• Hosts can post short questions that spur posts from others. One of his favorites is, "How was your week?"
• Have a designated area for fights that you can send people to when they start flaming; he calls it outside, as in "Can you take that fight Outside?"
• Have a separate place for off-topic conversation.

Critique

I'm not sure if he's got the legal implications of DMCA correct, where he says that site owners are responsible for copyright infringements on their site. I know there are some court ruling affirming that site owners are not responsible for other features of the content posted by users on their site (e.g., indecency, libel). Anyone know what the DMCA really says about responsibility for other people posting copyrighted material on your site?

He doesn't mention the fact that some rules may not be enforceable. I think it's probably not a good idea to state such things as rules, because it invites someone to try to test your power. It would be better to state such thing as a request or a statement about "how we do things here". That way, when someone breaks "the rule", you can reprimand-- with "that's not how we do things around here"-- without implying that you have actual power to stop it.

I agree that the host's function of providing help is more important as the complexity of the service grows. But I think the size of the community is the critical variable in determining the importance of the other hostly functions, such as welcoming newcomers, setting a good example, and enforcing rules.

Connections with other readings, ideas, etc.

Comments

Wow, more brilliant insights from Powazek. Set rules wisely, communicate them clearly, and enforce them constantly. Didn't we learn this from basic parenting classes? Oh, that's right--web-community builders are all 14-year olds rebelling against such constraints. How could I forget that, in the virtual world, none of what we know from real life still applies?

NoorAliHasan: In response to the prior comment, Powazek's advice may seem like common sense to us being that we're at SI where we put so much focus on creating solutions that integrate people, technology, and information. It may not be clear to others that technology is not always the answer to everything and that you can't simply implement a technology without considering how it interacts with people and the social systems it exists within. Powazek's core audience is web designers and developers who might not have this same mindset. Issues of policy, moderation, and maintenance are not always central in their minds.

RebeccaTremaglio: I did find it interesting that Powazek did try to caution community designers/ developers against taking on too many of the host responsibilities in a forum they create. His point that "the host should be more attached to the community than the site" (p 100) reinforces the idea that the community should dictate the development of the site, not the other way around. This amplifies other suggestions earlier in the book (Chapter 3) that the site evolve to include new features when user behavior indicates that such features are desired and would be beneficial. The last question in the interview with Caleb Clark echoes this sentiment, when Clark says that the most important thing a host can do to foster a community's development is to "grow, not build" (p 114), i.e., once the site is taking on a life outside you, to be responsive to the ways in which the community is using and wants to use the site, not just add or change stuff because it's technologically feasible or the next new thing. However, the idea that designers be willing to give up some measure of control over the development of a community they create was presented almost as an aside, which could have been more fully realized with an example (or more) where this didn't happen serving as a sort of cautionary tale of ways in which too much developer control can backfire. I did wonder after reading this section whether the author himself, on his site www.fray.com, actually follows his own advice and puts on a 'host hat' when he interacts with his site in that way, and a 'developer hat' when he is looking at development issues. I also wondered, in the subsequent interview from PowazekChapter6 with Rob Malda from Slashdot, how Mr. Malda would feel about the idea of distinguishing developers from hosts and keeping their roles separate.