7 Astounding Tips to Moderate Your Online Community

Why do you need to moderate your online community? The answer is to make sure that your community is safe, enjoyable, and engaging for all participants. A good moderation will bring long-term health into your community.

Moderating your online community is an important task. But before we get into it, get to know what online community moderation is.

What Is Mean to Moderate Your Online Community

To know more about how to moderate your online community, let’s dive into what community moderation is.

Community moderation is how you manage discussion and comments from your user or member. So all comments from members will align with your community guidelines. Community guidelines example is Terms and Conditions or Code of Conduct.

To manage all of those Terms and Conditions is usually done by a moderator.

Tools To Moderate Your Online Community

There are excellent tools to moderate. You can use  Youzify BuddyPress Moderation.

It gives advanced features for you to take control to moderate your community. So you can keep your community becomes a safe place for everyone.

BuddyPress Moderation plugin is 100% compatible with Youzify. Enjoy these features to build a top-notch online community:

• Components of moderation: Comments, messages, groups, members, and activities.
• Roles who can make a report
• Roles who can moderate report
• Block specific members
• Allowing visitors to make a report
• Unlimited customized reports subject
• And many other exciting features

Using these tools will give you easier access to moderate your online community. So you can set rules, provide guidelines and make action needed.

7 Astounding Tips to Moderate Your Online Community

Moderating the online community is quite challenging. Moderators should be patient and understanding. Because they will encounter some issues. Here are some tips to make a better online community moderation:

1. Establish Some Policies or Code of Conduct

There are rules to be established. So you can ensure fairness among members of the community. These policies applied to everyone inside the community.

One way to ensure consistency is to write clear guidelines with examples of how violations have been handled in the past so that new moderators know when to intervene.

Members should feel that the online community is a place where they can express their knowledge and opinions without being stifled.

If someone posts inappropriate content, moderators will remove the post. After that, provide feedback on the reason for the removal. If there is a dispute between two members, the moderator needs to step in. The next step is to confirm until the parties reach an agreement.

2. Quickly Respond to a Post

When you moderate your online community, it is vital to quick response. Especially when the post is quite sensitive. Never wait until it escalates. A moderator should intervene or make a move.

For example, if someone is swearing, you might need to censor offensive words. Or warn members to get it online. It will keep your community family-friendly. The quick response also makes people feel comfortable to discuss anything.

Keep in mind when a moderator gives a response, avoid making it too hasty. Other members might see it as aggressive censorship.

The first wise step is to give a private message instead. Explain formally and politely about they might have crossed some boundaries. Give them a “three strikes rule”. When they cross boundaries up to three times, they will lose all access.

3. Monitor Any Potential of Cyberbullying and Other Abusive Behavior

It is crucial to monitor cyberbullying potential when moderating your online community. The internet sometimes becomes a hiding place for manipulators, bullies, or other potential abuse. Including in your community.

When other users report abusive behavior, you must check immediately. If it is too dangerous, moderators have a right to block and delete any post without warning.

Even if there is a “three-strike rule,” you’ll know which one can be warned first. And which needs immediate action. Keep in mind that the moderator is the one who enforces the rules for the greater good of the entire community.

4. Look for Potential Volunteer Admin

It is much easier when your community still has a small number of members. After a time, when the community grows, you might want to look for help. It also shows that you can trust other members.

One crucial part of being an astonishing moderator is to train other members to moderate their discussions themselves.

Your members should have a full understanding of all the guidelines. It can happen if you have put in all the work in the first place. Those works are; putting clear guidelines, setting a tone in the community discussion, and enforcing the rules according to the guidelines.

This way, your member will learn about how they are expected to behave inside the community. When it is time for them to moderate the discussion themselves, they have a full understanding already.

5. Listen to Your Community

Show your community that you are listening. You are there to work and solve problems. Remember, after you listen to them, you need to take action. If you shut down when problems arise, the results might be not good.

If you are reluctant to communicate with members during a crisis, remember that silence can be your worst enemy. Don’t just passively listen. Let them know that you heard them. Also, try to learn from them.

Your members will feel that the moderators are caring. Community members will know real humans are behind those “moderator” labels.

6. Encourage People to Participate

You do not only want a sleek community. You want an active community. Where everyone (as long as they follow the guidelines) can become their true self, and participate freely.

Create an atmosphere that welcomes and encourages them to do so without fear.

You can do this by creating groups within the community who are interested in discussing certain topics. So the members will feel they meet with others who have similar points of view. The atmosphere is ideal for them to participate without hesitation.

7. Evaluate Regularly

Never afraid to evaluate and make changes if necessary. Your community norms, mission, and goals will evolve as more people use them, and if you need to change your guidelines, do so.

If you do, make sure to let your community know by giving them notifications, announcements, emails, or any channel you can use to spread the news.

It’s important to remember that your online community is a living entity.

As more people become members, the norms, goals, and objectives will gradually shift.

Final Words about How To Moderate Your Online Community

Online community moderation is a challenging task but will give a valuable result. It is a fulfilling job. If a community keeps growing, you will enjoy a good reputation and revenues in the long term.