As a moderator, you probably have more contact with more of the content than other people. You have an opportunity to talk with people who are posting content (or thinking about it). You can suggest guidelines that help keep the community humming along (and avoid problems that require a moderator's hand). Here are a few things you can do.
Try to moderate lightly — Instead, make the guidelines for discussions available and easily discoverable, then only moderate when a post is out of line or off topic.
Develop your usage policy — Design a usage policy to ward off abusive or inadvertent posts. Early warning can make a big difference, and can prevent people from having a negative experience. Make the consequences for unacceptable behavior clear. Some ideas for possible policy statements to include are:
When you enforce usage guidelines quickly and publicly (such as by removing or editing an offensive post), other community members are more likely to follow the guidelines.
Encourage people to report abuse — For discussions, Jive SBS includes a report abuse feature. When this is enabled (by a system administrator), a discussion thread includes a "Report Abuse" link in the Actions list and an "Abuse" link on each of the replies. When someone clicks an abuse link, the original post or reply is put into a moderation queue. A reported post can automatically be taken out of the thread when the number of users that report the post exceeds an administrator-specified number. The post is put into a moderation queue, and must receive moderator approval before it can be placed back into the thread.
Encourage people to mark replies as "Helpful" or "Correct" — This not only helps other people identify the content they need, but also identifies the responder as someone who might have useful answers.
Encourage people to tag content — Tags make content easier to find.
Understand the kinds of content that people use, and make suggestions where you think it might help — The following lists the main content types in Jive SBS, along with the roles moderators play.
| Document | Discussion | Blog Post | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | People can type a text document using rich text formatting. | People can make suggestions and comments or ask questions that others can respond to. | People can post their views, observations, and analysis. |
| Use | Collect existing knowledge, document processes, create reports, best practices, and meeting notes. | Get feedback, report a problem, find a solution to a problem. | State an opinion, describe a solution, point to something interesting, ponder an idea. |
| Tone | Formal, third person. | Informal, first person. | Informal, first person. |