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Jim Storer

Jim Storer
Sr. Director, Social Media Strategy
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Jim Storer : Return on Community

Community Rules of Engagement
I was "riding the back channel" on a webinar we hosted yesterday on "Best Practices for Moderating Your Online Community" with Bill Johnston from Forum One Networks and Mike Pascucci, a colleague here at Mzinga (archive will be here soon). I answered questions as they came in and sent along other for Bill and Mike to handle during the Q&A session. One question came up around the topic of "community rules of engagement" and I offered to post a template I've used over the years to get clients thinking about what "rules" they need for their community. It's a starting point and we often tailor to their specific initiative and goals, but it's usually pretty close to what they need to put in place.

What do you think? Do you see glaring holes? What would you add/change/delete?

Introduction
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General Community Guidelines
  1. While discussions, idea exchanges and debates are encouraged in the community, we will not allow posts that are of an insulting nature, deemed a personal attack or purposelessly inflammatory. We reserve the right to moderate member posts and remove any we deem inappropriate at our discretion.
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  4. The community is a professional business environment.  As such, we do not permit posts that are objectionable in nature or violate our standards. The editorial team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.
  5. Any discussion of illegal activities such as the piracy of software or other intellectual property violations is not allowed.
  6. Members are permitted one login account. Multiple account registrations are prohibited.
  7. In order to maintain the level of integrity expected within a professional business environment, usernames should be created using the account holder's name, initials, or a combination thereof that will afford the account holder the desired level of privacy without being objectionable or of a solicitous in nature.
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Wed, Oct 01 2008

Comments

I should have mentioned that this is meant as a starting point for a business-centric community. As I mentioned, it's a way to get people talking about what they want the rules of engagement to be for their community. Your response is perfect... if we're building something for you we'd probably tone it down a bit. Every community has unique needs and the point is that you should have rules of engagement (even if these don't work for you). Thanks for your comment! Jim | ;-)

Yikes! Remind me to never join one of your communities. These rules seem pretty rigid and would likely deter conversation. Why would I post something if I know it will be scrutinized to ensure it is 'on topic' and 'not political' - before it is posted to the community (if it even gets that far)?

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