Thanks for the comment. :) I appreciate your interest in the book. I’m sorry that you are not able to get it in Manila. :(

I know you already found it, but for the sake of responding to the comment (for anyone else reading), I wanted to link to:

http://www.managingcommunities.....-f riends/

Please let me know if you have any other questions. :)

Thanks,

Patrick

I was able to read half of your book (My friend from the US lent it to me but I wasn’t done with it yet and he already had to leave – I’m from Manila and I can’t find your book here, I still have to wait) and I haven’t gotten to the part where you send warning messages to forum violators (is there even part like that?).

I’m new to managing online forums and I was wondering if you have any tips in terms of how to write these warning messages. I don’t want to be too harsh but being friendly might mislead them.

If you have a sample message, that would be so awesome! :)

Many thanks,
Anna

Thanks so much for the comment. :) I appreciate your perspective. I believe that it’s important to be clear with members on what is and isn’t OK and to hold them accountable when they respond to obvious violations by helping them to understand how they can help you to see the violations (i.e. by reporting them). :)

Thanks,

Patrick

I think the key that you started to hit on toward the end of your message is the importance of members policing their own community. A strong community is one where individuals feel ownership. If they see the community management staff as owning the place, their experience is likely going to be transient at best. Build as strong of a structure as possible to keep out the nogoodniks and then make it easy for members to flag inappropriate content or troll behavior.