REGARDING RESPONSIBLE ONLINE GROUP MODERATING

In the huddle - dealing with Mary Mary quite contrary

And, thus it is, from time to time, that the Moderator has to banish the contrary poster who fails to understand their behavior is impacting the group, and more importantly, the moderator’s management time.

Groups are private spaces not subject to the legal parameters of "free speech". A group is a community committed, thru a mission statement, to discussion through reason and rational discourse. The interchange of ideas is vital for the function of merchandising ourselves, discovery, and the shared ideals through discussion.

Curtailment of free speech undercuts intellectual freedom that defines our purpose. It also deprives some individuals of the right to express unpopular ideas, and others the right to listen to unpopular ideas. There is some ambiguity where the lines should be drawn in email based Group forums where there is much diversity culturally, differing educations levels, broad age range bringing on generational differences, and different agenda for each and every participant.

Group Dynamics

Group process starts at a collective level below the sum of the average skills of the Group. As the group matures this process, exponentially, grows. As a collection of people, a group needs to relearn some basic manners and people skills. The group process is a series of changes which occur as a group of individuals form into an operating unit. Understanding that process will allow the changes to be accelerated thru facilitation.

From the individuals perspective there is incentive in belonging to a group as each can participate in the combined resources. The shear number of members soon becomes the prime motivator for people joining the group with the advertised mission being secondary. Along with that, there are individual differences that come to the forefront in the form of discourse on the Group message board along with individual power struggles.

The defining line

The defining line is the mission statement of the Group. As long as that mission statement is clear, then the moderator's task of keeping the forum on tract is simplified.

List disruption is not an uncommon occurrence. Some members revel in their capacity to inflame a situation, create disruptions and take the discussion off on a tangent best suited to their own personal agenda. Behavior that is meant to dishonor a moderator, or member, is contrary to the mission of the Group. It shows grave disrespect for the dignity of others.

The disruption can be in the form of spam, outright flames against one particular member or the group as a whole, a systematic contrary position that is arbitrary in nature and only meant to annoy and harass thru passive aggressive means or a behind the scenes gossiping network. That gossiping network results in constant multiple private emails to the Moderator's email box complaining of the impact of rumors. The poster often uses long emails, off list, to individual members to defend their position that are full of justification and vilifications that present partial facts to substantiate their stance. This type of poster is hard to pinpoint in the beginnings of their campaign but the pattern becomes evident over time.

List moderators need to consider intervention at some point to dispel irresponsible and incendiary responses from appearing on the group board which only serve to disrupt the group process. When the disruption spills over into the private email arena filling the personal email box, the moderator has to consider "time value for money" and make a personal decision as to how much time they want to spend deflecting the actions of one individual versus an entire group that requires time and management. Time and resources allocated to the Group is an inventory item that has to be managed as any other resource and it must be planned, monitored and reviewed just like any other managed process.

The moderator always reserves the right, particularly when the list is a sole proprietorship, to act on messages containing personal attacks or other potentially inflammatory messages meant to disrupt a forum by not posting them and or re-directing them back to the sender. This same policy is also applicable to messages that are out of the confines of the mission statement or messages that are of a personal nature or meant to be used in a personal conflict resolution arena.

Time vs. Value

And, thus it is, from time to time, that the Moderator has to banish the contrary poster who fails to understand their behavior is impacting the group, and more importantly, the moderator’s management time. There are cases where the moderator can discuss the matter with the poster, and sometimes, it will be determined that any intervention, privately, will be used as a lever in further private emails to other selective members vilifying their position. This contrary poster is best dismissed, from the huddle, without notice despite the uproar it might inflict initially on the Group process since they have not been made privy to all the nuances, track history, or other incidents involved in the decision.

Conclusion

In the short term, despite the upheaval, the Group will return to the process of combining resources and continue to provide an innovative solution to networking in cyber space. Groups are no different to relationships - you must work at them constantly. As the membership changes, so does the needs of the group. Also, as the group moves forward collectively, so does the emotional growth of the group move forward, onward and upward in an exponential spiral bringing with it, at a faster rate, the new members, new ideas, and past noted problems are stored as a culmination of the learning experience. All of this is brought about by planned and organized facilitation and moderation - which brings with it the need to make difficult decisions concerning members you have begun to know as a friend.

Kathleen Johnson 10/7/03
http://www.geocities.com/grannywyo//Articles20.html