On our previous post we discussed the basics of community management. How to think about starting a community, followed by a brief overview of rules, staff, engagement, and growing the community.
This post will include a summary of how to properly conduct yourself as a community manager, universal rules we all should follow.
In this series of blogs we will go over:
- The Basics
- Proper Conduct – You are here.
- Discord Servers
- Game Servers
- Advanced Rules
- Staff Teams
- Problem Members
- Affiliates & Partners
Set a good example
Possibly the most important part of being a community leader is being a good example. Good members of your community will naturally want to act like you, so you should act how you want your community to act.
Start by following your own rules. If you do not want to follow a rule, consider not making it in the first place. It is better to not have it in the first place than to constantly be breaking it, because if you break it, then your community won’t take the rules seriously, and will break the ones that are important to you.
Likewise, enforce your rules. I have been on many communities in which some members get special privileges because they have been a member for a long time, or because they had a high ranking in the game that was important to them, or because they were friends with all the staff. This sets a terrible example, as people will either want to act like them, and won’t take the rules seriously, or will leave because of the inherent toxicity of the situation.
In 2023, Gamer Dorks itself has been guilty of not banning someone who was breaking the rules because we were afraid of banning one of our only active members. This mistake is all too easy to fall for as a small community, and will prevent you from growing past it. Members stayed longer at Gamer Dorks after banning this individual, and we saw our record player counts to date shortly after doing so. While this wasn’t entirely because we banned someone who was causing trouble, it certainly helped.
Avoid heated arguments
Getting involved in a heated argument in your community is what experts will call a Really Bad Idea. So long as you are escalating, members will see that it is acceptable to escalate the argument further. After a little while, this will result in someone’s feelings getting hurt, or someone needing to leave the community. Resolve arguments without getting very involved. Handle misinformation and critique calmly if it is being delivered calmly, and use your moderator privileges if it’s not done in an appropriate manner.
Generally, you should avoid any kind of controversial topics in your community, unless your community is specifically related to those topics (i.e. religious communities, debate communities, etc.) In Gamer Dorks, we completely ban all political or religious topics in order to avoid the worst of the arguments, and we recommend community managers do the same unless absolutely necessary.
Do what is best for your community
If someone is causing trouble but is not breaking the rules by doing it, maybe you should take action anyway. Maybe someone is making sure to stay just within the rules so they can cause chaos while not getting banned. Don’t let them get away with it, warn them or ban them if that is what is best for your community.
If someone joined your community and you know that they have terrible behavior in other communities you have been in, consider banning them for that alone. In Gamer Dorks, we have banned individuals who have come to our Discord server specifically to harass members of the server that had previously blocked them or banned them from another server.
Before Gamer Dorks, Carolyn did community management in other Discord servers, and had more than once run into a problem where people who push the limits of what is allowed in that server. In early times, she let it slide, because it didn’t break any particular rule. This caused problems to grow steadily over time, until a point where there was hardly anyone left in the server who wouldn’t constantly push the boundaries and alienate all potential newcomers.
Gamer Dorks never has this problem. While we may at times be more strict than other communities, it is far more safe and far less toxic than many communities on the internet because of this.
Do what is best, don’t worry about being too strict.
Be relatable
Be friendly and relatable to everyone you meet in the community. You don’t need to be mysterious to have authority, you don’t need to be emotionally distant to have authority. Authority that comes from respect is much more valuable than authority that comes from fear.
Before Gamer Dorks, Carolyn was a head of staff of a community in which the owner was extremely distant. He would be seen less than once per month in the server, and hardly anyone knew anything about him. He would sometimes make decisions which would seem irrational or totally unprecedented to the rest of the staff team, because he would rarely even talk with them. Though people had a lot of respect for him because he was so mysterious, he also was extremely hard to work for, and he ended up growing to dislike his own community.
In Gamer Dorks, all the most-liked administrators were historically the most active ones as well. People respect us because we are relatable and kind to the community.
Take breaks
Prioritize your health over that of your community. If you need to take time off, do it. Make your staff team comfortable to say when they need to take breaks. Don’t overwork anyone, and make sure they know to prioritize their own lives over helping out at your community.
There is nothing wrong with taking a break, or letting your most active moderator take a break, or even making your whole server read-only and giving everyone a break for a week. If it improves the health of your community and your team, it will be worthwhile.
Secure your accounts
Use strong passwords, never share your account with anyone, and, most importantly, ENABLE MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION ON ALL YOUR ACCOUNTS. Require your staff team to have multifactor authentication set up to be a part of the team.
When possible, use software-based or hardware-based MFA. Install Authy or Google Authenticator on your mobile device. Set it up on as many of your accounts as you can. Save your backup codes somewhere safe, but not on your primary device. Email or SMS verification is significantly less secure than software or hardware based verification, so avoid these if you have alternatives.
If your staff ever lose their accounts and have to join with a new one, don’t immediately assume it is them. Giving a new account privileged access without first verifying their identity is a very easy way to get your community hacked. Make sure that your staff team has a secure way to verify their identities in the case of a lost account.
Conclusion
By now, you should have learned some more in-depth information about how to grow a good community with a minimum of problems, how to conduct yourself as a community manager, and why this matters.
In our next blog, we will go over the entire process for creating a Discord server, one of the most popular types of chat room community.
If this blog was helpful to you, please show us your support by joining Gamer Dorks on Discord. Feel free to ask us specific questions about how to run online communities, or ask us your opinions on something you’re doing in your community.
