Forum Moderators: rogerd
So I have a high traffic site that is on a sensitive topic, for example sake let's say it is Child Abuse. That is NOT the real topic, but that should give you an appropriate frame of reference.
This site couldn't be more perfect for a full blown community, but I've kept it static content for years since I'm afraid of all legal issues a topic like Child Abuse brings up.
What do you all think? Would you go there? If I was to pull it off well, would that just mean a ton of moderation work?
Any input here would be greatly appreciated. TIA!
If you have industry professionals available as moderators and you can assure their credibility, then you should be ok.
I would avoid any specifics being discussed on the forums (back to the Child Abuse analogy, it could be a very "name and shame" area which will lead to hell on earth for everyone involved, including yourself).
Presumably it's a subject area where users would / could receive a lot of support from each other (I guess from sharing similar experiences), in which case it could be a very good thing. Just need to keep the positive vibe feel going and avoid the revenge scenarios, which is where you and your mods will step in.
Is there any other forums in this subject area that you could check out beforehand?
Yes.
Is it worth it?
Probably.
Try it, if you find it gets out of control then you can change your mind.
Personally I would encourage you to give it a go. The benefit for some people, such as victims of child abuse, is immeasurable.
zoo
Do some research - weight up as many of the potential dangers as you can - ask your visitors - find similar sites - check out legislation - ask professionals in the industry (support groups?) - do it properly.
If you decide to go ahead, plan it well - lay out clear boundaries about what users can and cannot discuss - define to the letter what your forums is there to achieve (eg, mechanism for discussion, not a profressional support group). Get some industry professionals on board as experts and get some experienced moderators who can help spot spammers and possible problems.
I run an advice forum (professional topic, not too serious) and it's essential to have a good mix of industry knowledge and moderating experience.
6 months down the line you don't want (example) an abuser coming to your forums to harass their former victim via PMs because they Googled their own name and found a thread about themselves. Extreme example, but you need to prepare for most possibilities.
Scott
> Sorry but I don't agree with the "give it a go" strategy
Yeah, I'm with you there. I have thought of just giving it a go, but I need a real plan in place before I make the jump. I'm in no rush though so some planning is no big deal.
I'm really worried about peoples real names and locations of home and other related places getting into the forums. Seems like all but the smartest posters would likely drop a name, place or something not so good pretty often.
Sounds like I'm going to need some good people in place to make sure things go smoothly. Any other tips more tahn welcome!
What I intended was to encourage the effort.
Ho-hum!
zoo
BTW another thread.. [webmasterworld.com...]
The link is the one in the first post.
Some people eh?
zoo
The first thing I need to ask is: are you wanting to get traffic from search engines directly on to the forum? I made a very conscious decision to make my forum completely unindexable: a full robots.txt ban and rewrite rules to block all spidering. Even to a human visitor, there is very little showing unless registered (which requires email confirmation). This may well be a very tough decision to make, and it obviously makes it harder to generate traffic. However in my case, it was the only solution which would bring the right atmosphere to discuss openly: you can't just ban the mention of any personal details, because they may well be vital and anyway you'll alienate your audience with heavy-handed editing.
The second question is about follow-up and responsibility. I'm lucky in that many of my members are geographically concentrated, so a direct intervention is possible in case of emergency. If your audience is more widely-spread, you need to work out your options in terms of how you will act if any "off-site" intervention is required. That includes, for example, referrals to local specialists.
It can be hard work, and not something which is readily monetizeable, but I wouldn't change the choices I made, and I would recommend trying to build your community, slowly and carefully. You will feel the advantages for the rest of your site, but just not in a direct way. Good luck!
