Floris
11-12-2005, 02:22 PM
Hello fellow stressed staff members,
Yes, you know what I am talking about. The stress that members can bring to your daily tasks. The spammer, the politically incorrect one, the flamer, the troll, the ranter, the nudity posting nerd, the virgin, the suicide one, the hacker, the abusive behaving rules breaking one, the law-suit threatening one ..
Members & Stress; There's always one..
One for every day of the year, and trust me, if you have a board that has content ..... they will come. But how do you deal with it? Here are some tips, here are some reality checks, here are some things you must do, and really shouldn't do.
The three most important things you should keep in mind
First off
Do not break the law. Don't let those abusive members ruin it for real, in the offline world, by being able to sue you for breaking laws. So do not hack them back, do not post their personal info to the public, do not provoke them to do bad things, do not do stuff you normally know you shouldn't do. Respect privacy, and all of those things.
Secondly
Perhaps even sharing first place: Collect everything offline. Make a directory about this issue, a copy of the user's profile, bad posts/threads/private messages, emails, etc. If some changes their profile, deletes content or turns the situation around on you, you at least have the 'evidence' you can collect, zip up and mail to the right authorities - if ever needed. You can also keep track of duplicate accounts, changed user names, soft-deleted posts, attachments, etc. Add user notes to the profile so future issues can be compared, and your other staff can see this isn't the first time.
Finally
Be patient. You win. Don't you worry. They are not the owner of your web site, not the holder of your community or other softwares licenses. Nor are you the one being abusive, or breaking any law. You have access to prevent someone to access your products and services, your web site and community. All they can do is their best to bypass made measures; Eventually you win. Because you are in control.
More stuff you should realize and enforce
Content Management
Soft delete threads and posts if needed. Do not physically remove them, so you have them on record. Merge duplicate accounts after making a note of those account details. Collect the IP (host addresses) so you can ban them in the community software. Or even through the server's firewall (iptables for example). The more times someone registers, bypasses a ban, keeps posting, etc. The more information you get. The better you can fight their abuse.
No need to involve your community members with issues
Be quiet about it. Don't cover it up, but definitely do not defend yourself against accusations made or issues pointed out. Move those discussions out of the public eye. Maybe some regulars might notice and ask. You can give them a short but simple summery in a PrivMsgs (like: The user has been breaking forum rules, but I can't really get into that right now). The less attention you give to this in the public, the less reason someone has to register over and over again to start posting and start abusing. The more they abuse, the stronger your case is to show it wasn't done accidentally, but definitely intentionally.
Be persistent
Just ban.. and ban, and ban again. They will use proxies and gateways, computers from schools with many different IP addresses, etc. But they will run out. All you have to do is ban the user and do a bit of cleaning up (unlimited). All they have to do is find new resources to bypass yet another restriction (limited). Even if it takes a year, don't worry. Your community has no clue what is going on because you and your staff are dealing with it behind the scenes. Again, you will win in the end.
Update your forum rules when needed
If you have a new or established forum and you run into an abusive user and everybody knows with common sense that what he or she is doing is of course not to be tolerated, but this user points this out to you that it is not actually in the rules of the forum. Update your forum rules, so future incidents are covered. And for the current problem, 'so what'? Being a member on a community means you have to behave and just participate. It is a privilege and not a right. You're the owner of the site and you're the one who gets to decide who gets to stay and not. Don't get fooled by freedom of speech threats, etc.
Etcetera
There are lot more small tips and rules of conduct to get into, but I invite you who read this to discuss those here and share with us how you handle those troublesome members.
If you keep the above ones in mind you will be more professional about handling issues. And that means you won't take it as personal as you might do now. Ventilate behind the scenes in your staff forums, instead of publicly shout at users in posts. And inform your staff and discuss the situation, discuss which steps to take against a user, and learn from any mistakes you might make. You will see .. eventually, a lot less stress and a lot more fun.
Good luck!
Yes, you know what I am talking about. The stress that members can bring to your daily tasks. The spammer, the politically incorrect one, the flamer, the troll, the ranter, the nudity posting nerd, the virgin, the suicide one, the hacker, the abusive behaving rules breaking one, the law-suit threatening one ..
Members & Stress; There's always one..
One for every day of the year, and trust me, if you have a board that has content ..... they will come. But how do you deal with it? Here are some tips, here are some reality checks, here are some things you must do, and really shouldn't do.
The three most important things you should keep in mind
First off
Do not break the law. Don't let those abusive members ruin it for real, in the offline world, by being able to sue you for breaking laws. So do not hack them back, do not post their personal info to the public, do not provoke them to do bad things, do not do stuff you normally know you shouldn't do. Respect privacy, and all of those things.
Secondly
Perhaps even sharing first place: Collect everything offline. Make a directory about this issue, a copy of the user's profile, bad posts/threads/private messages, emails, etc. If some changes their profile, deletes content or turns the situation around on you, you at least have the 'evidence' you can collect, zip up and mail to the right authorities - if ever needed. You can also keep track of duplicate accounts, changed user names, soft-deleted posts, attachments, etc. Add user notes to the profile so future issues can be compared, and your other staff can see this isn't the first time.
Finally
Be patient. You win. Don't you worry. They are not the owner of your web site, not the holder of your community or other softwares licenses. Nor are you the one being abusive, or breaking any law. You have access to prevent someone to access your products and services, your web site and community. All they can do is their best to bypass made measures; Eventually you win. Because you are in control.
More stuff you should realize and enforce
Content Management
Soft delete threads and posts if needed. Do not physically remove them, so you have them on record. Merge duplicate accounts after making a note of those account details. Collect the IP (host addresses) so you can ban them in the community software. Or even through the server's firewall (iptables for example). The more times someone registers, bypasses a ban, keeps posting, etc. The more information you get. The better you can fight their abuse.
No need to involve your community members with issues
Be quiet about it. Don't cover it up, but definitely do not defend yourself against accusations made or issues pointed out. Move those discussions out of the public eye. Maybe some regulars might notice and ask. You can give them a short but simple summery in a PrivMsgs (like: The user has been breaking forum rules, but I can't really get into that right now). The less attention you give to this in the public, the less reason someone has to register over and over again to start posting and start abusing. The more they abuse, the stronger your case is to show it wasn't done accidentally, but definitely intentionally.
Be persistent
Just ban.. and ban, and ban again. They will use proxies and gateways, computers from schools with many different IP addresses, etc. But they will run out. All you have to do is ban the user and do a bit of cleaning up (unlimited). All they have to do is find new resources to bypass yet another restriction (limited). Even if it takes a year, don't worry. Your community has no clue what is going on because you and your staff are dealing with it behind the scenes. Again, you will win in the end.
Update your forum rules when needed
If you have a new or established forum and you run into an abusive user and everybody knows with common sense that what he or she is doing is of course not to be tolerated, but this user points this out to you that it is not actually in the rules of the forum. Update your forum rules, so future incidents are covered. And for the current problem, 'so what'? Being a member on a community means you have to behave and just participate. It is a privilege and not a right. You're the owner of the site and you're the one who gets to decide who gets to stay and not. Don't get fooled by freedom of speech threats, etc.
Etcetera
There are lot more small tips and rules of conduct to get into, but I invite you who read this to discuss those here and share with us how you handle those troublesome members.
If you keep the above ones in mind you will be more professional about handling issues. And that means you won't take it as personal as you might do now. Ventilate behind the scenes in your staff forums, instead of publicly shout at users in posts. And inform your staff and discuss the situation, discuss which steps to take against a user, and learn from any mistakes you might make. You will see .. eventually, a lot less stress and a lot more fun.
Good luck!