This post is part of the #OCTribe series, intended to spark discussion amongst community practitioners on a bi-monthly topic. This week’s “call to post” was initiated by Scott Moore:
The Aug 11 Topic: Fostering culture in and around online communities

I wanted to touch on negative influences of Online Community culture, and hopefully shed some insight in to how to manage these influences. This post is based on our Online Community Culture study in October of 2008, which is part of the ongoing research agenda of the Online Community Research Network. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at the factors that influence online community culture, and the steps community managers and strategists take in cultivating, and in some cases influencing, a community’s culture. We had over 75 participants in the research, representing many sectors, including software, tech, traditional media, social media and online community, and non-profits. Respondents seniority skewed towards Manager (44%), Directors & VP’s (12%).

What issue can have the most negative impact on a community’s culture?
From the research responses, we found the following to have the most negative effect on an online community’s culture:

• Negative Content: The issue that most respondents said would have a negative impact on the community culture was related to content 25% (12) (negative content, irrelevant content or no content), trolls and spammers.
• Host Involvement: Host Involvement was also a commonly reported issue, including lack of host involvement 14% (7) and over controlling host 10% (5). It is an important factor, it seems from the responses we received, for hosts to tread the fine line of properly representing and supporting a community.
• Member Feedback: Another issue that was said to have a negative impact was a failure to respond to member’s comments and concerns 6% (3), and to actively cultivate and make use of member’s feedback 6% (3).

Other important issues that could have a negative impact on a community’s culture are lack of member participation 14% (7), lack of trust 10% (5), excessive moderation (3), lack of consistency (2) and poor user interface (2)

A graph of the most common write in responses:


Select write in responses about the different factors that negatively affect community culture:

Negative Community Content:

“”me too” posts, posts that waste people’s time.”

Librarian, Non-Profit Organization

“Unprofessional actions including but not limited to, trolling, personal attacks, and disruptive behavior.”

Community Program Manager, Software Company

“Allowing negative attitudes without chiming in to encourage more positive interactions, also not responding to member’s complaints.”

Community Manager, Tools / Service Provider

Host Involvement:

“There are actually two issues that can negatively impact a community’s culture: 1) too much involvement by the host organization (corporate politics or the host organization doing things it feels are important, not what the community views as important or needed) and 2) not enough involvement by the host organization (not listening to and responding to member’s concerns, ideas and suggestions). There is a fine line that must be found in order to properly represent and support a community. And this is a challenge for many host organizations.”

Community Manager, Online Community / Social Media Company

“Being disingenuous in your interactions with the community culture (you will get busted), or otherwise pulling the blinds after you’ve made the effort to provide transparency.”

Director, Online Marketing & Community Development

“Short of the host going belly up and shutting off the servers? Lack of, or inconsistent, communication from the community host. This strips the feeling of control or impact on can have on their community which leads to less investment which leads to weaker communities. Trolls and spam can be disruptive, but they are only destructive when the hosts are absent, ineffective or inconsistent in supporting the values of the community.”

Independent Consultant, Consultancy

Ignoring Member Feedback:

“Failure of the host company to respond to it’s members. Failure to listen and respond to their comments. When we work with our members on changes to the site, some ideas can get expensive. We explain that we’re bootstrapped and , although we love the idea, can’t do it at this time. They understand. But to ignore it or just say ‘no’ would set the wrong tone. Honesty with our members has a tremendous upside.”

Co-founder, Online Community / Social Media Company

Lack of Trust:

“Lack of trust in the reputation of its members.”

Online Community Strategist, Media Company

Excessive Moderation:

“Inexperienced (overzealous) moderator intervention, particularly in response to external pressures (a spammer, a “too-salesy” vendor post, perceived threat from other communities, etc.).”

Analytics Country Manager, Agency

Poor User Experience:
“Bad user experience can kill a community incredibly quickly – doesn’t matter if the community is online or physical, bad experience brings it to a stop.”
Community & Education Marketing Manager, Software Company

Creating a Positive Culture:
It’s clear from the research (and the write in comments) that a few key factors to prevent or manage the negative influences are:

Be a good host – Ensure a clean, well lit place from a user experience perspective. Be present in the community, and participate in the community. BE transparent about your intentions for hosting the community, and about any changes or updates to the community and to any policies or guidelines.

Be clear about policy – Post behavior guidelines prominently, and ensure that are easily understood. Educate members by example by your actions as well as highlighting examples of positive behavior and contribution.

Be even about moderation – Be consistent in enforcing moderation guidelines, and keep visible punitive action to a minimum.

Listen. Then listen some more – create as many channels of feedback as you can manage, including forums, feedback email alias and soliciting feedback via regular satisfaction surveys. As important as listening? Ensure the community feels heard by acknowledging the feedback. Even if you can’t respond to every email (really?), you can regularly post answers to questions or feedback you have gotten.

We want to hear from you
What are your thoughts? Did we miss any of the negative influence factors? What suggestions do you have for preventing or managing negative community influences?