Key Tips
- Communities with limited conflict often credit their success to having rules in place from day one.
- Recognize members who take it upon themselves remind people of community rules and help maintain your communities' culture.
Post clear rules and be consistent in enforcing them to prevent conflict from starting.
Many admins say preventing conflict starts with writing great rules, which serve as guidelines for member behavior. Experienced admins recommend posting these rules long before you think you need them. Clear guidelines are useful for overall community culture when their tone is positive. Describe the behaviors you want to encourage, rather than listing only things members should not do.
Consider posting your rules at regular intervals since members often miss them when they first join the group and chats. Knowing the rules helps members understand what's expected in the group. You can also manage your chats through a suite of moderation tools that let you ban, delete, or suspend members and remove messages. When members see an admin consistently enforcing the rules, they know they should take the group's rules seriously.
Members look to you for leadership and action when someone acts disrespectfully or breaks community rules. Admins recommend taking quick action when this happens. Experienced admins encourage members to report posts to admins or tag admins or moderators in the comments of heated conversations. When a member reports a post to admins, admins will receive a notification. This allows you or someone on your team to manage the situation.
In more serious cases, such as something that goes against Facebook's Community Standards (nudity, hate speech or threats of violence), you or someone on your team can report the post to Facebook. Use the report link near the post, photo or comment to report it directly.
Enlist the help of your moderation team to monitor conversations when you are not available. As experienced admin Geriann told us, “people who like to cause trouble know when to cause trouble.” An active moderation team helps members feel supported no matter what time of day (or night).
