Coming in a bit late. I’ve got a wildly diverse community with a few people that like to think that guidelines interfere with their First Amendment Rights.
Questions to ask yourself…
Are you/moderators dealing with posts that do not follow guidelines, especially if they’re flagged. If not, you’re basically allowing this behavior. For me,
- I hide the post if it’s not too bad. This gives them the opportunity to fix it.
- I delete the post if it’s egregious - personal attacks, name calling, swearing, politics, etc.
- Depending on the member, I may or may not PM them. Most know our guidelines and I highlight them a few times a year (buttons at the top of the forum).
- If they repost the same or worse, then I suspend for 1 day with a message to not circumvent moderator actions.
- If they keep doing the same thing, I increase the suspensions - 1d, 3d, 1w, 2w, 1mo. Usually they quit after the second suspension.
Do you need to update your guidelines? I recently had to do that and I posted them at the top of our forums with a button for all to see.
Are the moderators following the guidelines. Sometimes you’ve got to be the “tough teacher” and lay down the rules and dole out some repercussions.
I liken forum moderation to trying to control a class of about 60 kindergarteners on the first day of school.