Solving the Social Media Problem

While HOAs and condos do have their own unique set of problems, trouble with civility in online communities is very common. Other industries have solved these very problems. Here are some general principles that we can apply.¹

1. Encourage Voluntary Compliance

   Most people want to be civil; it’s in their nature. All they need is a gentle nudge in the right direction.

   • Make the Rules Clear — You should require people to agree to some simple HOA social media rules before joining the community. This simple step will take care of the majority of problems. Displaying your rules prominently (but not too prominently) will also help.²
   • Enhance Sense of Community — People are more likely to be civil if there’s a strong sense of belonging. You can do this by creating a culture for your online community. Maybe ask them to share their favorite song or organize lots of events through your site.
   • Reward & Sanction — Many online communities incentivize behavior through virtual rewards. For example, Stack Overflow, awards virtual points for good behavior and removes points for improper behavior. Each user then has their community score displayed next to their name. Believe it or not, this works!

2. Coerce Compliance

   While most people will behave by simply being reminded what “behave” means, there will always be some that will require some coercion.

   • Bans & Gags — Many sites like Wikipedia and LinkedIn will temporarily gag an account if its owner keeps breaking rules. They will even ban accounts who are repeat offenders.
   • Require Earned Participation — Stack Overflow doesn’t allow you to do certain things until you’ve passed certain milestones. This way they make sure that the posts on their site are high quality. (It also keeps the spammers and trolls at bay.) In your case you could require people to pass a quiz before they can create a post.
   • Limit Fake Accounts — Bans and gags only work if it’s difficult to create another account. NextDoor³ does this by requiring a credit card. Gladly does this by syncing with management software.

3. Limit Effects of Bad Behavior

   Sometimes you’ll find people that insist upon breaking the rules no matter what you do. (Who knows why? Maybe they weren’t hugged enough as a child.) This won’t happen very often but you need to be prepared when it does.

   • Fairness — Even the most passionate trolls, and repeat offenders can turn around if they have the chance to appeal their case — even if their appeal is denied. This is because it’s perceived as being fair. This works best if the governing body is the community as a whole rather than a small group of people (like an HOA board).
   • Group Moderation — Having a small group of people moderate posts is probably not a good idea. It takes time and the result can be much worse than if you didn’t moderate at all. An offender can quickly go from angry to raving mad if he feels like he’s being censored. A better solution is to find a platform that will allow the group to moderate posts. Most people want civility as much as you do and — if they are trained to do it — they will moderate their own HOA social media.
   • Training — Train owners about what to do when they encounter a rule breaker. Do they kindly remind that individual about a rule? Do they remove the post?