Not so surprising news that the BBC has decided to close down its Today Programme discussion boards, in a similar way to how the Daily Mail closed their news and Sports forums (some now re-opened), and The Mirror closed their Maddie forum.
I still recall how the online editor of a tabloid newspaper rang me up when I was working for a rival and said: ‘we are banging our heads against a brick wall here. We don’t know what to do about moderation.’ It was unheard of for a rival to call and ask a question like that, but it highlighted the severity of the problem.
The truth is that you either do it properly, or you don’t. The key is threefold:
1. You have to define very clear moderation guidelines, so that staff who are moderating have a crystal clear understanding of the parameters they are working to.
2. Your senior stakeholders need to understand what your parameters are, and that to maintain integrity it is best if senior staff do not change those parameters when it suits them, otherwise your credibility is in doubt.
3. You have to make a commitment to properly resource moderation.
The problem is that good moderation costs time, commitment and money, and many media websites stick to what their lawyers think they can get away with, rather than trying to build a quality discussion outlet.
The first test for a UK media provider is usually the BNP (British National Party) tirade that appears in almost any news-related discussion board. Although their right-wing hate infused detestable views are unpalatable for many, they are still a legal party in the UK, and so forum owners are unsure what to do with their postings. What makes it even more difficult for those same media websites is that the BNP has a very organised political-spam operation, whose sole purpose is to promote its message by any means necessary.
A good community professional will tell you that this sort of thing can be resolved through clear policies, and some clever community management, but then there are few with that sort of experience in the market, and media owners are often tight with their money when it comes to the resource required to manage communities properly.
I have a friend and ex-colleague who has been managing abuse on community sites for years. When I met her recently she told me it has now become a pattern in her working life: she joins a company that has no clue how to manage their user generated content and abuse, she puts the right sort of processes into place, and suddenly the community thrives and traffic increases.
Mark Fothergill, another very experienced ex colleague, commented that the BBC had ‘too much [user generated] content and no idea what to do with it.’
I think they’re both right, and either one of them could have sorted the Beeb out. Perhaps times call for a new discipline?
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