I wanted to make a small blog on how I think a successful community rules itself.
First thing I want to address: Removing people. This includes banning and kicking (if this is in a chat room). Never remove anybody from the equation if they're bothering you. Make sure you do not remove them unless they bother everybody. Always survey other people so you know whether it's just you in a bad mood or that person really is an issue.Second thing: Decision making. Always make decisions with the whole community, including regular members. The members are the ones who visit your community, so it can safely be assumed that they know best. Again, this has to do with surveying others. If you're going to change something drastically, make sure almost everyone can agree on it, otherwise you're going to lose more people than you are going to get new. The more people you keep, the more automatic advertising by your users happens. This is the best type of advertising. And yes, it is always possible to get more members on a decision that others do not agree on, but this requires more work and might not pay off. A community is best when it is together.And finally: Make sure you keep topics clear. Language can be ambiguous or maybe sometimes others are unaware where the cutoffs occur. Keep your communications straight. Do not assert anything, simply suggest it nicely. That way, you're not forcing someone to change their conversation, but encouraging it.I hope that helps someone. It was something in the back of my mind. Thanks!
1. Trust no one
2. Conquer the seven kingdoms3. Remember - winter is coming@CyrusRoberto Most people in the chat believe that I am a part of ENIGMA while I am not, so it is a misconception that I am talking about ENIGMA whenever I speak about general programming question. The usual trend though is that only Josh and Robert are knowledgeable enough to answer my questions, so I do agree that you guys can make such mistake. The last time it occurred when I was talking about frustum culling in OpenGL.
I honestly still have no idea what the topic is for the 64digits chatroom. Because the website is built around games and examples, I thought that it was for game development, but I don't think I ever seen anyone speak about game development there. It's confusing. But I have realized that none of your know anything about game development, except for a few select people, so I will try to stop.@Toast You ever read The Prince? It's basically a manual for being a successful ruler (as in removing the possibility of revolutions). I read it years ago but I might read it again over the summer. You should take a look at it, it's interesting. :plack of communication between mods and members has always been a problem in the past. too much communication never has.
I was mad when I entered a +m channel that one time. I had many great stories that I need to share but it wasn't allowed. I was devastated. You guys should have moved to #64digits-dev to talk about the website. Muting a channel is making a public channel private. I felt like I entered Kafka's Trials. Also, when I first ever joined the channel, I was being as friendly as possible and still got banned. :(
#64digits-dev is more specifically for development-of-64d discussion and generally involves only a very small subset of the users in #64digits, which is more an extension of the site. In this case we had gotten into a deep conversation about the community and didn't want it to get derailed, hence the +m. Keep in mind it's not an everyday thing, but rather something that was prompted by discussion on the site and was considered serious enough to warrant muting the channel.
64fags? I almost made a joke about partaking in nonconsensual homosexual relations with you, but I thought it might be crude.
your're welcome please
The best way to rule, is to not let underlings infect you with their self-serving and undermining concepts of how your kingdom should be ruled.
You should, in fact, do the opposite of what is suggested.Thus, I've decided to ban aeron, and make the site pink again.Plot twist: I've been banned all along, but I've been inserting all my comments manually via MySQL injection!
Plot twist twist: And the site is already pink too you guys are just colorblind