Comments on: Who owns and controls the content in online communities?

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:57:30 +0000

If someone is posting on your forum or community then it seems you own the content fully. If someone wants a post removed, you should just agree since it rarely happens.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:23:09 +0000

I tend to agree with Martin, as a former tantrum thrower on communities myself I think I can speak with some experience on the subject of editing/removing content

The best way to handle this would be to PM them and ask them what’s wrong, in a calm and civil manner. If they send you abuse back, reply again – this time even calmer and enquire as to what the problem is.

While you’re doing this, he is busy replying to you – rather than editing/deleting his posts, and by the time you’ve finished PMing backwards and forwards he would mostly likely have calmed down!

This is the approach I take when someone says “I’m leaving forever!” or “I want my name deleted!” – I PM them and ask them what is wrong, if there’s anything I can do to help, and I talk to them.. not at them.. TO them.

After a while they simmer down and forget why they were so worked up in the first place.

I think it would be unethical to stop someone from deleting their own content completely. But there are steps such as the above you can take to minimize the chances of them resorting to do it.

Remember.. they are doing it to lash out, they’re doing it because they’re trying to tell you they’re unhappy, or angry, or hurtinig about something. So talk to them!

By: Martin Reed - Community Manager

Martin Reed - Community Manager — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:54:26 +0000

Bethany – It’s hard to say; remember that if you change your global settings you are affecting a lot of people in order to reduce the impact of just one person. I wonder if you could approach this member and see if you can resolve the root cause of the issue. Why do they feel the need to delete huge amounts of content on the odd occasion?

By: A voir, à lire | Manager une communauté

A voir, à lire | Manager une communauté — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:28:41 +0000

[...] Qui contrôle et à qui appartient le contenu de votre communauté ? http://www.communityspark.com/who-owns-and-controls-the-content-in-online-communities/ [...]

By: Bethany Trinoble

Bethany Trinoble — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:28:24 +0000

I’ve been considering setting a limit on how long after a post is made that a user can edit it. We have one user who throws a tantrum and wants to remove years worth of his posts every now and then, when he’s told no he has a tendency to edit up to 50 posts to remove their content. Frustrating watching him decimate whole conversations, at the moment I’ve removed his editing abilities but do you think 12 hours is a big enough window for people to make all edits required before the post is locked?

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:10:55 +0000

it’s hard to determine if someone should be able to delete their own posts. if posts are being moderated to begin with, anything offensive would get left off. otherwise, if you feel the need to post, it should stay. you can always follow up or reply if you wrote bad or remorseful information

By: Shawn

Shawn — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:14:04 +0000

I only wish that I could count the number of times that we’ve had people threaten us, great post!

By: Joseph Bennett

Joseph Bennett — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:43:14 +0000

Hey Marian, I can almost understand someone doing that, although it is definetly very weird. Out of spite no doubt heh.

Oh and thanks for the post Martin.

By: Footprints (09.06.09) | Chris Deary

Footprints (09.06.09) | Chris Deary — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:10:20 +0000

[...] Who owns and controls the content in online communities? [...]

By: Agent

Agent — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:51:41 +0000

I operate a couple communities but one is a bit different than the rest. It is composed of a forum and a guide section where players can write their own guides to the game and I upload them to the website. I make it clear in the forum’s terms and conditions that the opinions posted on the forum are that of the individuals posting them, not mine.

When a user writes a guide and it gets accepted to be uploaded to the website, the ownership becomes shifted from them to me. I of course give them full credit for writing it, but I won’t remove it on their request. These types of guides are vital to my community. Their forum posts, on the other hand, can be fully edited at any time. I try to get people not to remove their posts because it can really mess up a discussion if it’s suddenly a one person discussion, but allowing them the ability if they feel the need is a good touch.

I’ve never had a user request all his/her posts be removed, but I’d also assume the person wouldn’t want to go through hundreds or even thousands of posts to edit them all.