Questions tagged [user-behavior]
For questions primarily about user behavior, including reactions to moderator decisions and other actions they take within the community.
97
questions
8
votes
2answers
92 views
As a regular user, how can I encourage another to do something for themselves?
I'm a member of an online community of developers (not a moderator). It's not specifically a Q&A community, but the community allows people to ask for help, of any kind.
Obviously, like on Stack ...
5
votes
1answer
66 views
How reasonable is it to hold chatbot authors accountable for their bots' behavior?
In a non-Stack Exchange online community, there is a chatbot that runs with the permission of the administrators. The primary purpose of the bot is to analyze the posts of others and suggest helpful ...
4
votes
2answers
43 views
What should a moderator do if a user posts content on a site that is well-meaning, but unfriendly in content?
A user posts questions and/or answers that are well-meaning, but unfriendly in content. Their posts get a lot of upvotes as well as a few flags. What should moderators do?
7
votes
2answers
124 views
Several communities on one platform. How can moderators adjust the behaviour of a new user from a different community who has just joined my site?
We have a network of 100+ Q&A sites. A user active elsewhere on the network joins a new community and starts posting non-friendly answers and comments. A moderator contacts the user. The user ...
3
votes
3answers
93 views
What should moderators do if a user joins the site just to share negativity on meta?
We have a network of 100+ Q&A sites where each site has an associated meta site. A user signs up on a new site and immediately starts posting questions on meta about how poorly the site engine ...
17
votes
4answers
1k views
How to stop a behaviour that certainly is negative but technically does not break the rules?
On a Q&A site a user occasionally breaks the rules a bit here and there, but not so that their posts get flagged. For example, they post comments like "It would be so great if moderators were ...
8
votes
1answer
125 views
How to handle a user who violates some rules in a way allows the user to save face while stopping bad behaviour?
Imagine that we have a Q&A website. A very active user of the site violates some rules (for example, creates a puppet account). Moderators agree that there is a problem, but they don’t want to ...
14
votes
2answers
122 views
How to de-escalate a situation when a user balances on the edge but others who want to correct them go beyond the rules?
The described situation happens on a Q&A site. An active user spends a lot of time on posting comments with recommendations on how to improve others’ posts. The comments are kind of short and even ...
13
votes
1answer
109 views
What are the objective benefits of allowing users to change their display names?
Stack Exchange allows its users to change their display name once every 30 days. This was a little surprising for me; on most previous sites where I was an active member, you picked a (permanent) ...
10
votes
2answers
169 views
How to reach tech talent interested in developing countries?
I work with a nonprofit called Alter Global that supports tech entrepreneurs across the developing world by connecting them to global talent, capital, and networks.
We're rolling out a Tech Fellows ...
6
votes
2answers
110 views
How to encourage members to engage with the group?
My friends and I created a Facebook group for programmers and alike. Its aim is to have members asking questions and others answering them. As well as a source for programming related articles and ...
3
votes
1answer
166 views
How to ask for feedback and get new ideas
I have a website that is a service and now I am looking for gather information about feedback from users.
I am thinking about a fixed top bar in landing page saying something like "Hey, can you help ...
5
votes
0answers
33 views
How to incentivise users to contribute data back to my community
I trying to build community x, which is kind of a stack exchange for domain y. At the center of this community would be data pertaining to domain y. However, in order to get the data, I need users to ...
12
votes
2answers
162 views
How can I encourage users to use the system rather than directly addressing a CM or Moderator?
I am a moderator on two Stack Exchange sites and I occasionally see users who would rather directly address (through pinging in chat) the Community Managers or moderators of the site they're using to ...
8
votes
3answers
96 views
How did you successfully introduce Slack and on-board your community?
I'd like to know about your experiences on-boarding a community specifically related to Slack.
How did you introduce your community to what Slack is, why you're choosing the platform, and how the ...
6
votes
0answers
72 views
Examples of majority rule/mob rule communities that have succeed long term and don't degrade to lowest common denominator?
A recent episode of The Orville - Majority Rule - had an interesting premise: the entire society's laws were voted on by everyone all the time. The majority vote wins and that is how laws are created ...
2
votes
1answer
54 views
What different types can social network users on platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and 9gag be categorized into?
Bartle categorized videogamers into 4 different types based on user preferences and character theory: Socializers, Explorers, Killers, Achievers. Is there/can there be a similar classification for ...
5
votes
1answer
37 views
Build a “liking” feature that best fosters an active community
Facebook has "likes", Instagram has "hearts", Twitter has "favorites" & "re-tweets", Pintrest has "pins", reddit has "upvotes". Each of these methods of showing you enjoy something have different ...
15
votes
2answers
96 views
Overcoming targeted viewing?
On a Stack Exchange community I moderate, we have received some complaints about what appears to be targeted voting. Targeted voting is where somebody goes through another user's posts voting for (or ...
8
votes
1answer
88 views
What can we do to reduce problems from comment explosions?
I moderate a Stack Exchange site that gets a lot of comments on posts. On Stack Exchange, comments aren't meant for discussion or chit-chat; they're meant to help improve the post. So asking the ...
9
votes
2answers
86 views
Does paying volunteer moderation teams make the team and community more effective?
I recently got an invite to Imzy. After a bit of research, I found a few articles about the site and was surprised to see that the platform supports "tipping" users and moderators.
Imzy is a new ...
17
votes
3answers
142 views
How to motivate villagers to monitor well water levels of their wells?
Groundwater in India is depleting at a fast rate. Some places, there is not much groundwater left or it is too deep. One strategy is to engage local villagers to monitor their groundwater depth ...
5
votes
1answer
97 views
Invoking the Streisand Effect - A personal response?
In my previous question, I asked about how to deal with the Streisand Effect as a community. This is how to deal with it as a single community user. A brief summary of the situation:
A user in my ...
3
votes
0answers
25 views
Are there any bad side effects of having a Dislike or Downvote button on a forum-based community? [duplicate]
We are still developing our forum community, and we're going to be having a "like button" where users can like a post or replies that they find interesting or like a post from a reputable or ...
8
votes
1answer
67 views
How to prevent external groups ruining a discussion?
If your community is having a discussion on a topic, such as whether to have a code of conduct and which one to adopt, how can you prevent external groups unrelated to the community, such as GamerGate,...
7
votes
3answers
97 views
In a loosely managed community, how can I introduce new rules?
I run a local community of programmers and IT professionals, and we're using Slack as the only area for online communications. Lately, I've noticed that people use Slack channels that has been created ...
11
votes
2answers
106 views
In a community designed for peaceful discussion, should topics which cause hate and strife be disallowed?
I am the administrator and leader of an online community designed for peaceful discussion of Christianity and other faiths, and any relevant events or topics. The community is a single thread, a wall ...
10
votes
3answers
154 views
What motivates people to ask questions about bizarre made-up situations?
This question arose from this discussion on Meta Academia SE. This discussion on Meta Travel SE is also related. I also clearly remember questions on the Workplace to which the following applies; this ...
11
votes
1answer
111 views
How can I encourage people to do the Right Thing™ when there is no reward?
I moderate a site where users Ask and Answer questions. There is a duplicate flagging feature which needs 5 users (as it does here) to mark a question as a duplicate.
Users also get "Seconds" (the ...
12
votes
3answers
207 views
How can I mitigate some of the more harmful effects of anonymous downvoting on the community?
This question is about a Stack Exchange site, but may also apply to other sites with similar voting mechanisms.
Stack Exchange, for better or worse, allows anonymous downvoting. People are strongly ...
10
votes
1answer
92 views
How can I get more (frequent) users to edit more in a StackExchange community?
The chat regulars on ELL unanimously agree on the fact that it suffers from a lack of avid editors. While we have a fairly large user base in comparison to sites almost as old as us (111 users with ...
7
votes
3answers
144 views
Community rules as a barrier to entry
My question: When starting a community should it basically be a free for all and as use reaches or gets near critical mass then implement rules perhaps based on user input?
Background: While setting ...
15
votes
1answer
3k views
How to politely tell someone to leave our group?
I'm running a small (< 20) group of people. We organize day-long events every weekend, where new members are also welcome. Anyone can join our Facebook group where we advertise our events.
At our ...
10
votes
2answers
144 views
How can I stop a user from turning the site in the wrong direction by asking too many questions about one topic?
In a young site I participate in, the community is trying to figure out how much we want to focus on different parts of the scope, and what is and is not off topic. There's one point that has been ...
12
votes
3answers
250 views
Ways to encourage civilized discussion of controversial topics?
I have users that wish to engage in discussions on commonly controversial topics (religion, idealology, historical motivations, gender roles, etc). These often devolve into flame wars though. How can ...
10
votes
1answer
117 views
How many users do you need to have an active chat? (Even a benchmark % will do)
I run a fairly active video website, and I'm introducing a real-time chat feature for the users/viewers of the site.
I'm trying to find if there has been a study or statistics, talking about the ...
15
votes
2answers
201 views
How do I discourage complaints from gamers that feel better players are “hacking”?
One of the more common complaints we receive is from newer members, or even passers-by, that complain a long term member (and perhaps a compatriot) are "hacking" in game. The reasons listed are ...
6
votes
1answer
113 views
Dealing with ignorant users and moderators regarding game mechanics
In an online browser game targeted at children but equally played by adults, countless times I've been talked to with disdain and authoritative disbelief.
This happens when I try and help other ...
17
votes
2answers
3k views
Why is the League of Legends community so toxic?
Expanding upon "How do I deal with online trolling/harassment in video games?" by discussing a specific case.
I keep hearing about ongoing toxicity issues with the LoL player community, with a ...
15
votes
3answers
1k views
How to discern a case of illegal sockpuppetry from a group of people legally contributing from the same workplace?
Cases of (not too well concealed) sockpuppetry can often be characterized by different accounts using the same IP and more or less massively upvoting each other in shorter or longer periods of time.
...
15
votes
6answers
718 views
Are there benefits to allowing anonymous users in an online community?
I recently came across the concept of a "Burner" account on Kinja which allows for absolute anonymity for its users:
Signing up using our Burner account option is the best way to join the ...
7
votes
2answers
74 views
How do I encourage the development of subcommunities?
My users have a range of topics they discuss. Obviously, not everyone is interested in everything. The platform has the ability set up different tags. These tags become subcommunities (on other sites ...
6
votes
2answers
128 views
Reducing sign-up as a barrier to entry
I've been running a community forum for a while now. I'm having trouble attracting members who actually contribute. How can I get people to take that plunge and sign up?
I'm using phpBB and I'm ...
5
votes
1answer
70 views
User Engagement on Q/A websites
I have developed question/answers website like Stack Overflow.
I want to know, how did Stack Overflow keep users engaged in the initial stage (when there were only around only 500 users)?
I consider ...
7
votes
1answer
134 views
How can we encourage users to report misconduct correctly?
I've encountered a subset of users in my subreddit that are interested in helping us curate content by reporting submissions that don't belong, but instead of using the reporting feature, I've seen ...
16
votes
2answers
208 views
Can't watch 24x7; how do we keep comments under control?
"Don't read the comments" is pretty common advice on the Internet, and for good reason: once somebody starts leaving snarky or rude comments others tend to follow suit. Blog owners or community ...
7
votes
2answers
105 views
How do I help members of a community focus on work when they want to be social?
I have, in the past, been on the board of trustees of a local non-profit organization. There is a good chance I will be asked again in the future, and there's a problem I'd like to be able to solve ...
11
votes
3answers
166 views
How to handle a shill?
What is the best way to handle a user that appears to be a shill for a company? My community is based around cars and it frequently has a user appear in conversations saying how "X company is awesome ...
9
votes
1answer
109 views
How to handle adult content on a site where children can be present?
I host a game community that has a wide age range. We utilize the PHPBB forum software for our community message board. With the default install, the message board is configured to make it more ...
12
votes
3answers
145 views
How to encourage forum users to use our wiki?
I am a moderator in a community about a game. We have both a forum and a wiki. Our forum has some very knowledgeable users who make great in-depth posts.
However, I noticed the following phenomenons ...
