Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Turning the jerk dial down
Like most communities, both online and off HoL has a few moments of tension and some grumpiness. That's life. However, it doesn't mean that we can't improve on things.
A few people have told me that they know someone who's been put off from contributing or even visiting HoL because of some of the behaviour on the site...and that's a shame. Liz and I work hard to try and make the overall tone positive and the environment safe. Our visitor statistics show that HoL is getting more and more popular. We're growing the number of unique daily visitors every month and according to figures provided by the Hornsey Journal, we get twice the number of visitors as their sites, but could we do more to make HoL and even better place to visit?
The other day I was reading social media guru Clay Shirky writing on dealing with bad behaviour in online forums:
That provides some options for turning the jerk dial down. One is to make identity valuable........... Another approach is to partition public platforms, thus reducing the incentive to publicly act out.
Both points resonate with me when thinking about forums in general and left me with two questions:
- Do we have a need to turn the jerk dial down on HoL?
- If so, how should we put Shirky's insights into practice?
On partitioning the platform, the obvious answer is to do away with, or make less central, the latest activity feature. I've tried that before and was met with a storm of protest. It remains an option.
Any thoughts on the general issues and HoL responses most welcome.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Oh, Angela. Please do lighten up. Variety has been the spice of HOL since its inception four years ago. Why expect that 4,500 members or 500 daily visitors should respond to life in one uniform monotone?
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Permalink Reply by Vernon on
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Non-PC phrase detected. Alert thought police!
(I guess a grin emoticon might be needed here?)
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Vernon, my apologies to your B & W cat. I fear I may have ruffled his/her feathers.
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No apology necessary, the humour was implicit. Feathers? Must be one of those flying cats.
Not my cat, alas I have none. I get my cat fix from the neighbours moggy that seems to prefer my jungle garden to his own neat lawn.
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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I have read this discussion with interest. Whilst scratching my head. So some of us are more opinionated than others (who, me??). And we’re vocal about issues we care about / subjects that engage / provoke / annoy / amuse us. On a web-site that’s set up largely as a forum for discussion of local issues. Hm. That’s exactly what makes HoL interesting. Different takes on different topics.
If the more opinionated of us were to pipe down and start apologising for our opinions so not to scare or offend potential new users then I would lean towards the conclusion that these new users would not really have contributed a lot anyway. It’s a bit like it was at school. There’s the kids who would be happy to offer their thoughts and opinions, and there’s the ones who were happy to stay in the background and not say much, but listen to the discussions. This is real life, there’s always going to be people who feel uncomfortable joining in. The rest of us can’t be blamed for that. And where’s the fun if everyone agrees on everything? And the ones who disagree have to apologise and conform so not to offend or frighten anyone. It would make HoL a very dull place indeed.
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Anette, nobody has said anyone should apologise for expressing their opinions, and neither has anyone said posters should agree on everything.
I am only passing on what a number of people have said to me.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Angela, I get a fair amount of stick from my friends about how I am on HoL and I'm sure my wife just rolls her eyes sometimes but the mythical "other people" who are not members and don't want to be because of the quality/ferocity of the debate here are not possible members, IMHO. They're just people who like to bend Hugh's ear and perhaps yours too.
If you can't name names then I really don't think you have an argument and neither does Hugh.
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@ Angela, but if the people you have spoken to are intimidated by people's opinions and ways of expressing them then that's exactly what they're saying. If we all agreed all the time we would be harmless, and so it would be considered safe to join, no?
I am fascinated by your "mostly mums" comment. What has being a mum got to do with being worried about contributing to an online discussion forum?
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I said mostly mums because it's mostly mums I speak to in my everyday life.
Also, I said they are wary rather than intimidated.
Does it not concern you that a group of people, however small, who are normally active within our community, don't feel there is any point in posting on here?
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Well these mums must certainly be avid readers of HOL, if they've all come to the conclusion that they don't want to contribute.. You don't do that by just one quick look..
I think it's really healthy that HOL is mature enough for people to voice their opinions strongly without really having a bust up with each other - It would be dead boring if everyone agreed with each other all the time..
The only way these 'mothers' will ever change anything is by involving themselves, steering the discussions in the direction they want them to go in and certainly not by moaning on the sidelines..
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I'm not sure any of us in a position to comment on the appropriateness of how people reach a decision. I respect the fact that they have done so. If we want to find out why they've reached it, we'd have to find a way of asking them, rather than being tempted to make any assumptions (or at least I would). I'm happy to own that as a practical issue.
In so far as agreement/disagreement is concerned, I don't think the issue is whether people disagree but how they do so.
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