How to Be a TechSoup Star, Gem, and Forum Moderator (TechSoup Royalty)

Online Moderator Guidelines and Community-Building Tips

How to Be a TechSoup Shining Member

At TechSoup, royalty does not come by birth, but rather by being a valuable member of the TechSoup community. Perhaps you’ve noticed those dazzling icons that accompany some TechSoup member profiles. Do you want the fame and regal dignity that come with TechSoup Royalty? Are you wondering how you can ascend to high honors in the TechSoup community? Well, wonder no longer.

The Path to Royalty

The TechSoup Stars, Gems, and Royalty make up the backbone of the TechSoup community. Their feedback and suggestions directly influence TechSoup’s Website, content, and policies.

TechSoup Star:

The first step in the path to royalty is TechSoup Stardom. You become a TechSoup star by regularly visiting the message boards and making your presence known. You’ve posted at least 50 times, asked questions of your own and responded to other users. As a TechSoup Star, you will be designated as such on the message boards, and you will be asked to fill out your forums profile (by clicking on the "Edit My Forums Profile" button when you are in one of the forums and logged in), including your picture and information about your organization. While not required, we strongly urge you to post your photo as well.

TechSoup Gem:

At the next level of nobility are the TechSoup Gems (aka expert users). Being a TechSoup Gem involves a time commitment of anywhere from a few hours a month to several, depending on your wishes. At a minimum, we ask you to submit at least three answers to user questions on the message boards each week. (Once you are logged in, you can stay on top of discussions by subscribing to any forum, member, or topic). TechSoup Gems (along with TechSoup Royalty) will receive access to the TechSoup Royal Court, a private forum to discuss forum moderation and administration.

To be promoted from a TechSoup Star to a TechSoup Gem you will:

1. Begin to answer users' questions as they come in, ideally within 48 hours.
2. Post articles, ideas, and other thought-provoking content to the forum, to incite discussion.
3. Post at least 200 times.
4. Post a message to the forums at least 10 times a month.
5. Join the discussions in our monthly online events.
6. Help make the community your own, and support the forum moderators with their work.

TechSoup Royalty:

That final step to royalty involves moderating or hosting the forum of your choice. Our noble forum hosts are knowledgeable and active community members who volunteer their time moderating the forums by answering users questions, starting topics in their area of interest or specialty and keep an eye out for spammers.

If you do all of these things, we'll notice you. And we'll make you a Star. It's that easy. If you have any questions, post them in the TechSoup/TechSoup Stock forum.

What's So Special About Online Conversation?

In most online environments, a conversation convener becomes the initial facilitator, moderator, list mom, or owner of the conversation. We call these people Hosts, and we honor them when they can make a wonderful scene without calling much attention to their special powers.

What Makes a Sustainable Scene?

What makes a good subject matter, purpose, or theme for a really great ongoing virtual gathering place? Viable conferences, meeting places, or virtual worlds come from that mysterious realm of creativity that is generally recognized after the fact, but completely unheralded before it happens. Further, the success of a virtual gathering place can depend as much upon the energy, creativity, and approach of its host or hosts as it does upon the proposed subject matter or theme. In an online environment, the founders and original participants are the initial destination.

• Is the topic a theme or subject matter of which you are personally likely to tire? If you have a limited interest in your own idea, challenge yourself to find a better one, or set up your gathering with a predetermined closing date (or perhaps a hand-off date) so it won't just wither away.
• Is the theme broad enough to support a multitude of interactions and conversations?
• Do you think there would be enough interest in, and knowledge of, the subject area to promote lively participation?

What Exactly Does a Host Do?

After becoming a TechSoup Gem, you will have the opportunity to be promoted to a TechSoup forum host (TechSoup Royalty). Hosting will take a maximum of an hour a day, and a minimum of 15 hours a month. The particular amount of time may vary from day to day or week to week. Hosting generally will provide you with some extra privileges, conveyed by the software itself.

You may be able to create or modify items your guests cannot change, or even to exclude or censor your visitors. While you will probably be taking care of some of the technical aspects of your gathering place, the most important aspects of hosting have to do with stimulating participation and dealing with people. What is your primary goal as a host? No matter what the medium or the theme, a good host wants his or her gathering place to be worth a return visit and committed interaction.

Whether that can best be achieved by active participation in the conversation or by simply staying out of the way is a decision only the host can make. In most cases, shifting between active participation, and backing off to let the guests run with a conversation or provide support to one another, is the best ongoing strategy. It's not about you; the whole point is to find a way to help the participants share the spotlight.

Hosts vary greatly in their approaches. Some hosts do considerable research and present thought-provoking materials on a regular basis for participants to discuss. Other hosts let the conference milieu generate discussion material for itself. Recycling can be helpful over the long haul. Many topics are timeless, and can be discussed again and again by newcomers who'd like to have a chance to describe their experiences. Others are seasonal, and come back around for you to reinvent every year.

Bear in mind that it's not merely interest in a particular subject or the opportunity to interact that draws people to a conference, but the quality of that interaction, the scope and setting of it, what kinds of topics are available, how they are introduced, and the tone which is set for the conference by its host. The final broad category concerned with hosting is dealing with people, from the shy to the contentious. Over the years, a number of general rules of thumb have been noted which hosts may wish to consider when dealing with the marvelous, and sometimes troublesome, human species online.

Welcoming New Participants

One thing a host can be fairly sure of, is that nobody likes to go into a new place for the first time, compose a response, then have it sit there without ever being acknowledged. At the very least, as host, you will want to keep an eye out for responses by folks who have never responded in your conference before, and acknowledge their participation. Even a simple "Hello! I'd love to hear more about your experiences with ..." or "Nice to see you here!" can mean the difference between someone feeling snubbed, and feeling like a welcomed participant in the conference.

New users are frequently shy, or polite, and may be waiting for suggestions and cues on how to best participate in your conference. On the TechSoup forums this translates into greeting newcomers, pointing to article or discussion links, and starting new topics to keep the TechSoup community a self-sustaining and durable gathering place.

Creating Special Rules

Whatever rule you make, someone will eventually question it — even if it is "no rules at all." The most casual glance at human history shows that humans love making rules and arguing over them. If the rules of a gathering are in dispute, the best places to discuss them are in email, not on the forums. Excessive niceness, through hyperbole, can even convey an insult. Rather than creating a rule, you may want to depend on the direct yet respectful approach, calmly asking people to clarify whether an insult was actually meant, and always making it easy to save face. This is often a useful way to communicate with guests who are testing the rules, or making you wish you'd made some.

By the same token, knock-down, drag-out arguments, especially those involving personal insults, are nonproductive and can easily get to the point of dominating the interaction in discussions which might otherwise be, though controversial, potentially fruitful. Hosts can do a lot to keep the tone in their gathering places positive by making general ground rules which encourage courteous argumentation, and with reminders, when necessary, to "attack the idea, not the person" and to "take personal disputes to email, please." For more information on this, please consult the TechSoup Community Rules and Standards.

Handling Problems

If someone violates your rules or guidelines, there are several options at your disposal. It's important to give a sense of due process by starting with the lightest sanction you feel comfortable with, and if necessary, to escalate methodically. Here are some approaches, in increasing order of severity. Note that this process is not required in a "moderated" environment where hosts must affirmatively approve all material before it is posted.

1. Post a response after the comment in question indicating that you would prefer folks to avoid that type of posting, then using the second short paragraph to lead the topic gently back in the right direction with some substantive comment on the subject matter.
2. Notify the person privately via email and explain how the response is not within the conference guidelines, and request that further responses of that nature not be entered.
3. Permanently remove the response in question. This is a serious matter. If the poster has not kept a copy, you may be destroying his or her only copy of the words in question. Mailing the words back, with your reason why they were removed, can be a firm but respectful solution to this dilemma. Even if the poster understands your action, you may be the subject of an ensuing debate on censorship and freedom of expression. On the other hand, clearly hurtful material, such as stolen passwords or credit card numbers, for example, may be scribbled without any concern about causing an uproar. This is usually only done in the case of blatant abusers of the forum or drive-by spammers
4. If a user is a chronic problem and you cannot reach an understanding in email, you may be able to exercise the power to ban the user from posting in your conference, or from visiting altogether. Banning, or being locked out, is a last resort, and it should be very clear to the user that he or she is behaving unacceptably and has been formally informed of the terms of continued participation before a banning.

Whatever steps you are able to take on your system, remember to give clear warnings, to allow for honest mistakes, and to escalate appropriately. Remember that the people in your conference are guests, and a variety of personalities and opinions enriches the scene you are creating. Treat them with courtesy, make them feel welcome and by and large they will respond in kind.

Moderating Tips

• Encourage the members to talk to each other rather than just to you as the host, and not to lecture to a vague audience.
• Use private messages (email, instant messages, sends, etc.) as reminders, perhaps pointing to specific items about which you would like feedback, and for positive reinforcement, especially of early entries. Messages should be a regular supplement to the more public comments.
• Reinforce participation via thank-you notes, both to individuals and the group. Compliment and praise.