This article has a specific purpose and a specific audience. I am quite aware that it’s general content has been published thousands of other places both on the net and in print. So my apologies to the experts in  online communication, the history of bulletin boards (aka: forums) and etiquette in general. This is not intended to be an all inclusive, authoritative guide. And specifically to my readers. I normally would paginate a long discourse but I wanted to allow for easy copy and paste on this one. Sorry for the need to scroll.

Forum Structure

General Concept

Whether you call them bulletin boards or forums they are intended to facilitate the free flow and exchange of ideas between people with a common interest. They can be set up to be public, semi-private (membership required to post), or completely private where to even access the forum you must log- in  to a private (usually fee required) website or company/organizational Intranet. With all that said, the purpose is to create a sense of  belonging or  “Community”. Thus forums are the polar opposite of a weblog. A blog whether personal or professional,  has one voice, the author’s. Although many blogs do invite comments and interaction this is usually very tightly controlled and it’s purpose is to create a greater network of blogs all with individual voices discussing possibly the same subject but often from different points of view.  Simply a different kind of community.  Other contrasting technologies are chat rooms,  instant messaging and texting on cell phones, etc. I mention all of these here just to point out the contrast. Often, we get so use to the short real-time or close to real-time communication styles of these technologies, that people often use the same style in forums and it leads to problems.

The Simple Structure

All forums have an administrator, owner, host if you will. They decide what type of community they would like to have. The goal and possibly the tone of the forum. Usually that is explicit in the name or title given the forum. The administrator then sets up directories, channels, sections, categories or topics to discuss. The last, “topics”, of course, is bad term to name the forum sections because members can get confused. On well organized forums, there is usually a “Rules of the Board” or “FAQ” (Frequently Asked Questions) section or both and new members are encouraged to read these sections before posting. (Of course on some forums these sections are so big that their purpose is often ignored.) Under each section the members are invited to start “threads” or individual discussions about what they want others in the community to share their ideas about. This inevitably leads to the need for moderators. At small forums the owner or administrator acts as the moderator. Often the job is too big and time consuming for one person to do well, so the administrator will enlist others. Many forums have moderators for each section of the forum.

Forum Etiquette

Etiquette, what your Momma called manners!

Manners, like respect, goes both ways. Sadly, a universal human trait is “I am right, your all wrong”. So I have divided the etiquette portion of this article along the lines of the forum structure itself. Personally, I am a member of many, many private and public forums. I find it the best of the “social networking” technologies because you can pretty much know up front why people are really there.

(As we all know the common draw and problem with online technologies is anonymity. You really don’t know who your in the community with. Of course, I am kind of an odd ball. I use the technology not to be anonymous. Every forum I belong to I do not use a nickname, screen name or other moniker, just my real name.  I don’t recommend this to the faint at heart, women or persons under the age of consent. But over the years it has lead to some interesting relationships all over the world!)

Administrators

If you are planning to host a forum or already have one, keep in mind that yes, it’s your forum and you set the tone and goals, but for it to be really successful or popular you can’t really own it or control it completely like a blog. Here is a silly example. Your into to pets. You love animals. So you start a pet forum for pet enthusiasts. Now if secretly your just a cat person don’t be upset when the dog people show up to talk about dogs! A clear, friendly and complete “rules of the board” (forum) section will usually do the trick in setting the tone and goals. Keep in mind that if the members paid a fee to get it and participate. They deserve to be treated with respect. As previously stated, manners go both ways. If the job gets to big and you hire or enlist members to administer the forum for you insure they have a clear understanding of your set tone and goals. There are numerous forum programs out there, some have ways to give members admin rights for the purpose of moving threads from one section to another. Even deleting or editing members threads and comments. Be very careful who you give those rights to. It’s one thing for the host, owner, administrator to have a “god” complex. It’s another thing to allow the hired help to have one and misrepresent you and your goals for the forum.

(Now you know why I personally have never hosted a forum. Too much work.)

Moderators

First read the administrators section of this article. Then remember and don’t ever forgot, it is not your forum. You represent the owner, host, administrator. Their Site. Their Rules. You want to set the tone and rules of the board or change the goal of the forum? Start your own!

With that said, the general duties of a moderator are to monitor the board for spambots and the like. For further information on what those are start here  A Wikipedia Article on the subject. Not complete, but a good start. Problem is as soon as methods are developed to combat this type of thing, someone comes up with a way to beat the method! Also the moderators job on some big forums (or at least bad designed ones) is to move threads from one section to another because a member inadvertently placed it in the wrong place.  And lastly a moderators job can be to correct the bad manners of other members, delete threads, even ban members from the forum.

In the last paragraph I said that the last job “can” be to correct bad manners of other members, etc. Why the emphasis on can? If the board is structured correctly and the administrators “rules of the board” are clear enough, this aspect of the job doesn’t ever have to be seen on the board itself.  In fact a general and very old rule common to all forums is simply, “when conflict arises, take it off the board.” Many if not all forum software contains the ability to privately message members. This is the preferred and professional way to correct members.

Another good tip is whether the moderator has admin rights or not, they should always be readily recognizable as moderators. Many forums have member moderators with two member accounts, one that they us to participate in discussions with and another for their moderator duties, for the later  try, “moderator1, moderator2, etc.” or for large forums where there is one or more moderator for each section, “sect1_moderator1, etc”. This is important because it’s hard to take a “scolding” personally when all you know about the person correcting you is “moderator1″.

You may think this is childish, but trust me I have seen very large forums run by and participated in only by highly educated professional people, disintegrate into nothing more than “barroom”  brawls and small private or  casual forums turn into nothing more than a fractured group of … “we belong and you don’t!”

Members

Again this is not an all inclusive guide, to etiquette, manners or even generally accepted behavior on any and all forums. As stated above the host, administrator or owner of any particular forum sets the rules. Yes, I personally have been know to violate some of the following. Why admit that?   Everyone is human. Kinda the drawback to not being anonymous on the Internet. You have to be really honest!

The Ten Commandments of Forum Behavior

1. Your a guest. Act like one. Even if you paid to get in, remember, so did everyone else so it doesn’t make you special.
2. Before posting to any forum read the “rules of the board” (if listed) and read a few of the threads (discussions) to get an idea of the tone and style of the board.
3. Don’t criticize how the forum is administered on the forum itself. It’s rude. Send them a private message.
4. Don’t criticize another member. This does not mean you can’t disagree with another member. Just do it politely.
5. Don’t assume. Ask for clarification before disagreeing. Online communication is often cryptic. it’s the nature of the beast being that it is anonymous and remote people will often say things they would not say  face to face. Remember, a forum is not a chat room or “texting”, you don’t have to give short answers. Explain what you mean!
6. If you start a thread monitor it yourself so the moderator does not have to, they are busy people.
7. Do not hijack a thread. Stay on topic or start a new thread about what you want to talk about!
8. If you are a moderator respect the members and do none of the above yourself without identifying yourself as a moderator and the reason your doing it. Remember, you may be perceived as  thread hijacker yourself. Your job as a moderator is to stop conflict not start it!
9. Use all the words in your language, not just the vulgar ones. And “emotion icons” are not words.
10. DO NOT SPAM (the ‘all caps’ is intentional)

Conclusion

I once read, don’t remember where, that true communication was truly listening to another person talk and not just thinking about what your going to say when they finish. And true courtesy was allowing the other person to fully tell you what they just heard you say before interrupting them to correct them. See what I mean about online communication being cryptic!