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Guidelines for online discussion fora:

A Proposed Structure

This page contains the proposed structure for:

Guidelines for organisers
Guidelines for facilitators
Guidelines for users

Notes for Internet Services Providers and for Technology Developers will also be added as a second priority.

Other sections:

Comments are invited on this proposed structure, please use this feedback form.

The guidelines will address:

Guidelines for organisers (owners, sponsors, parent organisations)
- Why support online discussion:
  - Possible reasons
  - Potential benefits
  - Potential risks
  - Issues
  - ??
- Relations with fora:
  - Alternative approaches:
    - Directly owned and operated
    - Independent - sponsored or endorsed
    - Active assistance
    - Arms length
    - Participative
    - ??
  - Choosing the best approach
  - ??
- Types of fora:
  - Open or closed:
    - Fully open - no registration required
    - Open subject to registration
    - Restricted - participation linked to other activities, membership of organisation etc
    - Closed - eg project team, committee, by invitation
    - ??
  - Purposes:
    - Overtly commercial
    - Promotional
    - Public benefit
    - Mutual - interest group
    - Democracy and consultation
    - ??
- Technology:
  - Email based
  - Web based
  - Hybrid (email integrated with web)
  - Proprietary (eg Notes)
  - Public domain, shareware, proprietary and roll-your-own
  - ??
- Staffing:
  - Technical (technology) resources and skills
  - Orchestration and management resources and skills
  - Volunteers, employed, part-paid
  - ??
- Targeting, promotion and outreach, subscriber relations:
  - Defining target audiences
  - Targeting outreach promotion
  - "Screening out" of inappropriate subscribers
  - ??
- Guidelines or rules for subscribers:
  - Rationale
  - "Rules" versus recommendations
  - Example guidelines
  - Nature of the "contract"
  - Enforcement methods
  - ??
- Forum management:
  - Rationale
  - Fully moderated (screened) discussion
  - Post-event moderation
  - Light public moderation
  - Background moderation
  - Unmanaged fora
  - ??
- Legalities
  - State of the law
  - Good practice
  - Defence against breaches of law
  - ??
- When things go wrong
  - Common problems
  - Subscriber complaints
  - External complaints (eg accusations of libel)
  - Lack of traffic
  - Excessive traffic
  - Off topic message and threads
  - Disruptive conduct
  - "Spam" (intrusion by advertisers, lobbyists etc)
  - ??
- Measurement and tracking
  - What to measure
  - How to measure
  - Interpreting the data
  - Feedback to moderators
  - Feedback to subscribers
  - ??
- International fora - mixed language considerations
- ?Other headings?
Guidelines for facilitators (moderators)
- Why be a moderator
- Skills, motivation and aptitude
- Moderating versus facilitating
- General considerations for moderators
- Fully moderated discussion
- Visible versus background moderation
- Dealing with problem messages:
  - General considerations: one man's meat . . .
  - Innocent error
  - The subscriber learning curve
  - Repeat offenders
  - Persistent offenders
  - Spam and other intrusion
  - ??
- Dealing with generic problems
  - Low/no traffic
  - Off topic threads
  - Excessive traffic
  - Low subscriber base
  - High unsubscribe rates
  - ??
- Official/unofficial and voluntary, paid and part paid moderation
  - The need for "official" moderators
  - Role of "unofficial" moderators
  - Should moderators be paid - or recompensed?
  - Relationships in mixed mode moderation
  - ??
- ?Other topics?
Guidelines for users
- Why subscribe to online discussion
- How much time will it take?
- Discussion environments: Web-based, email-based, hybrids and proprietary
- How to find a discussion on a particular topic
- How to identify worthwhile fora
- How to join - and how to leave
- First messages online
- First messages when joining a forum
- It's OK to lurk!
- How to handle high volumes of email
- Good behaviour - how to avoid flame wars
- Effective behaviour - how to get what you need from discussion
- Bad behaviour - and how to avoid it
- Responding to others' annoying behaviour
- ??
Notes for Internet Services Providers (to be developed later)
Notes for technology suppliers (to be developed later)

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Page editor: Horace Mitchell (horace@mta.i-way.co.uk)
Page address: http://www.eto.org.uk/co-guide/struct.htm
Page last updated: 11 December 1999