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Description
What do martial arts have to do with moderating a message board? Martial arts follow differing philosophies and styles. So do poster’s conversational styles. Is someone on your forum spreading the peace of the “Shaolin Temple”? Or are they wielding the “Fist of Fear, Touch of Death”? Worse yet are you part of the problem? Perhaps you need to learn some new kung fu?
Lee's talk will present some of the things he has learned from moderating Atom’s discussion forum for the past year. They are intended to be useful for moderators and forum goers as well as folks who are interested in building an online community.
About CodeConf
CodeConf improves the software community by providing a forum for thought-provoking talks and forging social connections. The third installment of the CodeConf series took place in Nashville in 2015. Attendees came together to discuss open source, best practices, documentation, and community.
For more information on this year's CodeConf, go to:
https://codeconf.com/
A
A
Very
soon
after
the
Adam
beta
was
released,
I
believe
the
Adam
beta
was
released
in
late,
February,
26th
or
27th,
and
I
became
the
moderator
like
March
7th,
my
first
baby.
My
first
message
board
was
one
line.
One
phone
line
BBS
in
the
early
1990s
I've,
been
moderating
message
boards
of
one
type
or
another
for
that
long.
But
that's
not
really
what
I'm
here
to
talk
about
here,
I'm
here
to
talk
about
community.
A
A
The
rules
are
essentially
just
don't
drive
people
away
and
don't
let
others
drive.
People
away
and
community
will
just
kind
of
happen
on
its
own.
But
how
do
we
avoid
driving
people
away
and
how
do
we
convince
others
to
stop
from
driving
people
away?
Many
people
see
forums
is
an
opportunity
to
do
battle
right.
Just
come
in
to
attack.
Others
see
only
see,
forums
is
a
place
to
vent
their
frustrations
like
the
blue
guy
there.
A
So
what
we
want
to
do
is
we
want
to
create
a
place
where
encouragement
is
the
primary
topic.
So
how
do
we
encourage
people
to
work
together
as
a
community,
but
before
we
get
to
that,
I
have
a
metaphor:
I
use.
So
like
many
people,
my
age
I
grew
up
with
kung-fu
movies.
They
were
on
unset
Sunday
mornings
all
morning
like
8
to
noon
so
I
watched
him
all
the
time
and
I
just
couldn't
wait
to
be
old
enough
to
do
it
myself.
A
So
when
I
got
older,
I
studied
two
different
martial
arts
and
let
me
tell
you
they
were
very
different
from
each
other.
The
first
was
kenpo
karate
and
tempo
karate
is
very
aggressive.
The
whole
point
of
it
is
to
disable
to
maim,
to
destroy
your
opponent,
literally,
prevent
them
from
ever
being
able
to
attack
them
again.
Attack
you
again
and
that's
pretty
much
the
way,
most
people
that
come
to
message
boards
they're
there
to
destroy.
So,
on
the
second
week
of
attending
Kempo
karate
class,
we
actually
learned
a
maneuver,
literally
called
the
leap
of
death.
A
Somebody
tries
to
attack
you,
you
break
their
arm,
throw
them
to
the
ground,
jump
on
them,
with
your
heels
in
their
kidneys,
and
if
that's
not
enough
to
kill
them,
you
rabbit
punch
them
in
the
back
of
the
head,
smash
their
face
into
the
ground
and
you
spit
on
them.
As
you
walk
away
technically
is
called
closing
out,
but
we
just
called
it
spitting.
A
Aikido,
on
the
other
hand,
is
a
very
defensive,
martial
art
it's
about
recognizing
and
redirecting
the
flow
of
energy.
It's
about
partnering.
Now
they
really
do
make
you
call
it
make.
You
call
someone
a
partner
rather
than
an
attacker
or
an
opponent
in
Aikido.
It's
a
philosophy.
It's
about
getting
them
to
see
that
violence
against
you
is
futile.
A
So
how
do
we
redirect
people
to
more
more
productive
conversations?
Well,
the
way
I
like
to
think
about
it
is
conversational.
Aikido
Aikido
boils
down
to
conflict
awareness,
blending
and
resolution,
so
I'm
going
to
talk
about
how
I
use
this
flow
when
dealing
with
challenging
situations
on
the
message
board.
So
the
first
step
is
conflict.
What
you
really
need
to
do
need
to
recognize.
Is
there
a
difference
of
opinion
just
because
people
are
energetic,
you
know,
doesn't
necessarily
mean
that
there's
actually
a
conflict.
Aikido
is
about
awareness.
Sometimes
people
just
argue
even
when
they're
agreeing.
A
So
you
must
recognize
and
understand
before
you
can
possibly
hope
to
act
correctly.
You
do
that
through
awareness,
you
listen.
You
strive
to
understand
not
just
the
issue
at
hand,
but
the
people
behind
it
and
then
once
you've
achieved
awareness,
you
blend
it's
called
blending,
and
this
is
really
the
heart
of
Aikido.
You
first
move
out
of
the
line
of
fire.
If
they're
trying
to
stab
you,
don't
be
so
rude
as
to
stand
in
their
way.
Just
you
know,
as
mr.
A
Miyagi
would
say,
the
best
defense
is
to
not
be
there
so
once
you're
out
of
the
line
of
fire
take
to
their
side.
If
you're
behind
them,
they
can't
attack
you
so
respectfully
and
sincerely
and
that's
the
key
sincerely
agree.
You
can
almost
always
find
common
ground.
I
understand
that
I
know
it's
frustrating
when
and
add
pieces
to
the
conversation,
not
remove
them.
A
As
a
as
samuel
l.jackson
said
in
the
movie
of
negotiator,
no
takes
away
options,
you
never
want
to
say
no
to
a
hostage
taker,
never
say
no
can't
won't
or
shouldn't
so
have
you
thought
about
or
what
would
you
think
of
add
to
the
conversation
not
remove
them
because
resolution
the
final
step
in
Aikido
discussions
don't
have
to
be
zero-sum
games,
I
really
really
dislike.
How
win
win
takes
such
a
beautiful
concept?
It
makes
it
a
marketing
thing,
but
what
if
talking
is
the
problem?
A
Sometimes
you're?
The
problem
sometimes
I'm?
The
problem
we
get
burnt,
we
get
stressed
so
just
put
down
the
keyboard
and
nobody
gets
hurt.
Rarely
is
any
subject
so
important
that
it
requires
your
response.
Ones
that
do
require
don't
require
it
immediately.
So,
but
sometimes
other
people
are
the
problem
and
I
learned
this
one
little
trick
it.
It's
a
management
technique
called
extinction.
Now
it's
important
to
know
that
it's
a
strategy
for
eliminating
undesirable
behavior,
undesirable
behavior
patterns
that
are
negative,
but
otherwise
it's
a
salvageable
situation.
A
So,
once
again,
it's
undesirable
undesirable,
behavior,
not
problematic,
behavior
well
get
to
trolls
in
a
minute.
Extinction
is
about
stop
talking,
there's
a
reason:
it's
called
an
uncomfortable
silence.
It
makes
people
uncomfortable
it
lets
them
know
that
their
behavior
isn't
appropriate
without
publicly
shaming
them,
thus
discouraging
the
behavior.
And
so
you
just
don't
respond
to
argumentative
speech.
Most
people,
not
trolls,
will
get
the
hint.
A
So
how
do
we
recognize
trolls?
Well,
the
people
that
intentionally
don't
get
it?
We
can
how
we
can
recognize
that
intent
separate
from
honest
actors.
These
trolls
have
common
features,
they're
disrespectful.
They
attack
the
people,
not
the
idea.
Anybody
who
thinks
that
is
stupid,
you're
a
jerk
go
away.
You
should
just
die
there
inflexible.
They
refuse
to
acknowledge
conflicting
information.
They
simply
will
not
enter
even
entertain
the
possibility
that
they're
wrong
they're,
argumentative
and
demanding.
Why
is
that
amiss?
A
A
So
how
do
you
deal
with
trolls
as
a
user?
Unfortunately,
your
options
are
limited.
You
can
notify
the
administrators
or
walk
away,
but
you
should
and
have
the
right
to
expect
that
as
a
moderator
like
me,
step,
1
call
out
the
behavior
and
make
it
clear
that
your
interpretation
as
a
moderator
of
that
behavior
is
not
up
for
debate.
A
A
You
can't
expect
things
to
get
better
if
there
aren't
consequences
for
negative
actions,
you'll
more
than
make
up
for
the
tiny
minority
you
lose
with
the
membership
and
participation,
especially
that
you
gain
from
having
a
safe
and
supportive
forum,
because,
what's
the
most
important
thing,
it's
the
community,
not
the
moderator,
not
any
individual,
member
or
clique
of
members,
it's
the
community,
in
other
words
the
needs.
The
many
outweigh
the
needs
of
the
few
or
the
one.
Thanks.