Laws of Online Communities. Im sure people read this already.. - Guild Wars Forums

Jun 11, 2007, 09:08 PM // 21:08	#1
lyra_song Hell's Protector Join Date: Oct 2005 Profession: R/Mo	Laws of Online Communities. Im sure people read this already.. But hey its funny...and its very true. The Laws of Online Communities These laws are part joke, part informational about communities and how they work–specifically massively multiplayer online communities. While I say they are part joke, I only say that because some of them seem humorous but happen to still be correct (correct according to my personal observations over the years). Some of these laws are instructional, while others are merely observations about how online communities work. The following laws will slowly expand over the course of time: Law #1: The sanity of an online community is inversely proportional to the number of members of that community. Mob logic. Things can get out of control a lot faster if there are a lot of members of a particular game community. Law #2: The quality of an online community is directly proportional to the quality of its moderation. Quality, not quantity. Moderation needs to be performed in moderation–only moderate when necessary (i.e. when the rules are broken), and don’t squelch someone for simply having a differing opinion from your own. Law #3: The more information that is provided to an online community, the more it will demand. Do not, however, stifle the information flow because of this. The more information the better, as long as the message is kept consistent and truthful. Law #4: The more stickies on a particular board, the less likely any of them are to be read. If you have official forums for a game, keep the sticky posts to a minimum and cycle old stickies out if they are no longer pertinent. Law #5: Communities are always more positive about a game before it launches. After a game launches, they have real experience with which to complain. Law #6: Nothing you say is taken as conceptual. Even if you indicate that something is “in concept,” many members of the community will take it as fact and will become quite angry after it doesn’t occur (or quite happy, if they thought it was a bad idea). Law #7: Never stealth nerf anything. Ever. If you do, communities will figure it out and will call you on it. Players are smart, despite the way they sometimes post on forums. The one exception is stealth fixing major exploits (which I don’t consider stealth nerfing), as calling them out may lead to the discovery of more exploits or the use of such exploits on servers that don’t yet have the update. Law #8: If you are experiencing major issues that require you to provide an ETA and you do not have one, tell the community that you don’t have an ETA. Not telling them that you do not have one pisses them off because they feel like they are being ignored, and giving them a false ETA will only make you look bad. Law #9: The more you give, the more they expect. This goes along with Law #3. The more you give a community what it wants, the more it will desire. This includes not only information, but changes they are demanding, bait you take (e.g. someone posts a thread just to get a response from you, and you go ahead and post in that thread), etc. from: www.nerfbat.com