When communities work and when they don't work

A lot of us are part of some online communities be it for work or pleasure and there are times when things run smoothly and then there are times when things just don’t work. I think we have all seen that happen to at least one of the communities that we are involved in. 

One of the key factors for a community working well is have leaders/administrators/moderators that are part of the community. If the key people are not posting and seeing part of the community that is when things start to fall apart. Those individuals don’t have to be posting all the time, but they at least have to be making comments to posts and at least being visible within the community. If these people either never post or hardly post it makes it difficult for some communities to continue to be effective.

Another factor that can determine if a community to going to work or not is having community members that post and what to be involved. I have seen too many communities where only a few members do the majority of the posting and everyone else just sits back and just lurk. It is important for a community to work well there needs to be conversations. It’s important to have members that want to engage and be part of the community because if everyone just lurks that isn’t a community at all.

Online communities be it for work or pleasure can help you figure out issues or provide you with information about things that you are interested in. I know that I have been involved with communities for both work and pleasure and some have been really good, and others haven’t helped at all. Communities do have a life span and some of them with last for years while others may only last for a few months, as it depends on the purpose of the community and the type of members that are involved in it. What is really sad is when you find that a community that was a wonderful place to participate is slowly fading away. It can be hard to realize that this community may not last much longer but if you enjoyed it when it was in it’s peak, remember to enjoy it and know that you were part of it during it’s good times.

 

 

A community is only as good as the weakest link/member

There are so many times when you are part of a community especially those that are online that you have to step back and not say things because of the questions or comments that have been posted. Recently I saw on a community group that someone was asking a crochet designer to help them figure out a pattern that this designer had no involvement in. The person (designer) that they contacted very nicely told them that they needed to contact the original designer to request the changes she needed. 

When you have an issue with a pattern be it knitting, crocheting or cross stitch you need to contact the original designer to ask them the questions and not ask someone else for help. There are so many times that we have to think about copyright laws as well because patterns that are designed by an individual do have copyright laws that will impact the sharing of the pattern with others.

If you are sharing a pattern that you purchased that is a pdf you cannot share it at all even if you are asking someone for assistance in figuring out the pattern. The pdf is licensed to you along and you are not allowed or entitled to share this pattern with anyone else even if you are having issues with it. I know that I have seen a lot of people want to share a pattern for help or even just to give it to others and those are not allowed. I have also seen someone say that if you send me the pdf I can make it compatible for a specific program and once again this isn’t allowed because you are sharing a pattern with someone else and how does the designer know that you will delete your copy of the pattern after you have made it work for the original purchaser.

When you are part of community you need to understand that there are rules that everyone needs to comply with and if you don’t it could cause a lot of issues for the group as a whole. When you keep asking for help and aren’t realizing that you are breaking copyright laws that doesn’t help the group. I know that the groups that I am either a moderator or an administrator of if I see these types of requests I immediately delete the message and let the individual know they the post has been deleted. Making sure that you are not the weakest link/member of a group is extremely important and always make sure that you are not breaking any copyright laws when you are asking for help.

When you demand that the group provides you with help and you don’t understand how to communicate within the group you are causing lots of issues. A group can only provide the assistance that is available to them and without breaking copyright always. A weakest link is someone that demands help and doesn’t care if they are breaking copyright laws or causing other issues. Next time when you see this happening make sure before you try and assist you understand and respect the copyright laws that could be being broken.

Why are you asking me for details, I have posted multiple times

For people that are posting within a group please remember that admin/moderators cannot track every single person that is posting things. Recently I was told that someone had posted multiple times providing information so I shouldn’t be asking for info. Well to it put it plain and simply “we cannot track every person that is posting and who provide good information and who doesn’t”

If you are posting in a specific group, remember that posting the normal things over and over again is very important. You may think it isn’t important for each post but there are too many people that just think they can post a minimum amount of detail and that is accepted. It might be something that you don’t think is important to post each time to post a picture whoever n this group that information is extremely important.

Within a lot of groups when the admins/moderators are asking for details to be posted for each post they are asking this because too many people are not providing information. If you happen to miss posting the information and get a question about the details don’t get upset because the admin/moderators cannot track every person and every post that they are posting in the group. If you have missed providing the information either edit your original post or provide the additional information to help everyone in the group.

This is a comment that I received in a group, and I was just asking for them to show that they were using the app the group was about:

"sorry, but posts go so quickly, there’s no way someone would see if you posted a request and it gets buried in posts. It’s not in the group rules - it may be something to add (from someone who admins multiple groups myself). I’ve scrolled down through the group quite far and see no posts requesting this so maybe add to the rules or pin it or something. One would think that people wouldn’t post or even be in this group unless they were using the app. Not trying to be difficult at all, but please understand as an honest person it was really jarring to be questioned like that instead of celebrated. Leaves a really bad taste."

There is a new rule that has been added to the group that people must provide information about the pattern they are using and if they are using the app. 

People think that some people will only post within a group if they are using the app but there are too many posts that show that people are not using the app but just want to try and promote a pattern, a designer or something else. It is rather difficult as a moderator/ administrator of a group to totally manage everything and when we ask a simple question, we are just trying to protect the group.

I understand that you might think that you are posting correctly but remember that the admin/moderator of each group is going to have different times that they can allocate to monitoring the group so if they ask you to provide information, please just do t hat because it is in the interest of the that group not every other group. You might have provided the designer but not the actual pattern name so that is something else that you have to be aware of.

It is rather difficult for a group admin/moderator to be able to track everything so yes it might not be in the rules currently but if they are asking for some more details don’t assume that everyone else is doing thing correctly. Simply provide the information and then privately message the admin/moderators to let them know you noticed something that was missing in the rules. Being polite and part of a group can make a big difference, if you star to challenge ethe admin/moderators you might find out that this group isn’t for you.

When in a group on social media, provide some detail

There are so many times when I am looking up something on social media and people will say there’s an accident on X Street, but they don’t give any more information than that. Of course, there are going to be times when X Street is extremely long, so you aren’t providing any details that are good for people in the area.  It’s like saying to someone in Ontario that there is an accident or fire on Yonge Street. Yonge Street is a very long street, so no additional information isn’t going to help anyone. 

When you are posting about a store, accident, or any other information about something in a community, please make sure that you are providing some information. A store, that could be in many locations and even many cities, so details are needed to the one you are talking about. Even if you can only post the major intersection that is better than just saying a street and nothing else.  I have even had times when a person has posted “Major Event” and they didn’t give any details of where it was, it was just a major event to them, and they figured everyone would know where it was.

I have been trying my best to ensure that in groups that I am either a moderator or administrator that we try and provide as much information as possible, so that any post can be helpful to lots of people in the group. There have been challenges for people to continue to provide the information and there have been even people that have hated me for wanting the information posted.

It is hard to manage a group when the information isn’t provided and when you ask for that information people can get rather rude which makes it difficult to support a group in so many ways. There have been times when I have wanted to walk away from my role as a moderator/administrator in a few groups, but I always say that I am there for most of the people and if a few people don’t like the rules they can leave.

Please remember the more information you can provide in your post on social media the more people will see it and understand it. If a group asks for more information please understand that the group can cover a large area and not everyone knows the same spot or has access even to the same store/information.

Online Community Groups

I belong to a number of online community groups and I have noticed a few things about them and some of what I am seeing is frustrating. A number of these groups are on Facebook and it is great as it means that there are people from around the world connecting on something they have in common. The groups that I belong to on Facebook have to do with my crafts so those are knitting, crocheting and cross-stitch.

So here are some of my frustrations:

1. The community group is not google. If you are looking for a pattern that you want to make don’t ask the group to find the pattern for you. So many times someone comes to to the group and all they say is “I am looking for a pattern for x” please help me find it. If you are asking the group to find a pattern for you it can get very frustrating because in a lot of cases people don’t know other people’s like, dislikes or tastes and what yarn they prefer using.

2. People not keeping negative comments to themselves. As the groups are from all over the world the temperature is different as well. I may be working on a lace shawl and you may be working on mittens and scarves. Don’t tell me that what I am working on isn’t appropriate for the currently temperature where you are. My temperature could be different and what I like working on is probably different as well.

3. I can’t find a post from two weeks ago, can you help me find it. This is one that normally makes me laugh because of course after two weeks in a community group there can be hundreds of pictures, discussions and pattern suggestions and you are asking us to help you find one specific post. In Facebook there is a great feature and that is you can save a post. This means that if you like something it would be a great idea to save it and then you will be able to find it yourself later.

4. I need your opinion. Now this is the one that can result in both negative and positive feedback. In a lot of cases if you do have a negative comment it is best to not say anything so that it doesn’t cause the blow ups that happen too often in this type of group.

So these are some of the frustrations that can result in being part of a community group. In a lot of cases just being able to quickly scan the group is what works best. Reading all the posts and comments can get very frustrating so it is best not to do that. I understand that everyone needs an outlet for their projects but there are times when it is just best to not say anything.

There are a couple of the community groups that I participate in and they are basically very positive. Yes, people will have their opinions about things but at least they are kept out of the group. The other thing that I have found in these couple of groups is if someone is looking for a pattern they are looking for a specific pattern and are asking if someone has it and is willing to part with it.

If you participate in community groups especially on Facebook or a community like they be prepared for some interesting discussions. It is up to you if you participate in them or not and if you comment or not. For me, I love seeing what other people are making and it can give me ideas of what I would like to work on. It can also give me some feedback on some of the yarns, etc and how people are finding working with it. It is now time for me to go back and see what comments have been made in the last few hours and especially time to check out what some people have completed.