Managing online communities

[IllumInaTIma]

Let me tell you a story of little online group in Russia called Moon Base.
In Russia and all around it we have our own facebook called vk.com. One day someone decided to create a group dedicated to the Team Fortress 2. Couple years later it has become one of the biggest TF2 communities on that site, having more than 10000 people in it. It was friendly, tight and fun to hang around group. However, creator of the group got tired of TF2 one day and decided to transform that group into the My Little Pony Group. Yeah... Most people weren't happy about it, and everyone who opposed that decision was permabanned. Banned people decided to create their own society, they were refugees running from totalitarian grasp, and so, Team Fortress 2: Moon Base was settled. In response to totalitarian grasp of old community Moon Base decided to go opposite way. No admins, no mods, no rules. Year later group died under volumes of flame, spam, flood and shock content. And now we've created another Moon Base. But this time we decided to find middle ground. Small group of reliable moders and 3 strikes rule. However, people aren't happy. They weren't happy with the absence of rules and they're not happy when we have them...
TLDR: Just how could one manage online community so that majority would be happy? Is it possible to cultivate some sense of solidarity online?
Note, we're a very small group, no more than 200 people with about 50 being constantly active.

 

[sky14kemea]

If you find out, let me know. ;D

Okay, jokes aside. First you need to accept that there will always be people complaining about it. Always.

The problem is, the ones complaining will always be the most vocal too. Just remember, for every one person complaining, there's probably 5 people that are okay with it.

Y'know, unless you have all 50 of those active people yelling at once, then maybe think about having a vote on the new rules...

 

[IllumInaTIma]

If you find out, let me know. ;D

Okay, jokes aside. First you need to accept that there will always be people complaining about it. Always.

The problem is, the ones complaining will always be the most vocal too. Just remember, for every one person complaining, there's probably 5 people that are okay with it.

Y'know, unless you have all 50 of those active people yelling at once, then maybe think about having a vote on the new rules...

That's the problem. These motherfuckers want no rules. When we announced that from now on your stupidity may have consequences they just raged. "We never had rules and we were ok with that!". And for a while I myself was ok with that mentality. Until Bioshock Infinite came out. And suddenly everyone who wasn't interested in that game decided that it would be funny to post some spoilers, just for the sake of it. It's complete lack of solidarity that gets me. It's "being asshole for the sake of being asshole" mentality that I can't understand.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

I think that we should allow more creative and trollesqu posting on the fourms. I often feel we're too tame and not wild enough. I've stumbled on some very funny threads, but were locked because of the lack of discussion value.

That is a good point by the way:
What is "discussion value" anyways?

Yes mods, I know this is a very short post, but you tell me that this post does not contribute to the topic at hand...

 

[Lieju]

First of all, you need to decide what you want the group to be.

I hang out on forums sometimes that have far stricter rules than this forum, because they are places for people who want to have discussions, not look at random photos of animals and memes and smileys.

Then there are places where all kinds of random content is allowed, some with very strict guidelines on sexual content, some that exist for porn etc, and they cater to different kinds of needs. (The same people can frequent all kinds)

You need to decide who the place is for. Some people will complain anyway, and depending of the decisions and the direction you go for, some will leave and some will be drawn in.

You could always create a part of the forum with less rules, or where you allow discussion on politics and religion and such, though.