Forum:Tips for smooth running of a furry community?

From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search
Forums: Index > Watercooler > Tips for smooth running of a furry community?


Does WikiFur have (an) article(s) with a list of suggestions and/or tips on

  • smooth running of a local furry community?
  • smooth hosting of a furmeet ?
  • etc ? --EarthFurst 21:28, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Something of a "Best Practices"? Hmm, not that I know of. There are most likely page out there with tips. As far as wikifur goes... Well, you could always create a page in user space and link it from the article with something like "user's tips for running a furmeet" or some such in the external section. - JaeSharp 21:48, 23 November 2006 (UTC)


Tips for running a furmeet
As for running a community, how do you mean? A website with forums? A mailing list? I have experience with both, and I think the most important thing is actually monitoring the community and dealing with people who are disruptive. Namely, people who do either of the following:
  • Being combative or trying to start drama - Explain to them that such behavour will not be tolerated. If they continue, they get a ban.
  • People who are so enthusiastic, that they feel the need to post often, and end up monopolizing discussion on the list. They're a little harder to deal with, since you want to try and avoid alienating them if possible. One thing you can do is to implement posting quotas. Another way to deal with the problem is to persuade them to get a LiveJournal instead.
Overall, these incidents will be in the minority. There are over 200 subscribers to the PA-Furry mailing list, and I can count the number of people I've banned over the last 6 years on a single paw.
Other than that, as I mentioned the other day, it helps if you act less like a fascist, and more like a slightly inebriated tour guide. ;-) --Douglas Muth 00:36, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
Dmuth asked: "As for running a community, how do you mean? A website with forums?"
Originally I was thinking of tips for local/geographically-based communities. How to avoid problems, solve problems, etc. I'd also be interested in rules for online communities (since there are local furry groups that organize online) --EarthFurst 07:38, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
We haven't tended to cover such things in main namespace articles, as they inevitably include an element of opinion. Similarly, guides such as to how to make a fursuit are something of a personal view. However, as JaeSharp mentioned, useful guides are welcome on WikiFur in user space, and probably nobody would complain if you linked to them from the main article, as long as it was properly noted as personal opinion.
As for how to manage a community, it really depends on the type of community and the type of people. I don't personally have much experience of dealing with people in local groups, though I would suggest that a does of good humour is useful in almost all circumstances. It helps if you can manage to keep the respect of all participants when dealing with problems, as without that it is very hard to influence their behaviour. --GreenReaper(talk) 07:48, 24 November 2006 (UTC)