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Takeaway:
Healthy communities take time and patience, but the payoff is worth it.
What Does "Healthy" Even Mean?
What Does "Healthy" Even Mean?
The meaning of a "healthy" community differs from server to server, genre to genre, and person to person. For example, it wouldn't be as effective to run a casual game the same way you would a horror game. Despite this, there are still many things that all healthy communities share. Most notably, they foster meaningful conversations through a positive, welcoming environment — all while maintaining a balance between fun and safety.
Quality vs. Quantity
Quality vs. Quantity
Many base the health of a community on how many members it has and how active it is. While these can be factors, numbers alone can't describe the quality of a community. A massive 200,000-member server might be flooded with multiple messages per second, but this provides little information about the quality or atmosphere of the conversations it contains.
Don't be discouraged if the server doesn't have a massive amount of members! Small communities thrive just as well as large ones, and they're easier to moderate. The goal is to maintain a safe place for like-minded people to hang out — not to be the biggest or the most popular.
How Can I Tell If a Community Is Healthy?
How Can I Tell If a Community Is Healthy?
Many factors can indicate the health of a community. The very core of a community is based on how people interact with each other. Observing and participating with members frequently should give you a good idea of the general atmosphere.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Are the conversations frequently positive or negative?
Are people being respectful to each other?
Are the conversations actually meaningful?
Do members often complain about things, even about topics other than the server itself?
Do members feel included, or do they often struggle to be acknowledged?
Are members generally aware of the rules, and do they help each other follow them?
Do they usually contact moderators if someone is breaking those rules?
Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Community
Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Community
Knowing how to identify community health is not enough. It's important to understand how to grow and maintain that health.
Set an Example for Others
People notice moderators more easily than other members. They will take note of how you act, and since you're in a place of authority, what you do indirectly affects what they do. A community cannot be healthy when the moderators are disrespectful, break their own rules, or encourage toxicity.
Guide Conversations
Whether bringing up a cool topic or steering away from a dark one, you have many opportunities to guide conversations in meaningful directions. When a subject becomes sensitive or argumentative, try to change the topic.
Don't Tolerate Toxicity
Stomping out negativity, rudeness, and toxicity is one of the most important things moderators must do. Many moderators hesitate in these kinds of situations, and they may be afraid to issue punishments. The truth is, if someone knowingly makes others uncomfortable — even if they aren't breaking any rules — it's still the right thing to take action.
Updates and Announcements
Updates and Announcements
People usually join servers because they are seeking a community, whether to learn more about the game or to befriend those with a shared interest. A server's purpose is to keep your members informed and foster a sense of community. But first, what's the difference between an update and an announcement?
Updates are posts about changes in the game itself. These posts should always be short and comprehensive. They help maintain transparency between the moderation team and the users.
Announcements are usually larger posts that cover major updates. They should always contain information that is highly important to the community. Examples include: celebrating a server milestone, announcing new changes, and sharing a giveaway/contest.
We recommend keeping different types of posts in separate channels. This is done to avoid too much clutter and make things easier to find for both you and the server members.
Announcement Drafting Tips:
Announcement Drafting Tips:
Keep it Brief
Announcements should never be over 500 words long unless they are extremely important. If something can wait, it's better to move it to a later date, since people typically won't fully read long announcements.
Avoid Using Complex Language
Your community consists of members from all over the world, and not all of them speak English/Chinese as their first language. Likewise, not all of them are familiar with technical terms.
Use Emotes
Emotes make the post more aesthetically appealing and make you seem relatable. Just make sure not to use too many!
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