I'm interested in hearing from other board admins about the following problem.

Our OpenTopic board is for the members of a professional association. We're getting great traffic and active participation - it's a wonderful communications tool (thanks, InfoPop!).

However, I have two or three "heavy users" who seem to post on every single topic no matter if they know anything about the topic or not. Many of their posts are downright silly, unprofessional, contain bad grammar and misspellings, and often provide wrong information. It's not that they're not good people - their hearts are in the right place - but I'm concerned about the affect they are having on the image of our association. While some of our OpenTopic participants may think our "regulars" are somewhat charming and trying to be helpful, to me, it's really embarrassing. I'm concerned that other members of our association, especially new members, will judge the professionalism of our association by these frequent posters.

Yes, I know there is an option to "screen" posts from certain users before they post on the board, but I'm sure that these few users would realize they're being singled out, and raise bloody hell about it.

So...what to do? Perhaps the best thing would be to do nothing and just let it ride. I'm afraid that anything I say as the Board admin will come across as too "high and mighty." Maybe other particants on our board will give them a clue - better coming from them and not from some "authority."

Or, should I send these few "regulars" a polite note saying very nicely to please give others a chance to participate, or something like that.

Anyone else having this problem?

If their replies are off topic or always inaccurate you should discourage them. These types of know it alls can ruin a community pretty fast. Don't allow them to grab hold or feel their participation is welcomed.

Since this topic is perfect for the Community Management Forum I'm going to move it there.

----------------------
Steve
Moderator - UBB™Central's Advanced UBB.classic™ Forum

BowlingFans.com™ | BowlingCommunity.com™
Sorry, I won't answer support questions by e-mail, PM, or IM.

This is a sort of touchy situation, I can see exactly where you are coming from.

There are definitely a few different approaches you could take. One idea might be to try posting in response to their messages. For example, if you feel that their last post may just kill a topic, you could post in reply and encourage other thoughts from different members, etc.

If you were to choose to moderate these users messages before they were allowed to post, they may not know they are being singled out...or perhaps you could moderate certain topics that are just more sensitive than others.

You may also want to do some form of a reminder to your users about what your community goals, perhaps you could even do this in a featured topic.

Examples and a link would probably help drawing insights and comments.

I assume your association is non-political in nature? (although that may be increasingly an oxymoron).

Capitol Grilling - The Political Parlor Game
http://www.capitolgrilling.com