As our two latest cases show, we’ve worked quite a lot with community and customer participation concepts lately. One of the major challenges when designing platforms for customer involvement and participation is how to ensure a polite and proper online conversation. I think every one of us have seen or participated in discussions on the web that turned ugly. The number one fear when corporations consider entering the internet to engage its customers, is the tone of people’s comments – and with good reason. With digital technologies – or faceless communication – it has never been easier to mock people without any consequences. Some people have even specialised doing just that; provoking strangers online. They’re called trolls.

Trolls are a very common phenomenon on the internet. And just as their fairytale cousins they have a destructive mindset seeking collision rather than collaboration. The New York Times Magazine has a very insightful article, in which they try to dissect the troll phenomenon by talking to them, not just about them. It’s a good read. Not only is it very thorough, it’s also openminded. And that, I believe, is the basis of all understanding. However, it gives you a rare glimpse of the darker sides of the web. Let me give you just a disturbing sample:

I first met Weev in an online chat room that I visited while staying at Fortuny’s house. “I hack, I ruin, I make piles of money,” he boasted. “I make people afraid for their lives.” On the phone that night, Weev displayed a misanthropy far harsher than Fortuny’s. “Trolling is basically Internet eugenics,” he said, his voice pitching up like a jet engine on the runway. “I want everyone off the Internet. Bloggers are filth. They need to be destroyed. Blogging gives the illusion of participation to a bunch of retards. . . . We need to put these people in the oven!”

But what do you when you want to enter the social web and start an online conversation either via a blog or a community? We usually help the client develop a guideline for the kind of conversation they wish to have. It’s really very simple and banal and is mostly about proper netiquette. However, I read a thought-provoking article today over on A List Apart, where Carolyn Wood tells us how to make our visitors engage in collaborative and constructive discussions. She says:

“If we view discussion areas as a new tool, and enter with a new attitude—seeing one another not as adversaries but as allies with a common goal— we can achieve so much more. If more of us are thinking “What can I contribute?” instead of “Did I like this article?” the entire conversation is transformed.”

And continues later:

“If we were sitting with friends at a conference (or barroom) table, what exciting places could we take the discussion? What could we achieve? How can we inspire each other?”

A couple of her simple advice goes like this:

• • • Before disagreeing with people, tell them where you agree, and that you can see how they’d reach that conclusion. Then explain why you have come to your differing conclusion. This gives them some insight into your line of reasoning and may lead to a reply that opens your eyes—or theirs—to new possibilities.

• • • Write to someone else in the discussion section offline, and work together on a solution to a problem or an even more exciting challenge for the group and bring it back to the comments section together.
    • Build on the author’s viewpoint and use it as a taking-off point for a deeper discussion of the issue, or a list of imaginative ideas of your own. Certainly you can do this at your own blog—the web is built on hyperlinks, of course—but many of us won’t follow you back to your nest. Think “community” as often as you can.
    • If the article begs for practical examples, rather than complaining, create your own examples and bring them back to blow our mind.

Carolyn advises us to: “View a comment section as a brainstorming session or potential goldmine of creative exchanges, rather than your chance to choose between being a fanboy or a brawler.”

Very useful advice for anyone spending time on the good ‘ole www, and for all of us who design and develop the platforms for participation and interaction.