Sr. Director of Product Management and Head of UX at Designing for Community : Enforce a strong and consistent culture
Here’s another tip on how to approach the problem of Designing for Community.
Tip: Enforce a strong and consistent culture. A community can work with virtually any metaphor, “Be Friendly” or “Be Nice” just being one example. If your community has a strong and consistent culture, whatever that culture is, the community starts moderating itself. When enough people are behaving in a certain way, and that hits critical mass, it becomes not only accepted but obvious to everyone when it’s being violated. Violators are naturally discouraged from indulging in disruptive behavior, and weeded out of the community.