How Simple Moderation Rules Can Create Worse Communities

Making the case for more specific guidelines and justifying the extra effort to define them

This post will explain, by deconstructing examples I’ve seen throughout my career, why simplicity can be the enemy of welcoming communities.

Community Managers (CMs) are often on the receiving end of feedback describing how guidelines or rules are unclear or unfair. A reasonable solution could be, “Well then let’s simplify.” Sometimes that works in cases where guidelines are overly dense. But there’s fallacy that simple moderation rules are a better default.

What users actually want is for guidelines to be understandable and clear. There isn’t always a cute, three-word tagline to accomplish that. Effective, enforceable guidelines doesn’t mean painting behaviors as black-and-white or being as succinct as humanly possible. When we oversimplify, we can inadvertently create much more confusion. Overly vague guidelines can cause big problems down the road — especially when it comes to enforcing these rules fairly.

What CMs and our communities really want is for guidelines to be thorough and nuanced without being overly complex. Specificity takes effort, but can result in stronger comprehension.