Recently we implemented a community opinion system on our blog posts for SoberCircle.com. Needless to say when I announced what we were doing, feedback was somewhat negative. I think some of it had to do with misinformation. Its been almost a month since we instituted the change and since then, there has been very little negative feedback. As the lone moderator of the blogs, my need to monitor the blogs continuously has lessened and the number of times when people have complained about the speed in which blogs posted in poor taste have been removed has dropped considerably as well.
So, the question is: what have I learned from this experience? The slogan for your social networking community should match that of Burger King – “Have it Your Way”. While I couldn’t blame members for being up in arms over the radical change to the blogs, I felt it was the right thing to do. The next obstacle to overcome is home to implement the change without in alienating an entire section of the membership. The only solution I could come up with was to create a new option within the navigation where members who really didn’t care for the new system at all could go to a page that showed the list of recent posts without being affected by the recent change. This was the compromise. And while I don’t know if this compromise really was the difference maker, after we released the alternative listing page all the dissent really subsided. If you have any intention of making radical changes, be prepared to offer an alternative or at least ease your members into it. This is what we intend to do with our 2.0 release later this year, by easing the membership into the new version with a beta release.
In summation, observe the situation, evaluate and determine a solution and stick to your guns when you implement it… but be ready to offer up alternatives if possible.
