Community Management Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: How should a community manager respond to a troll attempting to derail community discussions?
- Engage extensively to prove the troll wrong
- Apply community guidelines consistently—warn, then remove if behavior continues—without emotional engagement (Correct answer)
- Encourage other members to attack the troll
- Give the troll special privileges to appease them
Correct answer: Apply community guidelines consistently—warn, then remove if behavior continues—without emotional engagement
Consistent guideline enforcement without emotional engagement denies trolls the reaction they seek and protects community health.
Question 2: What does 'brigading' mean in online community management?
- A formal member ranking system
- Coordinated mass attacks on a community by outside groups intending to disrupt or manipulate it (Correct answer)
- A type of community event
- A content scheduling technique
Correct answer: Coordinated mass attacks on a community by outside groups intending to disrupt or manipulate it
Brigading refers to coordinated external attacks where groups flood a community with hostile or off-topic content to disrupt it.
Question 3: Which action best protects a community during a harassment wave?
- Making all content public to increase transparency
- Temporarily restricting posting, enabling slow mode, and proactively moderating incoming content (Correct answer)
- Deleting the community temporarily
- Ignoring the harassment wave until it stops
Correct answer: Temporarily restricting posting, enabling slow mode, and proactively moderating incoming content
Temporarily restricting posting and enabling slow mode limits the volume of hostile content while moderators work to contain the situation.
Question 4: What is 'post-crisis review' in community management?
- A scheduled content audit
- A retrospective analysis after a crisis to identify what worked, what failed, and how to improve future responses (Correct answer)
- A member feedback survey about community events
- A quarterly platform performance report
Correct answer: A retrospective analysis after a crisis to identify what worked, what failed, and how to improve future responses
A post-crisis review captures lessons learned—what worked and what didn't—so the community and its processes improve after each incident.
Question 5: How should a community manager address a public complaint about a moderator's actions?
- Side with the moderator automatically
- Investigate impartially, communicate the process to the complainant, and share the outcome transparently (Correct answer)
- Delete the complaint post immediately
- Ask the accused moderator to handle the complaint themselves
Correct answer: Investigate impartially, communicate the process to the complainant, and share the outcome transparently
Impartial investigation and transparent communication rebuild trust and demonstrate that the community is governed fairly.
Question 6: What is the role of empathy in community conflict resolution?
- It is irrelevant in professional community management
- Empathy helps community managers understand all parties' perspectives, leading to fairer and more effective resolutions (Correct answer)
- Empathy should only be shown to paying members
- Empathy encourages more conflict by rewarding emotional responses
Correct answer: Empathy helps community managers understand all parties' perspectives, leading to fairer and more effective resolutions
Empathy allows community managers to understand all sides of a conflict, which leads to solutions that members perceive as fair and genuine.
Community Management Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution 2
How should a community manager respond to a troll attempting to derail community discussions?