Do Lurkers Deserve Ethical Consideration?

[Maya]

Most users never speak, yet they consume and are influenced by forum content. Should ethical standards account for silent readers, not just active posters, when deciding what content stays visible?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I feel like if you've got controversial conversations going on in your community, you should probably block that from lurkers from seeing. Otherwise you might get someone who goes and reports your community, if they see something they disagree with.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I feel like if you've got controversial conversations going on in your community, you should probably block that from lurkers from seeing. Otherwise you might get someone who goes and reports your community, if they see something they disagree with.

By blocking controversial content from guests and lurkers, you might be blocking potential memberships and engagement.

What do you mean by report the community?

 

[fantanoice]

Could you elaborate on what 'ethical consideration' means here?

I think what you need is clear values on what the community stands for and what things are up for debate. Not everything needs to come down to an engagement, numbers game.

In saying that, when I ran forums I would usually hide the, 'serious discussion' areas for the protection of the members. Some people would use it to vent very personal things, which would be irresponsible of me to let just anybody read.