One of the biggest concerns our clients have is the anti social behaviour that could occur online.  As a result clients usually prefer to moderate and restrict the social interaction of the networks, which in turn restricts the community development. When social networks are allowed to flourish unrestricted, self-moderation usually occurs resulting in sort of ‘network police’ developing and patrolling the site. The outcome of this is fascinating and the real social community is unveiled.

Once a network is up and running it can take any number of directions and in some cases this is not possible to predict.  A great example is the Doggy Snaps self-moderated social network especially.  The community members were never told how to interact with each other, and instead of a community of dog lovers developing a community of dogs talking to each other, or should I say ‘whoofing’ has evolved. A dogs Kennel is a fascinating place to hang out.

It’s perhaps not the expected behaviour we need to be aware, concerned and excited about but the unexpected behaviour!