I was expecting a little more discussion of the slap between Fiona and Micheal…We all know that he wasn’t doing it to hurt Fiona, but to keep people from dying…Though again, I would have liked to see a little more repurcussions for Micheal directly from the slap.
Want to share your thoughts on the slap that took place on a recent episode of “Burn Notice”? Be prepared to stand behind it. As of this week, comments you post on Hulu — the web’s top provider of free and legal access to broadcast and cable TV shows — will appear with your real name.
Hulu’s explanation for the policy change stressed the value of real names in promoting civility:
[W]e don’t ask a lot of our users to watch all of the content on our site, but we do ask that people be civil in our community areas, like reviews and discussion forums. While anonymity has many benefits to society, helping to maintain a civil community online is not one of them. One way of reducing the random offensive comments and troll activity is to ask people to stand behind their words with their real names.
Hulu acknowledged that attaching real names to comments and reviews is far from a “silver bullet,” since users can easily enter a fake name when registering on the site. But the policy sets a standard and intention for online conversation: by asking users to write under their real names (or at least, under consistent handles) it encourages some level of thoughtfulness and accountability for online posting.
Real-name posting is far from the only option for encouraging civil discussion, however — and it may not be the most effective. The fake name option isn’t just a way of getting around Hulu’s policy: it’s a legitimate way of establishing an online persona for which you’re accountable, just as you’re accountable for what appears under your real name.
While you can have only one legal name, you can have a handful of online personas that allow you to develop a distinct reputation and set of relationships in different contexts. You might be JSmith when you Twitter about work or store professional bookmarks on Delicious, LatteMom in your parenting discussion groups, and SexyLeather61 when you’re, well, doing other things. If I’m googling JSmith so I can decide whether to invite her to a conference, I’m just as happy to remain in the dark about her sexual proclivities.
If you want to leave room for your users to cultivate different personas online, how can you promote civil discourse? Here are a few alternatives to requiring real names when you’re flame-proofing your social media presence:
Community policing. Encourage your users to bring out the best in one another by letting them promote or demote content, and giving them the option to flag offensive comments. A comment from Pax on the Hulu policy announcement offers a terrific roadmap for implementing the self-policing approach.
Readable terms of use. Hulu’s new privacy policy came as a surprise to many users, because people rarely read the legalese presented in site “Terms of Use” notices, privacy policies, or policy changes. Writing a readable set of guidelines that emphasize what you hope to see — alongside the legalese that specifies what’s not allowed — is a great way to bring out the best in your community.
Be a role model. Show your users what constructive participation looks like by contributing positive posts and comments written in an authentic voice rather than corporate-speak. Encourage and promote constructive contributions — even when they’re critical — so people can see the benefits of positive engagement.
Moderate anonymous posts. Require users to register and confirm their registrations by email before they’re allowed to post in real time. You can leave the option of anonymity open by reviewing anonymous posts or comments before they go live on the site.
And here’s one more course of action to consider: inaction. Hulu took steps to ensure civil conversation because there are few topics that attract the volume and intensity of discussion that you’ll find in an online debate about continuity errors in the latest Dollhouse or lesbian love scenes on Grey’s Anatomy. The Seinfeld-era notion of “water cooler TV” — the show you talk about the next morning at the office — has been replaced by “social TV”: the shows you Twitter about as they unfold in real time, or review later on Facebook or Hulu. Supporting a more social version of TV viewing was the other big reason Hulu undertook its policy change.
But your company isn’t Hulu. Before you spend a lot of time, effort and dollars managing the risk of controversy in your own social media presence, take an honest look at how much people really care about your brand, product or community. Does it speak to a polarizing issue? Do you expect hundreds of thousands of visitors? If not, you’re unlikely to face many flame wars.
A little bit of risk tolerance can save a lot of money. Just be sure to allocate some of those savings to a flame-proofing strategy that is ready to roll if controversy breaks out.
Alexandra Samuel is CEO of Social Signal, a social media agency. She helps companies and organizations increase revenue, build brand and strengthen team relationships by creating compelling online communities and social web presences. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Follow Alex on Twitter at twitter.com/awsamuel.
