I manage two groups on Facebook: Autistic Christians and Autistic Bookworms. Between them, I have over 1200 members total (although some members are in both groups, while others are only in one.) In fact, Autistic Christians has now hit the 500 member milestone! That’s the group that’s surprised me the most, especially considering how often I was attacked in autism groups before I formed the group (actually, I helped form it, but the original owner and I didn’t get along, so she sabotaged the group and I picked up the pieces.) I’ve decided I’m going to give advice on how to manage your own group.
- Make your group unique. There are a lot of general interest groups out there. That’s fine if you want that, but it’s better to have a group for a specific purpose. That will attract more members.
- Make a pinned post for your rules. Even if they don’t read the rules, they’ll at least know where they are.
- Have only people you can trust as admins or moderators.
- Only promote your group in other groups if the admins of the groups allow it. Some groups don’t like self-promotion.
- Once you have enough members to unlock the “screening questions”, do so. This is a good way to figure out what kind of person is applying and possibly weed out a troll before they even get in the door. Most trolls will not take the time to fill out a question.
- Make all bans final. If they’ve caused problems once, they’ll likely do it again. But if a person leaves on good terms and changes his/her mind, then you can let him/her back in.
- Hold your admins accountable. If they abuse power, that makes you look bad for not watching out for them.
- Try to have at least two or three admins, counting yourself.
- Have fun!
Aspie Catholic 