How Will We Keep It Positive in FV?

If you were creating your own Christ-centered social network, how would youbalance its fun and freedom factors with vital online safety precautions?

This is a question we’ve been bouncing around since we first began building FaithVillage.com. With so many digital media opportunities at your fingertips, we want to ensure you that FaithVillage will be different. We are deeply committed to keeping conversations open and welcoming, while maintaining a safe and friendly environment for the whole community.

One of our very first steps in this process  was to create what we call a tiered editorial policy. What does that mean? It means we’re covering our bases by identifying the different segments, or tiers, of influencers in FV and how they will all work together to preserve the integrity of your new online home.

FV Users are like the neighborhood watch group.

We want everyone to feel welcome inside FaithVillage. After all, we strive to create an online space that will edify the church and unite Christ-followers all over the world. Because all users and partners are required to sign our Terms of Service, our hope is that everyone will have a mutual respect for our shared value commitments and Biblical principles. However, we’re not blind. We’ve all seen haters who leave nasty comments on a video, or even worse, a profane post on our newsfeed. Few sites give users much authority to regulate these unwanted comments or posts.

With our unique flagging system, users can self-police the community.  They can identify any piece of content or comment they think is inappropriate by flagging it. When a piece of content is flagged with a minimum number of points, it’s suspended from view and reviewed by our editorial staff. If the content is worthy of the flags, it will be permanently removed. If a comment or post author is flagged repeatedly, the user’s account may be frozen and under review. After a user receives a certain number of flags, their account will be revoked, which means they can navigate through FaithVillage as an observer but will not be able to be comment or engage other users. If this flag is unfair, the content will be restored to view. Again, if someone repeatedly flags content unfairly, their account may be subject to being frozen.

FV Contributors and Partners are like sheriffs.

They won’t arrest you or fine you. Don’t fear any parking tickets or court dates. Contributors and content partners are like sheriffs because they represent the community in which they serve. They create the blogs, articles, videos and other content that lives in FaithVillage, so they are held to a higher standard. In a way, their content brands FaithVillage. Users base their judgments of the website by the kind of content they find in all the buildings.

After our editors vet each applicant, contributors and partners must not only sign the Terms of Use, but must also affirm our Statement of Faith and Content Partner Agreement, which further emphasize our desire to remain true to our Biblical values of community, collaboration and church.

 The FV Editorial Team is like the judge.

I say we’re like the judge because we are the final arbiters of free speech and civil conduct. We are the guardians of good content and mutually respectful community for the site. Our role is to ensure you feel welcome to share your story and safe enough to browse through others. As administrators, we authorize organizations and continually review groups, profiles and content to ensure it conforms to our Terms of Use. We also abide by the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which requires users to be 13 years or older before creating a profile online. Our hope is that the mutual respect for the Christian community and church shared among FV residents, along with the user-generated flagging system, carefully vetted content partners and vigilant monitoring will keep our community encouraging to Christ-followers around the globe.

So, let me ask again. If this were your faith-based social network, what would you do to keep it positive? Any suggestions?