Community blog

Started by RobL6 • 8 replies • 294 views

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RobL6 (Florida)
Posts: 3

Posted:

do any of you have a blog that is restricted to just community members? We are looking for help to create a blog very similar to HOA Talk so our members can remain in touch on issues or just BackYard fence type things. Any thoughts?

Rob
Tallahassee FL

MichaelS56 (Minnesota)
Posts: 858

Posted:

Will this blog need to be approved by the Board? If so, will the board have guidelines as to what and how information will be put on the blog? If Board approves the blog, who will be responsible for any postings that may cause legal issues? Interesting question.

MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459

Posted:

Rob,
The Ca. community I lived in back between 2008 and 2015 had a president that was an IT guy and he created one back in 2008. It was as you stated a local place to swap ideas similar to ND. It was a disaster because it was loaded with a couple of rouge board members who created multiple logins and sent snarky messages to some owners and then in turn owners started threatening board members. It was very similar to FB or ND where some loved to stir the pot and watch things explode. It was not moderated and back then the president had to turn off comments to stop a riot in the HOA. The HOA lawyer said this was the worst idea ever for the HOA to be the creator and moderator.

Social media as a whole is a cancerous tool. I would always advise boards to avoid any activity on these sites. As the president of a large HOA 1450+ SFHs I do not have any accounts. If any owner wants to contact or comment to our board, they have our board email address and our PMs email. Social media is not how we communicate.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

My usual comments about blogs, social media, etc.:

* The association is legally liable for anything that appears on official websites. Talk to your insurer to make sure you're covered.

* Sites that allow posting by others tend to collect misinformation, false accusations, copyright infringement, defamatory comments, privacy violations, photos of minors posted without parental permission, and the like.

* These sites are much loved by the chronic complainers/vocational dissidents in the community who LIVE for criticizing the board and who will post ENTHUSIASTICALLY. If your aim is to promote conflict and controversy, this is a fine way to do it.

* Because of the above, the site that allows such postings needs to have a Terms of Service agreement that has been drafted by a lawyer and that is strictly enforced. This is because this agreement's function is to protect the site owner from legal liability - it's not a job for amateurs.

* "Strictly enforced" means things like content being moderated, with anything that violates the Terms being deleted promptly. It also means suspending or even revoking access for persons who repeatedly violate the Terms.

* Frankly, board members are busy enough without adding these duties on top of their already full plates.

Not surprisingly, our attorney strongly recommend that our website be informational only. There are already social media sites that cater to the neighborhood crowds, and they mostly solve the liability problem by saying "not our problem".

We've also seen comments by others on this site who've said that they deeply regretted having things like a community Facebook page where homeowners can post whatever they want.

A blog that only allows posts from the board may be OK. The trick is to keep individual board members from posting whatever is on their minds, rather than posting content that was agreed to in advance by the entire board. There will be the usual issues of maintaining passwords, changing them whenever board members come and go, and the like.

One thing you have to reckon with is the fact that most people won't read it if they have to make an effort to go to the site, If they do, you probably won't have their attention for long. (Newsletter writers are often encouraged to put the essential content in titles and headers, with more details in the paragraphs below. Assume you'll get about 3 minutes of readers' attention. For a blog, assume they'll be reading on their smartphones, and keep things short.)

Getting good info out to homeowners is always a challenge, and I favor the simplest method that reaches the most people. Our managers tend to go with email blasts to the entire community: short, sweet, and they reach almost everybody. If someone doesn't have an email address, they won't be reading blogs anyway.

ElleN (Idaho)
Posts: 4,420

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By RobL6 on 06/28/2023 4:06 AM
We are looking for help to create a blog very similar to HOA Talk so our members can remain in touch on issues or just BackYard fence type things.

Who is "we"?

If "we" is a group of non-directors and non-officers, have at it. I expect chaos to result. I advise telling people frequently to post questions at hoatalk.com.

A board or HOA should never sponsor a blog, for all the reasons given above.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Rob

You would be surprised how quickly a community chat can be come negative and harmful. Do not do it.

RobL6 (Florida)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Thank you all for your very insightful responses. I should reveal that we are a very unusual HOA; maybe more an HOA for tax purposes. Our community is member owned and members are sovereign. We have elected representatives rather than an elected Board. Our Council reps represent members from neighborhoods which were geographically sited back in 1973. We developed our own property, supervised the platting of parcels and built our own roads. We all own our land and we share common lands. Our most recent controversy is how to manage our collection of common and privately owned land. Sounds pretty crazy, be we have a long history and experience in homesteading and land management and also talking through problems. While we all own private land, some want to abide by no rules, and some (majority) see the value of a balance between community needs and private land. We tend to discuss our differences and reach agreement. We've been doing this for 50 years, and it's been surprisingly successful. We - the members, not the Board - would like a way to share information from personal education and experience in managing land. As we revise our land management covenant, we also wrote policy, added best practices in a guidance document and then a variety of resources for self education. We know that some members will not utilize these resources, but buy-in over time is almost certain. We call the guidance and resources our BackYard Fence but it would be a blog type arrangement with an administrator. I hear all your concerns about misinformation and misunderstanding of law and covenant. We have that too, but it's a small minority. We have a newsletter and also an email exchange used primarily for finding trusted plumbers and house painters. The blog will not be "authorized" by our Council, but they have heard the discussion about how to share the world of new information on forest and land management. I am still in search of a framework like that used by HOA Talk to create our blog. Do any of you know how it was created and how it is paid for?

Much appreciate all you have already suggested. Best to all. Rob

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

People that never come to a meeting always complain on Nextdoor, and they never make the post to the community only.
Half the dang valley sees it and chimes in.

MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459

Posted:

LetA,
You are Exactly right. It always drives me crazy when they send their minor complaint to over 50 HOAs in the surrounding communities. They also usually leave off most of the Facts and mislead everyone. Then everyone else who hates to follow rules jumps in with dumb comments. Not everyone is suited to live in HOAs. I recently saw a stat saying that there are over 370,000 HOAs in America and over 26% of us live in them.

I have noticed that people that post on FB or ND have usually just received a letter from the PMC for a violation. Rarely do they reach out to state their case to our PM who is very understanding and willing to work with owners when asked.

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