Handling a Crowd: Creating a Positive, Healthy Space in Divisive Communities with Anika Gupta

This week’s Master of Community is Anika Gupta, the author of a new book and moderator expert. We discuss the importance of moderators - both the invisible and the visible, the role they play in defining the community, and the best way to deal with difficult conversations. Back in college, the comment section of news articles sparked Anika’s love for community and years later developed into her writing the book, “How to Handle a Crowd”. Anika’s research for her book involved engaging with a variety of communities, ranging from large subreddit’s to tight knit political communities like ‘Let’s Make Dinner Great Again’. Anika shares her findings with us, explaining that Moderating is a Proactive role that creates a space for healthy, respectful engagement. Moderators shape the purpose of the community and take on an emotionally tolling position. Anika opens up about the challenges of moderating such as dealing with race and politics, imperfectly inclusive communities, trolling, cancel culture, and more. Anika continues to uplift, mentor, and develop resources and guidance for Moderators, due to the emotionally taxing nature of the job. Who is this episode for?: Nonprofit, Online, Revitalizing Community Builders 3 key takeaways: - Moderating is proactive, rather than reactive and shapes the purpose of the community by creating a safe and respectful environment. - Anika reveals that much of the moderation that occurs is ‘invisible’ work done behind the scenes to establish guidelines, community values, and define who the community space is for. - Alison’s new book ‘How To Handle A Crowd’ will educate and enlighten all community members and moderators of the reality and hard work that goes into moderating and best practices moving forward.