There are many online communities, in which people share. There will always be fakers. What happens with them?

In some cases people will make misuse of information gotten from communities or they just tell untrue stories.





Are there any rules or social control that prevents those from coming? How does the process run?





PS I am doing a paper on online communities. Thank you your help in advance.





Bob

There are many online communities, in which people share. There will always be fakers. What happens with them?
Online communities are a great new paradigm which has just begun to cross the chasm. Just as there are many benefits to online communities (e.g. increased interaction of people from around the globle), there also exist many disadvantages. One such downside of online communities are the fakers and charlatans. The fakers can be harmless, however, there are many that are dangerous. The danger may be intentional (e.g. Cyber stalking) or not (e.g. some poor advice).





No controls for the fakers is complete, however, some can be put into place to mitigate the problem. Most controls would need to specialize to the group itself (e.g. an 'Adult' community can deter non-adults via adult verification methods).





There exist some more universal methods for detering some fakers.





Need to make an account -- Someone faking for fun may not bother if they have to go through a signup process. This would only filter a few since the inconvienece is trivial; however, it will get some and serious members won't be detered.





Rules of Conduct -- This is best achieved as a social control rather than a technological one. This works best as an informal set of rules that serious members adhere to by thier own will and expect others to follow. The punishment for breaking the informal rules tends to be warnings by other members and chastising if the behavior persists. The administrator of the community should have the means to deal with any member that other members deam "out of control".





Warning -- Not everyone is savvy as to what information they should give out on the internet or how seriously they should take information that is given to them; some of the malicious fakers can be mitigated by educating the users. It may be difficult to find a proper location to give such a warning on the site.





No Solicitation -- Unless the community is for collectors (or other communities where the purpose is to buy/trade items), you can stop the 'snakeoil salesmen' with a no solicitation policy.





Reward Serious Members -- The serious members should be rewarded by giving them some control on the community. If the administrator ives them a way to regulate themselves, they should be able to do it well. The few that gain this privilage should come up naturally as unofficial leaders of the community. Keep an eye out for who these are so that they can be nominated for the position, or even have a vote among members; the important parts is that the members need to be happy with the choice. The administrator should still have the control to do adminstrative duties (and overthrow a poor choice if need be), however, the bulk of the community should self-regulate.





Hope this helps a little.
Reply:Fakers usually fake to become popular within that community.


(Everyone has a motive for doing something)





These people have a fixed name on the net, which they use in all the communities they belong to.





They fake details about themselves and tell untrue stories so that people respect them online.. The respect they can never get in the offline world..





These people are eventually recognized for who they are as with each item you share you give away a bit of yourself too.. Finally they get shunned..
Reply:we'll always have fakers and such trying to ruin it for the honest majority