I’m Cory Zanoni, The Conversation’s new community manager.
I was appointed following concerns by some readers (and shared by editors) that there was a lack of civility in many comment threads. My brief is to fix this, not just for those who already comment but also for those who would take part if they felt it safe to do so. We want The Conversation to be a place for intelligent discussion and we think there’s more we can do to achieve that.
Since joining The Conversation in January I’ve started by closely moderating comments and striving to create constructive dialogue. I’ve also started talking to community members about how we operate and what’s worked best so far, and I’m using this feedback to put together a plan for the future.
As a first step, today we’re launching our new community standards, designed to provide guidelines to use when posting comments. These rules are iterative – we’ll develop them together, with your feedback. Please take a moment to look them over and send me an email with your thoughts.
Please also feel free to get in touch to let me know your views on everything from what kind of community you’d like to see to what issues you’d like to see covered editorially. Part of my role will be to represent your views to editors and decision makers across the organisation so that you can play an active part in shaping what we do next.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cory Zanoni
Community Manager