How to persuade a friend posting too much in a group page to improve their behavior?

Question

What is the best way to deal with a member who posts all the time in a buy/sell group (about 500 members) of which I am an administrator on Facebook?

I have asked them through Messenger (politely) to consolidate their posts and to delete sold items. This person politely agreed, but then only did a partial job and still left a very messy situation.

This person is an acquaintance that I have only talked to a few times in person.

I am familiar with the technical controls in place on Facebook. That's not what I want to do though, the rules are sufficiently broad that I can't find any specific rules they are breaking so banning or blocking won't really be an option. I am looking for interpersonal solutions to persuade this member to improve their behavior.

How can I persuade them to quit filling up the timeline besides blocking them from the page?

Answer 1

First, as other posts suggest, make sure your rules are specific about what your expectations are. It may be sufficient to just make some rule changes and announce them.

But personally, I would come up with a several-step plan to deal with this. You can keep this plan for any other occurrence of this sort of violation. Since this person is an acquaintance only, I would treat them more-or-less as a stranger (courteously, of course!).

But perhaps something like this:

1. Kindly ask the person to please observe the rules. This can be considered a courteous notification. (You have already done this step in this case.)
2. Give a more proper warning. Be firm this time, and clearly state the violation with some specific examples.
3. Delete offending posts and notify them. At this point, you have taken matters into your own hands and are modifying their interactions on the site.
4. Block them.

Of course, your list will probably look different than mine. I wouldn't publish this, either.

Additional factors:

• In each scenario, what kind of offense is it? Other posters have mentioned some much more serious offenses which destroy community: deal firmly and quickly in these cases.
• How much time/care do you want to devote to this? The list above is assuming you want to have that personal touch and you have time to do it. If you don't, then your approach should be much briefer. There is nothing wrong with strictness if the expectations are clear.

Answer 2

Change the rules so that only a certain amount of sale posts can be made per person per week.

Pitch this as:

Giving everyone an equal chance to sell their items

If this person attempts to see more than the agreed quota, simply delete the posts.

This would seem to be a simple solution that benefits the group and prevents the minority of people monopolising the page without singling people out for special attention.

If there's any complaints, remind people that it's ok to sell multiple items in a single post.

Answer 3

In the end there will be no other choice than to block them. That's what the function is for.

First you should check and validate some things:

• are other members annoyed by the behaviour or is it just you?

• tell the person that this behaviour is annoying to a lot of other members (if it is)

• tell the person again what to change and why

• give one to two warnings when it happens again after that

After this it should be fair to block the person from the group.