The Story Behind the Dunwoody Area Community Forum
The Dunwoody Area Community Forum Facebook Group is a group residents from Dunwoody, Georgia. Its a place you can connect, share information, discuss local issues, and stay informed about community events. Members can post questions, share updates, and interact with their neighbors in a virtual community setting. At the time of writing, the group has around 15k members. Over the last 12 months, there have been 4.6k posts viewed over 2.1 million times. The group has been featured in Rough Draft Atlanta, and mentioned by most of the other local publications including Appen Media and the Aha! Connection. If you live around Dunwoody, you’ve probably heard of the Forum. Here’s the story of where it came from.
THE BEGINNING:
In February, 2018, I started the Facebook group. It was mostly just me posting our podcast episodes and sharing other community posts, mostly stories published by the Dunwoody Reporter (now Rough Draft) and the Dunwoody Crier. I rarely shared my own thoughts on the topics, as I really wanted the community to discuss them amongst themselves. I thought of it as a way to curate all of the Dunwoody content in one place. Similar to what I was doing with the What’s Up Dunwoody Facebook Page. The only difference in my mind was that (I hoped) other neighbors would engage and participate too.
WHY FACEBOOK GROUPS:
It was the first time that Facebook opened up a two-way conversation on their platform and I knew it would be a big deal over the years. When Facebook (now Meta) pushes something in their algorthym, it usually succeeds, at least in the short term. Although Facebook had just started leaning into Groups, I was already a member of a handfull of groups. Some were solid, and some needed improvement. My Dunwoody North Neighborhood Facebook Group was probably where I spent the most of my time scrolling (shoutout to the Ramos and Iconis Families for starting it). That group was a great way to get to know my neighbors, and seemed to be what the algorythm was always showing me. So the idea was to make a larger version of that group including all of Dunwoody. I know what you’re thinking… that sounds like Next Door. Exactly. But I hated Next Door! At the time (honestly I havent been on their in years) it was filled with self-promotion and politics. I loved the “idea” of Next Door, but felt like it could be improved upon with some simple rules put into place. But what would those rules be?
THE RULES:
Rules are arguably the most important part of any quality Facebook Group. I thought about all of the reasons that I unfollowed and/or left groups that I didn’t enjoy. It usually came down to spam, politics, arguing, and the amount of unnecessary posts. I tried to concentrate on spam and politics and moderating the group the best I could. Here were my thoughts on rules.
DO NOT POST SPAM/MARKETING
It was usually because of self-promotion in one of two ways; straight-up spam and small business posts from members who actually lived in the community. Posts about duct cleaning, car detailing, etc seemed to thrive in groups and they couldn’t care less about the rules. I would just have to be on top of those. The more difficult decision for me was how to handle the small businesses posts. As a community, we want our small businesses to thrive. I’m a REALTOR. I own a restaurant. I’ve done digital marketing and video work for other local businesses. I understand why owners/managers would want to post their marketing into local groups. So how do I cut down on those posts before they become annoying to the other members of the group… the majority of the group. It is a fine line to walk. There were a few options.
- Allow all non-spammy posts
- Allow one or two introductory posts
- Allow zero marketing of any kind from businesses
- Charge businesses to market to my group
Should I let small business owners go crazy and post all of their updates, specials, open houses, etc? This would get out of hand really quickly. I know this because I run multiple groups, and you have no idea the amount of posts that come in daily. At the very beginning (if I remember correctly) I allowed new businesses to introduce themselves and tell the community about their services. Once the group grew to a certain size, even that got out of control. As I’m writing this, I’m somewhere around option 3. The group is too big for option 2 and I’m not quite ready for option 4. There’s a lot more expectations from me as an admin when I start accepting money from sponsors. I also spend a lot of my time admining the group, so that’s maybe coming sometime in the future.
DO NOT POST YOUR POLITICS
There is nothing that is more polorizing than politics. I don’t want it in my group. I really try not to say “my group” because I truly believe it is a group for the community. Politics are where I draw the line. If you post political viewpoints into my group, you are gone. Blue or Red. Local politics are a little tougher to draw a line, but city elections are supposed to be nonpartisan anyway. Where I have had a hard time in the past with this rule is local voting. I purposely insert podcasts and articles that are non-biased into the group so members can see both sides of an issue. It’s a slippery slope though. Same with things like the 2023 Bond Refferendum. I want folks to be educated enough to make an informed decision.
KEEP IT DUNWOODY RELATED
DO NOT POST FREE OR FOR SALE ITEMS OR ANIMALS
DO NOT POST THE SAME THING TWICE
DO NOT TROLL OTHERS AND START DRAMA
DO NOT FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO STAY
DO NOT PULL ME INTO YOUR DRAMA
Most of the remaining rules are pretty self explanatory. I added the last couple for my piece of mind. Running a Facebook Group this large is a lot of thankless work. I get daily messages ranging from complaints, questions, and even threats. I know that most of the members appreciate it though, and overall it is a really good thing for the community. So I’ve stuck with it. Maybe someday I’ll add some more moderators or administrators to take some of the work off my hands. Right now, it’s my baby, and I want to take care of it.
I wrote this article to share some of my thoughts on the group. It’s not perfect. Over the last 6 years, I’ve probably pissed off a lot of people. If you are one of the those innocent or misunderstood folks, I’d like to apologize. However, if you’ve been kicked out, you probably know why. I’m doing my best to curate a conversation centered around Dunwoody that will benefit Dunwoody. Thanks for participating!
