How to Handle Anarchy in Your Online Community

The internet has become a dangerous place.

There is so much fear, anger and hate in our world today. We're reaching a boiling point and people are attacking each other online like never before. If you dare to offer a different perspective be prepared to be viciously attacked.

They will attack you, your family, your relatives and even your mother.

Sooner or later, your online community will experience cyber-bullying and attacks of your community members. It doesn't matter what product or service you provide, people are politicizing everything, taking sides and picking fights. Violent fights.

You have two options when this happens in your online community:

1. Ignore it
2. Face it head on

You can't ignore it because it will harm your community and your brand. If you sit back and let your customers get attacked and berated by the bullies, you will lose customers and destroy your reputation.

People should be allowed to share their opinions because that what makes our online communities thrive. Active discussions from different perspectives help us take off our blinders and see things in a different light.

You need to monitor your online community closely and let the discussions continue as long as people respect each other and don't go overboard. You need to act quickly when anarchy breaks out.

Today I received an amazing open letter from Squaw Valley where my family has skied for over 30 years.

In case you didn't know, Squaw Valley received over 23' of new snow in the first 20 days of January. Record amounts of snow that literally buried the ski lifts. Squaw Valley was unable to open some days because of whiteout conditions and sometimes winds of over 100 mph.

Well, some diehard skiers started getting angry on the Squaw Valley community website. They wanted to ski but it wasn't safe so Squaw Valley only opened runs when the ski patrol said it was safe. The other day a ski patrol member was killed while setting off explosives for avalanche control and people complained when the mountain didn't open.

But these people wouldn't let up. They kept bitching and complaining online. They attacked Squaw Valley and accused them of not letting people use their passes and a lot of other unfound accusations. Can you say #alternativefacts?

Today, Squaw Valley faced the problem head on by posting this open letter on their Facebook page and sent an email to their entire list. This is how you should handle the complainers and anarchists who disrupt your online community.

Hey, it’s your Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows family.

When we first started hanging out on the internet together, things were fun. We had a great relationship. You share your good times with us and we share ours with you.

At some point that got lost. This little bubble of ours stopped being fun. All the sudden our social community became a black hole for negativity. It became a place for trolls and haters to hide behind a keyboard and bash our family. And that’s not cool with us anymore.

We want to remind you why WE’RE here in this funny little corner of the internet. Because the act of sliding down snow is fun. Skiing IS fun. Snowboarding IS fun. We want to share our favorite moments with our adoring fans just as we hope you want to share your good times with us: that season you worked here in ’71, your kickass turns down Chute 75, your kids first turns on Bailey’s Beach. Yeah, those times. We love you passionate skiers and riders. And above everything, we at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows will continue creating moments and memories with you and your family. To this we are 100% dedicated.

So here’s where we stand. This social network we built is our home. And it was built for a place to share stoke. When you choose to visit our home, you don’t have to agree with everything you see and you can choose how you interact with it, but if you rant, spew hatred or bully our family and friends in our home we will break up with you. This behavior will no longer be tolerated.

Another friendly reminder (in case you forgot) is we are people who work here. Not robots. Not suits. Not invisible. We are community members that are passionate about sliding down snow. We are just like you! We come to work every single day giving 110%. Why? Because we have passion. Passion for our home, passion for skiing and snowboarding. Remember that all of those team members out on the mountain are human. Just like you. And it is those individuals, with collective knowledge of hundreds of years of combined experience, that open these magnificent mountains.

While the logistics of operations are tremendously complex, one thing is simple. If terrain can safely open, as deemed by Patrol, Lift Mechanics, Groomers and other mountain operation folks, it opens. Team members out on the mountain always are in the best position to use their professional discretion to assess lifts & terrain. Decisions about when to open, and what to open, do not originate in an office or a board room. They originate with the patrol leaders for terrain, and with the lift mechanics for lifts, based on the most up to date information, on the mountain. You would not want it any other way. Safety and readiness guide the actions of patrol and lift maintenance, not management directives about when to open terrain. There is simply no other narrative. There’s no such thing as money hold. There’s no such thing as holding terrain. If the hard-working and professional men and women out on the mountain call in and say terrain can open, we open. If they say it cannot open due to conditions or weather, or other factors, we don’t open. When we say that terrain is “scheduled” it is not a guarantee that the terrain will open; it is a promise that we have brought the staff and material that is necessary to open and operate that terrain, if it becomes safe and possible. Lifts are closed or taken off the schedule when we have assessed that operations won’t be safe or possible.

After this massive 23 foot storm, can we all take a step back from our keyboards and phones and remember why we’re all here? Why are YOU here? We only come back to one thing: the simple fact that skiing and snowboarding here is FUN. We hope you agree. We look forward to sharing the stoke with you here, and at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows.