The five-figure cost of dropping the community management ball

She may have helped thousands of parents raise contented babies, but the jury is out as to whether Gina Ford is contented with her five-figure libel settlement from mumsnet.com particularly given that it's estimated that the payout doesn't even cover her legal bill. But what was the argument about?

Essentially, Ms Ford's views on childcare generate some pretty intense reactions, with many people fundamentally disagreeing with her approach. And where better to voice that disagreement than on a discussion forum full of likeminded people and interested parties? Of course, it's not a million miles between constructive criticism and personal attack and, as is often the way, with a contraversial topic like this a great deal of the latter emerged.

There's a great deal of fear surrounding the threat of legal action arising from comments made in an online community and the onus tends to be on the provider of the website to ensure that it is not seen to be a publisher or editor of such material. That's quite a challenge; as we see here, even what on face value is a mild-mannered audience can generate content that needs some moderation and it's often easier to simply remove content in the grey area between debate and attack.

Had this case come to court, it would have represented an interesting benchmark for others to work to. The question remains: is the operator of a community legally responsible for the actions of those using it? There's certainly a lack of clarity in this area and little in the way of concrete test cases to prove the point.

Some guidelines:

• Keep records - hopefully you will never need them but they could prove to be invaluable
• Don't get drawn into an argument - don't be seen to be taking sides
• Publish clear rules of engagement - and enforce them in a balanced and fair way
• Take advice if you're unsure

These are all things that your community manager should be on top of. You do have an active manager for your community, don't you?