Engagement Are controversial topics a key to engagement?

[Cedric]

Every community leader wants an active community where members are constantly engaging. But let’s face it - controversial topics often get people talking faster than anything else. Think about it’s heated debates, polarizing opinions, or sensitive subjects, these discussions seem to spark more interaction than everyday chatter.

We'll take it to the test:

Normal question	Controversial question
How do you encourage shy members to participate more in discussions?	Are lurkers ruining your community?
What’s the best way to enforce community rules fairly?	Are community rules killing creativity and engagement?
How do you grow your community while keeping it active and engaged?	Is prioritizing growth over quality a mistake?
How do you keep members coming back to your community?	Are giveaways and rewards cheapening real engagement?
Are controversial topics a key to engagement?	Are controversial topics exploiting your community for engagement?

Do you see the difference in the tone and how you'd respond to these questions, while they have the same topic?

Some thoughts:

• Do controversial topics create meaningful engagement, or do they just fuel drama?
• Can encouraging these discussions strengthen your community, or does it risk dividing members?
• How do you balance open debate with maintaining a welcoming, respectful environment?
• Should leaders allow all types of controversy, or are there some topics that should always stay off-limits?

What do you think?

 

[Arantor]

They’re one method, but I don’t personally like it. It weaponises the reactionary instinct and instead of asking the question becomes a dare to be proven wrong.

Betteridge’s Law comes to mind: any headline that asks a question can be answered with the word “no”. Often, all too often, correctly.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I love the use of the table in this post!

As for the topic, yes, it works. It could create toxicity really quickly, though, and if it does and you posted it, you have you to blame.

You have to be careful about it.

I do it occasionally with my blog. I run ads on my blog. It usually goes a little viral, and I make a little extra from the ads.

However, it's easier to avoid it turning too toxic on a blog versus on a forum. A forum is too user-generated to control much of it.

 

[Nomad]

I loved how you re-framed the same questions to create controversial questions! I think controversies are good for the community, but I also believe that you need to take a lot of care on monitoring the discussions because some posts might knowing or unknowingly hurt other members. For instance if there is a topic "Are forum owners using open source not serious about their communities?" can hurt feelings of someone like me who uses open source.

 

[Cedric]

I loved how you re-framed the same questions to create controversial questions! I think controversies are good for the community, but I also believe that you need to take a lot of care on monitoring the discussions because some posts might knowing or unknowingly hurt other members. For instance if there is a topic "Are forum owners using open source not serious about their communities?" can hurt feelings of someone like me who uses open source.

That is exactly my point. I think it's great to use a controversial question every now and then, and you will see more engagement from it. But it's a double sided sword. You need to be careful how you ask the question and consider any possible consequences it may have.