Coups, complaints, camaraderie: What it's like running a community Facebook page

Facebook community admins often have to referee big issues with thousands of neighbours watching.

Caption:Paula Gillion created a community Facebook page for the Birkenhead and Northcote areas in 2008.Photo credit:Nosiphi Mapukata/RNZ

You might think that a coup attempt is something only politically unstable countries have to deal with.

But two years ago, that's exactly what Jamie faced as the administrator of a South Island Facebook community group. The mother of young children in her 40s asked that her surname and the group's exact location be withheld because the alleged coup plotters live near her.

The alleged plotters were upset with how Jamie runs the group, where she has tight rules about hate speech and negativity. That means taking a hardline against some posts, comments or booting repeat rule-breakers, even if the backlash turns abusive.

Jamie says the group of about four met in person to discuss how to replace her as administrator. She provided messages from the time between her and the group’s other admin discussing the planned meeting and conflict.

Needless to say, the coup didn’t go anywhere. Jaime ultimately has the login for the group, and Facebook only intervenes when an admin violates community standards.

“While things do bother me and obviously it is not nice to be threatened and harassed, I also feel like if I were to quit, the bullies win type thing. The mean people win, and I can’t have that.”

About 3.45 million New Zealanders have a Facebook account, and as of 2020, about two-thirds of global users were in at least one community group, with neighbourhood being the most popular type, according to Mosh, a social media marketing agency.

That's a lot of announcements, complaints, arguments and random thoughts that can quickly turn personal when they come from someone who might live next door or stand behind you in the cafe queue. Admins can find themselves making decisions about issues even governments struggle with: hate speech and censorship, scams, privacy, accusations of wrongdoing and who genuinely needs help.

Brad Wright, 27, has contributed to some sticky decisions as co-admin for a community page that covers the three upmarket Auckland suburbs of Ponsonby, Westmere and Grey Lynn. Once, a notable person was caught illegally parking in a disabled parking space, and the accused asked that the post be taken down due to the potential impact on their career.

Another time, a female member posted an allegation of abuse against a male group member. He threatened to call the police on admins if the post stayed up, and she threatened to call the police if the post was taken down.

“There's a bit of a balance because the guy was saying he was like completely innocent and that was a full fabrication. So, who do you trust at that point?

The admins ultimately left the allegation online for about a day before deleting it and encouraging the woman to make a formal police complaint.

“Honestly, I’ve thought about chucking it in many times because it’s a thankless job,” says Trevor Jones, the admin for a community Facebook page in the New Plymouth area that has more than 23,000 members.

“Every decision you make in the group is going to upset somebody.”

Jones is the admin for several interest groups on Facebook, including a fishing group and a Crohn's Disease group. However, it is the New Plymouth “community group that is very busy, that takes the time”.

Jones manages it with his wife and two other admins. They recently decided to ban Give a Little posts due to high numbers and potential for scammers. Political posts were banned due to the carnage they caused on the page during the last election.

But the joys of the page outweigh the challenges, says Jones. He is about to put up his annual Christmas request post that brings him a lot of joy. It’s typically the most commented-on post of the year.

“Somebody might need a new table or something they can't afford, and somebody says, ‘Oh, I've got one I'll give you’.”

Wright volunteered for his co-admin role when the existing admins asked for more help in 2023, seeing it as a service to the community he loves.

“Nobody goes to the town hall and checks the notice board anymore for what's going on.

“They kind of hop on their phones or their computers, and I don't know, it kind of felt nice to just facilitate that or at least make it smoother for especially the older community.”

Paula Gillion, 43, has lost sleep a few times over content in the Birkenhead and Northcote Community Page which she created in 2008 and is still the admin for. It has close to 80,000 members. One of those instances includes a woman who made a complaint about a well-loved local restaurant and received a pile-on of negative and hateful replies, which continued in new posts days later.

Gillion doesn’t post too much on her own page, choosing to stay out of the limelight, unlike admins of other community pages who she says get too vocal and involved.

“The work should just be done without it being in the face of the people or members.”

The rewards can be simple but tangible - like reuniting people with a lost pet.

“I mean, that is a huge one on local Facebook community pages - people finding lost pets.

“And I think that’s a really important service there.”