Introduction to Ghost Hunting
(c)2009 by Fiona Broome, founder of HollowHill.com
New members
Decide
how to deal with new
members and guest members.
Guest
members may be anything
from celebrity ghost hunters who are visiting the area, to your cousin
from
Saskatchewan who's always wanted to see a real haunted place.
Some
guest members may
become new team members as your
group evolves.
In
every ghost hunting group, a
few team members lose interest.
Frankly, most ghost hunts can be very boring. You're
often sitting around, sometimes for hours, before
something terrifying happens.
Other members may
move or their schedules change.
And,
now and then, there are personality conflicts or a team member is
unreliable
and has to leave.
You
may also expand the size and
scope of your group.
If so, you'll need
new members to support growing demand and responsibilities.
Decide
now how new members are
chosen and whether the founding members of the group must approve their
memberships.
Look professional
No matter what is going on, always
represent yourselves as
professionals.
This can involve
anything from team T-shirts to business cards to your own ghost hunting
videos
and media appearances.
Conduct
yourself in a
professional manner when discussing paranormal subjects with
anyone...
including your friends.
Many
groups and individuals set
up websites to share their research results and discuss ghost hunting
in
general.
If
you’re setting up a group
website, you'll need a name.
Unless you
form some kind of legal partnership, one individual will own the rights
to that
domain name.
Usually,
group members will need
to help with the site.
The larger the
site becomes, the harder it will be for one webmaster to handle it
all… and
still have time for ghost hunting.
Be
considerate of his or her time.
Forums
Forums
are especially popular
among ghost hunting websites.
They're a
fast way to attract fans. Many sites are able to maintain forums
without
problems.
However, at the time of this
writing, Hollow Hill does not have a forum.
Here's why.
Forums
must be closely
monitored.
Of course, you need to watch
for unreasonable criticism and flame wars.
There
are always liability
issues if children are visiting your forum. (Most will
lie about their ages to have access to the discussions.)
With
forums, you can lose
control over content.
Wild claims and
ridiculous stories in your forum can dilute your website's integrity as
a
reliable source of ghost hunting information.
Copyright violations can be a
headache, at best.
The
group must unanimously agree
if you decide to create a forum.
You'll
need a minimum of two or three people to moderate each section of the
forum.
Trolls can get the best of
anyone's discretion; remember that every moderator speaks for the group
as a
whole.
This course is nearly over. It's time for the
Conclusion,
and then... get out and find some ghosts!
YOU ARE HERE: hollow hill : ghost hunting >
introduction to ghost hunting, part 4
Part Four pages:
1 -
2 -
3 -
4
