Consistency

When you are a parent, you learn very quickly how important rules and enforcement of the rules can be.  However, rules and enforcing the rules means nothing without consistency.

These same principles can be applied to an online community as well.  Being a moderator or administrator of any large online community is a lot like being a parent.  The online community needs rules in order to establish what is expected of its members.  The online community needs enforcement of those rules in order to establish some sort of order within the community.  Most importantly the online community needs consistency in disciplining its members that chose to break the rules.

Without consistency of enforcement and discipline, the online community will collapse in on itself.  Without consistency the moderators and administrators of an online community will lose any semblance of respect that they may have garnered in the community.

The official FarmVille forums are a prime example of what happens when administrators and moderators lose respect from the members of their community.  Overmoderation/enforcement of the rules is also a sure fire way to lose valuable members of a society as well.

You need to walk a fine line when it comes to being fair yet firm when you are a parent, and I believe the powers that be over at Zynga need to learn how to walk that line without falling either way, or I fear for the future of the FarmVille community.