Death threats, verbal abuse, and trolling — when you're running a local community Facebook group it comes with the territory.

The men and women helping to keep the peace, known in their respective groups as the admins, have opened up about juggling their personal life with their volunteer duties online.

Groups are a popular part of Facebook — with more than 70 per cent of Australians and New Zealanders on Facebook using them.

For the most part admins say running their local group is a pleasant and rewarding experience.

They help raise money for charity, share good news from the local area, reunite lost pets with their owners, and connect potential customers with nearby businesses.

But behind the scenes, it can be a different story.

Many admins brush it off, but for some it's too much and has driven them offline.

'The abuse has been very cruel and cuts deep'

Created to benefit residents of the Sunshine Coast to the north of Brisbane, The Sunny Coast Community Board, which has grown to a near 60,000-strong following in just a couple of years, has become so large it's now run by seven admins.

But inevitably, with a group as large as this one, there's bound to be some bad apples in the bunch.

"There have been times where the group has been used by some individuals to take aim at other members and cause them emotional pain and suffering," group founder and admin Laine Gregory said.

"We have seen lots of negativity on posts towards topics such as religious groups, LGBT community, cyclists and posts about things such as vaccinations and politics often become very heated as people have such passionate and opposing views on these subjects."

Community group administrators have been copping criticism for some time. ( Supplied )

Some of the more serious cases can end with calls to the police.

"Sometimes members have sent personal messages to other members after reading things that they have written in the group and in some more serious cases of threats and harassment police have had to become involved."

They have also dealt with one member who was creating fake profiles in the names of their others and abusing admins via personal messages.

"We have also had some members stalking the group to find women to send predatory messages and inappropriate photos to them," Ms Gregory said.

"We have had to ban those members to protect the group as a whole from unsolicited and unwanted advances. We do our best to keep the group a safe and harmonious environment for all and unfortunately sometimes that means having to remove some people who cannot interact positively with other members."

Ms Gregory said she and her team have been targeted for trying to keep the peace.

"We have copped an onslaught of abuse from others who do not agree or feel that they had been censored and their right to free speech denied," she said.

Some of the rules for using Facebook group 4074 Community & Beyond. ( Facebook )

"As admins we often have to make tough calls and there are always going to be some who feel we have not taken the right action.

"At the end of the day we are only human and when put on the spot and forced to make sometimes very hurried decisions we simply have to follow our hearts and do what we think is best at the time."

Ms Gregory said the abuse had been too much for some.

"Sometimes the abuse from members has been very cruel and hurtful and cut very deep," she said.

"Admins at times have to take a step back for a while to preserve their emotional health and wellbeing as sometimes the abuse and criticism has become intolerable."

They have also been threatened with lawsuits several times when "name and shame" posts by a group member, which are banned in the group, went unnoticed by admins.

'They call me Hitler'

One woman who founded a popular community page based in Brisbane came close to deleting it years ago after bullies ran two of her fellow admins out of the group.

Lisa Baillie received this private message from a group member. ( Supplied: Lisa Baillie )

4074 Community & Beyond has been running since 2013 and today boasts more than 17,500 members.

Founder and admin Lisa Baillie said a couple of years ago bullies drove two of her admins away.

"Something major happened with some members that got really personal and bad, it was quite vicious," she said.

"It was nearly to the point where I deleted the group. They [admins] backed off from it, they didn't want to be involved anymore because of all the personal attacks.

"I don't blame them. It was actually a big wake up call for me. I took myself out of the group for a week just to calm down and regroup, just because it got really personal."

As a result Ms Baillie now has two Facebook profiles, one for her personal use and the other to run the group.

She's also faced another problem — rival groups set up by those banned from her page for breaking the rules.

"Some people started up a new group of their own just so they could attack my group. It was terrible," Ms Baillie said.

"All they do is make fun of me personally, they call me Hitler … they start these groups because they're angry for whatever reason they've been removed from my group and start their own."

Ms Baillie said those people were in the minority, and she still got a great deal out personal satisfaction out of the group.

Running Facebook groups can be time consuming

Queensland University of Technology's Michael Klaehn, from the Creative Industries Faculty, said helping to run a Facebook group could take up large chunks of time.

"I think what people underestimate with running groups is they underestimate how much effort is involved to actually monitor and run it," Mr Klaehn said.

Tips for managing a group Have a set of policies or ground rules for participation in the group — make these are clear as possible so that all members can easily see if the rules have been broken

Have a set of policies or ground rules for participation in the group — make these are clear as possible so that all members can easily see if the rules have been broken Warn members for first breach of the rules, let them know the consequences of further breaches

Warn members for first breach of the rules, let them know the consequences of further breaches Use the delete tools – delete posts or comments that break the groups rules

Use the delete tools – delete posts or comments that break the groups rules Ban members that consistently break the rules Source: Facebook

"It's volunteer basis, and it takes a lot of time. Something like a community group: it needs to be monitored and still needs to be responded to.

"People expect a certain level of response time. Since everyone has mobiles these days they expect everything to be immediate.

"Go in understanding how much time it may consume, and maybe have more than one admin so you can share the load, I think that'd be a good idea."

Mr Klaehn said he was not surprised to hear about group admins having run-ins with some of their members.

"With running any group there's always the inherent risk of people not behaving themselves, and doing stuff you wouldn't expect them to do necessarily," he said.

"You've got this whole trolling behaviour and keyboard warrior mentality, where if they're not actually saying it to you personally they can be a lot more harsh or critical or abusive in some cases."

"Keyboard warriors" are responsible for driving two admins away from the 4074 Community & Beyond group. ( ABC News )

A Facebook spokeswoman said there were tools and programs available for group admins to help them grow and manage their communities.

"Admins can remove and block membership to a group. They can also approve or deny posts, or remove posts and comments on posts," the spokeswoman said.

"We've also created safety tools including in-country suicide helplines if admins are concerned about their members, tool to help admins report posts or people that violate our community standards, and security tools to keep their accounts safe.

"Safety of people on Facebook is important to us, and we encourage admins to be aware of the support available."