20 Tips for Community Blogs and Forums

[Brian Turner]

Here's an interestin post from Nick Wilson from when he ran Threadwatch, that's worth referencing on building up a community:
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4295

1. Once a month, let a big fight break out - this works best when the community fights a common foe, but you can also just let a troll post go undeleted and let the wolves have him.
   
2. If you don't post what your community wants, they'll talk about what they want to talk about regardless. This always cracks me up: When Threadwatch members aren't interested in a topic, they often end up critiquing the site in question rather than discussing the article linked to.
3. The more you give, the more you get. This is particularly true of links. Tip: Link out often and generously. Link to your competitors, link to your enemies, and always credit the source of your information. Trust me, you'll get a ton of links back.
4. Dont ask the community about changes to your site untill you've done them. I've learnt this the hard way.
5. Swearing on a blog like this one does not, contrary to advice i was given early on, have a bad effect, quite the opposite in fact.
6. Speak with your true voice, and encourage your members to do likewise (see above).
7. The people that visit your site at the weekend are your most loyal readers and members, make sure you feed them and care for them.
8. Dont see other communities as competition, if they're truly "head to head" competition then you need to rethink your niche a little bit.
9. Nuke 99% of all troublemakers on sight. Decide what you will and wont tolerate, draw a line in the sand, and kill anything that crosses it. For the remaining 1 percent, see point #1
10. You dont need to write an essay when you edit someone, 2 lines ought to cover it.
11. Try not to edit anyone too much - it makes more work for you. If they persist, move them from "member" to "troublemaker" in short order.
12. Answer every email you get, and every private message as soon as humanly possible, people like that. If you can't do that, then state that you wont do that, then there are no feelings of neglect.
13. Dont bullshit members. There will always be (and this is a GOOD thing) someone smarter than you that will call you out on it.
14. Politics is always a sticky one, it should be handled like point #1
15. When starting out with a new community site, take a good long look at what "the rules" appear to be within your niche, and break every fucking one of them.
16. Focus is good, but not always. This relates to the point above, again contrary to what would appear to be good adivice in general, going off-topic is not a bad thing for a new community site in an already populated area.
17. When your site goes down, which all sites do at some point, be aware that people are hitting your homepage to see if you're back up, and if at all possible, update them frequently as to what you're doing about the problem.
18. If you have to ask for links, you're not working hard enough.
19. Make sure your readers and members have IM access to you - but tell them you may not have time to chat - Time consuming? Sure, but you'll get a lot out of it.
20. Never moderate publically.

I should underline point 20 as well - not long after Nick originally posted this, I got complacent on a larger forum I run (science fiction and fantasy) and made some public moderating decisions, thinking that I was established enough and the forum mature enough to stand by the decisions.

The trouble is, the moment you moderate in public, you invite public discussion on the issue, and effectively turn control of the issue to mob democracy. In my opinion, there always really needs to be a clear line of authority to make those decisions for the community, and it to be kept in private dialogue, as required, to keep it focused.

[vpssupport]

I have to agree with Brian on point 20. The nature of a community based forum is that it is open and in the public domain. Although there are clear spoken and un-spoken rules (etiqutte) where all concerned members and moderators conduct themselves with integrity and responsibility to each other. A case for example is the oscommerce forums where a highly active member was banned for allegredly breaking forum rules. The widely publicised argument between moderators and the ex-member over spilled into the public domain. As a member I was happy that the debate was open and widely available via personal Blogs, etc and that the discussion had not continued within the community forum itself.

[MaxForce]

Great Stuff there Brian!

[Brian Turner]

Found this earlier entry that may be helpful on the subject of blogging as well:
http://www.platinax.co.uk/blogs/bria...ing-is-an-art/

[brooke]

I think you should shoot more people arbitrarily, like the Romans and their decimation, just to maintain an air of mystery and uncertainty. Especially if they talk about football.