Online Communities

All of my personal experience, and discussions with folks that did research into online communities (albeit most of those discussions were held back in the mid-/late-1990s) can be summed up with the phrase/notion: “Online communities take careful care and feeding [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][to be successful].”

It’s clearly a lot more complex than just those 7 words, but that’s usually how I start the conversation when someone tells me they’d like my help in building an online community. I quickly follow that with a series of questions to try and convey the scope and implications of that phrase. I ask things like: Are you prepared to participate in the community yourself? How do you expect folks to find out about the community? Where are your potential community members going now? Should you really setup a separate site? What do you want to accomplish? And so on.

I ran across this article today that does a much more articulate job of pointing out the challenges in running online communities.

Take a look at: 7 harsh truths about running online communities.
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