“Salon [had] Table Talk, which was an amazing, huge forum site and free [that was] not paying for itself. [A couple of years into my tenure, I was told,] ‘Hey, I think we’re going to close Table Talk on Monday,’ and I’m like, ‘No, we don’t do this. We don’t close a community with no notice.’ [They said,] ‘It’ll be less traumatic for people. It’s kind of like pulling a bandage off.’ No, it doesn’t work that way.” -Gail Ann Williams
“[For associations, it is normal for] the community management duties [to] get divided up among several staff. The problem is, if everyone’s in charge of the community, then no one’s in charge of the community.” -Ben Martin
I wrote a little bit about the recent Supreme Court cases covering Florida and Texas' efforts to legislate community, moderation, trust, and safety on a state-level.
I tend not to worry about the Facebooks of the world and, instead, concern myself most with the next generation of teenagers doing stuff online. Because that was me, two years after Section 230 passed in the U.S.
“We have people who behave; people are in bad moods, people are feeling sensitive sometimes, but generally, they are much more earnest, and I’ve attributed it to the fact that they’re paying for it, that people value things they pay for so they take better care of the space.” -Nina Lorez Collins
Talking about community as a product with Julie Hamel back in 2016:
“[At Alteryx, we kept] a version history [for our community], very similar to a mobile app that you would download or software that you have, so that people can stay up to speed on how we’re continuously improving the community.”
Re: Forum/community/UGC platforms selling data to AI/LLM companies to learn on.
I've owned and operated forums (and other spaces with UGC) since 1999. I have millions of pieces of content covering specific verticals in databases, written by people who are smart and deeply interested in those verticals. Some are from closed communities, some are live.
“There will never not be pests – the pests won’t decide to stop being pests – so you have to come up with clever ways to manage those problems. When I was talking to one particular farmer about deer, he said, ‘Oh, you don’t have to stop deer, you just have to make your farm less appetizing than the one next door.'” -@fraying
From 2022: “Everything [Musk has said about free speech] has had the quality of good bumper stickers but is totally divorced from reality, and that doesn’t bode well, obviously.” –@owasow
“What’s the tone that you set the minute that people sign up to come into your community and participate? What does that look and feel like? If it’s not one where it feels like people can speak up and have their voices be heard, then it’s really hard to course-correct [later on] and start to cultivate that feeling of belonging.” –Marjorie Anderson
“I have never found it impressive when someone acts like their community needs them to survive. I don’t think that’s something you should take pride in. If your community can thrive without you, that speaks volumes to me.” -@patrickokeefe
“I remember in 2000 when dentists were [asking], ‘Do I need an online community?’ There was a trend of, “Oh, it’s online community,’ because of the success at AOL. I was like, ‘No. You’re a dentist.'” -Rebecca Newton
“Pronouns are not just a segment that you’re going to put on your profile. … At every meeting, [if] you invite people to share their pronouns – cis, trans, doesn’t matter – it essentially says, pervasively speaking, this is a queer-friendly, queer-safe space. …
“Oftentimes, you want to implement these rules so that you’re not looking for explicit consent, you’re looking for implicit acceptance.” –Samantha "Venia" Logan
“Having community in your product team is an opportunity for product leaders to increase their mandate and increase their influence. It’s not just one way. It’s not just community influencing product. It’s increasing the influence of product within the wider org, too.” –@patrickokeefe
That's what online community legend Rebecca Newton is navigating. After 30 years of full-time work in this industry, she has retired.
What does it mean to retire from community, moderation, trust, and safety work? How do you prepare? What does it feel like to step away from the day-to-day care that you provide for others?
“If you’re not consistent [in your community moderation,] and if you happen to have the same problems as bigger platforms, then what’s the difference? Why am I investing all of this time as a user into this forum of yours when all of my efforts are being met with inconsistent approaches to keeping the place safe?” –Mohamed Mohammed
The r/breastcancer subreddit doesn't allow pre-diagnosis posts, a policy created to protect the members the community was created to serve.
“[People] need to go to their doctor, and there are tons of pre-diagnosis resources out there that aren’t going to force people who are actively going through treatment to answer questions they shouldn’t have to answer.” –Amanda Petersen
“[The use of ‘community’ in Web3] obscures the idea that these are, first and foremost, financial relationships, that there’s a lot of risk involved, and that the power relations may not be as egalitarian as the word ‘community’ implies.” –Jacob Silverman
Community members who initially find moderation efforts to be stifling will often come around to see them as a differentiating factor that sets your community apart. Here's one such story:
“I struggle with where I want to take on more and do more and constantly think about what my community members need, but I know that if I don’t take care of myself first, I’m not going to be able to do that.” –Lana Lee
“Those who talk about the tragedy of the commons are blowing hot air, as far as I’m concerned, because they’re talking about a commons without regulation. Well, that’s a tragedy waiting to happen. Then they say any concept of commons is therefore illegitimate because it will obviously turn into a tragedy and fail. Well, no, the commons in which you do not have regulation will [fail]. We’ve seen a lot of this happen on online applications.” –Lee Felsenstein
“As a woman of many intersections, being a Black Muslim, child of immigrants, eldest daughter … navigating communities with these intersections, you often see the gaps of which your experience has not been acknowledged or thought about.
“Actually, this has been something I’ve faced mostly in women communities. Communities with the focus for women have often been one type of narrative. I feel, too many times, my story has not been told.” –Faisa Mohamed
“Constraints make things better. Some people think that if you do accessibility, that you’re restricting the creativity of the medium, but constraints actually can make things so much more elegant. When you make [things accessible from] the beginning, it actually can make things better for everyone.” –@wesley83