In forums, I have met the majority of people that I consider close friends. One of my best friends is Jared W. Smith.

I’ve mentioned Jared here on ManagingCommunities.com numerous times, including in my article on how much I love when people who have worked under me go on to do great things.

I have known Jared for over 10 and a half years. Last Saturday, he married Stephanie Coccaro in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and I was there.

I drove 4 hours to Raleigh, North Carolina, flew to Charlotte, North Carolina and then to Savannah, Georgia. Finally, I drove another hour in a rental car to Hilton Head Island. I really wanted to be there.

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photo credit: Ross Griff

In my last article, I talked about the Community Manager job title and how it can mean a lot of different things to different people. I’d like to continue that discussion today by reflecting on another trend that I have noticed.

I am hearing about companies that have training programs for community managers – and many of them. They hire people, put them through a training program and, bam, you have a community manager. This seems to be in contrast to how many other management type positions are handled.

For example, you don’t really hear of companies hiring dozens of marketing managers and running them through “marketing manager training.” There are basic skills and expertise that are expected to apply for the role – the companies don’t train them in those basic skills.

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photo credit:
InterContinental Hong Kong

I have been managing online communities for more than 11 years. Given my experience, I am afforded a long range perspective on the profession of online community.

I have happily witnessed the popularization of the Community Manager job title and I am always meeting people that have it. I have loved watching the profession grow because online community is something that I am passionate about and something that I believe in.

The reality, however, is that the Community Manager job title means very little, in terms of understanding what someone actually does on a day to day basis. When someone says that they hold the title, it really doesn’t help you to learn what they are responsible for. The title itself has become a giant umbrella at many companies and one community manager at one company may have completely different responsibilities from a community manager at another company.

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In May, KarateForums.com celebrated 10 years online. I launched the forums on May 21, 2001 and have managed them ever since. 10 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 1 day.

It may surprise you to learn that I am not a martial artist. As you might expect, this question comes up once in a while. “What martial arts do you take? None? Wow. So, why did you launch KarateForums.com?”

I’ve always been very open about this. I’ve never pretended to be a martial artist and have never been anything other than honest when the question is asked.

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photo credit: !efatima

My mind is in a certain place today.

Communities are about people and people, unlike databases and forum posts, have a finite existence on Earth.

One of the hardest things we will deal with in our life is death. When a person dies, their death impacts everyone who cared for them, from family and close friends to admirers. So, it makes sense that one of the toughest things that a community manager will deal with is the death of a beloved member of your community.

It can be difficult to decide what to do when someone dies. We search for guidance and we ask for help. I suspect that, one day, a community manager looking for advice on this topic may run across this article. Who knows, it may even be me.

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photo credit:
erin_everlasting

There are a number of ways to tackle the index page of your community. It’s about showcasing your content and your members and that can be pretty flexible. Different approaches have different benefits and work well, depending on your audience and situation.

The traditional list of forums can work well. Another popular one is showing some of the recent topics or some featured topics. That can work, too. Options are a good thing and I’d love to see activity streams become an option for more platforms, either as a default feature that you can turn on or off or as a hack or add-on.

By an activity stream, what I meant is a stream of popular or relevant content, tailored to the individual viewing it based on numerous factors, including the popularity of the content within the community, based on views, replies and likes or some other measurement and content that has been interacted with by community members that they have chosen to “friend” or “follow.”

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photo credit: jurvetson

I’ve been hearing the word influencer a lot lately. People (companies) want other people, with big audiences, to talk about their stuff. There is nothing wrong with that.

Just don’t confuse your pursuit of influencers with community building. There is some overlap, sure, but if you focus on “influencers” at the cost of “normal” people, you are not building community. That’s PR – that’s outreach. It’s a crucial, important difference.

Some people want to convince themselves into thinking that if they email the person with the most followers who talks about their industry the most, they are building community. But, they aren’t.

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photo credit: proisraeli

I am an active speaker on the topic of online community and how businesses and individuals can tap into the power of online community and grow and manage their own communities. I have logged 30 engagements thus far and have spoken at important digital conferences (like South by Southwest Interactive), to universities (like Northwestern and North Carolina State) and corporations (like FedEx).

Under that umbrella, I have delivered presentations or participated in panels on numerous topics. Everything from creating a positive environment on your forums and how to respond to feedback to ethical social media marketing and how to market your products to online forums and communities. Management, engagement, marketing and more.

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photo credit: soukup

Why moderate? Why do we moderate? If you ask a collection of people who run online communities, you’ll likely come up with dozens of different, or different sounding reasons. But, they’ll likely all come back to one thing.

That thing is focus. When you really break it down, that is why we moderate. Because we’re focusing on a specific niche, a specific environment. Moderation is the act of creating focus.

If you remove vulgarities and profane language, you are focusing more on a work and family friendly environment. If you remove inflammatory and disrespectful comments, you are focusing on a more respectful community. If you don’t allow political or religious discussion, you are focusing on whatever the main topic of your community is.

Moderation is a way of taking a space that is undefined and giving it definition. This can happen without moderation, but it rarely can be maintained without it.

photo credit: Mrs Logic

Today’s inspiration comes from Hannah Keys (this makes two posts in a row mentioning her), who wrote Stop Looking at Other Girls on her Stop Being Crap personal site.

The premise of the post, aimed at women, is that you should appreciate what you have physically, rather than looking at other women, deciding that they are more attractive than you in one way or another, and beating yourself up. Instead, Hannah says, you should appreciate what you do have and understand that each person has their own unique situation that helps dictate how they look or what they weigh. She explains this in her own funny way, so check it out.

I think that most (all?) people do this. Hannah did (totally unnecessarily!), I did and, heck, do. It’s a very human thing to do. I’m my own worst critic. If not physical appearance, it’s some decision, or my writing, or my business or when I speak at conferences (I pretty much tear myself apart every time I get off stage).

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