photo credit: Funky Tee

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the quality of the comments left on the things I share online.

There are a lot of different things I am involved in. There is this blog, Bad Boy Blog and my forums. There are the responses to things I share on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, including comments on my writing, both on my accounts and on accounts dedicated to my projects. I co-host the SitePoint Podcast and the Copyright 2.0 Show and I am one half of Patrick and Sean. And there is more.

Comments are open, so I get comments, which is great. I appreciate comments. When no one cares enough to comment or share your stuff, that is when you should be most worried.

I received a package today from Amazon.com. It was some lighting equipment that I purchased.

Inside the box of lighting equipment was a small, glossy postcard. It read:

“Please go to the item that you have purchased and leave a review of the product. If the review is at least 4 or 5 stars, you can enjoy 5% off of your next order from [company].”

This made me feel really uncomfortable. I don’t mind being asked to review a product. That’s totally fine and it is a good idea for them to ask me to do so. No, what made me feel weird was them tying an incentive to the score of the review.

To use a scientific term, that just feels icky. It makes it seem like you aren’t incentivizing honest reviews, only positive ones. If the product is good, you don’t have to do that.

There is a problem that I’ve found with a good number of people who refer to themselves as online community managers, builders or professionals. They dismiss, choose to ignore and, in general, don’t really respect what came before them, most of which is still relevant to this day.

That’s a mistake. And it is what separates a poor or mediocre community manager from a good one. It is the difference between having perspective and being short sighted.

Online community isn’t new. As such, community management is not new. I’ve been managing online communities, hands on, for 12 years. Moderating even longer than that, into the late 1990s. But, online community has existed much longer.

photo credit: Jetske19

I love phpBBHacks.com. I spent 11 years managing it. It was my biggest, most successful community. And that is why it was so hard for me to give it away.

phpBBHacks.com was launched on April 6, 2001. I created it because I needed it. As someone who used the phpBB forum software, I wanted an organized directory of all of the hacks and customizations that were available, so that I could make my phpBB do what I wanted it to.

I wasn’t alone in this. The site grew to be visited by tens of thousands of people every day. What I created was the largest unofficial resource for the most widely used community software in the world.

photo credit: mikecogh

Have you ever had a member who says that you did something that you actually didn’t do?

For example, a member of one of my communities recently posted in public, on a thread within our community, suggesting that a member of staff had told them a post they made earlier in the thread was “wrong.” Beyond the fact that we don’t allow posts that reference moderation decisions, there was one gigantic problem with this: it never happened.

No one on my staff had told them that there was anything wrong with their post. The post itself was still on the thread, untouched. When a post is made that violates our guidelines, it is removed – not left. No one contacted them.

photo credit: up to 2011

Much of community management deals with matters that most members will never know about. So then, how does the average member form their perception of the manager? By what they know – largely, how the community manager participates in the community.

Participating can feel like a lighter part of the job because, well, it probably is. Talking about a movie, sharing an experience, starting a topic or replying to one – whatever you are doing, you are doing something that you probably do naturally with others, anyway.

Though I might not need to convince you that participating in your own community is a good thing, perhaps there are benefits of doing so that you are not yet aware of.

photo credit: jontintinjordan

Recently, a new member posted a request on one of my forums that violated our guidelines. Suffice to say, the request was inappropriate.

It was available for viewing for a few days. As soon as I saw it, I removed it and handled it appropriately.

A veteran member of the community had replied to the thread, remarking in disgust at the request. I went ahead and sent that member a private message to let them know that the thread had been removed and, more importantly, to encourage them to report posts of that nature to me, should they occur in the future.

Their response was one of surprise. They were surprised that I “let it go as long as it has.” Let’s review:

photo credit: rmartz

There is a particularly sensitive discussion being had on one of my communities right now and, as you probably know from dealing with sensitive discussions, they tend to take more attention from moderators than your average thread. This one is no different.

With that in mind, this thread also hasn’t been that bad, either. Most people who have participated in the thread have done so in an appropriate manner, with respect to our user guidelines. But, it is rare when you have a sensitive thread where there aren’t at least a couple of people who run into trouble.

photo credit: blumenbiene

Last week, I wrote about the practice of creating fake accounts to seed a community and why you should never lie to your community.

But, “getting a community going is hard,” some might say. “You need activity to entice people to join,” they might also say. “If I can’t lie to my potential members, what can I do?”

In short? Actual work.

It isn’t easy to get a community going. That’s true. It’s also true that one of the factors that determines the attractiveness of your community is the activity that people see when they first visit it. There is nothing wrong with seeding, as long as you treat your members with respect. Let’s talk strategy.

I have had the good fortune of speaking at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive for the last 5 years.

Only a small percentage of people who apply to speak are accepted, so I am very grateful for the opportunity and have worked hard to offer solid programming for attendees to the event.

For the next iteration of the conference in March of 2013, I have put forth a proposal that I am really excited about: Scaling the Management of Your Online Community.

More than a year ago, I asked you what an advanced community management presentation looked like. I received some great answers, but one particular theme developed: it was all about scale. It was all about how you change as the community grows and the demands increase.