Notes on Building Online Communities

When you build an online community, you are creating a virtual world… even if it isn’t in 3-D space. Your online community may or may not resemble the real world, and it’s more interesting if it doesn’t. Memorable and successful online communities require imagination, attention, and heart… if you forget any of these, your community will not flourish.

Know when to delegate authority and trust others with the tasks they’ve been given, otherwise you will become over-burdened trying to do it all yourself. Burn-out is always a danger. If you let other people be responsible and feel a part of the building process, they will take better care of their part of it because they have something of themselves invested into it. Trolls and other nasty creatures almost never take part in building or creating anything online, thus they feel no hesitation or remorse for ruining things for others.

Find interesting people and bring them together. Be willing to communicate your ideas, and open to listening to theirs. Get to know them and find out what their skills are. Foster relationships among people so that each person feels a part of something larger than themselves. If you care about them, they will care about you and the online community you are trying to build. Gather them into teams and give them their own spaces to collaborate. Expect that some clique-ishness will develop, that’s normal, but it shouldn’t shut out newcomers completely.

If you know your admin or moderation team members well enough, you’ll eventually be able to figure out how to motivate them. Show them “what’s in it” for them, and don’t set yourself above them as “god.” Work beside them, even if it means staying up all night sometimes. You are the best role model for them, the harder you work on the projects for your online community, the harder they will work too, especially if you’ve given them reason to care. Don’t expect more than you’re willing to do, you won’t get it.

Ultimately, you are the one setting the example, creating the atmosphere and environment of your online “world.” Know what you are trying to achieve, the kinds of interaction and project-based output you want to foster… but be open to others’ ideas, and really listen. They may know better methods or better tools to accomplish what you’re trying to do.

Think of it all as a learning experience. Study things that will help you build and manage an online community, and be prepared to spend a lot of time doing this. Even if your community eventually fails and dies, take from the experience what it taught you. Don’t think of it as wasting your time. If you learned something, the time wasn’t wasted. And don’t be afraid to try again.