Creating & Running Communities Matthew Haughey

Social is at the heart of today’s web

Any site/app you create should include a social component

The potential for disaster is big .

A successful community is great for everyone involved

The lifespan of a community

Let’s talk about how to build and run a successful community

Be a Third Place

Just add water, right?

Have a compelling idea

Build the best app you can

Eat your own dogfood

Highlight the best

Award contributions

Recognition helps readers too

Moderators: your best contributors

Get out of the way

Build in Flexibility

Allow unintended uses

Build out based on the edges

Run it well.

Guidelines, not rules

Emotions out of decisions

Tailor to community norms

It’s a balancing act

Ownership issues

Ephemeral happiness

Every Community suffers a revolt eventually

Customer service

You’ll spend more time on customer service than coding

Hire others if you can, early

Metrics can ease the workload

Ways to avert disaster

Be transparent

Have a place to talk about the site and/or app

Collaborative efforts for new features

Explain changes. Over-explain.

Acknowledge mistakes

Legal troubles

What’s illegal, and where?

LLC, TOS, PP, DMCA, etc.

Lawsuit threats are many, lawsuits are few

What’s stopping your site/app from building out a community?

Any site/app you create should include a social component

Find your balance and run your community on an even keel

A successful community can please readers and creators alike

Questions? thanks to the following for use of their Attribution 2.0 licensed Creative Commons photos: jthorvath, gordieryan, James Cridland, brtsergio, Todd Huffman, fabiogiolito, froodmat, Drawings Of Light - Paul, laffy4k, Pro-Zak, Zach Klein, oskay, zzzack, bingbing, Kevin, jurvetson, Tigr, Jasoon, Nav A., plindberg, Kyle May, Librarian Avenger, Daquella manera, jurvetson, Helga's Lobster Stew