This document discusses optimizing community platforms by focusing on 5 key areas: 1. Changing the homepage to focus on searchability and categorization. 2. Building reminders to teach civility and set behavioral norms for discussions. 3. Optimizing the platform for reading by making content easy to navigate and rewarding reading. 4. Empowering regular community members to moderate through participation, common features, and avoiding problems. 5. Providing tools for staying on topic, such as related conversations, to avoid misleading links and off-topic discussions.

1. JEFF ATWOOD DISCOURSE.ORG
STACKEXCHANGE.COM
CODINGHORROR.COM
Optimizing Your
Community Platform

6. This site is all about getting
answers.
It’s not a discussion forum.
There’s no chit-chat.

18. I love discussion
communities.
But I hate discussion
software.

20. The heady days of
2003 are over.
Forums aren’t cool.
You know what’s cool?

22. I don’t want to live in a
world where “everything
is on Facebook.” Or
SnapChat.
… do you?

23. I love
communitie
s that are
passionate
about
obscure
stuff.

24. Your
clubhouse.
Your rules.
Your
norms.

25. How often do you get
search results that
lead to a discussion
page?
For me, weekly!

26. Change the
1 homepage

27. What’s the first thing
we do to discussion
visitors?

30. Witness the firepower
of this fully armed and
operational Dewey
Decimal System!

33. Is your forum about
conversations, or is it
about categorization?

35. Build
reminders for
teaching
civility 2

37. The “death of civility”
The “flamewar”
Leading to…

40. “The priority for participating on this
forum is not the quality of the content.
I ultimately don't care how smart or
funny or observant you are. Those are
plusses, but they're never
prerequisites. The priority is on how
you treat each other.”

41. “I expect spats, arguments, occasional
insults, and even inevitable grudges.
We've all done that. But in the end, I
expect you to act like a group of
friends who care about each other,
no matter how dumb some of us might
be, no matter what political opinions
some of us hold, no matter what
games some of us like or dislike.”

42. On a new install of your
forum software, what is
said about civility?
What is said about
making text bold?

45. The minimum
reminder…
at exactly the
right time

49. Optimize
3 for Reading

50. Forums are
conversations.
Posting is talking.

51. … but is
anyone
listening
?

52. Turns out, being there
and reading a lot of
the content is crucial.

54. How do you make it
easy for users to
read?

57. What should I read next?
What am I most
interested in?
How do you reward
users for reading?

59. Empower
regulars to
4 moderate

60. Moderators are often not
around.
Or maybe they’re not
looking.
(or maybe they just suck)

63. If your community
can’t push out trolls
and with no
moderators present,
then it will fail.

64. How do we learn to
trust our community?

65. 1. Participation over time
(reading)
2. Exercise common
features
3. Don’t create problems

66. How it looks to the
community

67. How it looks to the
user

68. How it looks to
moderators

69. Moderators can
expedite…
but are not required.

70. Communities
need an
immune system
that makes
them resistant
to trolls,
spammers,
and cruelty.

71. Provide
tools to
stay on
topic 5

72. What happens when I
click on a topic titled
Funny pictures of
dogs?

74. The cardinal sin of the
Internet is to click on a
link expecting one
thing, but get
something else
entirely.

75. Not a good
feeling.

77. What tools do
you provide
to let people
create related
conversations
?

80. How many “trick” link
titles is your
community creating?

81. 1. Change the Homepage
2. Build reminders for teaching
civility
3. Optimize for reading
4. Empower regulars to moderate
5. Provide tools for staying on topic

82. DISCOURSE.ORG