Community Signal

RE: @patrickokeefe@mastodon.social

10 years of Community Signal! Thank you to everyone who has supported the show.

Community Signal is turning 10 on December 7! I'm thinking about putting together a greatest hits show of some of my favorite clips from the last 10 years. That would be a fun way to reflect. Thanks to Serena Snoad for the suggestion.

I'm open to other ideas, as well. Thanks for listening to the show!

#CommunitySignal

Today marks 10 years since Karn Broad started working on Community Signal as the show's producer. I've actually worked with Karn for roughly 14 years in total, going back to a previous show that I hosted.

When I had the idea for Community Signal, Karn was the first person that came to mind to have as a producer. Karn is a true creative partner in the program, and someone I trust to guide the direction of the show. He's worked on every single episode we've released.

“The WELL [online community founded in 1985], because of its open nature and desire to experiment, opened up chunks of the operating system for programmers to actually play with and make little utilities for the people as a way of practicing. There was this maker culture going on at the same time. As @hrheingold@mastodon.social put it once, it was where the tool makers meet the tool users. ...

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #TheWELL #CommunitySignal

LEGO Ideas is a platform, provided by the company, where anyone can submit an idea that gets turned into an official LEGO set. With plenty of creative talent in-house, why do it? Tim Courtney, from 2020:

“99% of the smartest people in the world don’t work for us. Ideas can come from anywhere. It’s about leveraging those ideas, but it’s also about building those relationships with people. … I’ve had three community members come in and get hired as LEGO designers.”

https://www.communitysignal.com/lego-ideas-and-the-building-blocks-of-a-successful-crowdsourcing-community/

When researchers at the University of Zurich conducted psychological experiments on the Change My View community without consent, it was one human space taking advantage of another human space, which made it even worse, according to Logan MacGregor, a volunteer moderator in the community.

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal #AI #Research

When you are expanding your online community into a new country, you should examine the verbiage you are currently using. Locally-minded adjustments can help members feel more at home. Here's an example:

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“I think part of providing a good experience is less hurdles to jump over. If you have an open community, then people can find [your] content because it’s indexed by external search engines. Not only that, but if they just visit your community, they can poke around and read the content without feeling like they’re trapped into [creating an account]. Some people don’t want to do that. ...

#CommunityManagement #OnlineCommunities #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“Without the protection of Section 230, a well-meaning person or organization may lose their right to maintain a clean well-lighted space for civil discussion and capitulate to every demand regardless of its merit. An organization facilitating online community may decide to close their community altogether deciding that the risk is not worth the benefit. ...

Even though the internet may be full of bad comments, that doesn't mean that the one you are about to post won't cause harm. After researchers conducted a psychological experiment on an online community without consent, they seemed to believe that, since their comments were just like any other, there was not a great risk of harm.

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #CommunitySignal

“I’ve always tried to think like a chameleon. Whenever you go into a company, they’re going to put you where they think you belong. … This is just another version of that question of where does the community person belong? ...

#OnlineCommunities #CommunityManagement #CommunityManager #CMGR #Careers #CommunitySignal