I am thinking that I would like to start an interview series with various community administrators – people who are in the field, working every day and tackling the challenges that we all face.

For these folks, I figure that it would be a good idea to have a basically set list of questions that they will all get asked. Informative, interesting or simply funny – I’d like to hear your thoughts. What should they be asked?

A few weeks ago, I asked for feedback on my upcoming book reading/presentation at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2009. In so many words, I wanted some thoughts on what I should talk about. Thanks so much to everyone who offered their thoughts, including Dave Taylor, Krist, Gwen, Wendy and others.

After much consideration, I have decided to go with a proposal I will call “The Art of Responding to Feedback From Your Community.” Based on a blog post I wrote in January, this talk will focus on my 3 simple steps for responding to feedback that you receive from… well… your community. I have a fun twist in mind that I think people will enjoy and I will not be telling you what it is. I will give you one hint, though. We’ll be doing it live.

The bottom line here will be that it’s ALL ABOUT FEEDBACK. And I plan to showcase this. This post can’t do it justice. You’ll have to come!

After the talk, I’ll be doing a signing at the SXSW bookstore and I am really looking forward to meeting people. The presentation will be on Saturday, March 14 at 12:30 PM ET on the Day Stage. The presentation will go about 20 minutes and then I’ll head to the signing. It should be a ton of fun. If you can come, please do! Please RSVP on Facebook.

Good news! For the second consecutive year, I will be giving a book reading at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive in Austin, Texas. The reading will be followed by a signing at the conference’s bookstore. Better news: you don’t have to listen to me read the book. (Thank goodness). They allow us to give a presentation around the book’s theme and that is what I will be doing, just as I did last year, when I spoke about “Creating a Positive Environment on Your Forums” (video).

The conference itself runs from March 13 through 17 and my presentation will be on March 14 at 12:30 PM. It’ll be on the Day Stage on the top floor of the Austin Convention Center. If you can come, please do! I’d love to meet you. Please RSVP on Facebook, if you can.

We’re about six weeks or so away, so I want to start thinking about what I will be talking about. That’s where you come in! I would love your feedback on what you’d like me to talk about. I have a pair of ideas myself, but I could go in a totally different direction, as well. Please keep in mind that I have 20 minutes, no more, and that I would like to fit in a little time for Q&A, if I could, in that 20 minute span. Though, I can always answer questions when I am off stage and that might be for the best. Anyway, here are the options.

1. “The Art of Responding to Feedback From Your Community”

This talk would be based on a post I wrote recently, that I felt was really well received. Basically, it’s a simple, 3 step system to handling feedback from members. I could go through the 3 steps, in brief and (maybe?) show some example messages in my slides.

2. “Taking Your Community Back From the Trolls”

There seems to be this prevailing notion with some people that eventually, all communities will be infested with trolling. And that you have to allow people to say some nasty things because you can’t hold your members to high standards. Because, if you do, you’ll scare them off, lose your traffic, lose your ad revenue and be unable to justify your community to the boss.

I don’t believe this is true. I believe that community administrators and managers can take a stand, can have a vision for their community, one that is free of trolls and can shut those people down through solid guidelines, consistent enforcement and a willingness to ban.

3. “Your Idea”

I’d love to hear your idea, too. What would you like me to talk about? Maybe you read the book and a specific part resonated, a part you would like to see me talk about in person. Or, maybe you just have a random thought. Whatever it is, please detail it in the comments and I promise to consider it.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and offer me your feedback. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to seeing you at the conference.

One year ago today, I launched ManagingCommunities.com. It had been a site that I had wanted to launch for some time, as community management is a subject that I am passionate about and I had a lot to talk about and a lot of experiences that I wanted to share.

In light of this moment, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported ManagingCommunities.com during this initial year. Everyone who has visited, read, linked, commented, offered some feedback or helped in some other way. I really appreciate it. I look forward to what lay ahead in 2009.

But, again, thank you.

Patrick

When I found out that I would be coming to the Los Angeles area for a short time, I wanted to try to meet up with some people in the area. So, I was talking to my friend Ricardo Bueno who lives in the city and we were going back and forth about it and… long story short, he agreed to plan a Tweetup (basically, a meet up of Twitter users). But, it’s not just for Twitter users – it’s for anyone who works online, is interested in social media, etc. Of course, I’ll be coming, along with 3 copies of “Managing Online Forums” to giveaway.

It’ll be on January 14, from 6 PM to 9 PM local time, at BJ’s Brewhouse and Restaurant in Glendale. We are going to have dinner, but if you just want to have drinks or stop by for a short time – that’s perfectly fine. And if you don’t drink, don’t worry – neither do I! :)

If you live in the Los Angeles area or, at least, are in town on that day, I’d love to meet you. Please RSVP on Facebook and/or Upcoming. We already have a number of people set to come, but the more – the merrier! A big thanks to Ricardo for doing the ground work on this.

With the holiday season upon us, it may be a little quiet around here toward the end of this month, but I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a happy, healthy and successful 2009!

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, linked and contributed to ManagingCommunities.com in 2008. I appreciate all of the support that I receive from readers!

Thank you for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.

Alltop, self described as “an “online magazine rack” of popular topics,” has accepted ManagingCommunities.com into their Social Media and Leadership categories. Thanks to them!

Now that I have returned from Blog World Expo 2008, have had some time to catch up and process the experience, I thought I’d write a detailed personal recap, to share how the trip went and, also, to document it for myself, in the future. This is a super long, highly detailed post. Emphasis on personal and long. You have been warned. :)

Thursday

I was due to fly out late Thursday morning, on September 18. Only thing… my entire family was coming down with a nasty stomach bug. So, while I attempted to sleep, the sounds of them being sick woke me up and kept me up all night and I ended up receiving around four hours of sleep, or so. Not only that, but it felt like I was coming down with it because, an hour before I was to leave, I was sick. Lovely.

The main thing I thought of was how much planning had gone into this trip. I wasn’t just attending the conference, I wouldn’t just be out of a substantial amount of money. I had two panels and a book signing and I had other people that had worked for me to be there and were relying on me to be there. If there was any way I could go, I was going to go.

I basically told myself it was nerves, not an actual illness like the rest of my house (some might call this denial, heh), and pushed myself to get ready and go, make the hour and a half car ride and get to the airport, nauseous much of the time. Worse yet, I had a horrendous flight path. Norfolk, VA to Washington, DC to Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV. About 10 hours in all, from start to finish. I gritted my teeth and made it. The last one and a half plane rides were not bad as I started to feel better.

From the airport, the cab driver seriously – seriously ripped me off. I had no basis of what the proper fare was as I had forgotten to look into that. We’re talking double the regular fare rip off.

I got to the hotel, the Las Vegas Hilton, around 6 PM local time and met with my friends Brandon Eley and Chrispian Burks, for dinner. I hung out with Brandon and Chris for the vast majority of the conference. We had planned to head to a meet up hosted by my pal (and fellow panelist) Jason Falls, but we were dead tired – I was half falling asleep at dinner. So, that is where my first night in Vegas ended – in bed before 9 PM. But, I fell asleep the moment I hit the pillow and slept 8 hours straight – this turned out to be the only good night of sleep I’d get while at the conference.

I just wanted to mention that I am back from Blog World Expo. Outside of how I slept and felt in the mornings, it went great and the book signing and panels were awesome. I plan to post a detailed recap, but that will take some time, so I just wanted to get a post up, letting you know that I had returned. I appreciate your patience.

You probably already know this, since I’ve talked about it so much, but I’ll be in Las Vegas for Blog World Expo from September 18th through September 22nd. This means that it may be a little longer between posts than usual here during this time.

The conference itself runs from the 19th to the 21st. I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and talking with a lot of people I already know. If you are coming, I’d love to meet you – please stop by one of the events I’m participating in or send me a note on Twitter and we can try to meet up!

After the conference, I’ll have videos, a recap and more.

Thank you for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.