Jake McKee has launched Connected by Distance, a new site dedicated to sharing stories about the power of online community. From the index page:

Every day in online communities around the Web and the world people are coming together, creating together, discussing, and sharing. There are literally hundreds of thousands of stories that community members can and do tell about the impact of community on their lives. Whether a cancer survivor is getting support, or a couple meets, dates, and marries, or simply friends make a podcast together across three states, communities can affect us all.

The Connected by Distance project is an attempt to collect and share those stories.

Right now it’s a web project, but Jake hopes to take 50 stories and edit them into book form for publishing. So, if you have a story to share, please give it a look. I need to come up with one. I’m sure I have a bunch of stories, but I see so much that I don’t really think of them in that context!

In honor of Blog Action Day, I’d like to talk about how you can use your online community to help people in a time of crisis. Healthy online communities, big or small, feature people united by some sort of common bond. Most often, it is subject based. But, there are sure to be other things that tie individual members to one another. This grouping of people can be powerful.

After the United States, my country, was attacked on September 11, 2001, I took what I had up on ifroggy.com down and I put another page up, sharing my feelings on the event and asking for people to help how they could. Archive.org has a copy of the page. I posted announcements on my sites and I linked my network bar back to that page.

When the tsunami hit Asia in December of 2004, I posted some similar announcements, such as this one at phpBBHacks.com. When Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States, I did the same.

What impact did we have? How many dollars did we raise? $2? $5? $100? We didn’t keep track and I have no idea. But, that’s not really the point. The point is trying, the point is raising awareness and the point is that everything counts, regardless of how small.

The power of online community can be immense. But, even if you feel like your small community cannot help anyone, remind yourself that everything counts. You never know the impact that you can have.

I’m using examples of major catastrophes here and monetary donations, mainly. But, obviously, that is not the limit. If a well established and liked member who has greatly contributed to your community faces some sort of devastating hard ship, how can you help them? Not necessarily with money, but with ideas and with personal, genuine sentiment and compassion for them and their situation.

Have your door open to listen to people who have ideas. I get pitched charitable efforts by various people. Sometimes I share them, sometimes I don’t. We all have limitations. I know I do and I know I’d like to be much more charitable than I am. Money wise, anyway. I would like to think I am charitable with my time as I make an effort to help others and to share my knowledge.

Online community is, by and large, about relationship and relationships are what drive us to care and to help others. It’s a powerful thing and it can be used for good. In all sorts of ways. Good in helping people, good in giving people enjoyment, good in helping you to fulfill your dreams and, yes, charitable good, as well.

I’ve been thinking about this for a little while, so I wanted to kick it out there and see what people think.

I didn’t really write the book to become a consultant. Some people find this funny or, at least, interesting, but I didn’t. I know that’s what a lot of people do (either to enhance a consulting business or become one) and that’s not a bad idea. I didn’t really want to do it with my first book. I wanted the message to speak for itself, not for it to feel as though I was holding something back, something that you would have to pay me to learn. In the book, I talked about everything. EVERYTHING I’ve had to deal with. I held nothing back.

My firm belief is that if you offer something of true value and you work hard to get it out there, that stuff can come later. I wrote the book because I wanted to, because I’m passionate about managing online communities and I felt that I had experience to share. Some people think this is crazy and that’s fine.

But, I’ve had multiple people suggest I get into consulting, that I start helping people, organizations, corporations and others to develop and improve their community strategy. As I have thought about it, it has started to appeal to me, for a few reasons:

I can help people. I like talking about managing online communities and social spaces and I know I can help people to develop their strategies. I can’t program, I can’t provide technical solutions like that. But, that’s not what it is about. It’s about strategy, policies, ideas and solutions. And that’s what I can provide.

I can keep running my network. Please don’t mistake me thinking about consulting as wanting to stop running websites. That’s not true. I love running communities and websites and working in consulting will allow me to continue to do this (see below, re: money). I don’t know, quite honestly, that I want a full time business that depends on clients. I would consult on a very part time basis. A few hours over the phone, a couple days on site – that sort of thing.

I don’t really have time to do much in the way of cold calling or client acquisition. I can make myself available, put myself out there and see if people contact me. If they don’t, fine. If they do, fine.

I could use the money. I could definitely use the extra income.

So, it seems like a win, win, win: I can help people, I can keep running my websites and I can make some more money, allowing me to do more. My focal point, as I said, would be strategy, really in the management of the community itself and the infrastructure. That’s what I enjoy most and where I feel I can help most.

Due to my level of experience, due to the book, due to the conferences I am attending and the speaking I am doing, I am getting myself out there and giving myself an opportunity to do this. It seems to make sense and it seems like a good idea.

Anyway, enough of me talking. With all of this said, what do you think? Does this sound like a good idea? Would you hire me? Any other thoughts?

In doing press for the book, one question that I’ve been asked on multiple occasions is “I have a blog. Why do I need forums?” or some derivative like “Why would I want a forum instead of a blog?” or “How are forums different from blogs?”

This may come as a surprise, but blogs and forums are quite similar. As Jeff so eloquently pointed out, they both share a number of common elements. For example:

• Blog post titles are forum thread titles.
• The author of a post is the thread starter.
• The date the post was made is the date the thread was started.
• Blog categories are individual forums.
• The content of the blog post is the content of the first post in the thread.
• Blog comments are thread replies.

And there are others, as well.

The thing I usually say is that they share a lot in common, but the biggest difference is in the fact that, with virtually all blogs, a person or team of people controls what is posted on the blog as a new entry. In other words, to use forums/community lingo, they control what new topics are posted.

On forums, generally, anyone who registers for an account can start a new thread of their own in the appropriate area. They can bring up topics to discussion. While people go off topic in blog comments, the same as they do in forum posts, it’s not the same as creating a new topic – a new thread of discussion.

Blogs and forums can both be highly beneficial – individually and together. A blog can complement a forum and a forum can complement a blog. And, let’s not forget, most of the biggest, most widely read blogs are communities that have developed around the blog. ProBlogger is as good an example of this as any. Darren’s blog is a community. It doesn’t need forums to be one. Blogs are communities, if that’s what you want them to be.

Forums tend to allow for more free, transitive discussion. If you want to encourage community to grow and members not just to talk with the people behind the site, but for a community to develop on a member to member basis, forums are great for that. If you are looking more for a relationship where you or a team of people are sharing ideas, posting articles and, in simple terms, managing a content site where you want people to interact, blogs are great for that.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you want in a site and what you hope to get out of it.

In light of a recent post on CommunityAdmins.com by Rocket 442, I thought that I would share, update and expand a post that I made on my personal blog last November that discussed spamming forums as a marketing strategy.

There are companies out there who essentially sell a service that is “pay to spam”. In search of a more attractive name, some label it “social media outreach” or “advertising.” Whatever it’s called, I think it’s bad business, it’s disrespectful and it’s a problem for community administrators.

Basically, what you have here is a group of individuals who aim to create what I try to prevent on my communities. We get this sort of stuff with frequency and it’s always shut down right away. If someone joins and their first post (or one of their first posts) contains a somewhat suspicious link, the post is removed and they are contacted, making them aware of our user guidelines.

If they start off with more than one post that does this, their posts are removed and they are most likely banned. New users are not given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to these matters. Once someone is established in our community, they will be given more leeway, however it is not appropriate to create threads or posts to bring attention to something that you are affiliated with and this is something we actively watch for.

Spamming is not a strategy that respectable individuals employ. If you want to post your website on a community, you check their guidelines to make sure that it’s allowed. If you are unsure, even in the slightest, you ask a staff member and then proceed as they outline – and only as they outline. If a particular website is a persistent offender on my network, they might find their link banned from the network as a whole. That is, their link is not allowed to be posted on any of my communities in any instance.

Some of these people create multiple accounts in order to make their spam discussions appear more active. Regardless of what the guidelines say (unless they specifically permit it, which is… suffice to say, highly unlikely), covertly creating multiple accounts to boost up your discussion or talk amongst yourself is universally looked at as uncool.

Really, it’s embarrassing behavior that no respectable organization will want to be associated with because if it should come to light, they’ll be roasted and lose major amounts of credibility. Once you are labeled a spammer, it is very challenging to shake such a rep. If “avoiding detection” is part of the pitch, that’s a good indication that something is not right.

Personally, I don’t want to be associated with anyone who finds this sort of practice acceptable. There is always a group of people who don’t care how they get something, they just want it. And there can be serious consequences for that. It’s good for us to know that people like this exist so that we can know what we’re up against.

For me, it’s about creating something of quality and doing it the right way, through hard work and dedication and through respecting others’ space – in other words, having a semblance of ethical values to adhere to. Communities that you do not own are not yours to advertise to. If you think “this is business” and there are no ethics, that’s just not true and, to me, that’s a terrible way to think. You always have a choice. You don’t have to do unethical things.

Consider that if you are a client of a company with this philosophy – if they are not above manufacturing false interest in your company, why would they be above manufacturing views, favorites, replies, comments and whatever other metrics you are tracking, in order to meet their quotas to fulfill their contracts and make you feel like you’ve really received your money’s worth?

Funny to consider that the company you are paying to do this could actually extort you because they are one of the people who could out you for this behavior through a “leak.”

Be careful. These sorts of strategies are just all around bad, for everyone, except for maybe the company being paid to do it.

Update: The author of the article has updated it, after he was given some bad information by Deloitte, who did the research. Instead of 60% of the people interviewed spending $1 million dollars, it’s actually 6%. (This relates to the final paragraph of what I wrote below).

Did you see The Wall Street Journal Article by Ben Worthen titled “Why Most Online Communities Fail”? After I read it, I sent an e-mail to the author and I thought I’d share the thoughts I sent to him (most of them, anyway).

I do think that most of the article is accurate. Most communities (not just communities launched by “businesses”, but all) fail. In that regard, it’s quite like saying “why most businesses fail,” as my friend Brandon Eley pointed out while we were discussing it. The simple answer is: this is hard work. It’s not easy. And, sometimes, even when you put the work in, you still “fail,” depending on the metric. Just like with business and with life.

I agree with Ed Moran, the consultant quoted in the article, people are most important. That’s what my book is about – managing the people aspects and not the software. You need good software, but most importantly, you need good people. And it is crucial to have a good community manager, rather than just a part timer – you need someone dedicated to the community.

I do feel, however, that 100 “businesses” is too small of a sample to use for an accurate method of study. The numbers mentioned, in and of themselves, are not inherently useful. One big question: how long have these communities been running? If someone spends $1 million dollars and has under 100 members, which I sort of doubt, they either just launched or they do not have the people in place who know what they are doing (or care).

The AP’s Anick Jesdanun writes today on the topic of online communities and how they enforce their guidelines/terms of service. She talks about different issues, including how these matters are handled, documented and resolved. I read the article with interest, as someone who manages online communities and someone who is a big believer in having goals in your community and actively aspiring to them, in everything that you do.

The article is aimed squarely at community managers and is just a bit too slanted against us. It’s very, very easy to talk about “censorship” or the “big guy picking on the little guy” and get a reaction from a majority of people who view it, against the person doing the “censoring” or against the perceived “big guy,” who could just be an individual community manager running his site as a hobby or small business. Anyone can do that. Too many people are predisposed against these things. However, that doesn’t mean that the community manager or managers have done anything wrong. A good chunk of this article amounts to: “corporation decides fate of individual behind closed doors.” That’s a great, dark picture, sure to attract some outrage. Of course, it’s not that simple.

The moment that anyone – namely, the government – tells me that I have to allow people to say whatever they want on my communities, or that I have to allow people to say whatever the government says they can say, that’s the moment I stop managing online forums and communities. You can throw my book away (that may be a little dramatic – it still has value, fear not! :)). I’ll go get a “normal” job or do something else because that won’t be a livable situation. The minute I am forced by law to allow lunatics to run roughshod on my communities, is the minute I stop doing this.

But, the good news is, I don’t see that happening. I mean, it could happen, in a doomsday scenario, but realistically, I see it as unlikely. So, this is all hypothetical.

Online communities are, almost all of the time, privately owned. It is for the people who own the website to say what happens on that site, within the scope of the law. If you want to allow people to say the F word, you’re choice. But, if you want to allow people to infringe on the rights of others, that’s not your choice. This is, in general, a good thing. Could be better, will never be perfect, but could be much, much worse.

One concern the article raises is that when a community enforces it’s guidelines and a member disputes it, those disputes are handled behind closed doors. This is said like it’s a bad thing. It’s not. It’s professionalism. This isn’t the court system, this is a privately owned community. People forget that people in “authority” (from the major corporation to the small community administrator) are held to higher standards than your average Joe.

Example: if average Joe says, “Company X is evil,” no one cares. But, if Company X says “Joe is evil,” then they are out of line. “Did they have to say that?” “It’s unprofessional.” “No one likes to see people air their dirty laundry.” People who make decisions are held to different standards. Airing dirty laundry is usually a bad idea; it usually creates more trouble and it is, above all else, not the most professional way of going about your business.

The article speaks of Flickr enforcing an “unwritten ban.” The bottom line is that you to have guidelines or terms of service written out, as comprehensive and clearly as you can. But, vagueness has it’s place and is necessary to ensure accurate wording and proper coverage. You want to be specific, but the danger of being too specific is in the people who want to read what you have as your policies and then think that, if your guidelines don’t cover it, it must be OK. People searching for loopholes, in other words. Again, this is holding corporations and managers to a much higher standard than everyone else. Why must we think of every single bad thing that someone could do on our communities? That’s not fair.

I have a story to tell. So, I run a community and there is this other community on the same subject. The owner of it posts a spam thread on my forums, acting like he isn’t affiliated with the site. This post is removed.

Before I saw this post, the person e-mailed me and asked for my advice in developing his forums. I answered and did what I could for him. And, after that, I saw that a moderator of mine had removed the post he made.

After a period of time goes by, he e-mails me again, asking for my advice. Once again, I helped him, but I also mentioned that you don’t want to spam forums, especially in such a devious way.

In response to this, he acted as though his community being spammed on other ones was something that has happened before because he allowed someone in his office access to his account to “promote” his site. That person had been dealt with, he said.

That’s fine and dandy, but I reminded him that whatever happens under his account, he will ultimately be held responsible for.

A couple months later, what happens? Someone from his group with an e-mail at his domain made 25 junk posts so that s/he could use our private message system. And then that person sent approximately 50 different members the same PM. Any guess as to what they contained? Worse yet, it was signed by the same guy, even though the username didn’t match his name.

I deleted most of the PMs before anyone had viewed them.

Four days before this PM spamming, he had again e-mailed me asking for assistance and I had, again, kindly assisted.

At this point, I took a look at the site and noticed they had ripped our forum descriptions. I once again told him what happened, gave him the details and then I didn’t hear from him again.

Until recently when he e-mailed to ask if he could buy a paid advertisement. That wasn’t going to happen. I took another look at his site and saw that, while it appeared the descriptions had now changed, they had now stolen our rank images! These are unique and were created specifically for me.

I informed him of this. And I haven’t heard back. But, he has now marked his forums as private. Ha. Marking your forums as invisible is not an answer to copyright infringement. The files are still on your server! I plan to file a DMCA notice soon.

Anyway, how much can one guy do? Some people don’t get it. Not everyone is cut out to manage forums or manage people. Maybe he’s listening to some really bad advice. None of these things are particularly unheard of, if you manage forums, though it’s rare when they all come together in a great synergy for one person or one site.

Sometimes, we can learn a ton, not just from the people we want to be like – but the people we don’t.

Several times, I’ve been asked, how do I come up with the ideas for the communities that I launch? The answer for this can also apply to coming up with ideas for websites or just ideas in general, even.

It can be something that I have a personal interest in and, as such, want to start a community around it. This is the case with SportsForums.net. I’m a sports fan, so I started a community about sports. CommunityAdmins.com is another one.

I can see a domain, sense a need or, at least, feel that I could do something well. KarateForums.com is an example of this. I thought a martial arts community was a great idea and, back when we launched, there were far fewer than there are now. It’s my largest communities as far as posts is concerned.

I can need something myself. I started using phpBB back with the 1.2.x string. Back then, there was no dedicated site for phpBB hacks. I wanted one, so I created one in phpBBHacks.com.

There’s always the old random idea, as well. I can get ideas for sites at any time. I’ve had a few right before I wanted to close my eyes and sleep. For this reason, I keep a pad and pen next to my bed. I’ve had ideas in the shower, while eating out (I’m sure, can’t think of a specific one) – anywhere, really! You should always be ready for the idea and be ready to embrace it.

Sometimes, we can fall into the trap of talking and thinking about ideas a little too much. Proper planning and consideration is always important, but there comes a time where we must not simply talk, but also do.

I’ve had banned users and “competitors” who spent a lot of time talking and thinking about me, but little time actually doing anything or accomplishing anything on their own account. (This is certainly fine by me). But, I’ve also spoken to administrators who were always trying to think of what to do… and not actually doing it.

That’s one thing that separates successful people from everyone else: they do things.

I pull advice and inspiration on productivity from all sorts of areas. But, one of my favorite videos is by the brilliant Ze Frank. It’s below. Warning: there are a bunch of vulgarities (don’t repeat them in the comments!). His message, and the way he delivers it, is awesome!

Don’t get addicted to brain crack!