photo credit:
{Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}

I love when I can write a post that directly addresses an issue that a reader is curious about. It has been about a year since I last asked directly, so I figured it was time to do so again: how can I help you?

What online community or forums related topic can I help you with? What would you like my take on? What would you like to ask me about? Of course, you can always contact me and I’m happy to chat, but I am looking for some ideas for things I should cover here. If you need to remain anonymous, please email me.

Beyond that, throw out as many ideas as you would like. Thank you for taking the time and for reading ManagingCommunities.com.

photo credit: kidsire

I watched the Home Run Derby this evening. For non-baseball fans, it is part of the yearly All-Star Game festivities, where a selection of players try to hit as many home runs as they can.

Robinson Cano, the second baseman for the New York Yankees, was the captain of the American League team this year, having won the competition last year. He put on a great show, with his dad pitching to him.

The All-Star Game is being held in Kansas City this year and, leading up to the Home Run Derby, Cano had said that he would like to see a Kansas City Royals player make the 4 man American League team. The Yankees and the Royals, are both in the American League. Not that he would pick a Royal, just that he would like to.

photo credit: OC Always

You may have run into a member of an online community, either as the manager or as a fellow member, that made, or attempted to make, a dramatic exit from the community by posting a colorful goodbye message. According to Urban Dictionary, this is sometimes referred to as a “flounce.”

If you manage a community for a while, there is a good chance that you will have a member attempt to do this. It may be harmless or it may violate your guidelines – especially if they are condescending or disrespectful, as is sometimes the case.

Earlier today, Lydia shared a link with me on Twitter that was originally shared by Jen Kramer. It was the “GOODBYE I HATE YOU ALL” post generator.

9 months of work culminates today with the release of my new ebook, “Monetizing Online Forums,” published by Skimlinks. You can download it for free right now.

The goal of this project was to create a detailed guide to monetizing online forums the right way – in a manner that respects the community and balances out the need for a positive member experience with the need to generate revenue.

We cover all meaningful methods and discuss how to implement them and get the most out of them. This includes display advertising, in-text monetization, classified and thread based advertising, sponsored brand placement, affiliate programs and CPA networks, product sales, premium memberships, mobile and monetizing your outposts.

photo credit: Lance Shields

I recently had someone who wanted to post nude images in a thread on PhotoshopForums.com. When they learned they couldn’t, they made a sarcastic comment about how I was afraid that “little Billy” might see the images.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard something like this, basically suggesting that because I didn’t allow nudity, profanity or something else along those lines, I was being a “soccer mom” or prude, or I was making a moral judgement of them.

It’s odd how people judge things or think they know something, when there may be much more to the issue than appears at first glance. Sometimes because they don’t like that they can’t do something.

Back in September, nearly 10 months ago, Skimlinks co-founder Joe Stepniewski contacted me with an idea.

For a while, they had been kicking around the thought of releasing a whitepaper or ebook about forum monetization. They wanted it to be valuable and they wanted me to write it. One of the most interesting parts of Joe’s message? They wanted their one and only competitor to be mentioned right alongside them in the work. That caught my attention.

I was interested, but we had to work out some details. For it to be truly valuable, we agreed that it had to be independent and unbiased. I have a good, long term relationship with Skimlinks, Joe and co-founder and CEO Alicia Navarro and I think they are great, ethical people with a great product.

But, at the same time, them sponsoring the book creates an appearance of bias. It can’t be argued. So, how do we mitigate that? In the end, they agreed to something that I feel a lot of companies would balk at: to give me complete, unquestioned editorial control of the work.

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

On a recent episode of “A Show,” Ze Frank tackled abusive online comments and aggression, which some might label as trolling, depending on the comment being made.

He discussed how he views the people who make them, what his approach to them is and what he’d like his well meaning viewers to do, if they encounter such a comment. He specifically referenced a comment on another video he put out where someone said they wanted to punch him in the face because his voice was so annoying.

“I think of those ‘punch you in the face’ comments as somewhere in between thinking a thing and saying it in public,” he said. “And I think that the repercussions should be proportionate. They should be blocked from ever interacting with us again. But, beyond that, I don’t think it’s worth thinking about.”

photo credit: cdedbdme

Sometimes, it is easy to think that the communities we manage will face dire consequences if we are not around for a while. And that thought leads to a fear of being away.

That’s understandable, but it’s not accurate or healthy. You don’t want to build communities that depend on you for simple existence. It says more about you if you are able to step away and have the world not end, than it does if you step away and it does.

This takes different forms for different communities. If you run a forum, you probably have moderators who can handle most issues. Even if you don’t have moderators, and the community is small enough, what’s the worst that will happen? So, your members may have to look at spam for a couple of days. Or some porn link. They are going to have to do that whether or not you are away because that stuff will stay up until your visit. This, among other reasons, is why it is important to set reasonable expectations with your members.

photo credit: BuzzFarmers

As the community manager role has become a popular one, we’re seeing more and more companies and individuals try to generalize it.

On the individual side, you have a lot of people who have spent time working in a specific profession, who are wanting to become community managers, which is great.

But, it becomes challenging when they treat community management as the same thing they’ve been doing for years, when in reality they have had a completely different job function. They may have had to utilize some complementary skills, but complementary skills don’t necessarily translate to experience.

photo credit: billsoPHOTO

There are a lot of community management professionals out there.

There are people with 10 plus years of experience in that space, at varying levels. People like Rebecca Newton, Jake McKee, Sue John and (cough, I’m not that old, cough) me. Then there are many people with 5-10 years of experience. I would put the majority of community managers in the neighborhood of 0-3 years of experience.

Many companies are hiring community managers and there are many people who want to be a community manager or want to switch companies. There are plenty of considerations to make when choosing the right person. But, in order to quantify their experience, I believe that the most important question is this one: