Institutionalized Silliness

27. Feb, 2012 by in Community Building | No Comments »

Why does someone join a forum? Common reasons I see are to ask or answer a question, share an opinion, or share work or a hobby. What do these things have in common? They all engage the ego, and they all come with the mindset of “this is serious business.” They can easily devolve into [...]

Getting Started: Rules of the road

9. Feb, 2012 by in Community Building | No Comments »

One mistake I frequently see new forum owners make is to start like this: They sign up for their forum, start a “Welcome!” discussion, and then start a “Rules for this forum” discussion which they make an announcement and close. They’ve instantly crippled their site. Remember grade school? I think everyone, at some point, had [...]