Twelve Tips for Growing Positive Communities Online

Over the years, I’ve been involved with many different online communities— some that thrived and were a joy to be a part of, some that devolved into a series of flames, and some that simply never seemed to get off the ground. On the Knight Citizen News Network, they’re running the article, “Twelve Tips for Growing Positive Communities Online” by Amy Gahran. The tips include:

1. Are you right for this job?
2. Publish conduct guidelines
3. Set a good example
4. Seeding: Invite and encourage civil people
5. Prevent comment spam
6. Work behind the scenes
7. Highlight the best contributions
8. Don’t allow anonymous comments
9. Moderate comments and/or posts
10. Require user registration
11. Shut down destructive threads
12. Keep your sense of humor

Read the complete article.