Doing mistake is in human nature, we can’t avoid doing mistake and even repeating it in our lifetime, being a community owner of an online group cannot be compared to the life and actions we do for majority but for some (Community Owners) it’s a serious thing. I learned many things from my own mistakes and from others too and being on orkut I have learned how small mistakes can put our communities into the list of some most inactive and useless communities.
Following are some points I tried to write down keeping in mind the most common mistakes community owners do to get things under their control, however the outputs of their action will be completely negative and unacceptable.
Don’t show attitude Being egoistic will not going to give you anything except a community with few of your close friends who joined just to hold that friendship. Being an owner will not going to give you a right of being a master of your member and its completely doubtful that you can manage your community successfully with the attitude you are showing off. Try to answer very personal scraps your community members ask you or those who wish to join your community.
Don’t spam with invitation scraps Every community owners wants a great number of people to join his newly created community, hold on your excitement and work tactfully to get good and genuine members who will really going to build your community and not just a place of thousands posting none. Scrapping 2 dozen orkut users with “please join my community” will nothing but left a bad impression for you and your community.
Don’t appoint mods to win their hearts Finally when you got one really active member out of first 50 than it doesn’t mean you appoint him a moderator directly nor ask members to contact you if they want to become a moderator. You, are doing a mistake here if you are appointing 10 mods over 50 active members out of 2000 total community members. The best way to appoint mod is by observing the activity of the person you are interested in. He/She should be most active, most updated and knowledgeable of your community theme and most friendly.
Don’t encourage only games thread Too much entertainment will not make your community a quality and high standard nor it will help others to get resource they are looking for, be diplomatic and keep occasional game thread or either general chat thread than flowing numbers of games which confuse the guest users to judge what your community is all about.
Don’t be over friendly Your over friendly nature can be a reason of being praised every time but being an administrator you should be clear to your points and professional or you will soon face a dismissal from community owner and also can be ruled out by those who you shared a close friendship inside community.
Don’t be unanswered Being an owner to the community its your duty to be updated always and you should see if any post or thread is unanswered, no-one wants to be a member of a foolish community owner’s community.
Don’t be too strict You may face a revolt or another community of some of your ex-community members against you whom you banned with little or no reasons. I am sure you don’t want to see a community who hates you. Rules should follow to make a community clean and resourceful but too much stern reactions can give you unacceptable results.
{ 4 comments }
This is a great set of recommendations for community members. Being an admin & blogger for a newer community myself (friendpros.com), I will keep these in mind.
I think getting a community site going is just a process that takes time & patience. People need to not expect overnight results – and as you say, really focus on finding the right users, rather than just any users that come along. Thanks again for the post!
Thanks Kevin,
I would also like to add that quality of posts and articles will work more effectively than quantity of useless and long articles and posts in community. Their should be a real encouragement for community members to actually get involved in discussions and posts, that’s the way one can try making his/her community live.
zazo.
iis se accha frnds banao.. yahoo pe maza karo…. itni mehnat kon karega?
.. esp. if its not a knowledge based community !! 
!o!z……..
My dear, that’s why the author mentioned “some serious community owners” If you didn’t read it, read it again. So, this article is not for those who love yahoo chatting.
{ 1 trackback }