codyg1985’s Think Tank

As the former administrator of an online community, I learned a few things about what it takes to run a forum.  As I look back I also realized a few things that should have been done differently.  Often I wonder what it would take to start a community to begin with. What does it take to build a community from the ground up, and what does it take to give a community that element that keeps people coming back for more?

A community in the sense of this article is a common website on the internet and the people that frequent that website. If people visit the website on a regular basis, then those people can be called members of that community.  The more members a community it has, the more vibrant and attractive it becomes for more people to join. The website often, but doesn’t have to, includes a forum for community members to voice their opinion and interact with each other. The forum often contains the mechanisms necessary for the members to communicate with each other on an individual basis.

If you are running a successful website, then chances are you have a pretty large following of people that visit on a regular basis.  Even a blog can become large enough to be considered a community. All that is needed is to give people a way to communicate on a more direct level; either through a forum or with a personal message system. However, if you don’t have a website or if you don’t have a website with a large following, then how do you create a community?

First thing is to find a unifying element or theme.   It can be anything you have a profound interest or knowledge of.  Maybe it is something that people may have in common with each other.  For example, you may know a lot about underwater basketweaving.  You may be able to use that knowledge to create a website about it.  You may go to school at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (shameless plug, I know). Since you know other people that go to the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), maybe you want to create a website for UAH students to visit for the latest dirt on their professors.  Perhaps there is a cause that you believe strongly in. Maybe you think that Election Day should fall on a weekend. Maybe you want to create a website that explains your argument that Election Day should fall on a weekend.

Next you should ask yourself whether a forum would be needed on the website. You may not know a lot of people falling head first to ask you questions about underwater basketweaving, but you have a lot of people that are wanting to share info about their boorish professor at UAH.   If you believe that people are going to want to interact with each other on your website, then a forum or comment system would be a good idea to implement into your website.  Those things will help to develop a community.

Are you the only one that will be working on the website?  Starting a website on your own is not a bad idea, but developing a website into a community takes a lot of work. If there are no people around, then other people are not going to want to join the party. The more people you have to help you get your website/community off the ground, the seeds of the community will have been planted, and the interaction between the staff members can attract members.

Of course, your mileage may vary.  The strategies you use and the unifying element that you choose to build a community around will determine the type of people that will join your community.  Running a website about politics will be much different from running a website about kittens. If you make the right decisions and recruit the right help, then your website could grow quickly into a vibrant community. The possibilities are endless.