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Title:

Building and Maintaining Strong Communities Online

Your vote:
Yes No
Organizer:
Ken Fisher, Ars Technica
Description:
Many start blogs and social networking sites, but few build vibrant, self-sustaining communities. This panel explores some of the most successful ventures that grew independently and continue to grow today. Lessons learned, plans for the future will be discussed along with some best practices for those who seek to develop true communities.
Questions
Answered:
  1. How do you attract these people in the first place?
  2. How to make your community recruit more community?
  3. How to stave off chaos and ideas for keeping your community from going stale?
  4. How can I encourage consistent and effective moderation of my community?
  5. How to keep your community members coming back 10 years after they sign up
  6. What makes them leave? Also, how to deal with trolls.
  7. How do I keep my community on topic? Hint: its giving them somewhere to be off-topic
  8. How do I bring new life blood into my community: getting lurkers to become grizzled veterans
  9. How can I bring my online community into the real world? Encouraging meetups and get togethers.
  10. How can I utilize my community to promote my brand and product, turning readers into evangelists?
Panelists:
Drew Curtis (Fark), Ken Fisher, moderator (arstechnica.com), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit)
Level:
Intermediate
Category:
Community / Social Networks
Type:
Panel
Event:
SXSW Interactive 2009
Charles Jade
on 29/8/08
I would like to learn more about strategies for creating communities that will be bought by huge, faceless multinationals for millions of dollars.
Delinquent User
on 29/8/08
Whoops, we meant to make this panel type a PANEL, not solo! Ken won't be the only one on this panel, it will have other Ars staff and moderators as well, in addition to panelists from other well-known communities!
Alex F
on 29/8/08
I'm only voting because Jacqui told me to, and the thought of Jacqui bossing me around totally gets me off. _>
Gendou Knepper
on 29/8/08
Having been a member of many different online communities over the years, this panel fascinates me more than any other proposal I've seen on this site. I definitely want to hear more.
Jason Gage
on 29/8/08
I've been reading the articles and opinions on Ars for around a decade. They're consistently good quality, well researched, and thorough, on a wide variety of tech topics. They're just plain awesome.
Robert Moser
on 29/8/08
I agree with Gendou-- I've been online since the mid-80's, and the Ars Fora are one of the very few that remind me of what it was like before everyone else crashed the party. :D

I imagine rule #1 will be, 'no avatars'.
dan simon
on 29/8/08
Arstechnica has been going strong for 10 years now - even having weathered the dot com storm when advertising took a dive. With partial thanks to a great community, the site has survived and still kicking around. Yes, I'd like to hear a panel on this.
The Spike
on 29/8/08
This might get me and many others to come out to SXSW for the first time.
Sam Ferguson
on 29/8/08
If anyone can speak with authority on the topic of "building and maintaining strong communities online," it's Ken Fisher.
Sam Ferguson
on 29/8/08
...and the rest of the Ars staff, of course :)
John Liszka
on 29/8/08
vote vote vote!
Patrick McCulley
on 29/8/08
Ars Technica is an excellent example of a small community that grew into a giant multi-headed hydra of successful business ventures and is destined to consume our world! Hail to the overlords!
James Schmeling
on 29/8/08
I'm interested in the balance between social, technical, entertainment, and other factors in building a community. And how titles impact participation. Not to mention avatars, e.g., Zeusberry Shortcake. ;)
Jim Wooden
on 29/8/08
I second what Sam Ferguson wrote.
Jeremy Page
on 29/8/08
Ken paid me .4 pesos to vote for him. I am open to higher bids if anyone wants me to change.
Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
on 29/8/08
I'm personally interested in the role that offline meets-and-greets play in fostering an online community.
William Tate
on 29/8/08
Ken gets my vote, yay!
Kurt Hutchinson
on 29/8/08
After watching the growth of Ars Technica, I'd value any information that could be garnered from this panel.
Chris Foresman
on 29/8/08
If there is anything that Mr Fisher and his cohorts are, it's smart and honest.
Bob Waldron
on 29/8/08
Not only should a "building communities" panel be held at SXSW, but a whole separate track should focus on that topic. If Ken wants to 'build a community' around that topic and have the SXSW panel be the culmination of several months of telecollaboration on the topic by interested community 'builders' from around the world, I'd be honored to help him in that effort. And I'm sure several hundred other people would do likewise, including barcamp organizers, leaders of user groups, and organizations like Ferrazzi Greenlight and the Kauffman Foundation.
James Shinn
on 29/8/08
The topic might instead be "building profitable technology news websites and tricking people into paying you money to post on them", this would be far more appropriate.
last minute
on 18/5/09
My vote goes to you!
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Developed for SXSW by Lindsey Simon