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!

I'm only voting because Jacqui told me to, and the thought of Jacqui bossing me around totally gets me off. _>

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.

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.

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'.

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.

This might get me and many others to come out to SXSW for the first time.

If anyone can speak with authority on the topic of "building and maintaining strong communities online," it's Ken Fisher.

...and the rest of the Ars staff, of course :)

vote vote vote!

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!

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. ;)

I second what Sam Ferguson wrote.

Ken paid me .4 pesos to vote for him. I am open to higher bids if anyone wants me to change.

I'm personally interested in the role that offline meets-and-greets play in fostering an online community.

Ken gets my vote, yay!

After watching the growth of Ars Technica, I'd value any information that could be garnered from this panel.

If there is anything that Mr Fisher and his cohorts are, it's smart and honest.

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.

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.