Community Signal

Thank you, Karn, for your friendship, support, and all of your work over the years.

-Patrick

When I had the idea for Community Signal, Karn was the first person that came to mind to have as a producer. Karn is a true creative partner in the program, and someone I trust to guide the direction of the show. He's worked on every single episode we've released.

Today marks 10 years since Karn Broad started working on Community Signal as the show's producer. I've actually worked with Karn for roughly 14 years in total, going back to a previous show that I hosted.

When Your First Day as an Online Community Manager is Your First Day at a Computer As community professionals, the array of platforms, reading material, conferences, and thought leaders available to us only continues to grow. And if you've read or written a job description for a com...

“... As @hrheingold.bsky.social put it once, it was where the tool makers meet the tool users. In addition to being a place where people can converse, it was also a kind of birthplace of a sort of online gift economy.”

- @johncoate.bsky.social

“The WELL, because of its open nature and desire to experiment, opened up chunks of the operating system for programmers to actually play with and make little utilities for the people as a way of practicing. There was this maker culture going on at the same time. As Howard Rheingold put it once, it was where the tool makers meet the tool users. In addition to being a place where people can converse, it was also a kind of birthplace of a sort of online gift economy.” -John Coate, Former Marketing Director and Conference Manager, The WELL

“The WELL [online community founded in 1985], because of its open nature/desire to experiment, opened up chunks of the operating system for programmers to actually play with and make little utilities for the people as a way of practicing. There was this maker culture going on at the same time. ...

LEGO Ideas and the Building Blocks of a Successful Crowdsourcing Community Every company has the challenge of managing how to respond to customer feedback. But what if you're managing a crowdsourcing community and actively asking people for their ideas and feedback? How do y...

“99% of the smartest people in the world don’t work for us. Ideas can come from anywhere. It’s about leveraging those ideas, but it’s also about building those relationships with people. … I’ve had three community members come in and get hired as LEGO designers.”

“99% of the smartest people in the world don’t work for us. Ideas can come from anywhere. It’s about leveraging those ideas, but it’s also about building those relationships with people. … I’ve had three community members come in and get hired as LEGO designers.” –Tim Courtney, Former Experience Manager, LEGO Ideas

LEGO Ideas is a platform, provided by the company, where anyone can submit an idea that gets turned into an official LEGO set. With plenty of creative talent in-house, why do it? Tim Courtney, from 2020:

University of Zurich Researchers Conducted an AI Persuasion Experiment on Members of This Online Community, Without Consent In March, the volunteer moderators of the Change My View subreddit learned that researchers at the University of Zurich had been covertly conducting an experiment on their community members. By inject...

“... That hurts a little bit more than just dealing with bots. ... These are people interacting with other people, and there was a human element there. The researchers are real people. I’m a real person. This happened between real people, and it wasn’t just AI.” -Logan MacGregor

“... What I think is so insidious about AI is it’s caused people to behave in ways that I don’t know we would have, without the stupid thinking machines. Because it’s a toxic influence. Unlike the bots that are invading us daily, that we’re constantly shutting down. …

“One thing that’s really special about Change My View is that it’s a human space; it’s a decidedly human space. … The University of Zurich is a decidedly human space. ...

“One thing that’s really special about Change My View is that it’s a human space; it’s a decidedly human space. … The University of Zurich is a decidedly human space. What I think is so insidious about AI is it’s caused people to behave in ways that I don’t know we would have ... because it’s a toxic influence. Unlike the bots that are invading us daily, that we’re constantly shutting down. … That hurts a little bit more than just dealing with bots, because this wasn’t just bots. These are people interacting with other people, and there was a human element there.” -Logan MacGregor, Moderator (Volunteer), r/changemyview

When researchers at the University of Zurich conducted psychological experiments on the Change My View community without consent, it was one human space taking advantage of another human space, which made it even worse, according to Logan MacGregor, a volunteer moderator in the community.

Bridging Continents and Countries in a Professional Association Community Do you manage an international community? How do you thoughtfully foster community across different continents, languages, and norms? Mercedes Oppon-Kusi, the community manager for Europe for the Inte...

“A lot of [ILTA's] material has the word attorney, which doesn’t exist in the UK. We have solicitors and barristers. … There are little tweaks ... that we’ve had to do in order to localize what we’re providing to [the UK] region. … It’s a big deal to people.” –Mercedes Oppon-Kusi

“A lot of [ILTA's] material has the word attorney, which doesn’t exist in the UK. We have solicitors and barristers. … There are little tweaks around the material and our language that we’ve had to do in order to localize what we’re providing to [the UK] region. … It’s a big deal to people.” –Mercedes Oppon-Kusi, Former Community Manager, International Legal Technology Association

When you are expanding your online community into a new country, you should examine the verbiage you are currently using. Locally-minded adjustments can help members feel more at home. Here's an example:

From Engineer to Community Manager to Engineer to Community Manager As we've shared on many episodes of Community Signal, community professionals come from numerous career paths, educational backgrounds, and areas of interest. In this conversation, Patrick talks with ...

“... My theory is if you have a good community site that is easy and people like to use, people are going to be more willing to create a meaningful membership in that community.” -Matt Nevill

“... Not only that, but if they just visit your community, they can poke around and read the content without feeling like they’re trapped into [creating an account]. Some people don’t want to do that. ...

“I think part of providing a good experience is less hurdles to jump over. If you have an open community, then people can find [your] content because it’s indexed by external search engines. Not only that, but if they just visit your community, they can poke around and read the content without feeling like they’re trapped into [creating an account]. Some people don’t want to do that. My theory is if you have a good community site that is easy and people like to use, people are going to be more willing to create a meaningful membership in that community.” -Matt Nevill, Former Customer Community Manager, Agilent Technologies

“I think part of providing a good experience is less hurdles to jump over. If you have an open community, then people can find [your] content because it’s indexed by external search engines. ...

Threats to Section 230 Threaten the Very Existence of Our Communities Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a frequent topic of conversation on Community Signal. As Patrick puts it, if you're a community professional in the United States, "this is the law tha...

“... An [org hosting an] online community may decide to close their community altogether deciding that the risk is not worth the benefit. Who really loses when we threaten the opportunities to build meaningful communities that can have a positive impact on people’s lives?”

– @scottmoore.bsky.social

“Without the protection of Section 230, a well-meaning person or organization may lose their right to maintain a clean well-lighted space for civil discussion and capitulate to every demand regardless of its merit. An organization facilitating online community may decide to close their community altogether deciding that the risk is not worth the benefit. Who really loses when we threaten the opportunities to build meaningful communities that can have a positive impact on people’s lives?” –Scott Moore, 20+ Year Community Pro; Formerly Answers.com, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and Fujitsu

“Without the protection of Section 230, a well-meaning person or organization may lose their right to maintain a clean well-lighted space for civil discussion and capitulate to every demand regardless of its merit. ...

University of Zurich Researchers Conducted an AI Persuasion Experiment on Members of This Online Community, Without Consent In March, the volunteer moderators of the Change My View subreddit learned that researchers at the University of Zurich had been covertly conducting an experiment on their community members. By inject...

“... We kind of dispute that because some of the comments are [you] pretending to be a trauma counselor and maybe that could actually cause some harm. … I don’t think they thought enough about community impact until after the community screamed ‘ouch.'” -Logan MacGregor

“So much of what [the researchers] did to try to prevent harm was to say ‘comments like this happen all the time online, we don’t think that it’s going to cause individual trauma.’ ...

“So much of what [the researchers] did to try to prevent harm was to say ‘comments like this happen all the time online, we don’t think that it’s going to cause individual trauma.’ We kind of dispute that because some of the comments are [you] pretending to be a trauma counselor and maybe that could actually cause some harm. … I don’t think they thought enough about community impact until after the community screamed ‘ouch.'” -Logan MacGregor, Moderator (Volunteer), r/changemyview

Even though the internet is full of bad comments, that doesn't mean that one more won't cause harm. After researchers conducted a psychological experiment on an online community without consent, they seemed to think that, since their comments were like any others, there was not a risk of harm.

How Gaming Community Knowledge Translates to Other Industries On Community Signal, we talk to community professionals across all industries, from gaming, to healthcare, to photography, and more. And while our respective communities might convene over different t...

“... Because if you don’t have a satisfactory job, in my opinion, if you’re not happy working, that’s the time to question your job. But if you can have a job that you’re satisfied with and have the impact you want, it doesn’t matter where they put you.” -Craig Dalrymple

“I’ve always tried to think like a chameleon. Whenever you go into a company, they’re going to put you where they think you belong. … This is just another version of that question of where does the community person belong? For me, it’s can you have a satisfactory job? Because if you don’t have a satisfactory job, in my opinion, if you’re not happy working, that’s the time to question your job. But if you can have a job that you’re satisfied with and have the impact you want, it doesn’t matter where they put you.” -Craig Dalrymple, Community Consultant; Formerly Project Management Institute, Zynga, and Sony

“I’ve always tried to think like a chameleon. Whenever you go into a company, they’re going to put you where they think you belong. … This is just another version of that question of where does the community person belong? For me, it’s can you have a satisfactory job? ...

“When one community person – a volunteer, a host, a person in this line of work – stands up for their community, they stand up for all communities.” -Patrick O’Keefe, Host, Community Signal; Author, Managing Online Forums; Ex-CNN Community and Interactive Product

“When one community person – a volunteer, a host, a person in this line of work – stands up for their community, they stand up for all communities.”

- @patrickokeefe.bsky.social

www.communitysignal.com/university-o...

When You Ask a Room Full of Senior Staff What Community Is In January, Project Management Institute community engagement specialist Marjorie Anderson delivered a presentation to a room full of senior staff. She asked them a question: "Can anyone tell me what ...

“... It really got me thinking that maybe we are not having the right conversations with people within the organization. … If staff doesn’t know what community is, then how do we really know that our members know how to utilize it and what it is?”

- @marjorieayyeee.bsky.social

“[I asked a room full of senior staff at PMI,] ‘Can anyone tell me what community is?’ The answers that I got were webinars, articles, blogs, and virtual events. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my word, everyone thinks we’re just content.’ We’re not. That is not what community is. It really got me thinking that maybe we are not having the right conversations with people within the organization. … If staff doesn’t know what community is, then how do we really know that our members know how to utilize it and what it is?” -Marjorie Anderson (Quote From 2017), Former Project Manager, Digital Communities, Project Management Institute

“[I asked a room full of senior staff at PMI,] ‘Can anyone tell me what community is?’ The answers that I got were webinars, articles, blogs, and virtual events. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my word, everyone thinks we’re just content.’ We’re not. That is not what community is. ...

University of Zurich Researchers Conducted an AI Persuasion Experiment on Members of This Online Community, Without Consent In March, the volunteer moderators of the Change My View subreddit learned that researchers at the University of Zurich had been covertly conducting an experiment on their community members. By inject...

“… if it was elevated to a prominent journal, that our community, which is supposed to be a protected human space, would now become just another sandbox for researchers. We felt very strongly that it should not be published. … Unfortunately, it didn’t land well.” -Logan MacGregor

“From my perspective, I think the things that we wanted the most [from the researchers were] an apology and a promise not to publish. The second was really important because we were concerned that if this was published in a peer-review journal ...

“From my perspective, I think the things that we wanted the most [from the researchers were] an apology and a promise not to publish. The second was really important because we were concerned that if this was published in a peer-review journal … if it was elevated to a prominent journal, that our community, which is supposed to be a protected human space, would now become just another sandbox for researchers. We felt very strongly that it should not be published. … Unfortunately, it didn’t land well.” -Logan MacGregor, Moderator (Volunteer), r/changemyview

After researchers revealed that they had been running psychological experiments on the Change My View community without consent, the moderators of the community wanted two things.

University of Zurich Researchers Conducted an AI Persuasion Experiment on Members of This Online Community, Without Consent In March, the volunteer moderators of the Change My View subreddit learned that researchers at the University of Zurich had been covertly conducting an experiment on their community members. By inject...

That was the situation that the volunteer moderators of the Change My View subreddit found themselves in, back in March. One of the moderators, Logan MacGregor, joins the latest episode of Community Signal.