Community Signal

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 injecting AI-generated comments and posts into conversations, the researchers had wanted to measure the persuasiveness of AI. There was one big problem: They didn't tell community members that they were b...

When private equity buys online community platforms, who wins? What about if those platforms were built on open source software? Does the company continue to be a good citizen of the open source community that helped build the product? History has shown us that it is often the community managers and pros who lose. They might not just lose a good platform though, they might lose their job. Lincoln...

Rebecca Newton  is a legend of the online community profession. After 30 years, she has retired. But what does it mean when we retire from this work? Her career began AOL in 1994, building communities and managing a massive volunteer program. Among her numerous stops, Rebecca found a focus in child safety, leading such efforts for Sulake (the company behind Habbo Hotels and Disney's Virtual Magic...

Online community consultants aren't unlike consultants for any other area of work. Some are ethical, smart, and talented, and some aren't. Consultants also don't often make great guests for the show because they view it as yet another lead generational funnel for them to shout generalities into. But hopefully an exception is this episode with community consultant  Jenny Weigle . On it, we discuss...

Bodies aren't moderated equally on the internet. Content moderation efforts, especially those at large, mainstream platforms, can suffer from policy-based bias that results in moderation centering a cisgender gaze. This reinforcing of heteronormativity can leave some of your most vulnerable community members – and potential community members – feeling alienated, ostracized, and simply unwelcome. L...

Safeguarding is a term used in Ireland and the United Kingdom that covers efforts to protect the health, wellbeing, and human rights of people, especially children and those who are otherwise vulnerable. At  Diabetes UK , four people alternate by week as the safeguarding lead, helping to protect those that the charity comes in contact with. One of them is Josh Poncil, the online community and lear...

Employee resource groups (ERGs) can do a lot to create a greater sense of belonging at your organization. But the folks who volunteer to lead these groups may find themselves in need of help when it comes to utilizing perhaps the greatest tool at their disposal: Your internal employee community platform. As a community strategist within large organizations,  Lori Harrison-Smith  has trained employ...

As we celebrate Community Signal's 7th birthday, Patrick takes questions from Community Signal listeners and supporters in this first ever "Ask Patrick Anything" episode of the show. Questions include: If everything had worked with CNN+, what would community look like for the platform? Would you rather be a working community professional or a community consultant? Will we ever see community leader...

Elon Musk's presence has loomed over Twitter since he announced plans to purchase the platform. And for these few weeks that he's been in charge, many concerns have proven to be justified. Musk  laid off 3,700 employees , and then  4,400 contractors . He is  firing those who are critical of him . The verification process, perhaps one of Twitter's most trusted features, has been unraveled. He's off...

As  Zendesk's  customer base and product offerings have grown, so has its community. The Zendesk community started in 2008, under the support organization, as a space for people to ask and answer questions about using the product. Since then, it has shifted departments multiple times, leading to changes in KPIs and core purpose. Nicole Saunders , the company's director of community, joins the show...

Recently, community pro Danielle Maveal joined Community Signal to discuss  her experiences reporting into the product organization at Burb . In this episode, we're getting the opposite perspective from product leader  Gitesh Gohel . Gitesh and Patrick worked together at CNN, where community reported into product. And while the product and community that they were building were short lived, they b...

If you're wondering how you can more actively foster safety and belonging for LGBTQ+ folks in your online community, there's precedent to learn and borrow from. In this episode of Community Signal, we're joined by  Samantha "Venia" Logan , the CEO and founder of  Socially Constructed . Venia shares lessons from her decade of experience building community for LGBTQ+ individuals, which started when...

Which team or leader does your community organization report into? And which would you like it to? Community teams can be successful as independent pillars or as part of other verticals, like product, ops, or marketing. In this episode of Community Signal, Danielle Maveal , the CCO (chief community officer) at  Burb , shares how community professionals can be successful within a team's product org...

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  International Legal Technology Association , is working to do just that for their community of technology pros working at law firms. With ILTA originating in the U.S., Mercedes shares the differences i...

WordPress, the popular open source CMS, powers a reported  43%+  of the web, including this site. It is backed by a global community of contributors who volunteer their time in all sorts of ways, from code to documentation to training. But did you know that many of the project's biggest contributors are sponsored by their employer to provide that time? As we  discussed with Brad Williams of WebDev...

As the former director of community for  HuffPost , where he led the management of an active, massive comment section,  Tim McDonald  has had a unique vantage point to the mass closure of news media comment sections. Patrick and Tim go in depth on that topic on this episode. Toward the end, Tim shares what he believes will be his greatest community ROI story: He has stage IV colon cancer and is in...

What are the reasons why you would voluntarily end the interview process for a community role? If you give it some thought, you'll probably come up with some! Ryan Arsenault  and Patrick share real stories from their careers, giving the reasons why they decided against continuing to interview with certain companies, including some you've heard of. This leads to a conversation on the community oppo...

Is speaking one-on-one with your community members part of your community strategy? For  Tosin Abari , when building paid professional communities, it's an integral part. His phone calls with community members provide an opportunity to reset the tone and remind each member of what they can learn, share, and achieve with their fellow community members. Through this work, Tosin often finds that thes...

Which community leaders helped you grow as a professional? Who in the industry do you study from or reference? On  the last episode of Community Signal , our guest Mohamed Mohammed mentioned how his former manager,  Joe Pishgar , helped him feel welcome in the industry. "You belong here" were Joe's encouraging words to Mohamed, and this phrase signifies an ethos that Joe brings to his role as chie...

This conversation with  Mohamed Mohammed , a community manager and a PhD student studying deepfakes, is timely. Just last week,  a deepfake emerged attempting to spread misinformation  that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, was announcing surrender to Russia's invasion. In that situation, preparation and rapid response helped minimize the spread of misinformation. So, what's your commu...

Online communities are can be essential for people impacted by illness. For those directly affected, their families, and support systems, these communities can provide a much needed place to share experiences, to vent, and to learn about different symptoms, treatments, and the intricacies of navigating the healthcare system. For our guest,  Amanda Petersen ,  Planet Cancer  provided such a communi...

As community leaders, we're responsible for people. The people in our communities and the people that serve them. In this episode,  Chris Catania , head of community at  Esri , shares how he approaches planning for growth and specialization for his community organization, for his people, and for his own role. Chris is currently hiring for three roles, a community operations manager, a community ma...

By now, even if you're not super well-versed in the terminology of Web3, you've probably encountered some of the conversation around its relationship with community. Like with any innovation or change in technology, there can and should be conversations about how Web3 will empower communities. However, we should also ask questions and think about how such change will impact communities, whether th...

When was the last time that you trusted your community with the responsibility of collaboration? In this episode of Community Signal,  Matt Leacock  shares lessons he's learned while designing popular collaborative board games like  Pandemic ,  Pandemic Legacy , and  Forbidden Island. Matt also discusses how he leans on the board game community for his own games. In the pre-launch stages, he has r...

What metrics and indicators of success are you, your colleagues, and community excited about for 2022? Whether you're hoping to better demonstrate the impact of the community on your business' bottom line, foster safer experiences for your members across the communities they are part of, or want to focus on establishing better boundaries for you and your team, this conversation with  Jessica Folso...