Creating online communities

Quote :

Yesterday Ernst Poulsen wrote about a common problem that plagues blogs and online communities, including those run by news orgs: hijacking of the public conversation by hostile people or spammers.
There's really no blanket, all-purpose answer to this. Only after evaluating the unique quirks of an online community can you formulate the right strategy. Consider the situation from many different angles (verbal, statistical, etc.). That way you can discern who's really making things happen, what's really happening, and how best to handle the problem.

This may require hiring someone who understands the social milieu of online communities. However, my impression is that news organizations generally cannot afford to invest in hiring qualified community managers. Or perhaps they just don't value the particular skills that come from being social online.

Read the Poynter story

So where does that leave us? Poynter writer Tish Grier sites such sites as Wikipedia as the template for community involvement. Over time, the users of Wikipedia became interested enough to add content and police the use of the site themselves.

I'll confess to personal interest in this story. Trying to get an online community to thrive is an ongoing goal for me at CNPA and it's been a challenge.

What kinds of tools have you used to get reader and staff involved? What kind of difficulties have you encountered?