I’m thinking of some different approaches in how to frame an online community. I was overwhelming myself with different approaches and styles that could be used so I turned to Google for some inspiration from other sources. I didn’t really meet with success, however, I figured I’d provide some highlights from my searching.

O’Reilly has their building an online community primer that is just that - a primer. It’s an alright spot to start if your new to building online communities. A better overview, well it’s more than an overview, can be found at Creating Passionate Readers. It’s from 2005 but is rife with juicy information and is a resource that I’ve used before for approaching online communities.

Then I found Community Spark which is a blog dedicated to all things online community. I really enjoye the post on how to use suspense to get regular readers from infrequent ones - it boils down to the idea that cliffhangers work on TV so why shouldn’t they work on a blog? Reading the post on how to name forums reminded me about the importance of making a community work by making the community feel human (and humane).

Community Spark also has tips on moderation. I’ve also added this to my daily RSS checking.

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