On the latest Community Signal with Lincoln Russell, we talked about private equity buying and consolidating online community software platforms.
![“[Workplace by Facebook] should act as a wake-up call to Jive Software that they need to put collaboration and conversation back at the heart of their product.” -Kim England-Godber, Vice President, Global Employee Communications, Pearson](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qqwoski3y6lg4mmf267uk7av/bafkreifrycsh375ggbm6bsvtvvwhyh44pqjin4lqpbibtfmbujz5tybzda@jpeg)
“Zuckerberg is running around talking about how he’s trying to get the world closer together by communicating and increasing the lines of communication. A lot of these lines just lead to destructive ends.” –Ralph Spencer ▶️ www.communitysignal.com/building-a-d...
When private equity buys online community platforms, who wins? Usually, community pros are among the losers. ▶️ www.communitysignal.com/when-open-so...
Happy birthday to Community Signal's producer, Karn Broad! Thank you for everything that you do for the show!
“... It really is antithetical to community because what you’re saying is, ‘I want people to come here, and I don’t care where they come from.’ Versus trying to build a community who value what we’re doing and will pay for it.” - @losowsky.com
According to our guest on this episode, much of the news industry is engaged in a battle they can't win, a fight over eyeballs and ad revenue with companies like Google and Facebook, where the terms will get worse and worse as time goes by. The answer? Community. By building a community that values
“... Over half, I think, of the online advertising money goes directly to Facebook and Google. This is not a battle that the news industry is going to win. The terms are going to get worse and worse as you move forward from that. ...
From 2017: “Right now, so much of the news industry’s revenue model is based around advertising and creating clickbait in order to get the numbers that will then get enough eyeballs on the advertising. I think this is a really shortsighted strategy. …
“… For them, the forums are providing stability between appointments – a stable network of people that they can look to for support. While they will still have their ups and downs between appointments with a psychologist, they have this base of people they can always come to online.” -Nicole Recks
SANE Australia is a charity that helps Australians affected by mental illness. Their popular online community, SANE Forums, serves as one of their primary initiatives. It isn't just SANE Australia's community, but the online community of 51 partner organizations, as well. When they seek funding (
“… There’s no surprise that services in particularly rural Australia aren’t as accessible, and so the appointments with professionals are further apart than those who live in major cities. ...
“[The SANE Australia] forums are anonymous, so they don’t share a lot, but what we do ask for is postcodes. [When it comes to measuring ROI,] we look at, in particular, the feeling around social isolation. …
![“[The SANE Australia] forums are anonymous, so they don’t share a lot, but what we do ask for is postcodes. [When it comes to measuring ROI,] we look at, in particular, the feeling around social isolation. … There’s no surprise that services in particularly rural Australia aren’t as accessible, and so the appointments with professionals are further apart than those who live in major cities. For them, the forums are providing stability between appointments – a stable network of people that they can look to for support. While they will still have their ups and downs between appointments with a psychologist, they have this base of people they can always come to online.” -Nicole Thomas, Regional Manager, Disability Advocacy; Former Head of People & Culture, SANE Australia](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qqwoski3y6lg4mmf267uk7av/bafkreidrn52ujndgtt5nkahyceiuegg3s4rdkkxdugdnkt72t3fjg6lpfe@jpeg)