“... There’s always a place to start something new. You just have to do it really well.” -Kirsten Wagenaar

Online Community for a Funeral Insurance Company

We've covered a lot of community use cases on Community Signal. Here's a new one: An online community for a funeral insurance company. That is just one of many communities that Kirsten Wagenaar has h...

“... I’m sure you can make a new community for kittens that is very relevant to the people that you invite. It’s all about finding your niche. Finding something that’s relevant to people. Finding those couple of people around you that find it relevant so you’re not on your own. ...

“[If you’re worried about starting a community in a crowded niche,] go to your regular supermarket and see how many soft drinks there are. You can look at the same for communities, how many communities for kittens are there? ...

“... There were some emails. There were some surveys. Some of the more experienced makers, I spoke with them on the phone personally. We basically got feedback on what we thought should be part of that code of conduct. It came from them, not from us.” -Dave Cayem

Delphi Forums, the Enduring Legacy of an Online Pioneer

Pioneering online service Delphi, launched in 1981, has been a lot of things over the years, as ownership changed hands several times, and priorities shifted. But in 2017, what's the enduring legacy o...

“[When I joined CustomMade,] there was no code of conduct, in terms of how to act on the platform. Rather than send them down from the mountain top, I created a process where the makers themselves created those rules. ...

“... There are absolutely extreme right-wing versions of communities that exist. Just because we don’t acknowledge them or may not see them in our everyday lives, they are still communities. We have to understand the power that community has –– good or bad.” – @faisa.bsky.social

Holding Communities for Community Professionals to a Higher Standard

The field of community management is buzzing. We have more tools available to us than ever before and an abundance of communities and resources to connect us with fellow professionals who know our wor...

“... I actually just responded to him and said, ‘It’s also the thing that’s currently perpetuating it.’ It’s part of the problem, because community [is] effectively groups. The most extreme example is the KKK meets up every week. That’s a community. ...

“During the Black Lives Matter protests … I’m really paraphrasing here but [a prominent white man in the community industry] effectively said community is going to be the solution to discrimination such as racism. ...

“... The problem is, it’s a bit of a lagging metric, so it’s probably that something went wrong a couple months ago. But still, it’s a very, very strong indicator that something is amiss, or if it keeps rising, it’s a very strong indicator that something is going well.” -Bas van Leeuwen

The One Community Metric to Rule Them All

You just took a new community job, and you're already feeling the pressure to prove your worth. You need some quick community wins. What metric should you focus on? Bas van Leeuwen has an answer. He ...

“If you would send me into the desert with one metric to rule them all, [active members] would be the one. How many members do you have, and do they keep coming back? Are they active? Do you manage to draw more people? If that number goes down, there’s something wrong. ...