Dear all,
Virtual Communities such as XING, MySpace, YouTube or StudiVZ are here to
stay on the Internet landscape.
Online companies see an auspicious future in these communities, full of
new revenue sources and lots of
seemingly free user-generated content. It is quickly becoming apparent,
however, that communities don't

Hi Justin, Fiona & crew

Justin your post made me laugh, we're fighting the same battle from
opposite ends of the spectrum. I have to be very forthright (and
confident) about my "demands" which seems like an unnecessary way of
getting things done, and I'm trying to change this.

As we a part of a diversified (yet incorporating traditional) media

It's not always about increasing membership, it's about retaining membership
-- which is something we forget about at times. Maybe you need to come from
a different angle with your boss and detail the need for things to prevent
the community dying rather than a requirement for the community to grow?

Hi all

I have been lurking, reading the threads with interest. I shall reply to
some of the earlier questions when I have a moment, but I´m kinda snowed
under at the moment!

Justin´s question is rather relevent to me as well, so I´d also be keen to
hear any of your thoughts and ideas!

Seeing as people seem to becoming more active (which is great!) I'd like
to pick the collective brain.
"As for stats - I would be wary of guaranteeing you can increase membership until you know what resources you have...If there are obvious improvements you could make - enquire about them - this might provide insight into how the company operates and just how hard or

How did you become an online community manager? Did you fall into
it? Did your company start a community and you were tasked with
managing it?

I have a background in communications and journalism and I'm wondering
how to make the jump.

Thanks,
Shanan

I studied journalism (sometime ago now ;), went into publishing, moved
from mags to online, worked as Content Producer - the job partially
involved moderation. Communities/social media became my main interest
and I pursued that. I approached a start-up and worked for them for a
little while before I applied for a great role with a large media org.

Hi Shanan,

I graduated from USC with a B.A. in Communications wanting to work in
the music industry or internet. Being a heavy internet user at the
time i did a lot of online promotion, street team/ guerilla marketing
work. Luckily, social networks were on the rise and i got hired at a
small company that was looking for a CM to build out the online arm of

I've got a BA in Community Education and worked "offline" for a long time in
community development/social policy & research.
I participated as a volunteer in the deviantART community before being
offered a paid position, worked for 3 years in various different positions
and teams and now I'm in a Director position, leading Community Operations.

Hi all,
I started as web editor, and answering mails from users, we had so
many mails and petitions that the orhnisation decides to start forums
and otehr participation spaces and asked me to facilitate, this was
during the organisatrion Forum barcelona 2004 ([link])
around 1998 to 2003. Then I moved to [link] to do the same

Hey everybody, specifically Shanan and Tikva:
For what it's worth, I started about 7 years ago as a volunteer
moderator, then got offered a job when mods and community managers were
still making below poverty level wages (CDN$15,000 a year). Eventually I
moved on, got asked to consult for a startup, then joined a community

Do you love managing and helping online communities? Could you be the
advocate and voice for thousands of active communities? Would you like
to join a fantastic community team? If the answer is an enthusiastic
"yes" to these questions and you eat, sleep and breath online
communities, then we hope to hear from you.

Hi,

I'm definitely interested. My current CM gig is ending very soon, but I've
learned a lot about forming an online community for students 14 years and
up. I also realized there's a lot more I need to learn. Wow, it's a whole
new world.

Is this a new google group? Sign me up.

Sincerely,

Hi all!

My name is Joi Podgorny and I have been a lurking member for a while
now. Just wanted to alert you all to a new group of like-minded
professionals that is starting to form, specifically around the kids
online space.

We had an unconference in November of this year and have started a

"The main body of this report describes in detail these risks and
others, including privacy risks in MMO's, in-game access-control
vulnerabilities, scripting vulnerabilities, denial of service, spam
and
threats to minors, before making a number of recommendations on how to
remedy them."

[link]