Podcast

Community Signal

Patrick O'Keefe · Community Signal Free Intermediate

Patrick O'Keefe has managed online communities for over 20 years and interviews people doing the unglamorous work, so this is practitioner talk about moderation, trust and safety, and handing real responsibility to volunteers. It is the antidote to growth-hack advice: the episodes sit with the messy reality of what happens when you let members help run the place. Good to have on while you commute and think about who you are about to trust.

  • Delegating community work to members is mostly about trust and safety, not just saving your own time, and this show treats that seriously.
  • Real operators describe what actually goes wrong (moderation calls, difficult members, burnout) so you go in with fewer illusions.
  • Browse the back catalog by topic and pick episodes on moderation and volunteers rather than listening front to back.
Open on communitysignal.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I find and keep the first few super-members who actually run my community with me?

Read with it

  1. Spinks ran CMX and spent a decade watching what actually keeps a community alive, and his core argument is that a small slice... Wiley Book The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community Your Competitive Advantage David Spinks
  2. This is the tactical companion to the theory: how to actually spot your super-members in the data, ask them in a way they will... Higher Logic Article Building an Online Community Super Users (Ambassador) Program Higher Logic
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