As a huge fan and early adopter of Flickr, the online photo sharing community, as well as also being tasked with managing a large online community myself, I found this article about community managers at Flickr interesting:
At first glance this parallel society has been made, quite literally, in the image of our own. But in truth it's more like a Photoshopped image -- the nice parts accentuated, the inappropriate bits cropped away. So it goes with any online community, of course. Behavior must be moderated and a communal ethos must be preserved; Wild West cliches aside, total freedom at any entity like this would sink it in a storm of lawsuits, flame wars and gridlocked cacophony. So directors of community exist. And while the job of nurturing and policing any online realm would make for a fascinating study, I was particularly curious about how it worked at Flickr.Director of Community Heather Champ doesn't just guard the pool and blow the occasional whistle; it's a far more delicate, and revealing, dance that keeps the user population here happy, healthy and growing. In addressing that question of how much to police and how much to let things be, Champ oversees an experiment that, outside some far-flung and sandy exceptions, one rarely sees in such detail.
I've believed in this website and the product from the very beginning and it's really satisfying for me to see it grow into a vibrant and engaging community. I'm glad to see that its merger into Yahoo has been relatively positive, although I'm still bitter at having to give up my original login for a Yahoo one instead. Boo to that.
Their programmers in particular are top notch, so if any of ya'll read this: Thanks for making the site products so usable!
Read rest here.
[Via]
