How communities evolve and “die”

Interesting:

The evolution of expert communities – lcamtuf’s thing

Over the past 25 years, I participated in dozens of such groups. The forums ranged from 200 to 200,000 members, have been hosted on a variety of platforms, and have dealt with topics ranging from electronic circuit design, to emergency preparedness, to collectible antiques. In almost every instance, they followed the same trajectory — so today, I’d like to put forward a general lifecycle model for expert-led communities.

Numbers matter, yes. However, there is no clear cut rules around how communities are best “effectively managed”. This post “may apply” to Reddits though. I have managed communities for several users; initially, the rush is to create buzz and rush but then the hard work of the moderation takes over.

Automating the actions of the bot is difficult. Most users expect an unfiltered point of view around their posts; especially the ones coming from WhatsApp. They are the biggest pain if some of them have remained “admins”. Telegram offers an unchartered territory for most and therefore have feelings of “power being diluted”. Admins often break up into fights or flame wars start happening. The best communities are those who understand the purpose of gathering together for a cause.