Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe

By StrangeWork.com: I recently received a copy of Managing Online Forums, a new book by my friend Patrick O’Keefe. As most of you know I am an Advisor on SitePoint Forums with Patrick, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this book and see what Patrick had written.

One of the first things I noticed is this book can be read by beginners and experts alike. I’ve been around internet communities for well over 10 years now and would consider myself a semi-expert in the field. Patrick was able to not only write for a beginner enthusiast wanting to learn all about community management, but also the seasoned community veteran who thinks they have seen it all.

Patrick breaks down every aspect of community management including developing community guidelines, promoting your community, managing forum staff, dealing with bad members and chaos, and how to make money from your community.

My favorite chapter of the book is one of the more sensitive subjects, Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos. One of the quickest ways to lose control of a community is to handle chaos incorrectly. Patrick does a great job of giving real world community examples and solid solutions on how to handle each.

Another great chapter is Developing Guidelines. I’ve started more than a few communities, and not once have I stopped to think about my communities guidelines before launching. Not only does Patrick go into great detail on what type of guidelines you should have, but he also provides a blank guideline template section demonstrating exactly how he lays out his guidelines for reference.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone, beginner and expert alike, that is interested in increasing their knowledge on community management. So get out there and buy this book!