As most of you know, years ago I began a message board focusing on sports in North Mississippi. I soon chose to expand it to include the entire state of Mississippi. And that’s where Mississippi Sports Talk came from.
But as I grew in my knowledge and experience of how to set up and manage an online community, I looked to help from other community administrators online. There was one guy who seemed to be quite knowledgeable and wise because of the multiple communities he ran. I was surprised to find out that he was just a teenager at the time.
But Patrick O’Keefe continued to learn and build sites and grow communities. He then began forums specifically for community admins and has even now recently written a book. I just received his book, Managing Online Forums, and read almost the whole thing in the first night. In a word, it’s great.
If I had read this book early on in my forum experiences I would have bypassed a lot of mistakes and stumbles. Patrick covers many topics from how to set up your forums, how to select your staff, how to handle security and moderation issues, and how to promote and even monetize your site. He provides sample templates for many needed documents and insight on how to interact with your users or even competitors sites.
Patrick knows his stuff. It’s quite plain to see. I have benefited from knowing him online and bouncing ideas off of him. And now I’ve benefited from reading his book. So for anyone who runs an online forum or has an interest in it, I highly recommend Managing Online Forums.
If you run an online forum, leave me a comment and share your site & what it’s about!
Thanks for the review! I appreciate it.