Civility

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

On Tuesday, 28 June 2022 at 15:59:43 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:
> I have been a user of web forums since the early 2000s, and I 
> have seen forum administrators make this exact mistake more 
> times than I can count.

What you need is someone to take care of the forums and promote 
them, of course. You cannot just create them.

You need to actively seed online communities with content and 
make them more visible. Formation of group identity is very 
important. Most mailing-lists and forums have a very large number 
of lurkers. You want them to get out of lurking and have them 
engage. A bit of kind-hearted Machiavellian thinking does not 
hurt.

With no technical and social strategy the stagnation will 
continue, nothing will change, and D will end up on a long tail 
of decline.

(I don't really want to start a lecture on this topic… but I have 
participated/studied online communities since 300 baud…)