Managing Online Communities: Rejecting Normal Science

Online discussion forums are expensive and costly to manage, which has stalled technological advancement in this area of social software. This project outlines a management approach that rejects the standard wisdom for online community development and enforces a policy set that would typically be expected to fail. Instead, after two years of operation, the approach has resulted in minimal administrative costs, high user satisfaction rates, sustainable growth and a profitable business. The presentation includes a discussion of the management approach and user surveys.