Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#21

Post by andreasklinger » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

I helped building producthunt.com and overclockers.at (and other less successful ones)

Here a few learnings:

1. the community already exists, you just create a communication platform for it

2. make it clear what the community is about [positioning/marketing]

3. make sure the communication/content is interesting [quality]

4. make sure there is enough engagement [perceived critical mass] (encourage people to post, post yourself a lot, fake accounts if needed, only create subforums once the main ones are noisy)

5. have a rhythm - some communities need daily good posts, some live of the weekly newsletter

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#22

Post by chasd00 » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

most of the communities ive been a part of (random hobbies) are built on the backs of a handful of high quality and active members. these are the people who help out new members with questions and post frequently re: their own projects.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#23

Post by viraptor » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

derwiki wrote: post #18

idoh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit did it. I think this very forum did it too, see e.g. the whole nickb thing.

nickb thing?

Disputed but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10535620

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#24

Post by werber » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

andreasklinger wrote: post #21

I helped building producthunt.com and overclockers.at (and other less successful ones) Here a few learnings: 1. the community already exists, you just create a communication platform for it 2. make it clear what the community is about [positioning/marketing] 3. make sure the communication/content is interesting [quality] 4. make sure there is enough engagement [perceived critical mass] (encourage people to post, post…

I religiously follow producthunt now because of the Devo extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/devo/elkhalpmbmbae... ), but have noticed that the forum portion tends to be mostly pats on the back. With other endeavors have you been able to create a space where people are more critical?

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#25

Post by clarkevans » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

There's a few aspects of successful communities that I've seen. First, there is a clear articulation of a problem/challenge that people can quickly identify with. Second, there is a urgency of action that draws people in, that if this problem is solved the world will be a better place. Third, there is an approach articulated that addresses the problem and has a reasonable chance of success. Fourth, there's room for engagement, and engagement has two parts: there must be enough structure so that a participant isn't overwhelmed and has a path they can follow; however, this path must afford quite a bit of creativity and freedom so that people can have a meaningful engagement on their own terms. Finally, and this might be obvious -- the community culture has to be fun and welcoming.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#26

Post by ArmandGrillet » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

The history of Designer News is quite interesting to see how a community dies after a few successful years, many threads in DN got posted trying to understand why it happened these past years. You could check that out.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#27

Post by neves » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 3:05 PM UTC

A nice book is Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design (The MIT Press) (English Edition) ASIN: B007RPF10U https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/building-successful-online-co...

Once I found its content in a series of PDFs in the authors page, but didn't manage to find it now.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#28

Post by AlphaWeaver » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 3:12 PM UTC

Wow, thanks for asking this question! This is a little meta, but I'm trying to create an online community to _answer_ these sorts of questions.

It's called VC3 (https://vc3.club) and it's an exercise in seeing if I can build a successful online community. If it succeeds, its sole purpose is to discuss and debate the forming of online communities (like VC3 itself.)

We haven't launched yet (because we're trying to get a solid group of people before we start.) If you find these sorts of questions interesting, please join us! It's totally free, not trying to make money with this.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#29

Post by dsfyu404ed » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 3:18 PM UTC

clarkevans wrote: post #25

There's a few aspects of successful communities that I've seen. First, there is a clear articulation of a problem/challenge that people can quickly identify with. Second, there is a urgency of action that draws people in, that if this problem is solved the world will be a better place. Third, there is an approach articulated that addresses the problem and has a reasonable chance of success. Fourth, there's room for e…

There are probably thousands (definitely hundreds at least) of communities for various hobbies that don't fit all the requirements 1-3 of your description yet they have healthy and active online communities.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create a successful community from zero?

#30

Post by arkitaip » Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 3:24 PM UTC

werber wrote: post #24

andreasklinger wrote: post #21

I helped building producthunt.com and overclockers.at (and other less successful ones) Here a few learnings: 1. the community already exists, you just create a communication platform for it 2. make it clear what the community is about [positioning/marketing] 3. make sure the communication/content is interesting [quality] 4. make sure there is enough engagement [perceived critical mass] (encourage people to post, post…

I religiously follow producthunt now because of the Devo extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/devo/elkhalpmbmbae... ), but have noticed that the forum portion tends to be mostly pats on the back. With other endeavors have you been able to create a space where people are more critical?

Product Hunt isn't a real community as it's a very explicit marketing platform, hence the pats on the back, astroturfing, etc.