Seven Great Tips for Running an Online Community

Fortuitous has compiled some great advice for anyone running an online community. It’s mostly aimed at social networks or forums, but can be applied to any site that has a community element – such as a popular blog.

Advice includes:

If the Digg HD-DVD encryption key fiasco taught us anything, it’s that you can’t make rash top-down decisions and expect your community to be okay with it. For MetaFilter, I run an entire forum devoted to discussing the site itself. I float new ideas and new UI enhancements there and anyone else can start a thread about some aspect of the site. When I have to make a tough decision, I mention it in a new thread and get the members’ reactions and often tailor the final result based on their feedback.

It’s worth taking the time to read.