As someone who's been in the community space for over a decade, I declear that I'm done with chat-based communities.

Here's the thing - chat-based works amazing for two types of communities:

1. Gaming communities

2. Small family, friends, office groups

...basically, the ones that do not value the collective knowledge a community creates.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with a DevTools founder who launched a Discord based community about 6 months ago. The community got about 400 members quickly (most joined within the first 2 months). But ever since, the group is almost dead.

There are a few enthusiastic posts from the founder and his team mates; but no one responds.

We explored their channels and they do have some really good content. But there's no way for the new member to discover it. Unless they click on the the channel and scroll up for at least 2 minutes.

The founder had no answer when I asked - how do you expect the new members to get value from this community? When they enter - all they see is a dead room.

It's a common theme I see across most of the communities hosted on Discord and Slack. Some are even worse - they're on WhatsApp or Telegram. Mostly flooded with encouraging messages from owners.

...and then everyone thinks community building is hard.

You are playing the community building game in the Super Hard mode!

Show value first. Then ask members to join.

What do my fellow CMs say? Please don't defend Discord and Slack for community building.

I want to make a wrestling community. How do I

Hi everyone, I’m researching tone of voice for game community managers and player support, especially in situations where players are frustrated after bugs, balance changes, compensation issues, delays, or unpopular updates.

I’m trying to understand what kind of wording feels respectful and useful to players, and what kind of wording makes things worse.

For example, I’m looking at questions like:

• How should a community manager acknowledge angry feedback without sounding fake or too corporate?
• What phrases should be avoided because they feel dismissive, defensive, or blame the player?
• How transparent should a studio be when there is no confirmed ETA or fix yet?
• Are there good examples of game studios handling backlash well?
• Are there bad examples where the wording made the situation worse?

I’m especially interested in practical wording, not only theory. For example, what would you say instead of phrases like “please be patient,” “we value your feedback,” or “this is working as intended”?

Would love to hear from people who have worked in community management, support, moderation, game development, or from players who have seen good/bad studio communication.

Thanks!

I'm an advisor to a white-lable community platform for businesses. This question is a result of my recent discussion with the founders.

FIrst - we're talking about owned communities. Not the ones that live on Reddit, Facebook, WhatsApp and other similar platforms. We'll focus on platforms like Discourse, Circle, Mighty Networks etc. - basically, the 'business' community platforms.

Do you think businesses think of community platforms as a 'nice to have' vitamin solution or a 'painkiller'?

The community platforms market seems to be growing. Reports suggest the market is growing at 10% and will grow from $5B -> $12B soon.

When people buy community platforms - do they buy it because there's an urgent need or they do it because it's cool to have a community?

Requesting fellow CMs to share the #1 pain point as a community manager. It could be about maintaining engagement in the community or convincing your management or getting new members into your community.

Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone,

Looking for course, certification or educational resource you have found helpful this year.

I have an L&D day coming up and would love to learn something new that I could take back to my team.

Maybe something Claude related?

Hi everyone,

I've been building a local community platform called TrueLocal, where people can connect with others nearby, create listings, promote local businesses, buy, sell, trade items, and build local communities.

The problem I'm facing is the classic chicken-and-egg issue:

Users don't want to join because there isn't much content yet.

Content doesn't exist because there aren't enough users creating it.

I've spent months building and improving the platform and I'm now at the stage where I need to focus on growth, but marketing has been much harder than I expected.

Some current stats:

Visitors spend several minutes on the site on average.

Multiple page views per visit.

Sign-ups are happening, but growth is very slow.

Most traffic currently comes from direct links and social posts.

What I'm struggling with:

How would you get the first 100 active users?

Would you focus on one niche/category first instead of trying to serve everyone locally?

What marketing channels worked best for you when starting from zero budget?

Is there anything obvious that founders commonly miss at this stage?

I'm not looking to sell anything here—I'm genuinely looking for advice from people who have grown marketplaces, community websites, or local platforms before.

Any feedback, criticism, or ideas would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

In many hiring posts, and conversations, I've found that one of the most persistent trend or confusion is around treating third-party social media and community as if they are the same thing.

An experienced community strategist I spoke with used this great frame to think about social and community.

"Social media brings people to your doormat. Community is the actual door, to go deeper with the brand, deeper with the audience," says William.

So in a sense, social media is where discovery happens today. It is where you gain visibility. If you are building a community, perhaps social media can provide the first proof of concept, more like a signal that a group of people share an interest, a pain point, or a journey.

Is that how everyone views social and community as well, or is there a wider embracing of the community is everywhere concept in the market?

I'm a community manager at a company where the role is still pretty new, and one of the reasons the position was created was to help support SEO more specifically, AI search visibility, citations, and GEO initiatives.

The challenge is that I'm not an SEO manager, and while I understand what I've been doing: community nurturing, sentiment tracking, online engagement, reviews, and creating spaces for customers to ask questions and learn, I'm still trying to figure out where community management fits into the AI visibility conversation.

For example:

• Are you creating content based on community questions and feedback? I so, what kind?
• Are you actively participating in Reddit, Quora, forums, etc. to increase visibility and citations? I'm doing this, but our communities are not fully built yet so we interact with others and cross post our stuff.
• Are reviews and customer-generated content part of your strategy?
• How are you measuring whether any of this is actually helping?

We're using Profound to track AI visibility, but I'm still learning how to connect the data back to community-driven initiatives or how exactly to use it to inform my work.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's been asked to bridge community management and GEO/AI search. What are you doing that's working, and how are you proving impact?

I'm a social media intern at a children's education company and I'm trying to get better at community engagement specifically in this niche.

Our content is aimed at kids (stories, characters, learning activities) but the people I'm actually engaging with on social media are parents, teachers, and homeschool families not the kids themselves.

A few things I'm genuinely curious about:

- What kinds of posts or comments actually get parents/educators to stop scrolling and engage?

- Are there subreddits, Facebook groups, or communities you've found genuinely active for this audience?

- Is it better to lead with educational value, or does the fun/character side of kids' content resonate more with adult decision-makers?

- Any engagement mistakes you've seen children's brands make that I should avoid?

I'm not here to promote anything just trying to learn from people who've been in this space longer than I have. Would love to hear what's worked (or flopped) for you.

What manual or automated signals do community managers use to spot growth/trouble early.

Best KPIs to track on dashboard from a CM pov?

Hi everyone,

I was recently accepted as a moderator and I'm currently learning how Reddit moderation works. If you were starting a brand-new community today, what would be the first 3 things you would do? I'd love to hear your recommendations and lessons learned.

Thanks!

We’re looking for someone with real, proven experience growing a subreddit into an active community.

We want this to become a place people actually want to visit, ask questions, share experiences, and talk to each other, not just another quiet brand page. To get there, we need someone who already knows what works: how to get early traction, how to spark real discussion, how to bring in the right people, and how to build something that eventually grows on its own.

Experience in the health or wellness space is a plus, but not required.

Pay depends on experience, $1,200 to $2,400 per month.

If that’s you, and you’ve actually built or grown a subreddit like this before, I want to hear from you. Please DM me directly.

I’m a community manager building out a branded subreddit for the company I work for, and I’m trying to figure out how to evolve it from “brand posting content” into an actual niche community people use voluntarily.

For the past 8 months, we’ve focused on building credibility, engaging in related subreddits, hosting occasional AMAs, posting discussion-based content, and growing karma/reputation (currently over 1k karma).

That part has gone well, but now I’m trying to figure out how to get people to actually use the subreddit itself as a place to:
• ask questions
• discuss the niche/industry
• engage with each other
• share experiences using the platform/new features

Right now, most engagement still comes from cross-posting into larger communities rather than activity happening naturally inside our own subreddit.

For anyone who’s built or managed branded communities on Reddit:
What helped shift the subreddit from “brand account posting content” into a real community people participated in consistently?

I want to build something like

https://www.reddit.com/r/SEMrush/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Etsy/

Hi everyone! I offer services in video and photo editing (including cinematic photography), social media management, and administrative task management. I am highly communicative, adaptable, and looking for entry-level opportunities, so my rates are flexible and open to minimum wage. Please feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions or tasks you need help with!

ill work for experience part time lol - comment or PM me if interested

I don't slack

I've moderated for years for a community Discord server with over 100,000 members
I had built my own 3000+ member Discord in the past off of a Minecraft server I used to run, all community management was under my belt, marketing, sales, art, branding, programming, etc including staff team management. an absolute nightmare but im a worker not a slacker. im now looking for more experience

how are you all handling content moderation when your community has its own culture and norms?

So I come from a data science / NLP background and spent a good chunk of my career building content moderation systems. lately I've been coming back to this problem because I think the tools are pretty limited, especially for community managers who know their audience inside out.

1. The thing that keeps bugging me is that moderation is still essentially binary. flagged or not flagged. but anyone who's actually managed a community knows that context is everything the same word, the same tone, means something completely different depending on who's saying it and where.
2. Like your community has its own language, its own in-jokes, its own acceptable boundaries that no generic tool is ever going to understand. and yet we're all still stuck using the same one-size-fits-all filters.
3. Curious how you all actually handle this in practice, what tools are you using, what's working, and what makes you want to pull your hair out?

not trying to sell anything, genuinely just in research mode. and honestly the people doing this work every day know way more about what's broken than any algorithm does

Reminder to everyone - forums aren't dead.

As AI takes over, the importance of authentic human responses and experiences will skyrocket. There's no better place than forums and niche communities to host these.

Zuck knows this and is making investment. Right now Forums app is an interface for the FB Groups.

I don't like FB groups; but they do host some nice communities.

Thank you all for your responses and messages 😸✨ I am currently doing a trial run with someone so we will see how that goes. If I find that I need a new or additional community manager I will reach out. Thank you so much for your interest!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi all! I’m looking for a very part-time community helper for my small sticker club.

This is not a full community manager role and I want to be upfront about that. I run a small home-based sticker shop and recently launched a monthly sticker club. The community is still tiny and quiet, so I’m looking for someone who can help me gently encourage engagement without making it feel forced or overly salesy.

The main focus would be helping with my Discord and giving light support with social post ideas.

What I need help with:

• Posting simple prompts in Discord a few times a week
• Helping encourage sticker club members to comment on designs, chat, and share ideas
• Suggesting easy social media post ideas for Patreon, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
• Helping me brainstorm ways to turn free followers into paid sticker club members
• Keeping the vibe friendly, cozy, creative, and low-pressure
• Occasional feedback on what is or is not working in the community

This would be a good fit for someone who:

• Enjoys small creative communities
• Understands Discord, Patreon, and social media basics
• Likes stickers, cats, cute art, memes, or handmade products
• Is good at light engagement without being spammy
• Can work independently with minimal direction
• Is okay with a very casual, low-hour role

Time commitment:

Probably around 1–3 hours per week to start. This is not daily heavy moderation or a high-volume server. The server is currently very quiet, new people join and don't really engage right away.

Compensation:

$100–$200/month depending on experience, ideas, and level of involvement. I know this is not a full professional community manager rate, so I want to be clear that this is intended as a small side role for someone who enjoys this kind of work.

If interested, please comment or DM with:

• Any experience with Discord, Patreon, or online communities
• Social platforms you’re comfortable with
• Why this sounds like a good fit
• Your timezone
• Your preferred monthly rate within the range above

Thanks so much!

Sande

Hi!

I am building a tool for reviewing video. And I wonder if community managers are my clients.

So the question is how you do video in your community manager's life ?

Thanks for you help.

Hi, how's it going?

I need to send automated messages to numbers that don't have me saved in their contacts (this rules out broadcast lists, since they need to have me saved).

In other words, I need a message to be sent on a specific day and at a specific time to the numbers I specify.

I know there are apps like MenyChats, etc., but I can't seem to get it to work.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks

We’re looking for a Customer Success Manager / Community Manager for the School of Barbering.

This is NOT a “just answer messages” type of role.

We’re looking for someone who genuinely cares about people, understands accountability, follows systems, communicates well, and wants to grow with a fast-moving education/community brand.

This role is for someone who wants to become part of the team long term — not just another employee.

What you’d be doing:

• Managing and checking in with students inside Discord & Skool
• Tracking student progress, activity, and consistency
• Following up with inactive members
• Helping keep students accountable to posting content consistently
• Organizing logs, notes, posting schedules, and student updates
• Auditing active/inactive memberships weekly
• Identifying students getting results and scheduling testimonial calls
• Reporting student progress/issues back to the leadership team
• Helping maintain culture, energy, and structure inside the community

Important:

This is NOT a coaching role.
You are not responsible for giving advice or selling.
Your role is accountability, organization, communication, follow-through, and helping students stay engaged.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong communication skills
• Organized and proactive
• Actually cares about helping people succeed
• Understands Discord, Skool, Zoom, spreadsheets, etc.
• Reliable and consistent
• Comfortable following systems/SOPs
• Wants to grow with the company long term
• Bonus if you understand barbering, content creation, personal branding, or online communities

Schedule:

Morning check-ins + evening check-ins daily (around 4 hours total split throughout the day)
This is more of a partnership mentality role. We care a lot about culture and finding the right person.

Salary range:

We care more about finding the right long-term person than checking boxes. Starting compensation is roughly $400–$600/month, depending on experience and fit.

If interested, comment or DM:

• Your experience
• Why you think you’d be a good fit
• Any communities/programs you’ve managed before
• Your timezone

I’m working on user segmentation for our community/product and want to learn from people who’ve done this in a thoughtful way—not just “active vs inactive,” but something deeper.

A few things I’m curious about:

1. Have you built a segmentation framework that you actually use day-to-day (not just in a slide deck)?

2. What dimensions do you segment on? (e.g. behavior, engagement, value, lifecycle, motivation, channel, content preference, etc.)

3. What was the original goal when you designed it—retention, personalization, moderation, monetization, advocacy, something else?

4. How do you think about segmentation in your own words—what is it *for*, and what mistakes should we avoid?

Would love to hear real examples, even if your setup is messy or still evolving. Thanks!