Is owner interaction mandatory?

[SoftWareRevue]

Most communities I've seen are managed by their owners, who generally have a strong presence.

But, is it necessary for them to do so?

How would you feel being part of a community and never "meeting" the owner(s)?

[Dave]

My opinion is that for the startup forum it is a must, but I think that is obvious to all. I think there does come a time though when the owner should back off to a degree. Everybody knows the saying that you learn more from listening than from talking. I think kicking back and watching the direction that the (quality) members take things can help the webmaster to grow with the forum.

In other words step 1: take an active role and get it going in the direction you want. step 2: remove yourself from the hustle so that you may view the direction that the members want it to go. Step 3: Take what you have learned from step 2 and use it to furthur growth as long as it suits your basic ideology, or you may find that you need to re-establish your own direction by repeating the steps.

Of course there is also the psychology aspect that comes from a quiet admin who jumps in and speaks kindly to an unsuspecting member.

Dave

[writespeak]

How would you feel being part of a community and never "meeting" the owner(s)?

It would depend on the type of forum. For most forums, it wouldn't bother me at all as long as the forum was run well and the moderation team had a strong and positive presence.

I've worked for companies where we had a local office or school and the owner was in another part of the country. The owner was the boss, of course, but we had our own group identity where we were, and I didn't want the owner to interfere with that. Forums can be similar in that way IMO.

OTOH, if the forum is a company support forum such as for a web host, I doubt that would work well without the owner's presence. That is, it might be OK with a large, impersonal company, but not with a small company where the forum helps foster a family atmosphere.

Lois

[Scott]

As long as there is a decent moderating team, I don't think this would be a problem. In an established community, it becomes even less of a problem as the community could probably keep active without a consistent leader.

[Chile]

In the games industry, there are many fan based websites where the community is operated by a webmaster, but the registered owner of the domain and purchaser of the software are much larger entities. In this case, you (the members) would probably never hear from the owners. And, in some cases, you really don't want anything to do with the owners. ;)

A good example of this would be IGE. Now, many fans don't want to know that their favourite fansite or favourite program is owned by a company that is the scourge of mutliplayer online games, but it's sometimes the case.

In my experience, I've been approached by owners of other companies to build and maintain fansites strictly for the purpose of their marketing plan. Of course, I'm an independent unless I'm on an active payroll. ;)

[Jan]

I often see forums for sale and it has always intrigued me that someone who has built a successful forum, could sell it. The new owner has no idea of how the members felt about the previous owner, the running of the place etc. I am referring to individual forums here. Say I was a member of (eg) carnivorousanimals forum, I would have joined because of my interest in that subject, gotten to know all the members and staff and then someone else buys it because the current owner no longer has the time to monitor it. I think I would be very watchful of the new owner, to see what changes he/she made, whether he got new (unknown) staff to moderate etc.

In that scenario, as long as the new owner kept things basically the same so as not to interrupt the daily running of the place, then he could be a looker on and it wouldn't worry me.

But if I joined a forum and didn't know who the owner was even, as long as it was nicely run and moderated, not knowing the owner wouldn't trouble me at all :)

[Aussie Bob]

Take the new owners of INET - I have not seen a peep out of them, since they bought it. They're very much separate from their assets.

[Doug]

But the INET sites are run pretty well by their own teams. The old INET guys didn't have much of a presence either compared to the community leaders.

I think having an owner be active is helpful, but if the moderation team is good, it may not be needed.

[Webdude]

Most communities I've seen are managed by their owners, who generally have a strong presence.

But, is it necessary for them to do so?

How would you feel being part of a community and never "meeting" the owner(s)?

Since this is YOUR forum and YOU are the one asking the question, kinda makes me go "Hmmmmm" :think:

[Scott]

Since this is YOUR forum and YOU are the one asking the question, kinda makes me go "Hmmmmm" :think:

I don't think Dennis is planning on running off if that's what you're thinking.

Although, if the squirrels keep it up, you never know. :erm:

[SoftWareRevue]

Actually, I was working on a project where the members had some concerns about this topic.

So, to address their concerns, I had to know what the general concensus was.

I'd hate to tell them that owners don't need to be involved if everyone thought that owners should. :angel:

[adb22791]

It depends. As long as the Community Mods and Leaders are there, then the forum will run smoothly and all will be well, however you don't want users to feel they are ignored by the owners. I know if I'm on a busy board and theres a problem I like seeing the owners talk about it with the users. It's nice to at least see the owners step in once in awhile as well, it gives them a very positive outlook in most peoples eyes. However having daily interaction is not mandatory.

[dojo]

I asked my members on my webmaster forums this thing too, and most of them replied that it's mandatory and that in fact they love the fact I am there all day coming up with new topic ideas or just replying. An admin presence, at least in the early stages of a community is very important.

The only place I am not the highest poster, is my romanian MA forums. I have started many topics and there are some very active members who are carrying it away. Now I just enter the forums few times a day and reply sometimes. I am not the highest poster and a member said he's feeling I have deserted the forums. It really made me think. They are getting well without me and still not seeing me post all day makes them feel a bit deserted ...