All sorts of communities and member organizations are having a hard time lately. Many churches are struggling with attendance and corresponding revenue. The clubs our grandmothers and grandfathers belonged to are waning. Even some relatively new online communities wrestled with engagement and are now pulling back or closing.

At the same time, “online communities are a much more popular and effective new member engagement tactic than they were four years ago – 48% more popular”, says the 2022 New Member Engagement Study. The interest in hosting a community is climbing because some slick new community platforms, like Juno, are popping up. Many organizations thrive with a user or member community at the heart of their strategy.

Why are some communities failing and some thriving?

I suspect the answer lies in two areas (that are intertwined). Size and moderation, or maybe a better way to say this, is communities gravitate toward and achieve some success with two very different models.

Self-moderated

Some huge communities or host organizations with many members, customers, or users have very active communities with little to no moderation. Take any group of people, and you’ll find that a small percentage are active contributors, a bigger group are infrequent contributors, and the rest are lurkers (they watch, scan, and read but don’t contribute). The tiny band of active and, to a lesser extent, less active contributors props up large unmoderated communities. These communities are seen as super active, but only because of the large volume of members. Hosting a community without staffing seems like excellent news for the host organization because they get a thriving community without expending many resources.

But there’s a dark side. Without moderation, a lack of community norms and an evident culture makes it difficult to know what is acceptable when contributing. This ambiguity reinforces the decision not to participate for less frequent contributors and lurkers. Great ideas are lost to the community. Community members don’t feel safe, so conversations become transactional. Few real connections are forged.

Highly Moderated

Note the headline ‘highly moderated.’ I’m getting the sense that moderation as a side gig doesn’t work. A community host cannot dabble in moderation. Moderated communities need to be highly moderated.

More and more, people expect near-immediate responses. The moderator(s) in highly moderated communities focuses on building a positive culture. Great community moderation isn’t just about enforcement or managing the tech; it is mostly about building a positive culture, enabling connections, and creating experiences. Highly moderated communities can be much smaller and still thrive. The conversation is authentic, vulnerable, and engaging. Connections are made. Solutions are found. Epiphanies are had.

Are you thinking of adding an online community feature to your organization? Starting a community can be beneficial and rewarding when done right. So, think carefully about which model you choose.