A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy
by Clay Shirky · shirky.com
Clay Shirky's 2003 keynote essay on why online groups repeatedly undermine themselves: flame wars, newcomer floods, the core group that tends a community, and why member identity, barriers to participation and governance must be designed in from the start. Free, widely cited foundational text explaining why moderation and governance exist at all.
More resources on Community Management
communityledgrowth.com
Community Led Growth is a resource hub dedicated to strategies for building and leveraging communities to drive product adoption and business growth. It offers actionable articles, case studies, and templates on community-building tactics, engagement, and governance.
Link in Bio (newsletter)
A weekly newsletter for brand social media practitioners by former Bon Appétit social lead Rachel Karten. It explains why brand social strategies work or fail and interviews the social teams behind accounts such as Duolingo and The Washington Post. The most respected free source on current brand social strategy from working practitioners, explaining the reasoning behind tactics; in-house case-study interviews have no textbook equivalent.
Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design
Turns social-science research into concrete design claims for online communities: attracting newcomers, encouraging contributions, building commitment, regulating bad behavior through norms and moderation, and starting a new community, citing theory, experiments or field studies for each claim. The only evidence-based treatment of the field; every recommendation is tied to research, filling the structural gap next to the practitioner-led entries (FeverBee, CLG, Webber).
Building Successful Communities of Practice
Emily Webber's short practical guide to creating and sustaining communities of practice inside organisations, drawing on her work at the UK Government Digital Service. Covers community lifecycle, leadership roles, events and measuring value, so readers can launch and run one.
feverbee.com
FeverBee is a leading resource for community management, offering practical guidance, frameworks, and case studies for building and scaling online communities. It features expert articles, tutorials, and training resources on strategy, engagement, governance, roles, and metrics.
cmxhub.com
CMX Hub is a leading resource hub for community managers, offering articles, templates, case studies, and events to help you build, grow, and sustain online communities.