Platforms dominate the internet. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others are all incredibly influential but they are nothing without their communities of users.

Communities need to be managed, young communities need stimulation and encouragement to grow and older, larger communities need moderation. The science and art of community moderation is not well understood; brands especially cannot predict what seeds a community will grow around or what discussions the community will have.

Community moderators are influential in their ability to encourage or discourage conversation. They are directly powerful in their ability to rule in our rule out certain types of content or topics.

Image “Forum header” by Jason Rainville and shared on CGHub.