Adding to it and expanding our understanding of it is how a concept is used. Beyond the formal usage of it is the use of the concept in the context of conversations, writings, speeches and other forms of communication. It is this practical employment that not only adds depth to the conception as such, but also adds to its worth and not least how and why it can and should be used. What follows are ten quotes about community from a variety of people. Each of them adding different elements or aspects and together hopefully enriching our understanding of community and communities.

… to a poet, the human community is like the community of birds to a bird, singing to each other. Love is one of the reasons we are singing to one another, love of language itself, love of sound, love of singing itself, and love of the other birds.

Sharon Olds

Every community is an association of some kind and every community is established with a view to some good; for everyone always acts in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.

Aristotle

The “sayings” of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life. Such an idiom makes the finest language any writer can have; and he can never get it with a notebook. He himself must be able to think and feel in that speech—it is a gift from heart to heart.

Willa Cather

We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

Henry David Thoreau

The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance—these are what may make a vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.

J Robert Oppenheimer

Justice begins with the recognition of the necessity of sharing. The oldest law is that which regulates it, and this is still the most important law today and, as such, has remained the basic concern of all movements which have at heart the community of human activities and of human existence in general.

Elias Canetti

Commitment, by its nature, frees us from ourselves and, while it stands us in opposition to some, it joins us with others similarly committed. Commitment moves us from the mirror trap of the self absorbed with the self to the freedom of a community of shared values.

Michael Lewis

I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man’s rights—that each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere with the right of no other State, and that the general government, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than that general class of things that does concern the whole.

Abraham Lincoln

He thought that, because the community represents millions of people, therefore it must be millions of times more important than the individual, forgetting that the community is an abstraction from the many, and is not the many themselves.

D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual’s dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today.

Lyndon B. Johnson

I have always loved quotations. While they cannot replace complete works I find it fascinating how much you can pack into just a few words or sentences. Unlike reading the whole book or hearing the entire conversation they leave room for interpretation and reflection. They mean something different to different people and can yet act as facilitators of great thoughts and meaningful acts. Hence have I also decided not offer my interpretation, but to leave them as they are.

The best quotations are the ones that reoccur to us when we need them the most. I have a few of those and hope that you do to. If not then this series of quotations on concepts related to circular communication may help you find some that can guide and support you.

Before reacting to new comments should you take the time to read them thoroughly. I usually check them once a day unless I happen to sit at the computer when they come in. Even if I could react right away do I not give in to the desire to do so. Not yet. Regardless of the comment is it never a good idea to react in an instant. Read each of them carefully and then turn your attention to something else. Your brain will continue to think about the comments in the background and either tells you when it is ready or it will at least be more ready when you decide it is time to start responding. Before you respond do you have to consider how to react though as not all comments require a response.

Broadly speaking can you react in one of three ways when getting a comment. I am leaving spam comments aside as that is another discussion and something I will rather leave to capable technology than deal with myself. When you see a genuine comment can you ignore it, respond to it or delete it. The tricky part is figuring out which comments require which reaction. My suggestion is to consider them neutral, positive or negative and handle them accordingly:

Neutral comments are those that neither add nor subtract. They are neither positive nor negative in this sense. They may very well contain positive elements, but none that moves anything or anyone. Typical examples would be comments like “me too”, “Great Article”, “idiot” or the like. What are you supposed to say to that? Then better say nothing and leave them be if they come from someone that you are comfortable linking back to or if they contain no link to a website.

Positive comments add something to the article or to the preceding comments. They can be taking the idea further, offer new angles, help complete an argument or add missing pieces. If they criticize is it constructively so that everyone stays in the conversation and can see where the flaw is or problem lies and how it could be improved upon or solved. Everything that brings us further teaches us something and even more so if we participate in the conversation by commenting ourselves.

Negative comments are negative as they only subtract. Basically are they just the opposite of the positive. They offer nothing new, but simply interrupt. Like the guy who always seemed to be around when you tried to learn something. The one who always had to put himself in the center even if he would have been better off shutting up and paying attention. Should he show up at your site are you bound to find out. Now is your chance to finally show him the door by simply deleting his comment.

Unfortunately is not every comment this easy to label. They are not all purely neutral, positive or negative, but can contain more elements. This is something you need to consider when dealing with them. After having dealt with the purely negative and the purely neutral comments (by deleting them and ignoring them respectively) is it thus time for another break. Great or small depending on your taste you should take the time to reflect before you reply.

Having sorted out the clearly neutral and negative do we have the three variations of positive comments left to deal with. Those that are positive through and through, those that are positive with neutral elements and those that are both positive and negative:

The purely positive are the easiest to deal with. You still have to come up with a good response, but that is really all you have to consider. Checking the 10 Tips That Will Make Anyone a Better Commenter will serve you well as that wasn’t just written for “other people” you know. Often are commenters bloggers and vice versa and you really should take the same care when commenting regardless of playing home or away. If everyone adheres to the same guidelines is the chance that much bigger that we all enjoy and profit from it.

Slightly different, but essentially the same are the positive comments with neutral elements. By this do I not mean that they say nothing and then say something, but that they don’t manage to get their point clearly across. You may end up having to guess what they mean or deal with arguments that seems to be contradicting themselves. This requires a little more finesse and diplomacy than the purely positive comment, but if you follow the guidelines just mentioned should you be fine.

Positive comments with negative aspects are typically comments that make a good point, but do so in an unacceptable manner. Although basically unacceptable these comments may deserve a second chance. Your options are to keep them in moderation and wait for a new response or to reply with the utmost consideration. If they try again let that decide how you react. If you choose to respond then pay special attention to staying on topic in order to keep everything personal out of it.

By structuring your reactions to comments on your blog do you stand a better chance of making the most of them. You should even be able to foster more positive comments that way as you clearly show that you don’t tolerate purely negative comments, don’t have the desire to reply to just anything and know how to deal with everything else. With time people will be able to see how commenting on your blog works and ease in. Even if they don’t you at least have the structure in place to deal with it.

While you should strive to attracting as many positive comments on your articles as possible should you not be lamed by the prospect of having to deal with negative comments. Some bloggers are very hesitant to delete comments, but provided you follow the steps above and really put in the time to reflect on how to label each comment is there really nothing to be hesitant about. Remember that just because we post something that everyone in the whole world can read doesn’t that automatically give everyone else the right to do the same. Not on my blog at least.

If everyone keeps his or her eyes on the ball and focus on what was written should everything be fine. Should someone not respect that is it really not that hard to deal with. Once the comment is submitted the commenter may still own the words, but he or she has nonetheless lost control as we have the provision to edit, delete or hide it as we see fit. However, since commenting in a way that everyone not only can live with, but indeed will benefit from really isn’t that hard is that certainly the route that I hope everyone commenting here choose to take.

To learn more about responding to comments and especially about how to deal with negative comments check out Lorelles articles: Mean Spirited Comments and Blogging and Comments on Comments as well as Blogging? You’re A Moron by Jason Kaneshiro and Bes Zain’s The Art Of Reacting To Criticizing Comments.

Since I thus far have been spared for not only negative comments, but also what I consider poor comments, do I want to take this opportunity to voice my opinion on what makes good comments and good commenters. When you have an opinion you may as well put it out in the open. Since I don’t want to write a formal policy on the matter did this seem like the best way to do it. Doing it now will hopefully spare me for getting into trouble when I eventually have to deal with both poor and negative comments as practically every blog must. I put a lot of work into my articles so the least you can do is to respect that when commenting on them. The same respect should be shown good commenters. Whether commenting here or commenting other blogs these are the basic principles that I try adhering to when I comment.

1. Have something to say.
Just adding a “ditto”, “good article”, or similar is just not okay. It brings nothing to build on nor does it make anyone any wiser. Some blogs are full of such comments, but “oddly” enough none of my favorites blogs. Don’t be unimaginative when you can be so much more.

2. Stay on Topic.
If you comment on a specific topic then stay with it. Wandering off in all sorts of directions doesn’t help anyone. Parallels or opposites are welcome though as they add to the topic without watering it down. Avoid dragging the person into the discussion unless what he or she wrote invites you to.

3. Add something new.
If someone already stated what you also wanted to say then find something else to say or find a new perspective on it. Simply repeating things doesn’t move neither the conversation or the people participating in it.

4. Go for clarity.
Don’t try to be clever by using irony, sarcasm or exaggerations if you aren’t able to make it clear what you are doing. Don’t expect anyone to understand you if you aren’t even trying. Be aware of negation, punctuation and smilies. Put them in the wrong place or forget them and you will lose everyone.

5. Don’t rant, be constructive.
Keep things short and to the point. Some arguments require longer comments and that is fine, but don’t overdo it. Then rather divide things up and add them to the conversation as it evolves. Thinking and writing constructively even when you criticize helps structure your response.

6. Link appropriately.
When you refer to someone else’s work you should link to it. When you refer to your own relevant work can you link to it. In all other cases should you not be linking. Links are like words meant to add something besides itself. Don’t pull people out the conversation for no good reason.

7. Don’t be arrogant.
You may know more about the subject than the other commenters or the blogger, but if you communicate it poorly does it not help anyone. You are more than welcome to set things straight or show how clever you are as long as you do it with respect for everyone else.

8. Show who you are.
Knowing who you are adds to what you write. We need not know personal details, but which blog you write on is helpful when determining the validity of what you write as well as the philosophy behind it. In fact should you consider your comments part of your personal branding.

9. Keep some things to yourself.
You are in a public place. You may want to consider sending an email instead of commenting if your comment is of a personal or private nature. That won’t add to the discussion, but at least it will save everyone from the embarrassment that could otherwise be the result.

10. Take the time.
Browsing the article and then quickly typing a comment could backfire. Did you actually read and understand it? Did you check the other comments? Did you think your comment through? Generally you can ask yourself how you would react to your comment and you will know if you can and should send it.

An important point when you comment is how you start your comment. Getting off to a good start will almost ensure that the rest of the comment follows the pointers above. For a great list of comment starters check out: Thinking about the teaching of writing, where you also find additional valuable points on how to write. Especially what the use of questions and writing for an audience is concerned. In 7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs Liz Strauss makes the case for getting positive attention and starting new relationship with bloggers by observing how you interact with the blog and blogger. While a couple of the points overlap with my guidelines are there also some new ones you do well to respect also. On a slightly lighter note Lorelle wrote How NOT to Comment on Comments and although she states that it isn’t funny (the poor comments that is) the article itself is bound to get you laughing. At least I did while not forgetting the good points she makes.

If you comment as outlined above do you not only make the bloggers life easier, but that of everyone else involved as well. You enrich it even. Good comments helps motivate the blogger and the other commenters to do even better. They add to the conversation and make everyone smarter. They help build communicative bridges and expand communities regardless of what else sets us apart. It may be my obligation as a blogger to give you the best platform possible for your comments, but at the end of the day is it your decision and your responsibility how you make use of it.

There are a number of variations, but typically, the person who wants to organize (equivalent to the publisher of a magazine) a Blog Carnival posts details of the theme or topic to their blog, asking readers to submit relevant articles for inclusion in the next edition. The host (equivalent to the editor of a magazine), who may or may not be the same as the organizer, subsequently collects the submissions, edits and annotates them, and publishes them on his or her blog. While some carnivals are always hosted on the same blog and thus have this as center for it’s community (remember that community means having something in common – like the interest in the same topic or topics) other carnivals centers around an own website or principal organizer, who lines up guest hosts for each edition. This means that the carnival appears on a different blog each time, which on the one side helps expand the community, but on the other side means that the community will be more fragmented.

There is so much information on the Internet, that readers are having a hard time finding what interests them. If there is a Blog Carnival for a topic you are interested in, following that carnival offers a splendid opportunity to learn what bloggers are writing about it. If you are blogging on that topic, the carnival is a great place to share your work with like-minded bloggers and readers. Carnivals thus provides community and structure to the blogging experience by providing a nice aggregation of recent posts by the community on a given topic or theme. The host provides a level of editing and commentary that helps readers find posts they are interested in while earning the host a readership if he does a good job. Writers who submit their articles to blog carnivals are rewarded with traffic, recognition and community.

Blog Carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize quality blog articles around important topics and improve the overall level of communication among bloggers and their readers. It thus helps people find what they want, help show appreciation and raise the level of communication and community. Before you start contributing, organizing and/or hosting one should you read the following articles carefully. They will help you recognize that the more your put into it the bigger the benefits will be, that you have an obligation to assist preserving and heightening the quality of your community and that thinking ahead and building it into your overall strategy or purpose is what works the best. Furthermore will they help illustrate that there are more angles from which you can look at carnivals and more motives to participate. Note that the list isn’t ordered. You really should read (or at least browse) all the articles to get the complete picture or all angles of a particular aspect.

Five Questions (and Answers) About Blog Carnivals
“The best Carnivals are more than just a link-fest; rather, the really good ones get creative. The creator comments on the articles that have been submitted. They make it funny. Or they weave the entries together into a story. Or they really think outside the box and create something totally different.”

Link Building via Hosting Blog Carnivals
“Do you belong to a niche targeted group of bloggers? Is your business blog-friendly? Perhaps hosting your own Blog Carnival would be an easy and efficient link building tool for your market.”

How To Get Great Inbound Links and Connections Too
“Not all links are created equal. Some will be from junk sites, sblogs (spam blogs) or sites that have little to no relevance to your blog’s content. These links may still help with things like your Technorati rating, but generally speaking they won’t do much to increase traffic or awareness of your blog. The best links are those from high-trafficked, relevant sites. But don’t be too concerned about getting links from A-listers … what’s really important is the relevancy.”

On Blog Carnivals And Bonfires
“Nobody is entitled to have the entire world read his or her thoughts. But that’s what has become of the Carnival establishment, a sense of entitlement. The critics of a rating system for carnival posts assert that a rating system ruins the “vibe” of the Carnival. What is this supposed vibe, anyway? To hear these folks talk about it, the “vibe” is nothing but feigned equality and a warped form of free blogger love.”

How to Host a Blog Carnival
“The blog carnival must be one of the Blogosphere’s finest innovations. Akin to an anthology but far more dynamic, a carnival harnesses the self-publishing, self-promoting spirit of blogging. And because the cost of entry is so low (free, actually,) magnificent new carnivals are popping up almost as quickly as new blogs.”

Sour Duck’s Carnival Host Notes
“This is an informally written and entirely voluntary summary of my experience hosting Issue 3 of The Carnival of Feminists. These notes are written for the benefit of future and potential hosts, with a view to aiding them in their Carnival project. The notes are split into five sections: Part I: Introduction, Definition, and Disclaimer, Part II: Technical Notes, Part III: Meta-Issues, Part IV: Reference Links, Part V: Revisions”

Blog Carnivals And The Future Of Journalism
“Rounding the carnivals up every month, in addition to frequent hosting, sending entries and linking to new editions, gave me, I think, some insights into what makes a carnival and especially what makes a successful carnival. I’ll now attempt to systematize what I think I learned. I will repeatedly use analogies to hard-copy journalism and to physical spaces.”

Although mostly focused on the organizing and hosting of Blog Carnivals are the above articles also a great read for anyone considering participating as they also touch upon the logic and purpose of carnivals. Generally will some people be attracted to such events while others will shy away from them. It may come down to who you are and why you blog. Still, as you can see from some of the articles, even people who don’t necessarily agree with the philosophy of Blog Carnivals will recognize and realize the benefits they can reap from them. Before taking the jump from participating to hosting or organizing do your blog have to have an audience of a considerable size though. Otherwise you won’t be able to attract enough qualified contributions. Just as the content is the foundation for any successful blog are the contributions the basis for a successful carnival. Taking one step at a time, going from reader to participant before hosting and finally organizing may thus be the safest route to take. If done right could it very well be the most enjoyable and developing journey you take as a blogger.

Personally am I so taken in by the whole concept of Blog Carnivals and how well this conception fits my blogging philosophy that I certainly will be taking the plunge in the near future. As with most other things will I be looking to work out my own unique version of it before doing so though.

Before we start there is a couple of points I need to make. A traditional interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by one of them to obtain information from the other(s). However, this is a virtual interview, which means that the participants are separated both in time and space and only connected through their writing. In this context is the deciding difference however that the interviewer has to do all the present work including picking the topic, choosing the participants, formulating the questions and finding the answers. You could thus also call a virtual interview a particular form of reorganizing someone’s written words. I already hear someone yelling out that this ignores one of the most important aspects of interviewing someone, as it totally ignores the conversational aspect. Of course I would have loved to have an actual conversation both within the post itself and in the subsequent comments, but I have my reasons as I explain in more detail in the conclusion. As the lack of actual conversation has no negative consequences on what you can learn from this do I suggest we get on with it, shall we?

Why Do You See Relationships As Perhaps the Most Important Aspect of Blogging?

“At first glance, it seems writing is a solitary thing. In many ways, it’s true the writer’s task is individual. No one can help me write. I am left alone to sort my thoughts, to find the words, to set them to text with structure and expression. It’s a private search to articulate meaning. In another glance, it’s easy to see writing is socially dynamic. We record our lives. We announce our plans. We write sadness and sympathy. We spell out love and loneliness. We describe our achievements and failures in detail and drama. Most of all we talk to each other. We talk around the world without a sound. The longer I am a blogger, the more I discover how much we’re connected to each other by relationships. All of the words I write link me closer to the readers who read them. As we discuss our responses to each other’s thoughts in the comment box, we get linked more closely.” Liz [Connectors and Mavens on the Tipping Point]

“Over the years, I’ve been honored to meet a car mechanic who loved knitting and decided to share his passion for knitting through an online journal, allowing his passion to overcome the naysayers, which became a blog, then became his life. I’ve met artists who felt isolated and alone with their art, disconnected from the world, find friends and compatriots through their blogs. Others felt isolated by geographical location, stuck in towns and villages where they felt different and alone, unable to connect with those around them. Through their blogs, they not only found friends, but they found their voice and the strength to keep going, turning their thoughts around to embrace their community rather than run from it. In online friendships, race, culture, color, religion – none of it mattered as they found new mentors and supportive networks to help them find a place in the world through virtual relationships.” Lorelle [Are You Blogging Your Passion or Blogging to Blog?]

“The living web is built on relationships that grow through conversation. A certain magic happens when blog comments turn into conversation. When a blogging conversation happens, ideas, thoughts, and information gets passed from person to person. In the process, we find a human connection. They say “no blog is an island.” But a blog can be one, and blogging is not the same in isolation. The ideas, thoughts, and information that we share in blogging conversation make us stronger and expand us, as people, not just as bloggers.” Liz [The 4 Keys to Reader Comments and Conversation]

“When we blog, we are giving part of ourselves to others. We are sharing our thoughts, insights, concerns, issues, feelings, and our stories with others. For some, blogging means sharing ourselves with the hope of making the world a better place. For others, blogging means sharing their interests in the hope of attracting other like-minded folks. Blogging is a two-way street of communication. You share your insights, and your readers respond. Over time, you understand that their comments are as much part of the content of your blog as your contributions. Your readers give you insights into what you say, nudge and push you along with your thinking, they encourage you, motivate you, and inspire you to blog better and more. In time, you learn that what they have to say is just as important as what you say. In giving of yourself, you get so much back in return.” Lorelle [Building Blog Relationships: Reaching Out]

Can Links Be As Important when Facilitating Relationships As Content and Comments?

“A link in a blog post with a recommendation to visit will give your blog more credit than a link sitting in a blogroll doing nothing for you. Want a real relationship with another blogger? Write about them and link to their best work. Want another bloggers attention? Write about them and their good work and see what happens to your new relationship. It’s amazing what linking relationships will build. A trackback takes the relationship even farther. A trackback is a link from one post to another, alerting them that there’s a discussion going on about this blog post elsewhere. Trackbacks are the real letters of recommendation on the web. It’s a magical method of establishing relationships from one blog to another blog and another.” Lorelle [Linking Relationships]

“What is a link? Is a link clicks and traffic and Google rankings? Or does a link represent that I know you, that I’ve read your content, that you’re relevant and of value to me? Is a comment conversation or something I can buy or rent? We’re living in two Internets. It looks much like the companies we find in the world of brick and mortar. One is about places, information, and data. It’s the buildings in which people work. The other is about people, relationships, and conversation. It’s the people who work in those buildings. One is a structure. The other is social.” Liz [The Two Webs: Information or Relationships?]

“Link love is not dead, yet. As the Relationship 2.0 movement builds momentum link love will be redefined from just being a search engine optimization strategy to a relationship network of communication, collaboration, and confidence via relationships – which is the first step toward trust, the ‘real’ currency of doing business online. In the beginning the web was dominated by IT geeks. Increasingly, relationship geeks are blogging. This trend is simply reflecting real life. As more relationship geeks begin to leverage blogging technology the relationships they build online will create new momentum. The new metric will be the number of friends in your network not the number of incoming, one-way links.” Lorelle [Relationship Geeks Building a Relationship 2.0 Network]

What Role Does Relationships Play when All You Want to Do Is Doing Business?

“It’s not about how many ads you can litter your blog with. It’s not about how much money you can make with those ads. It’s not about how much traffic you can get, especially from one shot digg’s or Slashdots. Honestly, it’s about the relationships you build between you and your audience. Your ability to interact and knock down walls between you and your readers. It’s about the information you share with others, helping them learn more about their life and what they do with it, and finding the answers to their questions, or challenging them to give you the answers to your questions. It’s about communication.” Lorelle [Web Zero: Building Relationships With Your Blog]

“Bloggers are just beginning to figure out the depth and breadth of the medium in which we are playing and working. The brilliant idea of Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers so well defined and described by Seth Godin underscores the exact importance of relationships in every business and every life. When Seth talks about marketing, he often uses a metaphor of dating – also known as having a relationship. All business is relationships. Everything people [do] is relationships.” Liz [Connectors and Mavens on the Tipping Point]

“For those who want their blogs to be a vital part of their business, be it the business of blogging or using their blogs for reputation building, advertising, and corporate good will, it’s the relationships the blog forms that changes the dynamics, and can increase your profits. The “old thinking” of advertising was push and pull. Pushing advertising at the customer and pulling them in with “must buy” pressure. The new thinking of advertising goes back even further, to a time when the only reason you shopped at a particular grocery store or banked at the bank on the corner is because they knew your name, and the names of your children. You shopped for friendship, you shopped for loyalty, and you returned because of the trust. They knew who you were. In a world stuffed with nameless instant gratification, sometimes people want to know who they are buying from. They want a personal face on an impersonal world.” Lorelle [Building Blog Relationships: Reaching Out]

How Would You Suggest New Bloggers Get Started Building Relationships?

“In order to begin a relationship with a reader, you need to get them to your blog. One of the most powerful methods of attracting new readers is by publishing a popular post. A popular post is one that attracts attention and gets people talking about it because it: 1. Is well written and easy to read. 2. Incites thought. 3. Incites a response. 4. Has the information people are searching for at the moment. 5. Serves the needs of the many, not the few. A popular post is one that attracts a lot or consistent level of traffic which draws in new readers.” Lorelle [Building Relationships With Your Most Popular Posts]

“What new friends have you met lately? How have you made getting to know your blog easy for them? Here are three things you might do to get the ball rolling. 1. Find a new blog in your niche to follow. New blogs are new people with new points of view. Join their discussion by leaving meaningful comments and trackbacks. Every discussion offers an opportunity to learn something new from. 2. Check your sidebar. Make sure your sidebar is friendly to new arrivals who want to take a tour. Showing your readers where to find things is advertising. 3. Organize your archives as your readers would want them, and make a Popular Posts page. Ask your readers how they use your archives. Try to use them yourself to see how they actually work. Take the time to put your most popular articles in one place where new readers can find them as soon as they arrive at your blog. New friends who feel at home usually come back to visit again.” Liz [What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them?]

“The best lures are timeless articles which continue to fascinate and inform. They are well written and stand the test of time by fulfilling needs today, tomorrow, and a year from now. They answer the questions everyone wants to know. By providing these foundation needs consistently on your blog, you will build a loyal fan base of readers who keep coming back for more, and are eager to tell their friends about you. Provide content that matches the rest of your blog’s content and readers will stay. Attracting and maintaining readers is critical to your blog’s overall success. The relationship between your readers and your content is critical to building an audience. If you aren’t keeping them happy and not holding their attention, they will go elsewhere. In time, without the relationship formed with web traffic levels and comment interaction and feedback, your enthusiasm decreases. If this continues, your blog will slowly die because the relationships are dying.” Lorelle [Blog Relationships: Fishing With Lures and Bait]

“I’d like to offer some great ways to connect with other bloggers, ways that will get you positive attention and start relationships of mutual respect… Look before you speak. … Listen also. … Know you’re a visitor. … Don’t leave links without knowing or asking. … Come with the mind of a learner and you’ll be well rewarded. … Know that being clever or teasing folks in print is a talent, be sure to use a emoticon if you’re doing it. … If you leave a comment that argues a point or asks a question, do come back.” Liz [7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You're Out Reading Blogs]

Thank you Lorelle and Liz for your great insights, your passion and compassion and not least for sharing. I have certainly learned a lot from both of you and continue to learn something every time we communicate. I am sure everyone else do too. Perhaps we can do this again some time. Meanwhile do I encourage everyone reading this to check out the links above to learn even more and not least to reach out in whatever way you can to build more blogging relationships.

As regular readers have already noticed do I like playing with both content and form. The same is true here. I could just have made another link post, but wanted to combine that concept with an idea I have about interviews and what you can do with them. There are thus three main reasons why this ended up being what I refer to as a virtual interview. Time and space are perhaps the most important constraints when interviewing someone. Even if you can bridge space using the Internet will it never be the same as actual presence. However, is time perhaps the greatest obstacle. Not only do you have to be present, at least approximately, at the same time. Everyone also have to find the time to do it. The third reason is that the concept as I thought more about it appealed to me. Although it surely cannot take the place of real interviews and never can be as precise, current or vivid does it also have its advantages. The obvious one is that you can make it regardless of said constraints, but you also have more to work with and greater influence on what the result looks like. This greater freedom comes at the price of far bigger responsibility for doing everyone justice, but if your intentions are honorable and you do everything with care the result can be just as good as if you actually had conducted a proper interview, only different.

Building a community on your blog can not happen in separation. To rewrite a famous John Donne quote is no blog an island, entire of itself; every blog is is a piece of the Blogosphere, a part of the main. Hence is community building essentially about reaching out to other blogs and bloggers. The two main bridge builders are links and comments. By linking to other blogs and commenting on their posts are you in fact ensuring that your blog doesn’t loose the connection to the main land and drift off to sea. Although the notion of being isolated on a deserted island may seem exciting (at least when you hear about it) will it soon become pretty boring and unsatisfying only talking to yourself. Working the community aspect into the purpose of your blogging and your blog will ensure that you don’t share the fate of Robinson Crusoe who wanted nothing more than getting back to his community.

When thinking about the purpose of blogging and your blog you may also consider if you blog to learn or to teach. For me it was important not only to learn to blog, but also to blog to learn. If you blog to learn will you automatically reach out, seek the advice and opinion of others, give feedback (because you appreciate the value of it), ask questions, etc. The question is if you really need to blog to learn. If it wouldn’t suffice to simply read other blogs, ask the questions, make the comments and move on. I personally consider blogging essential to my learning (and relearning) since it offers the opportunity and practically demands that I reflect over what I learn, am able to distill it and that I can communicate it, which is worth so much more than merely reading about it. The teaching aspect will slowly but surely play a greater role as the next proving point will be if you are able to teach others what you yourself have learned. Some say that is indeed the point where you know if you actually learned anything at all.

The interesting point lies between the beginning where you have more questions than answers (provided that the subject is new to you) and the latter stages where you seem to have all the answers to the beginners questions. The key to keeping things interesting is to be aware that what counts is knowing what you don’t know. Constantly coupling your existing knowledge with what you are learning and helping others do the same evens out the playing field. If you from the start aren’t afraid to offer your opinion even if you don’t know the exact answer and you keep asking questions after you seemingly know all the answers you will be able to melt what you know with what you are yet to learn. Besides does most questions not have only one right answer so looking for those would only emulate the search for the holy grail. Important is it that you find your own questions and answers and that you keep this process going.

If your are building something you need a strong foundation. One that makes it possible to build on. One that it is worth building on. Simply throwing together a bunch of links, emailing a lot of bloggers and commenting like crazy on other blogs will not do. People have to find something they can relate to, learn from, add to or something fourth in order for them to interact with you on your blog. From nothing comes nothing when we talk about community building. You are the one who has to create something from nothing so that people can help you add to that something. You will be amazed how much comes from something seemingly insignificant if done in the right way. With a little luck your community building efforts will even benefit from the same logic as compounded interest – your blog will start snowballing, constantly adding to itself and increasing its tempo. However will this only work as long as you do your part, which includes making the way free so that the snowball can indeed keep rolling.

The best additions to great content that encourage interaction is offering additional information and alternate views through links to related posts from other blogs and by commenting in a way that encourage further comments. Once you have laid the foundation is guest blogging something to consider. Simply put is guest blogging commenting’s bigger brother. Just like commenting offers guest blogging the opportunity to expand communities by letting someone from the outside add to them. The scale is however much bigger and the impact more profound. If done right can guest blogging build strong bridges between communities and help them creating subsets. However, it only works if you give to give and not to get. That being said is there nothing wrong with having ambitions and aspirations as long as you keep them on the back seat where they belong. However essential they may be to success should they not be the reason for blogging. Ask yourself if you live to breathe or breathe to live and which of the two is the purpose and which is the facilitator.

Since there is a fine line between community building and self-promotion you have to continuously make sure you do not overstep it too often. When it comes to giving and getting is blogging no different that life itself. Expecting that everything is handed to you on a silver platter will only lead to disappointment. Just as in other aspects of life is there no guarantee that giving will lead to getting, but since getting without giving isn’t an alternative you might as well throw your calculative thinking overboard and simply start giving as much as you can. You will find that there are a lot of giving people within the blogging community and that you will get a lot back. Especially so when you give without expecting something in return. Since what you are giving and getting is all immaterial there is enough of it to go around except when it comes to time. That is the one aspect where you really have to consider that you do not give so much (and don’t demand to much of others) that you neglect yourself and thus diminish the value of everything else you do.

Blogging can be a wonderful experience where you learn a lot, get inspired by great personalities and get to now new people. You may even get to teach others what you know, inspire them and win new friends. There is so much more to blogging than meets the eye. So much more than merely churching out content and monetizing your blog. Or at least there can be. You decide what you want from blogging when you define your purpose and start your blog. The next step is to actually make it happen. It will probably be a long journey, but since the journey is the purpose is that exactly as it should be.

Design for growth and change

Every successful community starts out small, simple and focused. Some remain in that state because they choose to, but others do so because they do not have the necessary prerequisites for organic growth. Most communities are meant to grow, adding breath, depth and complexity in response to the members changing needs and wants as well as the changing conditions of the environment. Ensuring that your community can grow and change is not as simple as it sounds and thinking about it should therefore be one of the first things you do as it influences a lot of the basic decisions you have to make when starting a community. If you simply get the idea and implement it you risk having to start from scratch more than once because you chose the wrong approach, the wrong platform or the wrong design to name a few examples.

For a blog this would mean finding a name that is precise enough for people to know what it is about, but broad enough to be able to cover eventual adjustments of your subject or subjects. Whether you pick a free service or set up your own script should you consider where you want to go and what you want to do. Setting things up and then realizing that the feature you depend on the most isn’t available for your platform can be avoided by thinking ahead. The same goes for your design. It has be constant enough to be recognizable and useable over time, but it also has to be flexible enough for you to add features and ads for example without having to redesign from the ground up.

Create and maintain feedback loops

Helping you design for growth and change when you get off the ground is the feedback from the community. When building a successful online community you will constantly have to balance your efforts and those of your members. Regardless of how well you plan, organize and manage the community you will run into problems if you do not listen to the ideas, suggestions and needs of your community. With feedback loops built in will you not only benefit from feedback on what you are doing right and wrong, but also on what you could or should be doing instead or in addition to your current efforts. Do not forget that it is a balance act though. Simply implementing everything that people want is as bad a solution as not listening at all. Everything have to work together in harmony for the community to develop and you as the community builder is the only one who can ensure that it does.

On a blog this would mean enabling comments and actually reading and responding to them, making sure people can contact you in at least one other way if they don’t want to comment publicly (or alternatively allowing commenting without asking for personal information) and encouraging feedback in what topics you cover and not least how you post. Asking questions, soliciting comments and suggestions and generally signaling openness will help you a lot. Sadly do I not see much feedback when visiting blogs and I think these bloggers are really missing out on something. Staying on topic (while never making your blog or subject the topic), providing answers (never asking questions) and not to blog too much about yourself and your thoughts are perhaps all good ideas most of the time, but if that’s all you ever do then you may very well find yourself flying blind and maybe even solo at some point.

Empower your members progressively

Even if you are the community builder and designer you alone are no community. To actually get something you have to give up something. In this instance what you have to share is power. Obviously you will be the one contributing and influencing almost everything to begin with, but just as obvious is it that this is no lasting formula for community growth. You will have to define the initial purpose, features, design and tone, but as the community grows your influence should diminish as the that of your members grow. You will still be the formal owner, but if no one else feels ownership then the community will cease to evolve and will never mature.

There are two ways that this could work on blogs. One progression were to add contributor profiles to the about page, highlighting people who contribute with the most or best comments, promoting people who comment to actually write posts as well, etc. All more inward oriented activities, but as I see it effective nonetheless. An even more progressive way would be to add guest bloggers and thus draw people from other communities into the blog. This can also be done with linking exchanges in one form another with other blogs and communities. Again could you argue that you aren’t empowering your members, but at best creating new ones. However, if you consider how strong these new members are will it inevitably mean that the power is distributed, which is the point. The community have to start defining itself at some point and if you can help that along while growing and expanding it, why not?

The principles themselves are from the book “Community Building on the Web” by Amy Jo Kim, while their interpretation and adaption is mine.

Suggested further reading: Choosing the Domain Name for your Blog, Choosing a Blog Platform, A Primer for Building Online Community, The Three Dimensions of Blogging: The Vital Combination Every Blog Must Have, Blogger. Know Your Readers — 10 Traits, Blog Relationships: Are You Listening To Your Readers?.