An Online Community is More Than a Place

I often hear of or talk to Optaros prospects who want to “build an online community.” That’s great, and I certainly don’t want to discourage them, but I think the phrase risks greatly oversimplifies what’s involved in building a community.

It suggests than an “online community” is something you build like you build: a web site, or a portal. It suggests that the community is the site itself. (It’s a strange kind of synecdoche, in which the web platform where some community interaction takes place is taken to be the actual community itself).

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