@patrickokeefe@mastodon.social
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patrickokeefe

@patrickokeefe@mastodon.social

20+ years in online community, moderation, trust, and safety. Plenty of work in retention, news, streaming, and product, too. You can hire me!

Ex-CNN. Mentor, NEW INC. Host, https://mastodon.social/@communitysignal. Author, Managing Online Forums. He/him.

Based in Hollywood, California. https://mastodon.social/@patrickokeefe on Twitter.

#OnlineCommunities #ContentModeration #TrustAndSafety #Product #ProductManagement #Author #Cmgr #CommunityManagement #CNN #NewsProduct #Moderation #Community #Hollywood #LosAngeles

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communitysignal, to random

“Salon [had] Table Talk, which was an amazing, huge forum site and free [that was] not paying for itself. [A couple of years into my tenure, I was told,] ‘Hey, I think we’re going to close Table Talk on Monday,’ and I’m like, ‘No, we don’t do this. We don’t close a community with no notice.’ [They said,] ‘It’ll be less traumatic for people. It’s kind of like pulling a bandage off.’ No, it doesn’t work that way.” -Gail Ann Williams

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/lessons-from-the-well-making-a-world-where-the-sun-rises-the-next-morning/

communitysignal, to random

“[For associations, it is normal for] the community management duties [to] get divided up among several staff. The problem is, if everyone’s in charge of the community, then no one’s in charge of the community.” -Ben Martin

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/why-some-associations-struggle-with-online-communities/

communitysignal, to trustandsafety

“My job is to click the links no one wants to click.” -@patrickokeefe

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/supporting-the-mental-health-of-front-line-community-pros/

communitysignal, to random

“We have people who behave; people are in bad moods, people are feeling sensitive sometimes, but generally, they are much more earnest, and I’ve attributed it to the fact that they’re paying for it, that people value things they pay for so they take better care of the space.” -Nina Lorez Collins

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/building-inclusive-communities-workplaces-and-an-inclusive-profession/

communitysignal, to random

“Earnesty, applied over time, just wins people over. It’s hard to combat it with sarcasm, irony, anger, all of those things.” –@bassey

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/building-inclusive-communities-workplaces-and-an-inclusive-profession/

communitysignal, to random

“There will never not be pests – the pests won’t decide to stop being pests – so you have to come up with clever ways to manage those problems. When I was talking to one particular farmer about deer, he said, ‘Oh, you don’t have to stop deer, you just have to make your farm less appetizing than the one next door.'” -@fraying

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/you-are-what-you-tolerate/

communitysignal, to twitter

From 2022: “Everything [Musk has said about free speech] has had the quality of good bumper stickers but is totally divorced from reality, and that doesn’t bode well, obviously.” –@owasow

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/elon-musks-quest-to-make-twitter-worse/

communitysignal, to random

“What’s the tone that you set the minute that people sign up to come into your community and participate? What does that look and feel like? If it’s not one where it feels like people can speak up and have their voices be heard, then it’s really hard to course-correct [later on] and start to cultivate that feeling of belonging.” –Marjorie Anderson

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/building-inclusive-communities-workplaces-and-an-inclusive-profession/

communitysignal, to random

“I have never found it impressive when someone acts like their community needs them to survive. I don’t think that’s something you should take pride in. If your community can thrive without you, that speaks volumes to me.” -@patrickokeefe

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/self-care-for-community-professionals/

communitysignal, to random

“I remember in 2000 when dentists were [asking], ‘Do I need an online community?’ There was a trend of, “Oh, it’s online community,’ because of the success at AOL. I was like, ‘No. You’re a dentist.'” -Rebecca Newton

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/when-an-online-community-pro-retires/

communitysignal, to trustandsafety

From 2022: “I want Elon Musk to spend one day as a frontline production content moderator, and then get back to this [Community Signal] crew about how that went. ...

“Were you able to keep up with the expected pace at Twitter? Could you … make good decisions over 90% of the time, over 1,000, 2,000 times a day? Could you do that all the while seeing animals being harmed, kids being beat on, [and] child sexual exploitation material?” –@ubiquity75

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/elon-musks-quest-to-make-twitter-worse/

communitysignal, to random

“Pronouns are not just a segment that you’re going to put on your profile. … At every meeting, [if] you invite people to share their pronouns – cis, trans, doesn’t matter – it essentially says, pervasively speaking, this is a queer-friendly, queer-safe space. …

“Oftentimes, you want to implement these rules so that you’re not looking for explicit consent, you’re looking for implicit acceptance.” –Samantha "Venia" Logan

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/lessons-in-building-safe-inclusive-and-functional-spaces-for-lgbtq-folks/

communitysignal, to random

“Having community in your product team is an opportunity for product leaders to increase their mandate and increase their influence. It’s not just one way. It’s not just community influencing product. It’s increasing the influence of product within the wider org, too.” –@patrickokeefe

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-community-reporting-to-product/

communitysignal, to random

“[After retiring following 30 years in online community,] I’m going to miss working with people online the most. It’s a different animal than working with people offline, and I did plenty of that before I started in the online world. …

communitysignal,

“... Everybody thought they invented remote working. I’ve had remote teams since 1994, so it’s not new. I’m going to really miss that because there’s a special culture in the online world, as you know, that is really hard to describe, or it’s hard for me to describe but is not like the offline world. It’s like being in a special club, in a secret club. That’s how it feels to me.” -Rebecca Newton

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/when-an-online-community-pro-retires/

communitysignal, to trustandsafety

Retirement for online community pros.

That's what online community legend Rebecca Newton is navigating. After 30 years of full-time work in this industry, she has retired.

What does it mean to retire from community, moderation, trust, and safety work? How do you prepare? What does it feel like to step away from the day-to-day care that you provide for others?

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/when-an-online-community-pro-retires/

communitysignal, to random

“If you’re not consistent [in your community moderation,] and if you happen to have the same problems as bigger platforms, then what’s the difference? Why am I investing all of this time as a user into this forum of yours when all of my efforts are being met with inconsistent approaches to keeping the place safe?” –Mohamed Mohammed

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/deepfakes-in-your-community-are-inevitable/

communitysignal, to random

The r/breastcancer subreddit doesn't allow pre-diagnosis posts, a policy created to protect the members the community was created to serve.

“[People] need to go to their doctor, and there are tons of pre-diagnosis resources out there that aren’t going to force people who are actively going through treatment to answer questions they shouldn’t have to answer.” –Amanda Petersen

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/providing-a-safe-and-functional-community-for-cancer-survivors/

communitysignal, to web3

“[The use of ‘community’ in Web3] obscures the idea that these are, first and foremost, financial relationships, that there’s a lot of risk involved, and that the power relations may not be as egalitarian as the word ‘community’ implies.” –Jacob Silverman

▶️ https://www.communitysignal.com/misuse-of-community-is-endemic-in-web3/

communitysignal, to random

Community members who initially find moderation efforts to be stifling will often come around to see them as a differentiating factor that sets your community apart. Here's one such story:

communitysignal, to random

“I struggle with where I want to take on more and do more and constantly think about what my community members need, but I know that if I don’t take care of myself first, I’m not going to be able to do that.” –Lana Lee

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/dismantling-the-model-minority-myth-and-fostering-safer-communities-one-conversation-at-a-time/

communitysignal, to random

“One of the bravest things you could do as a human is reach out to somebody who you feel like is struggling and just ask if they’re okay.” –Becka Ross

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/helping-online-community-members-experiencing-a-mental-health-crisis/

communitysignal, to random

Today marks 8 years of Community Signal. In honor of that, I (Patrick) would like to take a moment to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a man who hosted a podcast for several years. The podcast was rewarding. It led to many meaningful conversations that created a greater level of inclusiveness and understanding within the discipline that the host had made a life’s work out of.

communitysignal, to random

“As a woman of many intersections, being a Black Muslim, child of immigrants, eldest daughter … navigating communities with these intersections, you often see the gaps of which your experience has not been acknowledged or thought about.

“Actually, this has been something I’ve faced mostly in women communities. Communities with the focus for women have often been one type of narrative. I feel, too many times, my story has not been told.” –Faisa Mohamed

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/holding-communities-for-community-professionals-to-a-higher-standard/

communitysignal, to random

“Constraints make things better. Some people think that if you do accessibility, that you’re restricting the creativity of the medium, but constraints actually can make things so much more elegant. When you make [things accessible from] the beginning, it actually can make things better for everyone.” –@wesley83

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/fostering-inclusivity-for-neurodivergent-community-members-and-colleagues/

communitysignal, to Facebook

“If Facebook was asking the question, ‘Are we making the world worse?,’ how do you even answer that question? Facebook is a very metrics-driven organization, and that was a pretty hard thing to quantify. It was like, if you can’t quantify it, then how do you know you’ve solved it? Thus, if you can’t quantify it, maybe we should just move on.” –@Jhorwitzz

▶️https://www.communitysignal.com/facebook-promoted-divisive-content-to-boost-user-engagement/

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