The presentation I gave at Refresh Seattle:

1. Community Mod-Fu
Secrets Revealed: The
2x4 of Kindness

2. The Context
• From 0 to 85k+ in 6 years.
• One of the most effective communities of
this size on the internet.
• Commercial & Open Source.

3. The 2x4
• Truth is King. Right is always right.
• The Customer is not always right.
• You are not always right.

4. Rose FAIL
• “Do not cut off the nose and then offer the
rose.”
• Professional communities tend toward self-
righteousness.
• Flame wars are bad.

5. Of Kindness
• The method in which we collectively agree
to uphold what we consider to be Truth.
• Kindness is universally understood and
difficult to countermand.

6. Uphold
• It is better to uphold the Truth than to
destroy the counter perspective.
• This is difficult and contrary to mainstream
commercialism.

7. Truth
• Know Your Story & Message (core Truth)
• EllisLab: “We help people succeed.”
• Truth is more than facts & numbers, ie
authentic storytelling is important.

8. The Foundation
• Invite people into the story; merge yours
with theirs.
• Build slowly. This is more complex than it
appears.

9. Practical
• Be authentic; ok to fail.
• Don’t respond when angry.
• The buddy system (get a 2nd opinion).
• Ban those who won’t Uphold, but only as a
last resort (85k, less than 10 people banned).

10. Considerations
• You’ll have a community of Truth-telling
professionals who won’t be shy. Can you
handle that?
• Does your business model support long
term growth? This will cost you short-term
sales in favor of a loyal community.

11. The Result
• Better communication enables better goods
& services.
• Sustainable long-term growth.
• Word of mouth marketing gold.
• A community that helps each other.

12. Online Adventures
• http://ellislab.com
• http://salvator.me
• http://twitter/knight777