1. THE ART OF THE
THREAD
Building community without losing your mind

2. THREE
principles:

3. 1
SUCCESSFUL
communities require
DESIGN

7. 2
COMMENTS
correlate with
TRAFFIC

8. JUNE 2008 AUGUST 2008

11. 3
near-term investment
LONG-TERM PAYOFF

12. ASK
the

13. THE CHEAPEST QUESTION:
What do you think?

17. POSE QUESTIONS THAT REFLECT A
genuine hunger for answers

21. POSE QUESTIONS WITH A SET OF
actual respondents in mind

26. ANSWER
the

28. a day later?!

29. WHEN IT COMES TO GRATITUDE,
DON’T STATE IT
DEMONSTRATE IT

30. Threads should feel more like
chat than correspondence.

31. the
PRIZE

36. the
PAIN

37. “
“
I strongly believe that if this blog didn’t have comments,
it would lose about 75 percent of whatever magic it has.

38. Your most powerful troll-squasher is not
your delete button.

39. IT’S YOUR MEGAPHONE.

42. Assume good faith.

44. “
“
If I miss a couple [trollish comments],
don’t make the job harder by engaging.

47. AWESOME: YOUR COMMENTERS BECOME
your best sources

48. ULTIMATE: YOUR COMMENTERS BECOME
each other’s best sources

49. Treat comments as content:
the ASK … Assign
the ANSWER … Curate
the PAIN … Edit
the PRIZE … Promote

50. Questions?