Pew Internet provide this fascinating graph charting how various activities have changed online over the past few years. Rather boringly, I think the most interesting perspective is simply that people are using the net more and accessing email. But you may well disagree.

One of my usual rants regards how irritatingly inward looking net folk are. I totally agree with Blackbeard Blog's idea that plenty of offline experiences can inform online activity, especially when you're a community manager. One of my favourite sources of community wisdom is a builder.

If someone is threatening to kill themselves in your forum, you should send them an email. That's the advice of this piece from Managing Communities called "Dealing with Suicide On Your Online Community or Forums: How You Can Help and Protect Everyone". This article should have been called: "Washing your hands of all responsibility and pleasing your legal director when faced with suicide." It's practical, considered, cold and inhuman. If I had followed this advice in the past, I'd still be eating myself up about not going with my gut. I'd also have a dead community member haunting me.

I like this diagram from Next Engine, even if it doesn't explain everything and is grandly described as How Communities Really Behave. But the sentiment is right... you're not in control.

Teens don't like Twitter. And that's a very useful reminder that when it comes to online communities it can be a case of horses for courses. Matthew Robson, the 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley provided interesting reading. But I wouldn't base a business strategy on his note.

Hi Derek,

Good luck with LabourList. It's a great experiment and I'm sure you're going to have fun with it. I've been a Labour party member since before I could vote. Now a blogger, social media consultant, freelance community/moderation manager and, in a previous life, Community Manager for eBay in the UK where managing the moderation and growth of a large (and sometimes cantankerous) community was my bread and butter.

Welcome to my world. You've got a background in media relations and experience as a psychotherapist and those are both damned useful. But you're not an internet type and (as far as I know) have never managed an online community. I have. Here are some words of advice:

Give up control now.
If for one moment you think you can control this thing you've started, give up. You're wrong. It has a life of its own already and you're barely days in. Of course, you can temper it and remove the obscene and offensive content but you will never suppress people with views you don't like. Don't even try. The best you can do is encourage positive contributions and amplify voices that resonate with LabourList's aims. You're not going to change a single made-up mind. Don't bother trying.

Loonies land first
Call them passionate or call them obsessed. Those with a well–rehearsed rant, long standing grievance, pet peeve or just plain bonkers agenda always turn up first (often because they've been turned away elsewhere or others tired of the same rubbish again and again have stopped listening). LabourList is just a new place they can vent. It's tempting to play tough and it's fun to spank them but actually it's best (always)… to ignore them. That drives them crazy. Smile and wave.

The host sets the tone
If you're combative, you'll get combative back. Studied politeness to all is the only way. Everyone might be ranting around you but never rant back. It's essential to be even-handed and fair no matter how hard you're being criticised or however rude or personal someone is being to you. Recognise and reward the sort of behaviour you want to see more of. For instance, thank people for constructive contributions. That can be in public or privately. A personal email of thanks from a cimmunity host, welcoming future dialogue works wonders. You've been getting snippy on some of the comments threads: it's hard to enforce a positive tone when the host isn't setting much of an example.

Keep on ignoring the trolls.
Just in case you've forgotten already. Maybe your patience is fraying. You want to retort. Don't. Keep on ignoring them. Do not feed the trolls.

The deft hand of moderation, moderates moderately
Moderation is time-consuming and therefore expensive. Newbie moderators tend to want perfection but it simply isn't possible. Prioritise. Swearing and obscenity are top priority, alongside threats and very anti-social behaviour. Delete and warn. Prevent repeat offenders from being able to post.

Moderation isn't a binary choice. It's not a case of either a free-for-all or not publishing anything until it's been approved. Report buttons that let the community participate are useful. Use filters to screen text that may need review by a human. Let people with a good past record through but approve comments from newbies. There are lots of options. If you sanction anyone, give them a clear reason and never discuss individual cases of moderation in public (if they go public on correspondence, consider any discussion closed).

They're not journalists, they're real people (even if they are wankers).
You can't be as brusque with community members as you might be with hacks. A journalist is doing a job, a community member is doing it for fun. Even wankers need to be treated respectfully. You don't need to point out when someone is making a stupid point, or make your case every time: it's usually abundantly clear. (The bloggerheads case is a good one: here's an example post.) We can make our own minds up about him.) It's very easy to rub someone up the wrong way and create an ongoing problem: a person with free time and a vendetta is an expensive indulgence in the long run. Try not to create too many. Ignoring people after they've had a fair hearing, explaining that there is nowhere for the discussion to go, is acceptable practice.

Never forget the Lurkers!
In any online community, there is a silent majority that matter much more than the minority who speak up. Look past the first few rows and play to the gallery. I reckon in a successful community, that for every commenter there are nine others reading. These people are the audience and keep them front and centre as you build LabourList rather than focussing on the ones shouting loudest. As you rightly say, you're building a site for 60 million people, draw them out if you can. Don't drive them away with intemperate treatment of whingers.

Keep on going, Comrade,

Dan Wilson

It's fair to point out that The Telegraph (surprisingly to some) is doing a good job of managing 'the conversation'. In terms of moderation and 'freedom of comment', I'd say they're doing a better job than The Guardian (which is more widely admired). For instance, the Guardian's policy on allowing comments on news stories, rather than Comment is Free, seems to be determined by authors and whether they're up for it. The Telegraph would appear to to be more permissive.

The story Words associated with Christianity and British history taken out of children's dictionary had a specific angle and that lead the tone of the commenters. The story might more accurately have bemoaned the removal of dozens of 'nature words' from the childrens' dictionary. But where would be the journalistic or editorial fun in that?

But the conversation would have been different. As it stands, the tone and content of many comments has been vile and The Telegraph's competant moderation has shown the cool head and swift, deft hand required. The worst comments have been deleted, and quickly, whilst some quite horrid but acceptable contributions, quite rightly remain. The balance and judgment has been impeccable. That's moderation, folks.

Look at any chatroom worthy of its name and every now and again, more often than not, you'll find that chatters turn to criticising the moderator and bemoaning how the forum either a) used to be much better than it is now or b) that recent events mean the future of the forum is in jeopardy.

In these discussions, as in the Commons, the tone is grave. Long-serving members pipe up and share their pearls of wisdom and dust-off ancient, long-forgotten incidents and examples. Discussion focusses on minutiae or the process: "We must be allowed to discuss the problems. Only three hours? Whatever happened to the freedom of speech? We're being censored!" The moderator, like the Speaker, is almost entirely superfluous to the discussion and can only look on.

And, of course, to the casual observer (the outsider), it's all rather perplexing and seems blown out of proportion: "aren't there more important matters to consider?" The forum regular disagrees: "if you think that, you just don't understand."

I've seen people mock MSE for being an ugly site. And I've listened as folks slag off 'publicity-seeking' frontman/founder Martin Lewis. But there is no denying the amazing numbers. Martin Lewis and moneysavingexpert.com are playing an absolute blinder. 2.8m email subscribers. 6.58 unique visitors in October. 4,620 people in the forums as I write. 15,833 forum posts today alone. These are amazing metrics! And with the bad times just around the corner, this is a website that can only do better as a recession bites.

On Saturday I read in one of those money saving tips columns in the paper and saw this advice: "Before you buy online, check out moneysavingexpert.com for a promotional code." Good advice. And better than the usual "use a roadkill hedgehog and a chopstick to make a low-cost toilet brush" ideas we're used to.

For me it represented the moment I realised that moneysavingexpert has found the holy grail when it comes to building an online community: the members are doing the marketing. That's what every cool web start-up in Shoreditch dreams off. And I look on in admiration.

It's great for keeping track of friends. Lots of firms and organisations use it too, mostly rather badly. But some people really get it and are a pleasure to 'follow':

Who doesn't love Sir Stephen Fry? Cuddly, clever, witty, delicious, funny, tweedy, Twinings, Twinings, Stephen Fry. His Tweets are exactly as you would expect… and yes it really is him. He's filming a series in Africa right now and telling us all about it. Lovely.

From national treasure to national government, (did you see what I did there? Did you?) Number 10 Downing Street is twittering too. Of course, there's the usual round of policy announcements and appointments (which are a teeny weeny bit dull) but also a fair bit of gossip and meat to keep us interested. For instance, when the PM was in Japan the Twitterer-in-Chief was there too telling us all about it (sounded like bloody hard work) and we got the inside scoop when they found a kestrel in the garden. In general I'm pretty impressed and surprised by Downing Street and how they're using not only Twitter but also Flickr. There tweets are better, for instance, than both eBay and oh-so-trendy-Obama.

Is there life on Mars? That's what they're trying to find out with the lovely little Nasa Mars Phoenix and he sends lovely little updates that can't help make you feel a little bit sorry for this clever little chunk of space hardware on the next planet out:

Not sure how soon arm will freeze after 1st heater is turned off. Depends on the weather. But saving that power (250 watt hrs/sol) is good.

It's a bit stormy today. Not sure if these are dust or ice clouds, but the sky is more obscured & less sunlight is hitting my solar arrays.

New York Times: Blogging for small businesses
How you can use Stumbleupon - elance
How Digg can help you market your business - elance.com
Techcrunch: 9 ways to build your social network
MyCustomer.com: What does Web 2.0 mean for your small business?
Problogger article on commenting on Blogs

Here's a precis and a list of the services I mentioned:

- Social networks and online communities are huge and possible sources of traffic.
- You need to follow that traffic and see if you can get some for yourself.
- Getting involved is a good way of generating SEO links too.
- It's vital to join the conversation: authenticity and genuine participation is key.
- Start with building profiles that require little maintenance (such as LinkedIN)
- Then join relevant communities.
- Comment on relevant blogs. Keep track using Google Reader
- Measure, measure, measure. Using Google analytics
- If it works, do more. If not ditch it.
- There is a huge difference between Networking and Not Working.

Sites I mentioned:

BT Tradespace
Digg Facebook
Flickr
Last.fm
LinkedIN
Moneysavingexpert
MySpace
Qype
Squidoo

Twitter
Xing
YouTube

And that great video:

That's why I'm so thrilled to be working on Small Business 2.0: a London conference and expo focussing on SMEs who want to unleash the power of the web for marketing, selling or streamlining operations. You can find the Small Business 2.0 website here.

There will be a variety of speakers including representatives from eBay, PayPal, Microsoft, Royal Mail, BT Tradespace, Easily.co.uk, Get Safe Online and Channel Advisor. On top of that, around 30 other firms will be available in the expo room for help and advice, as well as showcasing their products and services.

I'm looking forward to an informative and fun day. And a little bird tells me that there a handful of free tickets available (usually £49). On the registration page simply enter this code 'sb0000tcp' to grab a freebie. First come, first served.

From the New York Times, Luis Suarez of IBM explains how he has unshackled himself from his email inbox using social tools and the blower.

The Mail has over taken the Guardian and the Telegraph as the highest circulating UK newspaper online. What are they doing right?

Are you using StumbleUpon? Here's why it might be better than Digg.

Techcrunch reports Faceparty's hissy fit at its users. Hilarious.

Useful SEO resource: yoast.com.

And three links on blogging:

On the perils of negative blogging from Problogger.

What journalists can learn from bloggers, in the Guardian.

Why most corporate blogs are unimaginative, from the Wall Street Journal.