π I'm speaking at Swarm Conf next week, join me!
The real community value is through giving on the homepage
How would you feel if you got a spot on a really high traffic website? I would like to think it would make your day, week, month or year!
Highlighting members is a much underrated 'tactic' in community building and I think we don't take it nearly far enough. It's not just about talking about people, it's about doing it in a really impactful way.
Smashing Magazine invests in the ecosystem and do it well in a community section on their home page:
- they highlight members
- they curate their content
- they link directly to the source rather than try to keep them always on their website
- people get mentioned in their Tweets to almost 1 million followers

This is the stuff that keeps members coming back, supporting and focusing on creating real value back to the community and the ecosystem.
π This week in Rosieland
Our forum has been getting hot, a bit like the weather. π¦
- I'm building a portfolio of communities [paid article]
- Is community an illusion?
- Do we need a healthy dose of realism in the community space?
- What community metrics do you actually care about?
- Circle, Mighty Networks, Tribe and β¦?
- What are specific things you have done to support, uplift and transform your community members?
- Ghost + Cove for community engagement?
π° The Rosieland Roundup
- Building at the speed of belonging... surviving the speed of catastrophe β Brian Stout
- β¨ Cozy in the Crowd β New_ Public
- Great engineering cultures are built on social learning communities β Joy Liuzzo
- Discourse releases chat π
π¦ Tweets
Loved this story from @priyaparker's newsletter recently...π§
— Taylor Harrington (@heytayhar) August 5, 2022
"A good guest helps meaning-make.
It's a common adage to leave a newlywed couple alone on their honeymoon. Don't call, don't write, just let them be." More below β¬οΈ
Why do people tend to write more on forums?
— Matt Mecham (@mattmecham) August 4, 2022
Well....
hot take: devrel as an industry has over indexed on content creation.
— Taylor Barnett (@taylor_atx) August 8, 2022
spicy take: it is because of metrics.
π I'm taking a break from this weekly newsletter for a couple of weeks, I'll be back soon!