Community leaders deserve better: An open letter about community software

Ability to engage across different channels –While new platforms often try to change user behavior and redirect their attention to a new destination, we’re interested in meeting members where they are. That could mean the ability for users to engage with the discussions via email or text message (if that's their preferred medium). Flexibility shoul... See more

Power members/top advocates

Analytics & automated actions in response to member activity – We dream of a dashboard for better understanding member behaviors, with metrics such as:

Here are the leaders by market share, with a few example brands for each:

Engagement over time

I've always thought it would be interesting for someone to build blockchain and ownership tokens into the very structure of a community platform. It wouldn't be too complex - simply replacing the gamification engine (used to give people ranks and points based on quality and quantity of participation) with a tokenization engine. Everything else - fo... See more

Yet while the appetite for online communities grows, the accompanying management toolkit still largely misses the mark.

Lapsed members or those who are at risk for churning

Probably the most popular by number of installations is the VBB open source software (Virtual Bulletin Board)