Online Community: Do We Need It? How Do We Make It Happen? Part 2

Message Boards are often the perfect places for youth to find community online. But it's not always right under our noses. It takes a lot of work to create a genuine environment where we can speak our minds and know we will be respected and heard. In the second of a two-part series, Kevin Smokler goes deeper into how adults can and are involved. Check our Part 1, if you haven't done so yet.

Youth and adults both seem to agree that a good message board needs a strong leader. The leader moderates, creates new discussions, removes obscene or abusive posts and bans "trolls," boardspeak for posters only looking to cause trouble. They also have to create a site with a reason for being, content that fuels conversation on the boards -- sex, politics, music, whatever. Rarely can a successful message board community exist on its own since that is more of an invitation for noise-creating small talk instead of actual conversation. The site provides something to talk about, the boards are where it's actually talked about. Derek Powazek, author of the forthcoming "Design for Community" calls this the first rule of creating community on the web.

"If you don't tie your content to your community features, it's like running two sites, one where people read and one where they talk. They usually don't mix ... Why try to plant two trees, separately, side-by-side when their roots are already connected?"

The online journal world has used this idea and played a huge part in the popularity of message board communities amongst youth. The most popular journals are running autobiographies of interesting people who write really well. Each entry, as good writing tends to, provokes a reaction and gives you something to talk about. Smart journallers know that providing a message board turns regular readers (who read and leave) into members of a discussion (who read, talk and talk some more). Even Three Way Action, a stand-alone general forum site, built its large membership from the readers of three prominent online journals.

"I'm not sure what I'd be doing if my life was boring," said Pamela Ribon, whose journal has thousands of readers. Nearly all her entries are followed by a link to the Squishy boards, which often address issues raised in the entry. And while she admits she isn't always the extrovert she seems, she does recognize that her message boards are a bit of a cult of personality, that without her, they wouldn't really exist.

"As long as people leave feeling better, I'm ok with it ... Although it is nice to wear the tiara somewhere."

When Squishy became an affiliate of ChickClick last year, the average age of its readership (originally in their early to mid twenties) plummeted. Ribon accordingly took on topics for younger readers ("How to buy a bra" was a favorite and its parallel discussion threads generated lots of posts). She's fond of both practical information and funny stories about her life because, fundamentally, while her forums are social, she doesn't see them as a substitute for real world interaction.

"We may talk about culture, movies, and music but these are thing that require us to go out. Maybe you'll see what others are doing here and think 'Cool, I want to do that too."

Oasis Magazine, an e-zine for queer youth has no message boards (yet) but has confronted many of the same issues in creating youth community online. Since 1995, Jeff Walsh has published Oasis just like a print magazine, one new issue a month. The magazine has an open submissions policy and consists of stories, poems and reviews by readers. Its most popular feature is a "Profile in Courage" of an out youth. Yet Walsh reports that monthly updates mean readers often forget to come back for the next issue or don't return if they don't find something that speaks to them. In May, he will re-launch Oasis as "a writing community for queer and questioning youth," and message boards will play a key part in his new publishing model.