Steve Bullman

Sorry did not realize I was crabby, 🙂 

The only thing missing for me from IPS is an app so people can get notofications instantly (about PMs, likes etc - that should be configurable like forum notifications). We have a webhook on discord for posts and stuff, but that's the most important missing thing that comes to mind which could help in community building for me.

Some thoughts in no particular order: 
1. Yes, Facebook will be here for a very long time.  They've done an exceptionally good job of making the service as sticky as possible for users, with games, marketplace selling, and soon their Libra coin.  
2. Facebook and Discord is not free.  There's a false sense of free with those services, where it's literally costing you your user data and privacy.  
3. Whether or not Facebook and Discord are easier to start a new community on, they're exceptionally bad for large communities with a lot of activity.  There's no long form communication or organization on those platforms, which makes to hard to save and retain the best content.  
The one overwhelming takeaway from this article is that anytime you rely on another platform, you're at it's mercy.  The only way to protect yourself is to run an independent community.  You lose a lot of the platform's benefits, but you control your own destiny.  

😍 Thanks for the kind words.  Also, thank you to IPS for letting me be a guest blogger for one day.
I should have tried to join the IPS staff, they're handing out million dollar checks to staff members!! 
On a serious note, I think there are always things to learn for community management, no matter your experience level or years of administration.  There's so much to learn, from socializing concepts and behavioral theory to actual implementation and execution -- and I'm hoping that IPS can become a knowledge community where we can learn, share, and rely on each other. 

I'd be curious to see how IPS envisages using an IP.Pages database as a leaders-only discussion over trouble members or topics.  How is that better than just using a moderator forum or the actual ModCP? 
There are some big insights on this article that aren't identified on their own but govern some broad principles to community management:
1. Keep your rules uniform -- I think it's important to keep your rules consistent and uniform for all members.  It makes it easier to moderate, easier to remember, and easier to enforce.  It also doesn't allow members to go crazy in certain topics and then have to switch personalities to participate other topics.
2. New members vs Veteran members -- this is another great point that sometimes we, as admins, may forget about.  A new member is just trying to get accustomed to the site, and their enthusiasm shouldn't be mistaken for policy mistake.  I personally focus more on educating  new members when there's a problem ("did you know about this policy, here's what you could have done instead, etc").  A  veteran member, however, should be more familiar with the rules and I'm more willing to be stricter with veteran members than new members.
3. Steward - Users give us their time, attention, intellectual capital, insight, humor, and clicks.  Collectively, that forms a community and I think its important to remember that even though those actions and items are freely given, they need to be nurtured on behalf of something that's not just of my own making.  As an admin, it's easy to take credit for the success of the community.  But I think a proper admin knows that he's really a steward of everyone's contribution.  
 

We will. Which is why we're watching GDPR closely but not knee-jerking a bunch of half baked features into life that may never be needed or used.

Perhaps you are referring to this?
https://seqlegal.com/free-legal-documents/privacy-policy

We have been doing this for over 16 years and I don't think anyone has ever asked me that ?  ... of course our staff never download your data while we are helping you with a support request. That's not a GDPR thing at all that's a case of simple ownership: it's not our data why would we download it?

Great.  This is a huge weight off my mind.  Thank you all for taking the time to write this guide

Sorry, could you also clarify what would be considered a soft opt-in?
For the first 2 years of my forum running I had opt-in set by default.  Would be nice if I could include these in my bulk mail if that is considered soft opt-in
 

Great.  This is a huge weight off my mind.  Thank you all for taking the time to write this guide

Ah ok I see where that could be confusing. What Matt was referring to was a nice feature where, if you change some of your policy or terms text, you can optionally make a user re-read that text and click "agree" the next time they visit your site. It doesn't impact the opt-in statuses of things like bulk email, follow notifications, and such.

I didn’t say “demo”, did I? I said this site you are writing on is running 4.3. 

Funny how so many read “Invision Community 4.3 Coming Soon” as “tell us all your wishes for IPS 4.3 in the comments”. 

Agreed, and keep in mind that we have a vibrant marketplace and many talented developers who are great at filling perceived gaps in functionality.
 

Thank you

Try this