With the explosion of new blogs online in the last few years, it’s been easy to overlook the pivotal role forums have played in the development of the web as we know it today. The evolution of the message board is a fascinating story in and of itself. I have experience in online communities, and it’s been exciting to see the evolution of the medium with the advent of social networking websites. People are finding more and more ways to network, communicate, and share ideas.

The management of these communities often ends up an overlooked and thankless job, but it’s crucial to the success of the community and can be a rewarding experience. The technical side of things has been covered countless times, but a community admin would be hard pressed to find some good advice from beginning to end, the how and the why. Managing a successful community is much more than installing some software and crafting a theme: you have to deal with people, promotion, direction, and trolls.

I don’t know anyone more experienced in this arena than Patrick O’Keefe. Though we haven’t always kept in touch, I’ve known Patrick for a number of years and have always kept an eye on iFroggy Network, his umbrella entity for nearly two dozen successful online communities and blogs. Patrick has poured himself onto the page and shared his knowlege of online community management in his new book, Managing Online Forums. You can check out the details at Amazon.

A discussion board can be an excellent addition to an existing website, or can be a standalone entity. I encourage you to learn from Patrick, whether you’re looking to create a new online community or take your existing community to the next level.

Patrick’s original post announcing his book is also an interesting read for anyone who isn’t familiar with the process of writing and publishing a book. I learned quite a bit about what is involved and how complex the publishing process really is. It’s a good read even if you’re not interested in the book’s topic.