On Passion

[JoelR]

The purpose of Invisioneer is to help communities of all sizes and shapes succeed, but there's a special place in my heart for small, independent communities.  Usually these are started and fueled by the passion of the community owner.  

One of the biggest strengths of forums is passion.  One of the biggest weaknesses is passion. 

Passion from an independent community owner means that you will be able to research, share, discuss with a fiery enthusiasm that can truly distinguish your forum from other forums.  Passion means you will push yourself, care for all of the details.  

Passion also means you can quickly burn out. You can only self sustain an intense burst for a very short time, so it's important to build a support structure for when passion can't keep you moving.  

What does this mean in practice for small, independent forums? 

- Back your passion with discipline: Although passion can be amazing to motivate you, it can't be the only way you keep yourself going.  That's when discipline should kick-in.  This means first giving yourself a little grace and forgiveness, and then recognize that forums are a long game where the small steps matter as much as the big leaps.  This could mean keeping a diary of your forum journey, building a content calendar, or coming up with a simple posting schedule.  

- Leverage technology: some forums such as Invision Community allow you to schedule new topics.  This allows you to pre-plan, brainstorm and write an entire weeks worth of conversations and insights, without trying to do all of that every single day.  

- Leverage people: Tap into trusted friends or superusers to help you sustain your initiative or objective.  Be very clear, be very detailed, and let them execute on your strategy when you may not have the time or energy to do it yourself. 

Many small, independent forums start entirely with the passion and interest of the owner. That's great.  The next step is to build the systems to support your strategy when passion alone won't do it. 

[Nomad]

I did not start my communities because I was very passionate about running my own communities. I started my communities because when I started becoming active on webmaster forums, I met a lot of community owners who were so passionate about running communities. I just wanted to try it for myself. Over the years, my passion for running communities started growing.