Building a community

I think two really great examples of communities being formed on the web are the examples of Andrew Sullivan and Nico Pitney. Pitney has been quite a hot topic recently since President Barack Obama called on him at the press conference yesterday. I think Obama probably called on him because of the amount of information that Pitney has come across from the thriving community that comments on his blog, sends him tips and other material. Andrew Sullivan sometimes writes posts that either repost a comment from the blog or responds to it. I think both of these men do a great job of engaging with their audience.

Another method I've seen in community building is meet-ups. Jezebel, a popular blog that covers news and pop culture with the focus on women and women's issues, has meet-ups for readers and commenters in cities all over the world. Sometimes commenters for a specific blogger become close and throw meet-ups that even the bloggers attend.

Speaking of the Gawker Media site, I think that Gawker Media has had a lot of luck with the approved commenter system. There is a pecking order among commenters and the most consistently funny commenters get stars next to their name. Terms violators and commenters that otherwise perterb the moderators are blacklisted and no longer allowed to comment.

Ultimately, it's about making sure that the people that contribute to the community of your blog or website see dividends. They can benefit from engaging debate, recognition or the promise of happy hours with new, snarky friends, but there's gotta be something in it for them.