Disqus - Latest Comments for Rebecca Newton

Re: Community Contest 2007: Learning to Share

Rebecca Newton — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:27:05 -0000

twist my arm ;)

Rebecca

Re: Community Contest 2007: Putting Others First

Rebecca Newton — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:54:46 -0000

One of the originals in online (and offline) community is John Coate. John is one of the founders of The WELL (www.well.com) and in the 70s was one of the founders of the offline commune called "The Farm" in Tennessee (75 hippies from San Francisco in 6 school buses drove east and stopped in Tennessee to build a huge, still successful) - I always wanted to go join the farm as a teen, heh).

You can watch John at: I can't find the URL anywhere but he spoke at Stanford and MIT a few years back and it was phenomenal. I'll keep looking.

you can read his (his)story at: http://cervisa.com/

and most recently he spoke at MIT: http://civic.mit.edu/?p=13

John and I are friends and colleagues. I hired him at Habbo in 2004 after he'd sent me his resume. I saw "The Farm" and "The Well" in his cover letter and felt like we'd struck gold.

He's truly "the man" when it comes to community building and knowledge. He's lived it, breathed it and walked it for 30+ years.

Rebecca

Definitely, google him, he's fascinating and a heck of a nice guy.

Re: To your customer, it’s one company

Rebecca Newton — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:25:35 -0000

Here here! I am so glad to see this blog entry, Jake. And your commen, Jharr. This opens up a conversation about hiring and managing, imo. Because that's where the real problem is in the experience you shared with us.

The lack of proper hiring and the serious lack of proper management in business is epidemic. Employees should care enough about the company to want to help the customer, which means they need to be paid properly, trained properly, managed well, and recognised for good customer service regardless of their position within the organisation.

And hiring on the front end requires more than "is there air on the mirror when he/she breathes?" But you'd never know it anymore. Many companies don't even bother calling references or checking on CV information. I've seen Management positions filled without any reference checks.

But back to your point, Jake, you're absolutely right. And I can't believe someone at AT&T didn't jump on fixing this problem for you, especially since you're paying MORE than the broadband customers! Time to find a new provider or push your observation up the AT&T CS ladder.

Re: ASK: How do I hire a community manager?

Rebecca Newton — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:09:03 -0000

I've hired 50+ Community Managers since 1994 and some of the best CMs I hired were great multi-taskers who had people management skill sets. I hired a TV producer who had been in Television for 10 years for Habbo Australia and he was an ace CM. And I hired a Marketing Professional for Habbo Brazil and she's now working for Sulake HQs. Sometimes you know when people get it. Also, I didn't meet 75% of the Community Managers I've hired over the years, in person. I hired them based on phone conversations and emails.

So, as Jake mentioned, it's not always about their Online Community savvy-ness but it sure does help if they're netheads and understand the online culture. The learning curve can be several months otherwise and you can end up with someone not suited for the job.

I'd be very cautious about hiring from within the Community. My experience is that a great volunteer/active Community member is not alway happy getting paid for their interest and passion, skill set or not. However, I have hired fabulous people from within a Community and it's worked out quite well. But over the years, those folks have been the exception and not the norm.

Also, people management skills can't be hurried and are rarely intuitive or innate. They come with time on the job (more than 6 months, and usually more than 2 years, imo). Everyone needs someone to whom they are accountable, even CEOs have a Board of Directors for that very reason. So, don't drop someone in a Management job and assume they can manage people just because they managed 3 part-time Mods or managed a forum online. And I have found that using an 'open door policy' allows me to get the whole story on how things are going for all Community staff. Use discretion and respect confidentiality and you'll get good information. Foster good relations within your team the way you foster good relations within your Community. Lead by example. Simple and old school but has worked for me since 1982 in various management positions.

Re: Unboxing the Pleo

Rebecca Newton — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:11:02 -0000

We bought a Pleo at Mind Candy and received him about a month or so ago. His name is Alan. He's quite smart and a fun little companion for the office. If we could just keep all the guys from putting little plastic human figures in his mouth...

Re: POLL: Do you enjoy the Rapid Fire posts?

Rebecca Newton — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:23:26 -0000

I agree. There should be something in between "It's why I visit every day and rapid what?"

I like them but it's not the main reason I read your content.

Re: Who Will Protect the Children?

Rebecca Newton — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:59:29 -0000

Here's a novel concept. How about the parent or guardian protecting the children? Hopefully most parent s or guardians wouldn't drop off their child(ren) in Hyde Park in London or Manhatten, NYC and say "Have fun and don't give out your name to anyone!" The net is no different from a large city. You can't just turn kids loose on the web and expect the government and everyone else to take care of them. And giving out social security numbers to marketing sites to verify an age? good grief.
The added problem is that many kids make up ages to stay "safe". My 11 year old nephew poses as a 38 year old man from Florida because he has learned it's not safe to say who you really are online. I can't fault him. I thought it was quite clever, in fact.
This is a problem for PARENTS or GUARDIANS and not for the government or corporations.

Re: 2008/04/30/not-a-recession/

Rebecca Newton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:43:05 -0000

Thank you, thank you, MASHABLE - for addressing the "R" word with facts and common sense. The republicans do enough damage with their fear-based rhetoric.

Well said Cathy Stucker!

Re: 2008/08/04/teen-sex-lively/

Rebecca Newton — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:44:26 -0000

I agree with Chris. After 15 years in this business, and many of those years with teens, "there is nothing new under the sun" (even Sun's Java). I wouldn't want to print what I was doing at 12, 13, 14 etc. for fear of some YouTube backlash. But seriously, you can't stop people from expressing themselves ,sexually or otherwise. It is, indeed, human nature to experiment with sex in your teens and the virtual space has not changed what used to happen in hand written letters, behind the garage, in cars on hilltops, or at love-ins in bushes.
There is nothing dangerous about experimenting with sex. The focus should be on what the stats show - and that would be offline predatory behavior. There is such a media mania about online pedophiles but in fact, there is a much larger issue in the physical world, which seems to be ignored in exchange for a handful of cases in the virtual world.

This isn't to say that Google doesn't have a responsibility to monitor "Lively" - in deed they do. But to remove virtual items because they can be construed as sexual objects is over the top. They'll find a way. Remember the Hanoi Hilton! The POWs tapped on walls for 7 years to communicate. You can't stop humans from expressing themselves, nor should we (in most cases).