Partnerships

What are your views on having partnerships when it comes to online communities? Do you think theyre good or bad? Please give reasons

I live by this online: Trust no one! No matter how long youve known them online for.

I think theyre fine when you know the other partner in person to some degree. Theyre really good when you dont know what the best decision is and to gather their opinions on any aspect of the forum.

 

I dont think I would trust any one. The lady who is competing with me asked me if we could merge forums (this was before she changed to VBulletin too) and I said NO, purely because I could see what her ambition was; to gain access to a vbulletin forum and claim its hers, without paying or doing the work. I definately cant trust her.
Really Im putting all the work into my forum, so If I wanted or needed a partnership I wouldnt want one unless, like you said, I knew the person personally and they could come over and help me physically.

When I very first opened my forum, I was using a free software phpBB and the person who helped me set it up helped a little bit. But when I moved over to VBulletin I wouldnt let her have the permissions she had on the other software purely because she just went and did things without talking to me and other admin/mods about it and I couldnt let her play around with the VBulletin settings coz they were SO much more complicated. She took a more personal approach to it all, whereas I have a very professional approach. She was banning members and deleting posts that clashed with her personally.

 

This community is the result of a strong three-way partnership. We're three individuals who have delegated the ownership of this community equally amongst each other.

I think they can work if done with a) the right people and b) the intent to become successful. You cannot simply choose to partner with another individual on a whim - this is a decision that should be carefully thought-out and planned. You cannot expect to maintain a successful partnership with an individual who prefers to "take the reigns" on a near daily basis, ultimately leaving you with nothing to manage and a failure as an end product. You need to be absolutely certain that the individuals in which you are joining forces with are trustworthy, passionate, and determined. Remember: an unhealthy partnership will most likely end in failure.

 

You should do an article

 

I think some sort of "The AdminAddict Chronicles"-type article would be a good idea for all three of us administrators to write. We could include aspects such as how we manage and maintain our partnership. We just need to find the time to do this... :lol:


Many of my ventures and projects have been partnerships, and I generally prefer it that way. I am known as a control-freak, but I do push myself to make the partnerships work. Some general guidelines (in my opinion) are:

• You and the potential partner must have a solid foundation of trust. This may be hard to convey and create over the internet, but some how there is a way of knowing whether your relationship has that "spark". Some people are too "easy", and they're usually the ones who end up getting scammed. Before jumping into a partnership with extreme data-sharing, try putting your relationship to the test; start with small things and see if the trust is exploited.
• You and the partner must have a common interest. Do not start a forum with this friend just because he/she is your friend. If you are both passionate about a single topic, direct your mutual energy into the forum and it will be a success.
• Delegate, delegate, delegate. It's almost impossible to give two people the same responsibilities in a single project without causing a train wreck. Delegation is so important, especially in partnerships of more than two (trust me, Chris, Tyler and I know this by now ). Assign varying responsibilities (e.g. user affairs, finances, hosting, back-end management, promotion, etc.) to each of the project managers. You can ask everybody what they are interested in doing or are best at doing and try to divide the responsibilities that way. Do not, however, put a single person solely in charge of a single task. There needs to be some sort of checks-and-balances in this whole system. For example, one administrator could be in charge of user affairs (user behavior, banning, infractions, etc.) but if another administrator isn't satisfied or doesn't agree with their actions, this administrator should be able to input their opinion and change the direction of how things are handled.
• Collaborate with everything. Partnerships can slow down the speed of development (since you have to get everybody's input before making any changes), but it's in exchange for better-quality decisions. Multiple minds are better than one, and you will see over time that the power of multiple people results in a solid forum with solid manpower behind it.

 

The three of us should create some sort of article in regards to "how we do it" here. In addition, great post, Nick.

 

Why the hell don't you log into Skype anymore, Chris?!?


On-topic, you can't just jump straight into a partnership with someone that you're only acquainted with. Until you know that person on a personal level, whether you're physically close or not, you shouldn't make the decision to partner with someone. And even then, it's vital that your personalities are compatible in the right areas, because you'll be dealing with each other pretty often, and tempers will flair. How you handles those situations will also affect the partnership, too.

In short, I guess, don't do it unless there are strict mutual understandings. You don't want to end up doing all the work and getting shafted in the end by your so-called "partner".

 

Because I have no net, duh! /Jk

Okay, well I have had my ups and downs with this, as some of the people already said, you have to be careful who you choose as a partner in venture. I HAVE to say that there ARE people you can trust online, it is just hard to find.