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11 Comments

Paid communities, Chat, or Threads?

Hello everyone. Thinking about starting a paid community. What works better Chat as in Slack, or Threads as in a Facebook group?

Also, what is the best way to charge users a monthly fee to be part of the community?

Thank you.

Communities work better with chat or threads?
  1. Chat
  2. Threads
Vote
  1. 1

    I would avoid the chat except for DMs between members. A chat is difficult to follow and is very syncronous. Group chat/chatrooms are only good if they're temporary. For example we allow our members to organise offline/online events, the group chat feature is very useful to communicate before the event.

  2. 1

    I'm planning on using Slack. Seeing TrafficThinkTank and a few other businesses use it for even 1000's of members is good enough for me. I've been in a Slack group for fiction writers for a few months and really like the layout. It also looks like the kind of thing that people would pay for.

    I'm starting a paid newsletter on Substack and will include an invitation to a private Slack group as part of that. I will either send out Slack group invites manually or in the first email for paid subscribers. I may use LaunchPass or something like it if membership grows enough to justify the monthly price.

  3. 1

    Also think about the problem you are trying to solve. Is it a community where people can give instant solution? Or is it more of a discussion?

  4. 1

    Chat is when you think your audience rapidly discuss in both formal and informal manner.

    Threads is what they call, civilized discussions.

    If you'd like to keep you community small, like 500max. and they fit the 'rapidly discuss' criteria + they're already hangout in Slack, then Slack may be an option. Otherwise please don't! You've got mattermost (open-source corporate discord), and many more chat based ones, take a look.

    Only use Facebook if your audience is ok with their data being sold for eyeballs and seeing flashy ads as they scroll your feed, it's an entertainment community, they simply want to share Gifs... Fb is improving it's features for groups to help you run a community but it has it's downsides.

    I'm currently reseaching on community platforms to build my community, I'll soon write a post about what I've found here on IH.

    1. 1

      Can you already share something about your research?

      1. 1

        My community is nearing its launch so I'm focusing more on that. I'll write a post on my findings when I get time after launch.

        By the way, are you building a community?

  5. 1

    It really depends on the targetted audience and what kind of tools they are generally comfortable with.

    If Slack is not familiar to them then it will be a constant uphill battle.

    If it's on FB and the people who you are targeting at anti-FB (like me) then there's no chance I would join.

    1. 1

      Thank you Rosie. So I´m starting my platform with a thread system and adding chat If I get traction. We wrote this very cool thread system, a mix of FB and Reddit. Cant wait to share it!

  6. 1

    I think Slack is best for small teams working on a project together. In my experience too much gets lost on Slack when you have a very large number of people there. I'm building a community on Mighty Networks. The truth is you probably need both. Slack can be great for behind the scenes communication.

    1. 2

      Thank you! Does Mighty provide Thread and Chat?

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