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Rating: 
Summary: Information, AJdvice and Good Leads
Review: As a Community Director for a website that talks to/with huge numbers of consumers daily, I found this book really, really helpful. It outlined several different approaches to the Community challenges without espousing one way only. This is great because not every site has the same needs for a their community. The links to other helpful sources alone were well worth the price of the book. All the advice and information was useable, applicable--nothing was so radical or off-beat that we could not relate. It is now on my desk as a reference tool as we build and rebuild our Community porton of our website.
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Summary: Good book for non-profits and small organizations
Review: As someone new working in the world of online communities, I found this book to be a great resource. It provides not only technical tips but also gets at the larger social issues of how to manage communities, help them grow, deal with problems, etc. Good overview of lots of topics with links and references of where to go to get more information.
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Summary: An excellant hard copy resource
Review: Community building is a fast growing concern, both on the Internet and off. Margaret Levine Young and John Levine's Poor Richard's Building Online Communities is a valuable treasure of knowledge to a vast assortment of Internet related communities.I found it a difficult book 'to read' simply because the material is only relevant to the specific job (or focus) at hand. I think that its greatest value would be found in troubleshooting and dealing with various services or utilities that are, or will be outdated if they are not already. There is also a wealth of more important, timeless information such as the purposes behind building online communities and the various manner of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for each type of community. I don't wish to belittle the value of the book, or all the information and insight that it does provide. There is information here that is unlikely to appear in any other books on community building, such as the one by Amy Jo Kim's. If you can afford to...Building Online Communities completes or enhances a community building library.
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Summary: Focuses on inexpensive methods of achieving
Review: Create a web community for a business or family using the power of the Internet and this 'Poor Richard's' guide, which focuses on inexpensive methods of achieving such a goal. From locating and participating in mailing lists to joining web-based communities for business and pleasure, this imparts the basics of understanding how such groups function.
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Summary: I'm one of the authors, and here's what we had in mind!
Review: John and I have written a lot of books "For Dummies," including "The Internet For Dummies," and we have been involved in online communities for years. The topic has become glitzy of late, but we want people to know that you don't have to be a big company or have a large budget to be able to create and run online communities for your friends, co-hobbyists, family, or customers. "Poor Richard's Building Online Community" is intended for individuals or small organizations that want to use the Internet to host discussions. Does your church want to run Bible study classes online? Would you like to discuss your hobby or favorite books with others who share your interests? Does your company need a way to get your sales managers together for online meetings? Would the teachers in your school district benefit from an online way to share schedules and ideas? You can set up online communities for groups like these at little or no cost. The book gives step-by-step instructions for joining or creating communities in the form of mailing lists, newgroups, and Web-based message boards and chat rooms. We also give advice about how to set and enforce rules for participation, so your community is a pleasant and useful experience for its members. For more information about the book, take a look at its Web site at http://community.gurus.com/. And thanks for your interest!
Rating: 
Summary: Content Lacking
Review: The publisher sent me a copy of this book. And while I appreciate the gesture, I have to admit that I really found the content and presentation lacking. The book seems very piecemeal and slapped together, and not at all up-to-date. IMO, this books lays at the very bottom of the heap of web community books. Readers would do better to see authors Amy Jo Kim or Cliff Figallo for concise, up-to-date information on building communities on the web.
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