Thread by @outstarwalker

The more I work with community, the more I believe in a hot take not everyone is going to agree with me about:

In order to be a good community manager/developer, you need to sincerely, unshakeably, despite-everything *like* your community.

#gamedev #twitch

(thread)

And it's not an easy task. You're on a front line. If good things happen, you will be the one who receives (unearned) praise, if bad things happen, you will be the one who receives (unearned) hatred.

This can dive from love to death threats, and back, and back again. Literally.

It's like standing in front of a screaming crowd, and under all possible scenarios, they will scream things you won't agree with, you know are not true, or you'd want to argue with.

And in most cases, you can't, or you shouldn't do so. Sounds frustrating?

Additionally, this frustration may be paired with another thing - we forget good things very easily, but cling to the bad ones FOREVER.

From an influencer background - you may have hundreds of people complimenting you, but you will remember those few who criticized you instead.

These things are difficult to handle and trigger defensive mechanisms. Some people tend to:
- put negative labels on the whole community (like "toxic"), which is never true!
- dismiss the needs and wishes of the community - "you did me bad, so I don't care for you" - WRONG

You probably met a streamer/influencer who did these things, right?

That's because they are their own community managers, and pairing this up with content creation, PR, marketing, editing, hosting and all the other things they need to do, it's super easy to burn out.

Burnout makes us dislike our community, and disliking community causes the burnout. So, ultimately, cultivating a positive relationship with the crowd in front of you *in your own brain* is super important (probably even more than cultivating it on the outside!).

On to advices!

1. Highlight the positive/funny comments. Screenshot them. Share them with friends. Put them in a folder. Print them and put them on a board, if you're a board-kind of a person.

Make your brain remember them. It won't by default - it's a faulty device.

2. Empathize.

This one is hard and not always worth spending your mental resources on (especially on super toxic community members), but it's needed nonetheless! Most negativity, snarkiness and cynicism has roots in something totally understandable.

3. Understand that not everybody will like you.

Being likeable is a part of any community job, but it's really just a part of it. Don't spend your time on specifically changing the mind of *that one user* who seems to dislike you. Build the big picture instead.

4. Interact with your community like you would with your friends.

You don't have to be everyone's friend - but doing this can clear your head and give you some positive attitude to your community, too! Joke, meme, talk about everyday stuff, exchange cooking recipes and cat pics.

It's a difficult job - if your brain will make it one.
It can be extremely fun and rewarding if you won't let it bother you.

Hope this was helpful. 💜