DEVELOPING YOUR COMMUNITY
25
making some adjustments. In this section I’ll explain some of the more com-
mon choices.
Software Options
These are options that deal primarily with the configuration of your commu-
nity software.
Requiring Registration to Participate
You should require users to reg-
ister to post and participate in your community. Besides opening up a world
of options to your members, being a part of a community means just that—
being a part of it and having an account that everyone can identify with. This
allows all posts and activity from a given account to be associated with said
account. It eliminates impersonation and allows you to effectively deal with
troublemakers (through bans, etc.). If a user doesn’t have an account, it gets
noticeably ...