My latest Opensouce.com column: Community building with a Q&A vs. online forum

Working on building an online community? Here's how to choose the platform that's right for you.

If you've ever built an online community, you know that the sheer number of options available can be daunting. Should you set up a forum, a Q&A site, or both? Would users prefer Slack, IRC, or perhaps a mailing list? Where does Telegram fit in? Maybe you should you just set up one of every available solution... I'll discuss this topic at length during the upcoming Open Source Summit North America. But in the meantime, let's focus on one aspect to better understand the overall decision-making process. Forum vs. Q&A Before you decide on a platform, make sure you understand the strengths and weaknesses, design goals, and workflow of each.

Visit Opensource.com for the rest of the article. I hope to see you in Los Angeles at the Open Source Summit to further discuss how other platforms fit into this discussion and how to decide which ones are best for you. Aren't able to attend? Feel free to comment here.

--jeremy