If you’re reading this, we’re guessing that you are in the community management profession. Hi, how are you holding up? Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and too many other Black people, ongoing protests for an end to systemic racism and inequality, and a looming presidential election that has a lot riding on it, life has been more challenging than usual, to say the least. And as community managers, we’re at the center of many of these conversations. Whether we’re creating spaces for people to safely discuss these challenging topics, working to build and foster diverse communities and teams, or helping companies make the leap to a fully digital workplace, our skills and work are in high demand. In this episode of Community Signal, Patrick speaks to three community professionals about how current events have impacted their lives and how they think about building inclusive communities. In the day-to-day, that might mean guiding conversations within our communities. In the broader sense, it’s thinking about how we build communities, tools, and platforms that have diversity, equity, inclusion, and the knowledge from our collective decades of experience in community management baked in from day one. As our guest Bassey Etim puts it, “we stand on the shoulders of the people before us, and we’re Called, and I mean ‘called’ with a capital C, Called to try to make this a more fair and just world.”  Listen to Patrick, Bassey, Marjorie Anderson, and Nina Collins as they discuss the following and more: Supporting hard conversations in spaces where they need to happen Building platforms that encourage diversity and stamp out racism Identifying broader candidate groups when hiring Designing systems that allow for proper flagging of abuse Our Podcast is Made Possible By… If you enjoy our show, please know that it’s only possible with the generous support of our sponsors: Vanilla, a one-stop shop for online community and Localist, plan, promote, and measure events for your community. Big Quotes On fostering communities that embody inclusivity and empathy (3:55): “What’s the tone that you set the minute that people sign up to come into your community and participate? What does that look and feel like? If it’s not one where it feels like people can speak up and have their voices be heard, then it’s really hard to course-correct [later on] and start to cultivate that feeling of belonging.” –@MarjorieAyyeee Is the time for sarcasm over? (21:35): “Earnesty, applied over time, just wins people over. It’s hard to combat it with sarcasm, irony, anger, all of those things.” –@BasseyE Do paid communities encourage less moderation and more ownership? (22:10): “I’m finding now on The Woolfer community, we have people who behave; people are in bad moods, people are feeling sensitive sometimes, but generally, they are much more earnest, and I’ve attributed it to the fact that they’re paying for it, that people value things they pay for so they take better care of the space.” -Nina Collins When what you share is what people will hold against you (37:34): “There is always this Libertarian utopian edge to [Mark Zuckerberg’s] promises and the promise of the internet where once we free ourselves of all of our clothing, once we put everything we are out there and everybody else is naked, it’ll be like, ‘Oh, well we’re all naked. Whatever.’ It turns out that some people, even when they’re naked, they’re going to be extremely judgmental about it. I don’t think this was necessarily something that was unknowable from the perspective of a lot of the folks who built platforms that undergird the internet today.” –@BasseyE Talking to your community members (in a real way!) about the issues that impact their lives: “Open up the conversation gently. It doesn’t have to be, ‘What do you think of Black Lives Matter?’ It can be, ‘This is an unprecedented time that we’re in. I want to know how you’re feeling,’ and let them talk. … You know th