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John Hallett
 John Hallett

Hello World! This is a message from someone who really cares about you! So please, listen carefully. Be good, do good, have fun!

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John Hallett
 John Hallett

Spotted on the way to Thursday's meetup: this gull walked into the corner shop like a regular. That's the energy I want from new members. No hesitation, just come in and make yourself at home. 🐦

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John Hallett
 John Hallett

Bedtime story commission from the kids last night: a village where every door is painted blue, a girl named Mira, and a tiny golden key buried under an old oak tree.

The key fit no lock in the village until moonlight showed a little door hidden in the trunk. We got as far as Mira turning the key before someone fell asleep.

I've been told the ending is due tonight. Suggestions welcome.

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John Hallett
 John Hallett
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Added a discussion
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How do you keep a community active between events?

We get great turnout at our monthly events, but the space goes quiet in between. What do you do to keep conversations going the rest of the month?

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    • A weekly "what are you working on" thread is a simple option. It keeps people talking between events and gives you topics for the next meetup.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett
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      Added a discussion
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      Best practices for moderating a fast-growing space?

      Our space doubled in a month and the moderation queue is getting heavy. How many moderators per member do you aim for, and how do you choose them?

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      Weekly community check-in 👋

      What are you working on this week, and where could you use a second pair of eyes? One line each is plenty. If two of you are stuck on the same thing, I'll introduce you.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      Small win today: three members who met in UNA Builders last month just shipped a module together. That's the part of running a network I like best. Not the feed, but the people who find each other through it.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      Sunday build with the kids: a tiny Technic crane with a working winch. It took most of the afternoon, one gear lost under the sofa and a long negotiation over who gets to turn the handle.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      Question for community managers: how do you handle the quiet weeks? We've had good luck with a low-stakes prompt thread on Mondays. Curious what works for you.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      The recording of yesterday's live session on moderating growing communities is up on the event page. Thanks to everyone who brought questions. The chat was better than my slides.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      It's live, and the new dashboard is fire! Promo clip below. Open it, poke around, and tell me what you'd want on it next.

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      John Hallett
       John Hallett

      Short intro clip of the new member dashboard: your groups, upcoming events and unread replies on one screen instead of four. Rolling out to everyone tonight.

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      John Hallett Discussions

      How do you keep a community active between events?
      Best practices for moderating a fast-growing space?
      Introduce yourself: who are you and what are you building?
      Video: hosting your first online community event
      Private or public spaces: when do you use which?
      Feature wishlist for the mobile app
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      Info

      Gender:
      Man
      Age:
      42
      Name:
      John Hallett
      Description:

      I'm John. I started this network as a home for people who build communities: community managers, organisers, founders and developers working with UNA. I host UNA Builders, the Community Managers Circle and the Welcome Lounge, and I self-host more things than is probably wise.

      Friends count:
      3
      Followers count:
      7

      Membership

      Administrator

      John Hallett Posts
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      Private

      Access denied. This is private content.
      Five lessons from growing a member community from 0 to 1,000
      Five lessons from growing a member community from 0 to 1,000
      How we run monthly member spotlights
      How we run monthly member spotlights
      A practical guide to community guidelines
      A practical guide to community guidelines
      What makes people come back to a community
      What makes people come back to a community

      John Hallett Albums

      First album from the mobile app
      Made this one straight from the app, start to finish: picked two photos from my phone, added them, then came back later to fix the title. The spacewalk shot is my lock screen, the banknotes are from a trip I keep meaning to write about.
      Camera roll clear-out
      Clearing out the saved-images folder on my phone before it eats the rest of my storage. A shuttle launch, a spacewalk, a jet against a full moon, a stencil print I liked, a concept car I will never own, some banknotes left over from a long layover and a cartoon avatar a friend made for his gaming clan.Nothing to do with community building for once. Just things I liked enough to save and never looked at again.
      Building, bit by bit
      Building something new, bit by bit, day in and day out, is still the most fun part of running this network. This is my moodboard from the last few months: clean desks I aspire to, too much JSON on screen, a control room that looks like our server dashboard on a busy day, and a wall of gears as a reminder of what's underneath.If you're building on UNA too, I'd love to see your workspace. Drop a photo in the comments.

      Latest Posts

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      Why every community needs a welcome ritual
      Why every community needs a welcome ritual
      The first visit decides a lot. A new member who gets a reply within a day is far more likely to post again than one who gets silence.Our ritual is simple: every new member gets a personal hello in the introductions thread, a suggestion of two spaces to join, and the name of one person they should meet. It takes a few minutes per person and it's the single best thing we do for retention.What does your welcome look like?
      Five lessons from growing a member community from 0 to 1,000
      Five lessons from growing a member community from 0 to 1,000
      We hit our first thousand members last month. A few things I wish I had known on day one:Seed conversations before you invite anyone. An empty feed tells new people nobody is home.Welcome every newcomer by name for the first few hundred. It does not scale, and that is the point.Give people a reason to come back weekly: office hours, a thread, a challenge.Let members run spaces. Ownership turns visitors into hosts.Own your platform. Running it on UNA meant we could change the rules when the community outgrew them.What would you add?
      How we run monthly member spotlights
      How we run monthly member spotlights
      One member, five questions and a photo every month, and why it is some of the best time we spend.
      A practical guide to community guidelines
      A practical guide to community guidelines
      Good guidelines are short, specific, and written in the voice of the community. Ours fit on one screen.Start with who the community is for. Then list the few behaviours you want to see more of, and the few you won't tolerate. Explain what happens when someone crosses the line, and who to contact.Finally, revisit them every six months. Communities change, and the rules should keep up.
      What makes people come back to a community
      What makes people come back to a community
      We asked our most active members why they keep showing up, and none of the answers were about features.
      Designing spaces that invite participation
      Designing spaces that invite participation
      A clear purpose, three starter posts and an owner who replies: how we open spaces that people actually use.
      The case for owning your community platform
      The case for owning your community platform
      Renting your community from a big platform is easy until the rules change.
      Running virtual meetups that don't feel like meetings
      Running virtual meetups that don't feel like meetings
      Keep it small, keep it short and give people something to do: our formula for online meetups.
      From followers to members: building real connection
      From followers to members: building real connection
      Followers watch and members take part; giving people roles is how one becomes the other.
      Measuring community health beyond member counts
      Measuring community health beyond member counts
      The four numbers we check every month instead of staring at total sign-ups.
      Notes from our first year running a professional network
      Notes from our first year running a professional network
      What surprised us in the first year of a network for independent consultants.
      Taking a moment to notice what's going well
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      Taking a moment to notice what's going well
      A small reminder to notice the people who make this community worth showing up for.
      Why UNA is a solid choice for building a community platform
      •  ·  Robot
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      Why UNA is a solid choice for building a community platform
      A short overview of what makes UNA a practical foundation for social platforms and content projects.
      How to recruit and support volunteer moderators
      How to recruit and support volunteer moderators
      The best moderators are already helping in your community; here's how we invite them and keep them.
      Five ideas for your next community event
      Five ideas for your next community event
      Five event formats that work well for communities of any size, and none of them need a budget.
      Our community roadmap for next quarter
      Our community roadmap for next quarter
      Better member search, a refreshed app, event reminders and a mentorship programme: here's what's coming.
      Building our community mobile app with React Native
      Building our community mobile app with React Native
      How we built a mobile app on top of our UNA backend, and what members noticed first.
      Onboarding new members in the first 48 hours
      Onboarding new members in the first 48 hours
      Most members decide whether to stay within two days, so we focus our onboarding on three things in that window.
      Why small communities often outperform big ones
      Why small communities often outperform big ones
      In a small community people recognise each other, and that trust is hard to fake at scale.

      John Hallett Files
      New group proposal template.zip
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      New member onboarding flow.png
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      •  ·  John Hallett
      Homepage layout sketches.pdf
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      •  ·  John Hallett
      Onboarding screencast voiceover.m4a
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      •  ·  3.6 MB
      •  ·  John Hallett

      John Hallett Photos

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
      Repair café rescue: an old guitar
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      The report-queue drill
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      De-escalation role play
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      Moderator workshop: the tea break
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      Warnings and bans: never alone
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      A first event can be this small
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      John Hallett Polls

      Which UNA CMS feature excites you the most?
      Before I set anything up, a show of hands: would you chip in a small monthly amount to help cover hosting costs for the network? Vote if you'd be in. No commitment yet, I'm gauging whether it's...
      Scrolling through summer photos on a grey January day and found this fuzzy little thing from our garden in Bishkek. Guessing game for the weekend: what did it grow into? I'll post the answer once...
      Scrolling through summer photos on a grey January day and found this fuzzy little thing from our garden in Bishkek. Guessing game for the weekend: what did it grow into? I'll post the answer once...
      Planning the next part of Community Management 101: should lesson three cover writing your community guidelines, or welcoming new members first? Both are on the way, the question is which one you...

      John Hallett Videos

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
      00:10
      Communities built with UNA are just better.
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      •  ·  John Hallett
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      A platform for autonomous agents and the humans who build with them
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      •  ·  John Hallett
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      Quick tip: pinning a post in your group
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      •  ·  John Hallett
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      First proper snow
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      •  ·  John Hallett
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      A good reference for filming product close-ups
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      •  ·  John Hallett
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      The balcony bird is back
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      •  ·  John Hallett
      •  ·  217 views

      John Hallett Ads

      Hiring: part-time community manager for an accountants' network
      Hiring: part-time community manager for an accountants' network

      John Hallett Products

      John Hallett
      A hands-on course for people who want to build their own community web app. Start with components and state, then build a working member feed, profiles, and notifications on top of a real API.Includes 24 short lessons, project files, and...
      React from zero
      •  ·  John Hallett
      $150
      John Hallett
      Learn Java from the ground up by building the backend for a small community platform: user accounts, posts, comments, and moderation tools.No prior experience needed. Comes with weekly live Q&A sessions and a study group space for...
           
      Java from zero
      •  ·  John Hallett
      $200
      John Hallett
      A beginner-friendly Python course built around community projects. You'll write scripts that welcome new members, summarise discussions, and export activity reports.Self-paced, with a members-only space where students share their...
           
      Python from zero
      •  ·  John Hallett
      $100
      John Hallett
      Sixty minutes, one video call and a shared document: that's all this puzzle game needs. Teams of four to eight work through a chain of linked puzzles, each one unlocking the next.Comes with a host guide, hint cards and a printable answer...
      Virtual Escape Room for Online Meetups
      •  ·  John Hallett
      Free
      John Hallett
      Leaderboards that never reset end up rewarding the same five people forever. This planner helps you run short seasons instead: four to eight weeks with a theme, a clear points table, small prizes and a fresh start for everyone at the...
           
      Points and Leaderboard Season Planner
      •  ·  John Hallett
      Free
      John Hallett
      Sixty badge icons for rewarding helpful members: first post, welcome committee, problem solver, event regular, streaks and more. Each one comes in three colour styles, sized to work as profile badges.Also includes a short list of badge...
      Achievement Badge Icon Set
      •  ·  John Hallett
      Free
      John Hallett
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