This week on Bullish, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the queen of Imgur, a.k.a. Sarah Schaaf, head of community at Imgur. We talked about IRL communities versus digital communities, what it takes to build and sustain virtual communities and the role these places have in our society.
“At this point, people are finding their people and finding their homes online,” Schaaf said. “Online communities give people a place where they can be vulnerable or where they can information share with like-minded people, and it’s sort of a place where maybe they haven’t found that in real life, so they’re able to identify online a little bit better.”
With online communities, people from all different walks of life are able to connect over both shared and differing opinions. That means these types of communities can easily go in either a positive or negative direction, or both, depending on the day.
“It’s definitely important to have a vision for your community as you’re creating it,” Schaaf said. “If you don’t want it to be a place for harassment, you should set guidelines and be the change you want to see in your community.”
Scroll up to the top to watch the full interview.