The delicate business of maintaining an online community

Why is Flickr such a relatively civil place?

A sensitive approach to community building, and a pragmatic belief that "self-policing" communities aren't self-sustaining.

"Champ doesn't just shepherd along the Flickr ethos; she's a larger advocate of intelligent growth in an often chaotic zone.

"People become disassociated from one another online. The computer somehow nullifies the social contract," she says. In other words, people sometimes go nuts amid the anonymity of the Internet."