The Myth of Control
“Build your community on a platform you control” is one of the most common mantras that’s been spouted by many people (including myself) for over a decade now.
But what does ‘control’ even mean?
Even if you pay for a platform, you don’t own it. You can’t change the source code. You simply pay for a license to use it according to the platform’s terms and conditions.
In fact, the vast majority of complaints about these vendors can be summarised as:
“They won’t let me do what I want to do”
This doesn’t sound like having control to me.
If a platform vendor decides to deprioritise a feature, change how things are structured, or charge money for changes you want – do you really have control?
The problem with ‘build a community on a platform you control’ is it presents ‘control’ as a binary construct. You either do or don’t have it. But that’s very clearly not the case.
‘Having control’ is a misguided way of thinking about a platform.
What Do We Really Mean By ‘Control’?
‘Having control’ is typically associated with three common phrases:
- “Do what you want with the platform”
- “You need to own your data”
- “Be a customer, not the product”
But none of these really reflects reality.
No, You Can’t ‘Do What You Want’ With Any Platform
Perhaps the most common interpretation of a ‘platform you control’ is you can ‘do what you want’ with it.
The problem is that’s never true.
You don’t own the platform, you simply have a license to use it. You can only do what the platform vendor allows you to do.
This means we’re talking about degrees of customisation. Everyone will have their understanding of what this means – but I suspect the following will cover most customization needs.
Degrees of Customisation
- Native ability to change the user experience.
- Can you customise the colours, logos, add branding, make simple layout adjustments, change column orders or sidebar placements?
- Can you add custom CSS for finer control over styling and modular page layouts?
- Is there a drag-and-drop interface for designing and re-arranging page elements?
- Do you have the ability to create custom themes and templates?
- Change the structure of the site.
- Can you customise categories, sub-categories, user profile fields, and visibility settings?
- Can you create customisable member directories with advanced member tagging, grouping/segmentation?
- Can you create custom community sections/hubs?
- Add or adapt functionality.
- Can you enable and disable standard features and assign users to roles?
- Can you integrate third-party tools and plugins?
- Can you create custom functionalities via API access? And customise workflows and create automations?
As a general rule, the cheaper the platform the less ability you have to change any of that.
The major difference between paying for a platform or not is the degrees of customisation the major platforms provide you with.
Even if that’s not enough, you can often get help with the platform (for a price) to make additional changes and customisations.
Instead of talking about ‘doing what you want’, it’s best to think about what you need to do and then select the right platform to match.
Why You Will Never Truly ‘Own Your Data’
Some will say control means ‘owning your data’. The idea here is that if you’re hosting your community with a major platform vendor then you ‘own the data’.
But owning your data is a red herring.
If a member posts an article on your community, does that article belong to the member, the organisation, or the platform provider?
Well, it depends on the terms and conditions (and often there aren’t community-specific terms and conditions).
Even if you do have community-specific terms and conditions, national and regional laws override that. GDPR allows anyone in Europe to object to the processing of their personal data anyhow.
So remind me who owns that data again?
Most community platform vendor contracts will say the licensee (the paying organisation) owns their customer data. This is true, but it largely depends on the specific terms and conditions a customer signs when they join the platform.
And who owns that data if a platform charges you $20k for a data dump when you want to take that data somewhere else?
Two Types of Data That Matter
It’s important to distinguish between the two types of data here.
- User-generated content (UGC). This is data generated by users. It typically includes posts, photos, comments, and anything else a member may actively contribute. UGC is typically owned by the users who created the content. However, when joining a platform the member will usually agree to terms and conditions which give the organisation limited rights to use and process the data.
- Member information (metadata). This is data gathered about members as they engage in the community. This includes things like levels of activity, post counts, and data they contribute to their profiles. This data typically belongs to the organisation however it is usually subject to the organisation’s privacy policy and the terms and conditions must clearly explain how this data will be processed.
The first type of data, for most organisations, is only really important when it comes to migrating from one platform to another. You want to ensure a consistent experience. Unless you want to repurpose member content in other channels, then exportability of the first kind of data is key.
The second type of data, the metadata, is more important on measuring community value and knowing what is and isn’t working. Knowing who is engaging in a community, when they are engaging, how they are engaging etc…is more useful to most organisations than what they are contributing.
This is especially useful when you can aggregate the data for overall stats and segment the data in really granular ways.
What matters then isn’t ownership of the data. We know already members will own most of the data they create. What matters are three specific things:
- Can we create custom terms and conditions regarding the use and processing of this data?
- Can we see clean aggregated data?
- Can we export data from one platform to another? (Via APIs)
Asking these questions is more important than having a vague idea of ‘owning your data’.
“You Need To Be A Customer, Not The Product”
This is perhaps where ‘control’ has the most legitimacy.
You can build a thriving community on Facebook groups only for the group to be deleted by Facebook without warning – and there might be nothing you can do about it.
That’s because you’re not the customer. Facebook has no legal obligation to you.
You have no service level agreement (SLA) with them as you would typically have with a platform vendor. They don’t guarantee uptime or someone you can contact for support.
This is where paying for a product is a huge advantage. You have legally binding guarantees from the organisation in the contract. You can find examples of SLAs from Khoros, Discourse, and Insided.
The key things that matter here are:
- The uptime guarantee (and the compensation you will receive for downtime).
- The response time to tickets or requests you submit to the organisation.
- Having a dedicated person you can turn to for support.
You will notice the platforms which offer you the ability to create groups for free typically don’t offer any guarantees here. However, as you move to the cheaper white-label platforms and then to the premium enterprise platforms – you should expect increasingly clear promises about their obligations to you as a customer.
The question then is how much are you willing to pay per year for these gaurantees? $10k? $100k? $200k?
You can choose to live in a world without SLAs and run the small risk of something terrible happening. Or you can use a platform vendor and have guarantees – for a price.
There’s no right or wrong – it’s all about being aware of the decision and what you will do.
The Continuum Of Control
We know now that ‘control’ is an empty phrase when it comes to a platform you’re buying a license to use for a while.
Let’s start talking about what we mean by ‘control’ and how important each aspect of that is to use.
If you like, you can use a chart like the one above to get specific about your requirements and then ensure you have the right type of platform to match.
It’s tempting to set each of these at the far end of the continuum – just remember that this comes with a cost. Like most things, it’s about finding a balance in the level of control you can have with the resources available
When we talk about control, what we should be talking about are three specific things:.
- Degree of customisation.
- Access to data.
- Level of support.
If we spend more time on these nuances rather than meaningless platitudes, we’ll be in better shape.
