Josh Dorkin, founder of BiggerPockets, describes how he established cultural moderation norms on the platform to avoid the snarky gatekeeping common in other online forums.
“When you run to pretty much any community, you'll see, like, the experienced guys always, like, there'll be, like, a new question that comes out, and they'll be like, well, have you gone and read, you know, all the other forum questions? Have you searched? You know, don't be lazy, you know, and sorry, but it's kind of a dick move in my view. Like, maybe they did. Maybe they missed it. Maybe it didn't come through on search or whatever it was. Like, Just answer the question. Just be helpful, right?”
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Insight
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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Disclosure
Josh Dorkin bootstrapped BiggerPockets for eight years with no outside capital
“And I never took a penny from anyone. You know, I started with my four dollar a month hosting and that was the only money I ever applied into that business was the first four bucks and then the next four bucks and the next four bucks, but like beyond that, I b…”
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Disclosure
Josh Dorkin refused personal sponsor endorsements hosting the BiggerPockets podcast
“I don't think in hundreds and hundreds of episodes that, that I hosted the BiggerPockets podcast, I don't think I ever did a single endorsement.”
Josh DorkinMar 3, 2023▶ 28:16From Zero to 2M+: How Josh Dorkin Built the Bigger Pockets Community
Insight
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