Everyone has seen them. They invade your e-mails with useless information ranging from bogus vacations to prescriptions for pills that either don’t work or you don’t need. And in an online community, they’re worse, pitching their wares in public.

You know them as spammers, the scourge of the Internet. And historically, spammers and their non-human counterparts, spambots, have made life for community managers miserable.

The problem has always been what is the best was to counteract these constant nuisances so they don’t flood your community with ads for porn, Viagra or fake watches.

Adding captcha to allow for user registration or posting is one possible answer. Realistically, asking a user to type a random set of letters, number or words can weed out the spambots. However, the human spammers will be privy to this little trick, and many have found ways to sidestep this.

For forum programs such as PHPBB, an internal solution in the form of modifications, or add-ins to their software, can be the answer. Their site contains a wide array of anti-spam mods for community managers to use.

Registration tools can also be used. The most restrictive is admin user activation. While this can guarantee that no spammers can get through, the process can be time-consuming on the adminstrator’s end and could be potentially off-putting to users. E-mail activation can also be useful, given that many spammers don’t register using valid e-mail addresses. Again, there is a risk of spammers side-stepping this hurdle.

Like the vanquishing of trolls, a topic we’ve recently tackled, ridding your community of spammers will take constant vigilance and monitoring of your community. While there is not surefire way to complete eradicate spammers,the above steps can get your community as clean as possible.

Earlier this week, I had to ban a troll. I only consider it memorable because for the online communities I manage, trolls tend to be few and far between. However, if you happen to manage a community that is prone to these type of users, you may run into this issue much more often.

Trolling has been around as long as the Internet. They are, in their basic form, one of the most potentially disruptive and, as a consequence, damaging element to building and manageing your online community.

First, to clarify, trolls are not the same as spammers or spambots. These are a whole other class of user, who are generally dealt with by immediately deleting and blocking their access. We will delve into taking preventative measures against spammers at a later time.

Trolls, on the other hand, are typically human, non-bot users who, for one reason or another, enjoy being a disruption to an online community. Their trademarks are controversial and off-topic comments and posts created with the sole purpose of stirring the pot.

Identifying trolls can vary in degree of difficulty, again, depending on your community. For example, political communities, usually filled with emotionally-charged posts, make spotting trolls a tough proposal. On the other hand, less contentious communities allow trolls to be more easily identified.

The standard fix for trolls, on the user end, is to simply ignore then, classically dubbed, “Don’t feed the trolls.” The idea is that if the troll is craving attention and doesn’t get it, they will either go away or get in line with the normal conversation.

Moderators, for the most part, don’t generally need to step in unless the troll becomes more active in the community, menacing users by increasing their post counts. If this is the case, you have several courses of action.

First, you may wish to warn the user that their activity is not appropriate for the community. This is the least effective option, as trolls have a tendency to let a warning go in one ear and out the other.

So, with that in mind, you may want to consider banning. This can entail blocking posting privileges to a user either by username, e-mail address or even IP address. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to make the ban temporary or permanent.

Ultimately, as a moderator, the decision is up to you how to handle trolls. And always remember that your actions here will play a factor in the direction your online community goes.

Like any other project, online communities must have one person who has the power to make sure everything runs smoothly. In this case, that job falls on the shoulders of the moderator.

Online communities have called this person by other names, such as administrator, director or other names users call them when they don’t get their way. But their functions are all the same: To keep the community functioning and a viable place for users.

Depending on the size of your community, the moderator can have any level of involvement and spend a varying amount of time on the site. Smaller sites tend to have one person, maybe you or someone else on a part-time basis. Other sites are large enough that they need more than one person, perhaps even working full-time.

What does the moderator do? Again, depending on the size of the online community, the moderator serve a number of functions. But one universal duty is the monitor the site for any technical issues or any inappropriate behavior by users.

Essentially, moderators serve as the adult in the room, and it is crucial for them to, from the outset, lay the ground rules for the community. That way, there is no confusion when sanctions are handed out.

You may also ask your moderator to work on other tasks for the online community, the easiest of which is posting new topics to possibly jump-start the conversation. They can also be called upon to write up site-related announcements as well.

Beyond that, depending on their ability levels, moderators can be asked the assist you with writing and developing new site content, create e-mail marketing for your users or establish and maintain the community’s social media presence.

This position isn’t for everyone, though. Because of the power they have on the overall community, it’s important that the moderator possesses a soft touch when it comes to dealing with site issues. Plus, it has to be someone you can work with.

When you get the right person, it makes all the difference and will allow you to concentrate on making your online community successful.

So, you have an idea for building an online community. The problem is that your technical capabilities aren’t very strong. In this day and age, however, the lack of technical savvy is no longer a deterrent for creating and maintaining an online community.

You just need to know where to go. Here is a small sampling of some of the sites that can allow you to get up an running without having an advanced degree in Computer Science.

Blog Sites – The most popular sites these days, WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal, give users to express their opinions and post news, while at the same time allow for feedback. Depending on the size of the community you want to build, creating a blog may be the best first step.

Message Board Hosts – If you are more interested in primarily eliciting comments and opinions from your community, rather than you generating the content yourself, message boards sites, the most popular being Yuku and ProBoards, may be the way to go. A word of caution, however. You will want to closely monitor your postings, as message boards are notorious havens for spammers.

Ning - If you’re looking for a solutions that provides for everything under the sun, from personal user space to discussion boards to event announcements, Ning is your answer. Created in 2005, Ning takes online community building one step further. It allows you to create your own social network, much like MySpace or Facebook, with the ability for users to share both opinions, photos, videos, and the like.

Ning’s usability and popularity has attracted community builders of all ability levels, from social media clubs to aspiring writers to celebrities as diverse and Bonnie Hunt and Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (whose social media exploits we’ve mentioned previously).

With so many possible venues for online community builders to choose from, it may take some time to figure out which format is right for you. That’s OK, because a good starting plan can help you on your way to developing a group of engaged and active users.

Years before TOG Solutions was created, I spent some time building communities online for other interests that ranged from reading of college newspapers to hunters seeking cooking advice. This, of course, was at a time when blogging was just getting popular, and all of the current popular social media sites did not exist.

Today, while the idea of online community has grown exponentially, thanks to the light-speed emergence of social media, the concept still remains the same: Build your own online presence in hopes that others like you will join you.

The necessity of an building an online community, though, depends entirely on the reasons behind it. Team fan sites are a good example of a person filling a need of a community. Here, a person, or a group of people, take their devotion to a team and build a site around it.

However, some may find that building a community might not be the right move for them. For instance, the community you may want to build caters to people who don’t typically spend much time online.

Size, however, should not be a consideration of need. True, the community you want to establish may only attract a dozen people. But if those people are regular users and contribute a great deal, it won’t matter.

Coming up with a plan to build a community is one thing. But it is equally important to understand why you need to build it. Determining need will be a key part in your overall success.