Moderation is the heart of open source support

I've also watched professional moderation, facillitation and community management get eliminated at every turn.

Cost-cutting is the usual excuse, but if you don't have a teacher in the kindergarten you get Lord of the Flies.

There is a lesson here for open source. If you want to build your forge communities you need professional managers who can make newcomers feel welcome, tease contributions of all kinds out of members, and stomp on the flamers.

This takes money. Money for hiring online administrators, for training them, for educating users on netiquette and for defending the tough calls.

Better community support will lead to better support, period. The first open source company to deliver on this promse of governance will gain an immense market advantage.