Community
A group of people who share interests, industries, goals, or opportunities and connect around them. On Origin, every community comes with a room where members find each other and build together.
Community OS
Community OS Glossary
The essential vocabulary of community building — clear definitions for the terms organizers, moderators, and founders use every day.
Why a glossary
Community building has its own language, and the terms are often used loosely. A community OS glossary gives organizers, moderators, and founders shared definitions they can rely on — from the classic concepts like moderation and onboarding to newer ideas like engagement loops and hybrid events.
Core terms
Here are the core terms every organizer, moderator, and founder uses — each one is defined in practice across the Community Building guides:
Community
Community manager
The person who keeps a community welcoming, active, and on-mission — welcoming new members, sparking conversation, and coordinating projects. On Origin, the member who starts a community owns and moderates its room.
Community OS
A platform that brings profiles, communities, chat, projects, and opportunities into one organized workspace. Origin is the community OS behind JoinOrigin.
Moderation
The practice of keeping a community safe and on-topic through clear guidelines and consistent, fair enforcement. Good moderation protects the relationships that make a community worth joining.
Onboarding
The process of welcoming new members and helping them take a first meaningful action — introducing themselves, joining a conversation, or starting a project. Strong onboarding turns new members into active ones.
Activation
The moment a new member takes the action that makes them part of the community — their first post, first event, or first project. Activation is the step between joining and contributing.
Engagement loop
The repeating cycle of participation that keeps a community alive: someone posts, others respond, and the conversation creates more reasons to return. Healthy loops are the heartbeat of an active community.
Hybrid events
Events that blend in-person and online participation, so members in different places can join the same gathering. Hybrid formats help communities stay connected between meetups.
Co-founder
A person who builds a project or company with you and shares the founding journey. On Origin, co-founders are often found through the network — people who join your idea page and decide to build together.
Go deeper
- Work through the Community Building guides — the step-by-step how-tos behind every term.
- See the concepts in practice: New York City and Berlin city pages.
Find your people. Start or grow something together.
Join 2,400+ builders — from first ideas to established companies — on Origin's social collaboration network and get discovered today.