This glossary defines the terms an online community owner runs into when picking software, setting up the site, moderating, growing and getting paid. Each entry gives a plain definition and, where BuddyNext has the feature, one sentence on how it works there with a link to the page that explains it in full.
We make BuddyNext, a community plugin for WordPress, so the examples lean that way. Other platforms use different words for the same ideas, and we note the common alternatives so the entries stay useful whichever tool you end up using.
Community types and platforms
Online community
An online community is a group of people who share a purpose or interest and interact in a shared digital place. Members talk to each other, not only to the owner. Support hubs, course groups, fan clubs, alumni networks and professional circles are all communities. The purpose decides most of the setup. Our guide to the types of online communities sorts them by what they are for.
Community platform
A community platform is the software that hosts a community: profiles, a place to post, groups, notifications and moderation tools in one product. Some are hosted services and some are software you install yourself. The community platforms roundup compares the main options, and the best WordPress community plugins page covers the plugin route.
Forum
A forum is a community format built around threaded topics: someone starts a thread, others reply, and the thread stays searchable for years. Forums suit support and long-lived answers. Feeds suit quick updates. BuddyNext offers an optional Discussions tab inside a space, described in the space forum docs, and the forum and community guide explains when to use which. For a pure forum product, Discourse is a respected choice.
Social network
A social network lets members build profiles, follow each other, post to a shared feed and message privately. A community platform usually includes these parts and adds spaces and moderation on top. If you want your own network instead of renting space on a large one, read create a social network and the social media site on WordPress guide.
Private community
A private community restricts who can see and join it. Entry may need an invitation, an approval or a paid plan, and content is hidden from visitors. Owners choose this for client groups, paid memberships and sensitive topics. BuddyNext supports private and secret spaces, and the private community platform guide lists what to check before choosing a tool.
Membership site
A membership site sells or controls access to content or a group. Members sign up, often pay, and see material that visitors cannot. A community is what members do together inside it. Many owners want both, which is why the membership site guide and the WordPress membership plugin page sit next to the community material.
Self-hosted platform
A self-hosted platform runs on hosting you control. You hold the database, the files and the member list, and you decide when to update. The tradeoff is that you or your host handle servers, backups and security. BuddyNext is self-hosted on WordPress. The self-hosted community platform guide weighs it, and self-hosted vs hosted is the fairer side-by-side.
Hosted platform
A hosted platform, sometimes called SaaS, runs on the vendor’s servers and you pay to use it. Setup is fast and updates are handled for you. In return you work inside the vendor’s features, rules and pricing model. Circle, Skool and Mighty Networks are examples, and each does some things well, such as quick launches and built-in courses.
Progressive web app
A progressive web app, or PWA, is a website that members can install on a phone or desktop and open in its own window, like an app. It needs no app store. BuddyNext Free makes the community installable this way. A native app is in development and has not been released. Details are in the PWA docs and the community app guide.
Members and roles
Member
A member is a registered person who can take part in the community. Visitors can often read public content, while members can post, react, follow and join spaces. The member list is one of your most valuable assets, which is why where it lives matters. In BuddyNext members are ordinary WordPress users. See the member journey.
Member profile
A member profile is the page that represents one person: name, photo, bio, activity and any fields you ask for. Good profiles help members find people like them. BuddyNext Free provides profiles with custom fields and a completion indicator, and Pro adds advanced and conditional fields. Start with member profiles.
Member directory
A member directory is a searchable list of everyone in the community, usually with filters. It turns a pile of accounts into a place where people can find each other. BuddyNext includes a directory in Free, with presence indicators and filtering by member type and interests. Read the member directory docs.
Member type
A member type is a category you define for people in the community, such as Student, Mentor, Staff or Alumni. A type can carry a badge, appear as a filter and shape what people expect from each other. It differs from a role, which controls what someone is allowed to do. BuddyNext covers it in member types.
Role
A role is a set of permissions assigned to a person: ordinary member, moderator, administrator. Roles answer the question of who may do what. BuddyNext lets you set the minimum role needed for each action, such as posting or creating a space, under Roles and Capabilities. See roles and permissions.
Moderator
A moderator is a trusted person with extra powers to keep the community orderly: reviewing reports, removing content, warning or suspending members. Moderators are often volunteers drawn from active members. BuddyNext supports community-wide moderators and a separate moderator role inside each space. The roles and moderators docs explain the split.
Following and connections
Following is a one-way relationship: you follow someone to see their activity and they need not follow back. A connection is two-way and needs the other person to accept. Platforms pick one model or both. BuddyNext Free has both, described in following and connections.
Onboarding
Onboarding is the path a new member takes from signing up to their first useful action. A good one asks for a photo, suggests spaces and people, and gets a first reply quickly. BuddyNext Free includes a new-member wizard of up to six steps. Our post on community onboarding covers what to put in each step, and the onboarding docs cover the settings.
Invitation
An invitation is a link or message that brings a specific person into the community. Invitations suit private groups, because the owner controls who arrives. BuddyNext supports personal invitations with the email pre-filled, plus a shareable invite link for each space. See invitations and invite with a link.
Spaces and content
Space
A space is a sub-community inside the larger one, with its own members, feed, rules and sometimes its own moderators. Other products call it a group, a channel, a circle or a forum category. Spaces let one community serve many interests without becoming one noisy stream. Read why communities need spaces and the spaces overview.
Space privacy
Space privacy decides who can see a space and how people join. BuddyNext has three types: open spaces that anyone can join, private spaces that are listed but need approval, and secret spaces that are hidden and invite only. The owner can change the type later. The space types docs have the full comparison.
Activity feed
The activity feed is the running stream of posts and updates members see when they arrive. A good feed mixes new posts, replies and announcements, and it should load fast. BuddyNext Free provides the feed and a composer for text, media and polls. The activity feed docs explain it, and what makes a community feel fast covers speed.
Reaction
A reaction is a one-click response to a post, such as a like or another emoji. Reactions give members a cheap way to acknowledge each other and give owners a signal about what lands. BuddyNext Free includes reactions, and Pro lets you define custom ones. See reactions and custom reactions.
Poll
A poll is a post that asks a question and offers a short list of answers, with live results as people vote. Polls are an easy first post for a new community because they cost the reader almost nothing to answer. BuddyNext has polls built in as a post type in Free. See polls.
Hashtag
A hashtag is a word with a leading # that turns into a clickable topic. Each tag gathers public posts that use it into one page that members can follow. Hashtags help people find related posts across spaces. They are built into BuddyNext Free, and the hashtags docs show how topic pages work.
Discussion thread
A discussion thread is a structured conversation with a title, a first post and ordered replies, often with a way to mark the best answer. It suits questions that should stay findable. BuddyNext offers threaded discussions inside spaces through the optional Discussions tab, powered by the Jetonomy integration. See the space forum docs.
Moderation and safety
Moderation
Moderation is the ongoing work of keeping a community safe, on topic and fair. It combines human judgment with automatic filters, and it works best when the rules are written down and applied the same way each time. Our post on how to moderate an online community walks through a routine, and the moderation docs cover BuddyNext’s tools.
Community guidelines
Community guidelines are the written rules for behavior: what is welcome, what is not and what happens when someone crosses the line. Clear guidelines make moderation faster and appeals easier to settle. See community guidelines examples for wording you can adapt to your own group.
Report
A report is a flag a member raises on a post, comment, message or profile to ask a moderator to review it. Reports spread the watching across the whole community instead of leaving it to staff. BuddyNext Free lets any member report content, and the reporting docs explain what is recorded.
Moderation queue
A moderation queue is the list of reports and flagged items waiting for a decision. A healthy queue is short and its oldest item is recent. In BuddyNext the queue lives in Community Admin on the front end, and wp-admin shows the same reports as a table. Read the moderation queue docs.
Strike
A strike is a recorded penalty against a member for breaking a rule. Strikes make enforcement consistent: a first offence is a warning, repeat offences escalate. In BuddyNext, accumulated strikes can trigger an automatic suspension or a ban, as set out in the user moderation docs.
Suspension
A suspension is a temporary block that stops a member from taking part for a set period. It is the middle step between a warning and a permanent ban. BuddyNext Free supports timed suspensions, and a suspended member can appeal. The user moderation docs cover the controls.
Appeal
An appeal is how a suspended member disputes a decision and asks a moderator to look again. Offering one makes enforcement feel fairer and catches honest mistakes. In BuddyNext the member writes a short explanation and a moderator reviews it. See appeals.
Content warning
A content warning is a label that blurs a post until a viewer chooses to reveal it, typically for spoilers or sensitive material. It lets the content stay up without surprising anyone. BuddyNext lets moderators apply labels such as NSFW, Spoilers, Violence and Strong Language. Read content warnings.
Content safeguards
Content safeguards are automatic rules that check a post before it is saved, such as banned words, blocked links or limits on how fast someone can post. They stop obvious spam without a moderator being present. BuddyNext Free includes safeguards, set out in the content safeguards docs.
Auto-moderation
Auto-moderation applies rules or an AI check to content without waiting for a person. It saves time on high-volume communities and still needs human review for edge cases. In BuddyNext it is a Pro feature, and the AI options are opt-in, some needing an AI provider. See auto-moderation and bulk moderation.
Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, asks for a one-time code in addition to a password, so a stolen password alone cannot open the account. It matters most for admins and moderators. BuddyNext Free supports 2FA with an authenticator app. The two-factor docs walk through setup.
Engagement and growth
Engagement
Engagement is the degree to which members take part: posting, replying, reacting, attending, helping each other. Raw sign-up totals say little. Active members as a share of all members says more. Our post on community engagement strategies lists practical ways to raise it.
Active member
An active member is someone who did something in a set window, commonly the last 30 days. The ratio of active to total members is the first health number most owners track. BuddyNext Free shows it on the Insights screen, covered in community insights.
Cohort retention
Cohort retention follows a group of members who joined in the same period and shows how many are still active week by week. It reveals whether your onboarding works, which a total count hides. BuddyNext Pro includes cohort retention in its analytics dashboard, along with daily, weekly and monthly active members. See analytics.
Gamification
Gamification adds points, badges, levels and leaderboards to everyday actions to encourage participation. Used lightly it rewards helpful behavior. Points come from the WB Gamification companion plugin, not from BuddyNext itself, and BuddyNext shows the results and badge notifications. Read gamification.
Notification
A notification tells a member that something relevant happened, such as a reply, a mention or a new follower. Too many train people to ignore them, too few let conversations die. BuddyNext Free has a notification bell with per-type preferences. Read notifications and notification preferences.
Email digest
An email digest batches a member’s unread notifications into one daily or weekly email instead of one email per event. It brings lapsed members back without flooding inboxes. BuddyNext Free includes digests, and members choose the schedule. See email digests.
Broadcast email
A broadcast is a one-time email from the owner to a chosen segment of members, such as everyone active in the last 30 days. It is the right tool for news and events. In BuddyNext it is a Pro feature. See broadcast email and the grow with email recipe.
Drip sequence
A drip sequence is a series of emails sent on a schedule after a trigger, typically sign-up. It carries a new member through the first weeks without manual work. In BuddyNext Pro sequences start on registration or onboarding. See drip sequences.
Money and access
Paid membership
A paid membership charges members for access to the community or to parts of it, either once or on a recurring basis. It turns a community into a business, and it raises expectations about quality and support. The paid community guide covers the setup, and the launch a paid community recipe is the step list.
Membership plan
A membership plan defines what a member gets and what they pay: a name, a price, a billing period and the access it grants. Owners often run a free tier and one or two paid ones. BuddyNext Pro includes plans and takes payment through your own Stripe or PayPal account. See membership plans.
Gated space
A gated space is open only to members who hold a particular plan. Everyone else sees it locked or not at all. In BuddyNext Pro you attach plans to a space, and the gated spaces docs explain the setup. Single posts can be locked with content protection.
Transaction fee
A transaction fee is a percentage a platform takes from what your members pay you, on top of the payment processor’s own charge. Some hosted platforms charge it and some do not, so check each pricing page. BuddyNext takes no cut of your sales. The no transaction fees guide compares models, and community platform cost covers the rest.
Social login
Social login lets people sign in with an account they already have, such as Google, Facebook, Apple, GitHub or Discord. It removes a password step and lifts sign-up completion. BuddyNext Free supports it. See social login.
Hosting, data and migration
Data ownership
Data ownership means you hold the member list, the content and the activity history, and can take them elsewhere. On a hosted platform the vendor holds them and decides what you can export. On a self-hosted site they sit in your own database. Read own your community data for the reasoning.
Privacy and GDPR
Privacy rules such as the GDPR give people the right to see, export and delete their data, and they require a lawful basis for collecting it. A community owner is responsible even when software helps. BuddyNext Free lets members download their data and set retention rules. See privacy and data and the GDPR community platform guide.
Migration
Migration is moving a community from one platform to another: members, content and structure. Plan it for a quiet period and tell members first. BuddyNext has paths from BuddyPress and BuddyBoss, and our team does an assisted migration from Mighty Networks through its API. Circle and Skool have no importer. Passwords do not carry over, so members set a new one.
Webhook
A webhook is a message one system sends to another when something happens, such as a new member joining. It connects the community to a CRM, a spreadsheet or an automation tool without custom code. BuddyNext Free supports outbound webhooks, and Pro removes the limit. See outbound webhooks.
Object cache
An object cache keeps frequently used data in memory so the database is asked less often. Communities generate many small queries, so a persistent cache matters as they grow. BuddyNext works without one and runs faster with one. See object cache at scale.
White label
White labelling replaces the product’s name and logo with your own, so clients or members see your brand. Agencies use it when delivering communities to customers. In BuddyNext it is a Pro feature, described in white label.