If you look at discussions about communities, you will usually see a discussion rooted in technology. What platform is best? What features should a platform contain? How will Facebook’s new feature affect communities? These are the wrong questions. Technology has a limited impact upon the success of a community. If you want a thriving community, it’s not technology you need to master – it’s social sciences. If you can master social sciences, you can manipulate basic principles to build any number of successful communities. You can use proven sociological, psychological, and, sometimes, anthropological triggers to influence members to join, participate, and do almost anything you want in a community. This talk will explain how you can do that. It will break down a few proven principles from social sciences and showcase how we (and others) have applied them to build thriving communities.