Glossary: community, course and membership terms
This page defines 25 terms you run into when you pick a platform to run a community, sell courses or host events. Each answer starts with the plain definition, and where Lockers handles the thing, the second part says how it works there.
What is a community platform?
A community platform is software that gives a group its own private space online, with posts, comments, member profiles and messages in a space you control. Many also add courses, events and payments. Lockers is a community platform. Each community is called a Locker and comes with a feed, courses, an events calendar, private messages and a member directory.
What is an owned community?
An owned community is a group that lives on a platform the organizer chooses and controls, instead of inside a social network where the network sets the rules and decides who sees each post. Moving a Facebook group to its own platform is one example. A Locker is an owned community, and you can download a ZIP of its community content and uploaded files, without video files or private messages. See how to move a Facebook group to an owned community.
What is a membership site?
A membership site is a website where people pay a recurring fee, monthly or yearly, to reach content and conversations that non-members cannot see. Common examples are coaching programs, professional groups and paid newsletters with a discussion space. On Lockers Pro, a Locker can charge a monthly or yearly membership price, and members get every course in it.
What is a paid community?
A paid community is an online group that charges for entry, either once or on a recurring plan, so everyone inside has paid to be there. The fee usually covers access to the organizer, the other members and any courses or events. On Lockers, paid memberships need the Pro plan and your own connected Stripe account.
What is an online course?
An online course is a set of lessons, usually video and text, that people work through on the web to learn a skill or reach a result. A course can be free, sold on its own, or included with a membership. In Lockers, courses are built in Course studio, and a free-to-join Locker can sell individual courses on Basic or Pro.
What is a self-paced course?
A self-paced course is one where each person starts whenever they like and moves through the lessons on their own schedule, with no shared start date. It suits material that does not depend on a group moving together. A Lockers course is self-paced unless you set release dates on Pro, and uploaded lesson videos pick up where each person stopped.
What is a cohort course?
A cohort course is a course that a group of people starts and finishes together on set dates, often with a live session each week. The shared schedule gives everyone the same deadlines and a group to work alongside. On Lockers Pro, you can run a cohort by setting module release dates and putting the live sessions on the events calendar. See community, membership, cohort or course for help choosing between them.
What is drip content?
Drip content means releasing lessons on a schedule, such as one module a week, instead of all at once. You can use it so people stay with the group and do not rush through the material in a weekend. Lockers calls this release timing. On Pro, each module can open right away, after a number of days, or on a date, and lessons can stay locked until the earlier ones are done.
What is a learning management system (LMS)?
A learning management system, or LMS, is software for building courses, enrolling people and tracking their progress through lessons and quizzes. Large companies use them for staff training, and creators and coaches use lighter versions to sell courses. Lockers puts its course tools inside the community, so lessons sit next to the discussion and events in the same Locker, with quizzes and learning reports on Pro.
What is a course completion certificate?
A course completion certificate is a document a person receives after finishing a course, which they can save or share as proof of the work. Professional training and continuing education programs often offer them. Lockers Pro can issue a completion certificate when someone finishes a course.
What is a webinar?
A webinar is a live online presentation where a host speaks or shares a screen with an audience that watches and responds in chat. Many hosts record it and share the replay afterward. The Lockers Live room runs webinars in the browser for up to 100 people, with session chat and recording. Live comes with the Pro plan, which is $67 a month with a 1% fee on sales plus Stripe processing and includes 200 Live attendee-hours a month.
What is a hybrid event?
A hybrid event happens at a physical venue and online at the same time, so people can attend in person or join remotely. In Lockers, a hybrid event pairs a venue with either the Live room or an outside meeting link. Hybrid events that use a meeting link work on every plan.
What is an event ticket?
An event ticket is a paid pass that admits one person to an event. On Lockers, one ticket covers the whole event, and ticket sales work on Basic and Pro once you connect Stripe. A guest can buy a ticket with a free Lockers account without joining the community.
What is an activity feed?
An activity feed is the main stream of posts in a community, with recent conversations near the top. Members read and comment there, so it is where most day-to-day conversation happens. The Lockers feed supports posts with images, video, polls and link previews, along with comments and pinned posts. Video can be a YouTube link on Free, and uploaded video needs Basic or Pro.
What is a member directory?
A member directory is a list of the people in a community, with profiles that help members find and contact each other. It lets a new member spot people with a shared interest and start a conversation. Every Locker has a member directory with profiles and private messages.
What is a community moderator?
A community moderator is a member trusted to keep discussions on topic and within the rules by reviewing reported posts and removing what breaks them. Moderators let you grow a group without reading every comment yourself. Lockers has a moderator role that reviews reports and moderates posts and comments, and moderators can post in staff-only categories.
What is community engagement?
Community engagement is how much members take part, measured by things like posts, comments, event attendance and course progress, instead of how many people joined. Watch it, because a large group where nobody posts gives new members little reason to stay. See the first 30 days of community engagement for a starting plan.
What is churn?
Churn is the share of paying members who cancel in a given period, usually measured monthly. If 100 people pay at the start of the month and 5 cancel, monthly churn is 5%. Lower churn means each member stays longer and pays more over time, so if you run a membership, track it next to new signups.
What is a freemium plan?
A freemium plan is a free tier with no time limit, with paid upgrades for more capacity or advanced features. It lets people start without a card and pay once the project needs more. The Lockers Free plan includes unlimited members and courses with 250 MB of file storage. Basic, at $7 a month with a 5% fee plus Stripe processing, adds hosted video and selling.
What is a free trial?
A free trial gives full access to a paid plan for a set number of days before billing starts. Some trials ask for a card up front and charge automatically when they end. Lockers has no trial, and every new Locker starts on the Free plan with no card.
What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is an address that sits in front of a main domain, such as yourname.lockers.social, where lockers.social is the main domain. Platforms give each customer a subdomain so they can launch without buying or setting up a domain. Every Locker starts on a free name.lockers.social address.
What is a custom domain?
A custom domain is a web address you own, such as community.yourbrand.com, pointed at a platform so members see your brand in the address bar. Lockers Pro supports one custom domain per Locker. The domain covers the web address and does not include email at that domain.
What is white labeling?
White labeling means a platform lets a business present the product under its own brand, usually with its own name, logo, colors and domain, so members see the business instead of the software company. How far it goes varies by platform, from a logo swap to a fully rebranded mobile app. Each Locker can set its own name, logos, accent color, theme and layout, and Pro adds a custom domain.
What is a platform fee?
A platform fee is the percentage a software company takes from each sale made through its product, on top of any monthly subscription. Lockers charges a 5% platform fee plus Stripe processing on Basic, at $7 a month, and a 1% fee plus Stripe processing on Pro, at $67 a month. The fee is calculated after discounts and before tax.
What is a payment processing fee?
A payment processing fee is what the payment company charges to move a card payment into the seller's bank account, usually a percentage plus a small fixed amount per charge. It is separate from any platform fee. Lockers payments run through your own Stripe account, so the processing fee on that Stripe account applies to each sale.