We created In Before The Lock to share our perspectives, learnings, and insights from over 4 decades of combined experience building communities, customer experiences, and businesses at scale.
Erica Kuhl
Over the last 17 years, I have put my heart and soul into building a thriving community of customers by being 100% focused on their success. When you do that, you open up amazing opportunities to network, innovate, mentor, sell, build loyalty, and trust together.
Connect with me on ericakuhl.com, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Brian Oblinger
Ever since I got online in the late 1990’s, I have been fascinated with building communities and creating great digital experiences. I was fortunate to turn my passion into a career, helping hundreds of companies connect with their customers to build an engine for engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
Connect with me on brianoblinger.com, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
“In Before The Lock”, or “IB4TL”, is forum slang commonly found in discussions that have completely gone off of the rails and will be locked by a moderator shortly. It’s a game of sorts - users post this term to denote that they have beaten the moderator and are collecting their free post in the soon-to-be closed thread. By using this name, we’re paying homage to our deep roots in online community culture.