How do we keep people in our community?
What is the lifeblood of community? "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
Typical Community Members
Newbies, guests, visitors: rejuvinate the community over time.
Regulars: do all work and make up bulk of community members. Regularly contribute and therefore shape the community by modeling/reprimanding certain behaviour.
Leaders: energy and skill to take community in particular direction. Help convert newbies to regulars.
Elders: Became weary of day-to-day stuff. Active as repositories of knowledge. Peripheral watchers lurking in the shadows.
Lurkers - not connected, don't contribute: we want to convert these to our lurkers to regulars.
How do we Retain Active Community Membership?
Work Slides
a) Aspect of community. b) Strategy to improve community leading from this aspect.
1)a) Simplicity is Key. b) Keep everything simple-don't over-complicate things.
2)a) Policies to make expected behaviours explicit. b) Keep policies in a public directory and current.
3)a) Think outside the box. b) Being creative will provide new opportunities for members.
4)a) Provide (free) compensation for unexpected down-time. b) Giving people something interesting means they will be more amenable to lack of service.
5)a) In/visibility. b) Provide a way for people to be graphically identified - provide people with a voice.
6)a) Flame War. b) Prevent flame wars before they start - through policies and monitoring.
7)a) Incentives. b) Nerds love being rewarded - provide rewards for involvement in community.
8)a) Stick to the recipe. b) Ensure new fang-dangled-things don't remove previous usability.
9)a)Animals are cute. b) Have animals somewhere on your site; the cuter the better.
10)a) Feedback. b) Have adequate conduits for feedback and ensure you listen to the users-tell them so.
11)a) Speed. b)Ensure your community is not slow to use/load
12)a) Tech Support b) Ensure there is fast, friendly, active response to technical issues.
13)a) Fostering diversity - incl. linguistic. b) Ensure that there are adequate rules to make newbies feel comfortable; if newbies have a bad experience early on then they are likely to not become regulars.
14)a) Accessible via symbols - removing need for language. b) Menu items designated by symbols (particularly "universal" symbols) means people with different linguistic abilities/frames of reference can feel comfortable navigating your site.
15)a) Trolls. b) Trolling should be explicitly prohibited and people who troll should be removed/sanctioned. This action should be carried out reasonably publicly so that people know what sort of behaviour is expected; utilise the Panopticon.
16)a) Money (broadly capital/value). b) If there is no capital flowing (social or fiscal) then there is little chance of sustainability - ensure your community has this flowing.
17)a) Intimidating behaviour from regulars. b) If regulars intimidate newbies then they will not become regulars themselves. Ensure that everyone provides an open, supportive environment. This is best dealt with by private messaging; don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
18)a) Justice. b) Ensure that people are treated fairly and that there are explicit ways of handling disputes.
19)a) Kiddisafe. b) Ensure that there is a way for "adult" material to be posted so that it is not accessible by minors. Similarly, if a person contributes material that may be of an adult nature, this should be readily identified as "NSFW" so that the person viewing the material can decide when or if they wish to proceed.
20)a) People will put their own interpretations on the community - they will make of it what they will. b) Although there should be rules describing acceptable or unacceptable behaviour (and to satisfy legal requirements) these should not be overly prescriptive; too many rules can strangle a community and also reduces the autonomy of self-governance/group governance.
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