The heart of a community

August 25, 2008 in social media | 2 comments

Forums, or discussion boards are one of the oldest types of communication and collaboration on the internet.  This does not mean that it is an aging and irrelevant form of social meadia though.  I was talking to a friend of mine, Brian Ellefritz, about the history and effectiveness of forums, and it is interesting to see that they are still widely popular on sites that have a large community and following.  Forums allow anyone to join in on conversation or start discussions.  In my opinion there is something about forums that is addictive.  The ability to tap the minds of multiple people on a subject is exhilerating and gratifying when solutions are presented and problems are solved.  The main question is whether or not a particular site can be a feeding ground for community forums.  The answer for this has always been a bit vague in my mind as a website owner of a couple of sites.  Number one, I think the site has to already be getting large amount of visitors, and secondly, the site has to niche enough for people to feel that they can go into a discussion and know that there will be others who are knowledgable on a particular subject.

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  1. Ronald’s avatar

    Ronald on August 27, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    I think that the lack of a pre-existing community is why there is such a huge entry barrier to new social networks. It’s a “chicken or the egg” issue: What comes first? Content or community? Without a community you won’t have content, without content you won’t have a community.

    I think this is why Facebook applications has the potential to be a huge market, they already have the community AND the content. However, Facebook apps so far have been mostly junk (pirates and zombies? Come on!) and until they start becoming useful, people won’t take Facebook apps seriously. Maybe it’s already too late for useful Facebook apps because people already perceive them as frivolous and childish.

  2. Brad Wrage’s avatar

    Brad Wrage on August 27, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Excellent thoughts Ronald although a social network such as Facebook had to start from nothing just like everything else.