The Mystery of the Online Community - John C. Dvorak

Read this and thought it was very interesting:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2000353,00.asp

[psionandy]

It was... but it stopped just when it was getting good.. I'd have love to see the ideas, worked out at a fuller length.

Scopsy??? do you have anyone who needs an idea for a thesis?????

[Tankman]

"Is there any way to establish and maintain an online community with no fakes and vandals ruining it for everyone? Or is the problem just a reflection of society that we must live with?"

A very difficult position. Perhaps a reminder of the early days of ham radio where everyone was anyone.

Sitting at the ham radio, mike in hand, was sometimes like acting. A five footer was six foot six.

[StanleyR1]

Interesting article. I'd have liked to see the ideas fleshed out a little more. This site, especially with it's recent goings on, would make a wonderful case study.

Interesting article. I'd have liked to see the ideas fleshed out a little more. This site, especially with it's recent goings on, would make a wonderful case study.

That's funny..someone in the forums at PCMAG said the same thing:


"I agree, open forums and communities are doomed - there is no way around it. All it takes is one extremely dedicated blowhard to wreak havoc. Essentially, the uber-geeks will try to reason with the instigator and the entire forum will become dedicated to an endless, cyclical flame war. On one side you might have a majority, but that one stalwart blowhard will continually reply with the same rhetoric. Eventually, the reasonable members will just stop participating leaving the forum in a binary system that will spew rhetoric ad infinitum. "

wow