Be Scarier

There is a lot of fear about scaring new people away. It’s bad right, if new people get scared away by the regulars?

I’m not so sure. Not always. I can’t recall any community, nor any group, desperate to be bigger than they were. No community ever asked me to find more members. Clients certainly did (and do) but not members.

The reason is simple, groups don’t want newcomers. They only want to be closer. More members don’t help – they’re more likely to weaken the group.

Before you break up any clique in your community, think carefully if that’s what the community really wants. If old-timers are scaring away newcomers, that might be a good sign.

This might not fit well with your business objectives, but tough. The community wants what it wants.

Comments

[Jon M Bishop]

Hey Rich

That's an interesting way of looking at things. I'm having this very issue on my forum.

I understand what you mean by the community wanting to protect their space but I have to disagree with thinking it is a good thing when they are downright aggressive and libelous in their response to new comers.

The regulars have their own space within the forum and yet they come out into other spaces, that are sometimes the only place people can find answers to business related questions, and start abusing these people.

I believe this behaviour is born out of allowing the regulars to get away with abusiveness / scaring away newbies for a long period of time so I do not condone such behaviour on the forum anymore.

[Richard Millington]

You're right Jon.

Being scary from the outside is one thing, being outright abusive is another entirely.

[Stuart Foster]

It's a matter of perspective and balance. You have to ensure that your core community is slightly intimidating to outsiders. (A sign of a solid core).

But you have to ensure they are open to new ideas and members at the same time. Insularity is great for the members, horrible for a business.

[Jason Terhorst]

I've been trying to do this in lists and forums I've been in, related to iPhone development, because we've recently had an influx of the "get rich quick" types - including Indian coders - who expect you to basically code their project for them rather than learning for themselves. It's a poison to any programming community, especially if people keep feeding them.

[Jon M Bishop]

Hey Jason, I think in your case it is OK for your community to band together and protect themselves from such negative external influences on your boards.