Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge
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282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page i HOSTING WEB COMMUNITIES: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, INCREASING CUSTOMER LOYALTY, AND MAINTAINING A COMPETITIVE EDGE Cliff Figallo Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge Cliff Figallo ISBN 0-471-28293-6 282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page ii To Nancy and my kids who have inspired and endured my virtual life. Publisher: Robert Ipsen Editor: Cary Sullivan Assistant Editor: Pam Sobotka Managing Editor: Marnie Wielage Electronic Products, Associate Editor: Mike Sosa Text Design & Composition: Benchmark Productions, Inc. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. In all instances where John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters. Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete information regarding trademarks and registration. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 1998 by Cliff Figallo. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850-6008, E-Mail: [email protected]. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Internet World, Web Week, Web Developer, Internet Shopper, and Mecklermedia are the exclu- sive trademarks of Mecklermedia Corporation and are used with permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Figallo, Cliff, 1949– Hosting Web communities : building relationships, increasing customer loyalty, and maintaining a competitive edge / Cliff Figallo. p. cm. “Wiley computer publishing.” Includes index. ISBN 0–471–28293–6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Internet marketing. 2. Customer relations. 3. Electronic discussion groups. I. Title. HF5415.1265.F55 1998 658.8'00285'4678--dc21 98-26920 CIP Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge Cliff Figallo ISBN 0-471-28293-6 282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page iii CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Introduction ix Chapter 1 Defining Community on the Ever-Changing Web 1 Home, Home on the Web . 2 The Attributes of Online Communities 15 The Tentative Twenty Revisited 26 Summary 28 Chapter 2 Identifying Group Styles and Needs 29 Formative Influences of Communities 30 How Communities Differ 34 Profiling Your Community 67 Revenue Models and Community Profiles 69 How Communities Evolve 73 Summary 74 Chapter 3 Establishing and Maintaining Key Relationships 77 The Host’s Role in the Community 78 Involving Your Users 108 Summary 116 Chapter 4 Involving Your Staff 119 Hosting on a Staff-Wide Basis 119 The Community Manager 123 Discussion Hosts: Employees and Volunteers 130 Keeping Staff and Community in Synch 141 Finding and Hiring Experience 143 Summary 144 Chapter 5 Designing the Comfortable Interface 147 No Interface Element Is Trivial 148 Choosing Appropriate Technology 154 Serving the Community’s Focus 158 Clear Navigation 175 Designing for System Performance 183 Summary 187 Chapter 6 Tools That Enhance Group Interaction 189 Bandwidth and Screen Space Hogs Ahead 191 The Discussion Platform 191 Other Technical Aids 212 Summary 217 Chapter 7 Platform Alternatives for Chat 221 Choosing Your Chat Platform 222 CONTENTS iii Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge Cliff Figallo ISBN 0-471-28293-6 282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page iv Options for Creating Your Chat Venue 233 Major Chat Systems and Platforms on the Web 235 Summary 250 Chapter 8 Community Forum Environments 251 Comparing Forum Platforms 252 The Effect of Forum Structure on Group Interaction 255 Features to Look For 263 Representative Forum Interfaces 270 Packaged Forum Services 293 Summary 303 Chapter 9 The Practice of Hosting Discussion 305 The Purposes of Hosting 307 The Real-Time Host 309 The Asynchronous Host 312 Relating with Users 314 Relating with Management 318 Initiating Interaction 319 Maintaining Interaction 325 Community Standards 330 Host Compensation Revisited 333 Summary 334 Chapter 10 Web Worlds 335 The Combined Community Toolkit and Environment 336 The Front Doors to Two Worlds 339 Joining the Leading Web Worlds 342 Other Services Provided in Web Worlds 347 Privacy Issues in Worlds 356 Summary 358 Chapter 11 Support Strategies and Revenue Models 359 The Range of Funding Techniques 360 Financial Support Models in Action 370 Partnering with Portal Sites 387 Summary 391 Chapter 12 Trends, Hopes, and the Future 393 Tools: The Need for Speed 394 Technique: The Maturing of the Community Theme 404 Maintaining Trust 410 Summary 413 Chapter 13 Firsthand Experiences and Case Studies 415 The Early WELL: The Tool Users Meet the Tool Makers 416 Virtual Places: Nurturing a New Platform Community 420 Deep Blue versus Kasparov: A Mass Audience Web Discussion Event 425 Summary 434 Suggested Reading 435 Index 437 iv CONTENTS Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge Cliff Figallo ISBN 0-471-28293-6 282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ppropriately, just about everything I’ve done in the way of community since 1971 has been collaborative and derivative, so there are many people to whom I owe Athanks. They have provided the ideals, the examples, the philosophical underpin- nings, the encouragement, and the technical magic that have kept me working as a com- munitarian for most of my adult life. They’ve helped me to realize the value of personal relationships to the definition of community, and they’ve demonstrated the practices that build and maintain them. Those who demonstrate the importance of such social anchors as trust and integrity are as much teachers as they are colleagues and companions, and I’ve been blessed with many such guides and mentors, whether they were aware of their roles or not. I spent the early 1970s learning from a Zen cowboy named Stephen Gaskin. He taught a mixture of ancient religion, philosophy, and common sense with the Golden Rule at its core. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” was, he explained, the basic operating instruction for being human. Hundreds of people based out of an 1800-acre village in Tennessee practiced the rough-and-tumble daily realities of collec- tive living using Stephen’s analogies and anecdotes as our guides to just getting along intentionally with each other. My real-life community experiences have been great resources for dealing with people and groups on electronic platforms which are, like our experimental Tennessee enclave, shared environments. To Stephen and all my former housemates, crewmates, and fellow travelers on the spiritual journey that we called “the Farm,” I extend the deepest appreciation. As the 1970s ended I spent two years directing nutrition and potable water projects in Guatemala. Our team lived on the edge of a Cakchiquel Mayan village in the high- lands. The people of Canton San Bartolo demonstrated to me the essence of village life and relationship—the most stripped-down practice of human community I’d ever been exposed to. Without the trappings of modern civilization, wealth, and media, they lived amidst a family-like bond of trust that went back for generations. The contrast of that trust with the level of deadly treachery that was poisoning their country as a civil war broke out made the indigenous community all the more remarkable. I emphasize trust in the establishment of online community, but we can hardly relate to the life-and- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty, and Maintaining a Competitive Edge Cliff Figallo ISBN 0-471-28293-6 282936 8/14/98 4:24 PM Page vi death stakes that my friends in San Bartolo faced. Getting flamed online is, after all, only a virtual insult. The 1980s marked my introduction to computers and networking, but positioned above both of these in terms of my personal education, I hold the influence of Stewart Brand and his Whole Earthian perspective on tools and ideas. What most defined the WELL was its intentionally blurred boundaries between information providers and infor- mation consumers. Stewart had innovated this relationship in his print publications going back to 1968 and the first Whole Earth Catalog. He invited writers to submit articles and to review books and products useful to the New Age pioneer. He invited readers to become writers. He recognized the vast talent pool that seeks outlet through publishing a full quarter century before the Web did the same thing using PCs and phone lines. Stewart described the WELL and all Whole Earth ventures with another circular definition, “business as service, and service as business.” You’ll find a lot of that pos- ture in this book. And he put the driving force behind the Web’s meteoric growth into words years before there was a Web with the observation that “information wants to be free.” As low key as Stewart is as a personality, I believe that his vision and approach to the sharing of information and publishing has been as influential as any other individ- ual’s to the direction information culture has taken in this century.