Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Dvorak doesn't understand community
In his latest column, John Dvorak claims that there are no real online communities out there and questions if there ever can be.
He picks 5 sites (MetaFilter, Slashdot, LinkedIn, Flickr, and AVforums.com) that he is going to "deconstruct" and then spends two whole paragraphs deconstructing them. My favorite quote is about Flickr. "I don't think many people actually care about the community aspect of Flickr at all."
I also like his unsubstantiated claims like "I would argue that within some communities the number is higher than 50 percent."
Online communities do face real challenges, especially as they experience rapid growth. Unfortunately, Dvorak's column doesn't shed any light into why this happens or how to minimize it.
He close with the hopeless question "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?"
In his latest column, John Dvorak claims that there are no real online communities out there and questions if there ever can be.
He picks 5 sites (MetaFilter, Slashdot, LinkedIn, Flickr, and AVforums.com) that he is going to "deconstruct" and then spends two whole paragraphs deconstructing them. My favorite quote is about Flickr. "I don't think many people actually care about the community aspect of Flickr at all."
I also like his unsubstantiated claims like "I would argue that within some communities the number is higher than 50 percent."
Online communities do face real challenges, especially as they experience rapid growth. Unfortunately, Dvorak's column doesn't shed any light into why this happens or how to minimize it.
He close with the hopeless question "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?"
¶ 1:23 PM 
About Shawn Morton
Married father of 4, social media strategist at Nationwide, consumer electronics enthusiast, hair metal aficionado.
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