On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, at 02:22 PM, J C Lawrence wrote:
> Yeah, a point there that shouldn't ignored is that with rare exception
> a
> large "leeching" audience is required to derive and support a smaller
> contributing audience.
I've long felt that every interesting list has a hierarchy of users.
You have to identify and groom your "wizards", those couple of people
who take the main responsibility to generate discussion, answer
questions, whatever. Below that are a group of frequent users, and it
quickly fades to black after that. very much a power curve.
and yes, that means "everyone is equal" is not part of the equation. If
a wizard and a lurker fight, I'll usually choose the side of the
wizard. wizards get cut slack for stuff, too. don't like it? tough:
they're in the trenches making the list useful most of the time, they
get special privileges, because they've earned it...(on the other hand,
their power is far from absolute. just not the same as someoen who
doesn't contribute)
> How do you structure and present this? Any enforcement other than
> willingness?
Lurker days have very loose rules: between this start time and this end
time, the list belongs to a lurker. a lurker is arbitrarily defined as
"about two posts a month or less", but there's no policeman. We
generally tell people "if you aren't sure you're a lurker, you probably
aren't", but it's really self-policed. and it works.
--
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
chuqui@plaidworks.com -- http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/
But when that last guitar's been packed away
You know that I still want to play
So just make sure you got it all set to go
Before you come for my piano
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