5 Problems

1. recruitment: of new members
2. selection: of members that are a good fit
3. socialization: teach newcomers the ways of the group
4. retention: of newcomers through engagement and development of strong ties
5. protection: of the community from newbie disruptions

. . .

What do communities vs platforms concern themselves with?

Recruiting

1. What is social influence proportional to? (Latene 1981)
2. How much more effective is WoM (Sultan, Farley, and Lehmann 1990)?
3. What is the difference between ____________(1, fast) and _____________(2, slow) thinking?

1. immediacy, strength, and number of influences one is exposed to
2. ~10 times greater than advertising
3. implicit rules (e.g., halo effect) vs careful comparison

Kahneman 1&2

Heuristics

1. What is the halo effect? (DC7)
2. What is social proof and how can it increase towel reuse? (DC9)
3. What is familiarity heuristic and how to employ? (DC10)

1. Halo effect which is when people see something good on one dimension, they expect it applies to all other dimensions
2. 44%
3. people tend to like the people, things and ideas they are already familiar with

egs of inviting others?

Have you been invited or solicited others to join a community?

How so?

Which design claim is this??

Delete 10 Facebook friends, get a free Whopper

DC3. Recruiting new members from social networks of current members increases the number of new members more than impersonal methods. (Kraut et al. 2012, “Building successful online communities”)

Techniques for selection and screening?

. . .

• pay money
• undergo diagnostic
• referrals

What are separating tasks?

. . .

• Tasks which folks find inherently interesting which lead to self-selecting into the community.

MetaFilter: why a $5 entrance fee?

Hint: we’ll soon cover “cognitive dissonance.”

• 1999 MetaFilter founded
• 2003 Ask MetaFilter launched
• 2014 Many mods laid-off because of Google Panda
• 2019 aiming for fully member-supported
• 2022 struggling; six paid staff, including the owner; ~10K active members?
• 2022 transferred to Jessamyn West, first volunteer and first employee; Community Steering Committee elected in August

The Bloodbath of B-R5RB

“Joining Dreddit”

In a group, identify examples of recruitment, selection, retention, socialization, or protection.

ex. Scavenger hunt

In teams of ~4 people, find me a good example of a user for each of the following:

1. WikiInfant (not aware of editing)
2. WikiChild (begun editing)
3. WikiTeen (become cynical)
4. WikiYoungAdult (accept policies/limits)
5. WikiAdult (balanced and mature)
6. WikiSeniors (loss of enthusiasm)
7. WikiDeath (stop editing)

Wrap up: 3-minute essay

What is the most common flaw you think exists in newcomer recruitment design?

What is the most common flaw you think exists in newcomer recruitment design?

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