Powazek, Chapter Two: Content Comes First. . . give your community something to talk about.

Discussion leader: AnonymousCoward

Summary
Content draws people to a site; once there, they might form a community—but they certainly won't form a community if there's no reason to visit/ return to the site. Content may be stories, products, or even technical support services—it is what originally draws people. Community is what develops from/ around it.

As an example, Powazek introduces The Well (Hafner, "Epic Saga of The Well"), or The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. This early eCommunity developed a devoted following, in spite of its difficult interface, because people wanted to follow the conversations hosted there. The conversations were the (user-generated) content.

Additionally, site content sets the tone for community interactions.

Finally, posing a question to the community is a good way to start things off.

From these points, Powazek concludes that a community designer has three tasks: 1) identify the goals of the community, 2) select an appropriate voice, and 3) produce content with the desired tone. To achieve this, content should be personal, nice, inclusive, and honest.

An interview with Matt Haughey, founder of Metafilter.com, ends the chapter. His advice is that creating an eCommunity takes a great investment of time and self, and once the site is going it is very difficult to stop because members won't allow it. It is thus important to pick something about which you are passionate, and also to ask for help when necessary.

Critique
This all seems pretty basic, pretty obvious. The chapter only makes two points: that content is what draws people to a site, and content sets the tone for community conversations that then develop. Nothing controversial here.

PaulResnick: I'm not sure I agree that "having content to talk about" is a critical ingredient. How about sites where people play games? How about sites where all the content is external and there are just references to it, perhaps references introduced by regular members and not by organizers?

LindaYu: My first reaction to game sites was "what about MMORPGs?" They definitely communicate about the content created by the creators of the game. I'm not sure if people who play Bejeweled on Yahoo games communicate with each other, though.

SooyeonHwang: Even for game players, I think that "having content to talk about" is an important ingredient that binds them to a community site. It's just that the "content" in this case is often not only the game itself but also their game playing experience and any other related experiences, which is different from what you might expect from a conventional Web site. People share their personal gaming experiences, questions and answers about game play, and make friends with similar interests by talking about various games that they have played so far. I think it also works in some way for Bejeweled players, too. For example, I saw many Korean PDA users (mostly male) on a PDA user forum who shared stories on how their girlfriends got addicted to Bejeweled for PDA and weren't letting their PDAs go. They even started discussing what might be a good starter PDA to recommend to their Bejeweled-addicted girlfriends, and posted pictures of their girlfriends playing Bejeweled on their PDAs. They were making a personal connection to the community by taking about their personal experiences related to the game, not just about the game itself.

Connections
Again, this seems self-evident. It's analogous to the paper world: the web is a great library full of choices; the website is an individual book; the eCommunity is the group of readers who care enough about the book to discuss it with others. If the book isn't worth reading, on one will bother to talk about it.
But this is weak, so I'm counting on y'all to see some real connections here.

Comments
NoorAliHasan - Powazek makes a good observation about Metafilter in that its content is interdependent on external content sources (the rest of the web). This observation is true of most traditional weblogs. Nonetheless, Metafilter continues to thrive due to the unique commentary provided by its members. I found it interesting to learn that Metafilter gained its prominence by being profiled by an awards website. In reading parts of the Kim text, I am left with the impression that a properly run community will grow and prosper simply because it is well managed. The Metafilter example indicates that a community needs an initial point of grand public exposure - and that exposure must come from a trusted source that is respected by the community's core audience. Perhaps I haven't read far enough but I'm not sure if Kim ever covers exposure/marketing in her text (perhaps it's that pre-dot-com-bust optimism?).

LindaYu - There are communities who shun public exposure, so they need different ways of bringing people into such places. Instead, common interests is shared between members, and knowledge of its existence is passed through word of mouth, or something akin to that online, perhaps by email or via searches for such communities.