Recent Blog Entries
Staying True To Your Purpose
Written by Scrivs on October 5, 2007
Back in 2005 I was talking with Mike and I told him this idea I had for a community of sites where site owners could get together and share resources and generally help each other out. We fleshed this idea out a bit more and over time 9rules was born. The first version of 9rules had about 20 sites in it and the Community that built up around it was very tight knit. Within our forums we had wonderful discussions on a daily basis and people were enjoying themselves. We loved it so much we thought the Community could only benefit further if we added another group of sites because that gives more people a chance to share their knowledge and resources with each other.
So we did another round of submissions. However, by this time we were also gaining a reputation of being a great place for a site to join if they wanted more exposure and because of this some of the people who were submitting weren’t concerned about the Community. They simply wanted a link to their site on 9rules so they could benefit from it. Not really that big of a problem because we all want a little more exposure for ourselves, but allowing us to show your content on our site doesn’t help out the other Members. Was the purpose of joining 9rules no longer the ability to collaborate with others that share your interests? What was the point of us creating something that wasn’t to be used?
When we opened up 9rules Notes the perception was that we forgot about our Members and that we had changed our focus. Nothing could have been further from the truth. What we created was a way for our Members to interact with the people that use to only be able to partake in 9rules from an outsider’s perspective. Besides allowing Members to interact with each other, we gave them another resource to make their online presence better. Even then to some, we were just a badge and a link on the site.
To us the 9rules leaf (no matter how damn sexy it is) will always be just a leaf. We could replace it with a butterfly, unicorn or paperclip and it would still be a symbol of what we represent and not just a placeholder to put on your site. Not only does the leaf represent quality, but it also represents the fact that 9rules is about Community. 9rules is about helping others get the best out of their online experience, but we can’t do that unless some effort is put in. Our goal was never to be the Community where you get a badge and then forget about it for the rest of your life, we let Mensa have that honor. Because of this we changed our Member Agreement to include the fact we do expect our Members to participate within 9rules because you can’t be considered a Community when no one is actually involved in it.
We didn’t make these changes to be evil. We just wanted to gain back the purpose of why we started 9rules. It is something we believe in and is part of what made us great in the first place. If you want to fault us for that we have no problem carrying that burden on our shoulders. Just don’t accuse us of losing our purpose because that purpose is what makes 9rules a great place to be.
October 7th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I can hold my hand up as a member who departed yesterday. There are no hard feelings over my leaving; I just wasn’t behaving in a way that suits the close-knit community feel that Scrivs, Mike and Tyme have all worked towards.
The latest amendments to the member agreement is entirely fair and my leaving isn’t because I disagreed with it - I just felt that I couldn’t honestly do the community justice. My contributions would be forced and unlikely to be helpful - so I decided to call it a day.
Good post Scrivs, it’s always worth explaining the rational behind the email.
October 7th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
This is a brave, brave move. I’ve always seen 9rules as a place like Google - a portal to great content on other blogs on the web. Having the leaf on your blog is an … affirmation to the quality of the content you produce, and tells a reader (like me, for instance), that the blog’s most likely a frigging good read. And on the way to discovering those cool sites I may drop off and interact a little with the members. But the focus is still on the member sites.
Now it seems to me that your new (or old - nevermind which) direction will be bringing back more of the focus to 9rules itself. So it’ll no longer be just a portal … it’ll be a place to go to. Which it already is, to me and a coupla other non-members. We come here for the ethos of mature discussion, on just about any topic under the sun.
I’ve mixed feelings about this new move - on one hand you’ll be bringing back the ‘closely knit’ feeling … but on the other you’ll be alienating the people who come to 9rules just to find good content to read … in member sites. Isn’t it time to find a new focus for 9rules, rather than sticking to the old one, which worked because of its small size?
Wouldn’t the network now consist of ‘best of those who want to dedicate their time to 9rules’ blogs as compared to ‘best of content’ blogs? If you get what I mean, that is.
Sorry for poking around with so many questions. I understand that change is healthy. Uncomfortable, but healthy. I just don’t want to go elsewhere to find high quality blogs on topics that matter to me, if this move creates a great community but loses a whole stable of ‘best in their niche’ blogs.
*because, you know, I don’t know where else to look*
October 8th, 2007 at 2:30 am
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot (necessarily) make it drink.
Trying to ‘force’ an activity, no matter how honest, gentle or growth related the intentions are, can be a great way to bring about a great deal of discomfort for people.
It’s also not conducive to good content. Holding people to an ideal, having a structure in place so folks know the score is certainly not a bad thing. Making it a ‘condition’ of entry, that one dedicates a good deal of time communicating with others via the notes, rather than one’s own blog strikes me as odd.
Scrivs, you’ve mentioned how notes really encourages conversation - and it does.. but that is going to suffer if you try and force it.
9rules is clearly moving to an open community, where author content is taking a second seat to the notes environment.
That may not be a bad thing, but if I want any involvement with 9rules in future, it won’t ever be as a member. Because forcing communication (again, even if done with a velvet glove) seldom works.
I understand your comment, but don’t believe the rational behind it is going to trigger exponential growth in communication, or cure world hunger.
Encourage me, give me good cause to divert attention, time and energy and I’ll be there in force. Otherwise, it’s additional pressure , something no one really needs, surely?
October 8th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
On the contrary I was surprised by the number of Members that agreed and then thanked us for putting this pressure on them. Although there should be just a general wanting to participate in the Community you belong to. If you feel this way great, if you don’t then that is fine as well. We will never be the one size fits all type of place because those places have no purpose. Better off just being a directory of everything then.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
[...] This Tuesday (tomorrow), 9rules will be undergoing a massive change codenamed Ali2. This entails, among other things (like sweet new features that I’ve had the pleasure of previewing), a new member agreement that requires member participation in either the member-only forums or in my.9r, the world-wide-open forums. Since I have already been participating in the forums over there, the new member agreement doesn’t make me do anything new in order to stay with 9rules. It did, however, cause me to reexamine my status as a member and the direction that the network is heading. [...]
October 8th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
That was pretty surprising to me too. I need structure in my life in order to pull some cool stuff together, so maybe it’s the same for them.
October 8th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Fair comment.
I hope all the positive feedback on ‘yes, we’ll play that game’ is honest and not out of fear of losing membership. I’m sure that’s not a possible outcome, right?
Perhaps it has simply been taken as a reminder, rather than a mandate - if that is indeed true then great stuff. Whilst you’re always going to get “you rock” responses pretty much no matter what you do, I do hope that people don’t feel pressured into being hyper-active in the notes forum given membership is on the line.
From the outside (since anyone who isn’t in the golden circle gets lumped into that demographic) it very much looked like a “do this, or sod off” ultimatum - that’s going to apply pressure whether you mean it to, or not - regardless of feedback given.
October 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
As a (fairly long-time) member who has enjoyed being a part of 9rules but has not made the time to participate in the community, I’m okay with the change.
I’m not going to be chatting about politics and the like, but look forward to offering my 2c on design-related matters. However, please don’t expect some of us members with families to have quite the same amount of free time to participate in the discussion as other might.
Sometimes, it’s hard enough to find time to dash off a decent blog post!
October 9th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
[...] The revised member agreement, however, highlights the fact that I’ve never been involved in 9rules as a community: Members are now expected to take part in the various community aspects of the network. This update came in conjunction with today’s roll-out of the new 9rules, “Ali2,” and I understand where the folks who run the network are coming from. [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 12:44 am
[...] 9rules has now relaunched itself, with Ali2. As 9rules evolved, so did its member agreement. Feedback from members has been incorporated into it to improve the participation. Some have rejected and opted out of it. I did not need any incentives to accept the agreement. It serves me in multiple ways [...]