To me one of the biggest problems on the internet is the lack of a "hub" or somewhere it sort of centralizes. In my opinion the current "staleness" of the internet is due to a lack of central hub....
To me one of the biggest problems on the internet is the lack of a "hub" or somewhere it sort of centralizes. In my opinion the current "staleness" of the internet is due to a lack of central hub.
So i thought about how I could solve this problem. You see without a central hub, starting anything is a problem.
Imagine I am a new user on the web, and I want to learn 3D modeling. Where do I go? This is a problem I am facing right now, like which site do I goto to be part of a community. I don't want to make an account on facebook and join ragtag groups with no real activity. There is no sense of community or anything, just random noise. All I can do is google, and youtube videos to learn 3d modeling. If I goto forums, they are all very stale or "dead" and I leave cause I don't know what to do there.
I basically wanted to have a starting point where I knew for a fact that everyone knows this place and starts here and belong to a community. Two months, and I still have the same problem. I don't belong to a community within 3d modeling or feel like I belong there. Just hardly any chitchat, irc channels barely anyone speaks. Days go by without a new thread.
The biggest problem I notice is that everyone is spread apart, some devs on twitter only, some on that certain site only. No one is really connected or rather there is no central hub. Still using 3d modeling as an example, I noticed that without a central hub, there is no real "right" way to do something. I mean this, no one has any idea on what software to use. I keep asking myself am I using the right software, what is he using, what are they using. It turns out they all have this question, I'm still not sure. NO ONE IS. So if no one is sure, then the communities unintentionally keep closing themselves off.
But There is one rule that must be set
YOU CANNOT EVER ALLOW A USER TO CREATE A GROUP. Do not make this mistake.
Have Things constant at times, I'm tired of unlimited everything. A limit creates a sense of belonging.
Why?
Reddit's biggest flaw and strength is the subreddits and it made a mistake when it allowed anyone to create one and you are seeing the cascading effects now. When you can make a new group, you are no longer a tight nit community with set focus. You are separating the community on a large scale, right off the bat and as you can see on reddit, subbreddits clash which leads to drama and ultimately the destruction of the site from within.
So what am I getting at?
We go back to a tried and true method and something that we know everyone will like. Something that Appeals To Everyone ish.
YOU BRING BACK THE GEOCITIES NEIGHBORHOODS AND KEEP THEM NAMED AS GROUPS.
Have 29 Groups, or let the community decide the # of groups and lets start naming them. No petsburgh please
Simple Short Descriptions. and the name creates an INSTANT connection with someone who might have an interest in that group.
The Only Time You Add A Group is every 6 months to a year and ONLY THE OWNER CAN. Community Decides the name.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SET # OF GROUPS. This creates unique culture.
List of IDEAS:
1: Add a count for the amount of posts in the group list if you can, might be database heavy.
2: Everyone is subscribed to all the groups but can unsubscribe.
3: A list of trending "topics" or call them "marks" or "underscores". (Suck it twitter)