Chris Writes.

This one surprised me. We were treated to a trio of Ted Rheingold, John Vars, Steven Reading, the folks behind Dogster and Catster.

I am not really a dog person. I am certainly not a cat person. I don’t understand the “thing” that got Dogster and Catster to 300,000 members. But I’ve seen Best in Show. So I guess that makes sense, in a very, very weird way.

The best thing they did was to use technology to find ways to amplify their audience’s passion! You can make the community sound far more excited than they might sound themselves in casual dinner party conversation, and often, this is how they *wish* they could talk about their passions, but for typical social stigma reasons, they tend to be more quiet. Yes, technology can level the playing field: everyone can be a crazy cat lady, or a crazy dog lover.

These were the first people to discuss “Community Guidelines” – specifically, that they’re useful, and you should have them. By developing participation guidelines, you create something that will help you be consistent and fair. And seen that way. If you want them to be used and read, don’t make it all legal jargon, either. Make it simple, fun, and human. And get community involvement in the creation and revisions to the guidelines. Then consistently enforce them. This became a “to do” item in my own agenda.

They also made an interesting point about something they termed “Impact Horizon”: as a community is getting underway, make sure decisions you make have a fast, near immediate impact. Longer term thinking can apply later. Early on in the development, whatever you’re doing had better have fast results.

Then they offered, as a suggested component to passion-centric web communities, the following brilliant meme that I hope becomes disastrously famous: Make “Digital Doritos” – little things you can’t stop clicking. Be Entertaining!