Your First Website In Java: Easier Than You Think

1.1.2. Designing For Popularity: Community

Published: Mar 27, 2006

To make a real splash in the area you've chosen, you need content. Lots of it. Tons of pages of interesting, helpful information. You don't think you can create enough of it all by yourself, do you? Well, you should not, anyway. The thing is, unless you are a movie star, a Nobel Prize laureate, or simply a well-known figure in your field, whatever you have to say will be lacking in one important aspect: credibility.

It may be hard to swallow, but many of your visitors will have absolutely no clue as to who you are. To them, you are just Joe Nobody. Why would they think your opinion carries weight? If you have impressive credentials, achievements, awards, a proven track record or a solid portfolio — something you can use to back up your words — well, good for you. Otherwise, running a one-man show is going to make you sound… errh, somewhat pretentious.

Community is the answer

What can make a world of difference here is if you present your audience with a variety of opinions. In order to build such a variety, you need to somehow get people involved in discussion. It may take time and patience, but once there, you will see a few good things start to happen:

• pages sprinkled with readers feedback bring a feel of live action going on;
• with many opinions expressed throughout the pages you no longer sound authoritarian;
• more and more of the much needed content is generated without your direct involvement;
• contributing posters are likely to come back and eventually become regular visitors.

The net effect of all these positive changes can be summed up in one simple statement:

Popularity makes popularity.

In other words, being popular makes it easier to gain even more popularity, which can be easily explained if we recognize the pattern here commonly referred to as the snowball effect. It should be clear at this point, therefore, that strong focus on community should be an integral part of your online strategy. But how do you get the ball rolling? Do you just slap a Post a Comment form onto every page and sit around waiting for things to happen? Nope, that's not going to cut it. You don't want some random passers-by to clutter up your carefully written texts with comments that oftentimes will be irrelevant, obscene or simply of questionable value. In order to build a real community, you have to be more creative than that.

What you should be taking advantage of is people's desire to have an identity. People want to be distinguished from one another. They want to be recognized. They want a reputation congruent with their personality, contribution and views. They are virtually begging for a place to establish themselves. All you have to do is set the stage and let them speak up. But remember: it is not you or your website — it is their desire for an online identity that makes them act. Cater to this need, and you get yourself a growing community of loyal and enthusiastic followers.

Roll up the sleeves and do it

Listed below are some of the community building tools you should consider when working on your website design.

forum blogs comments member status

progress indicators ratings reviews

polls contests prizes

As you can see, there are more than enough ways to get people involved. You don't have to implement all of these, but whatever options you choose, make sure you have the following in place:

• a site-wide authentication mechanism;
• visual "rank insignia" attached to members' posts;
• indicators of ongoing activities across all pages (last registered users, recent posts, hot discussions, who is online, etc.).

That's about it as far as the community building process is concerned. In the next section we will review the principles and techniques we can use to make visitor experience more straightforward and enjoyable.