Scaling Your Community

I’ve spoken a number of times already on how to scale your community by letting the users have control (look up slashdot rating system).

Here’s an interesting example: JudysBook is that user-generated local business review portal in Seattle and elsewhere. They use a Slashdot rating system called TrustScore that appears to also look at what your friends or personal community are voting.

Do friends always agree? & TrustScoreThought I’d just toss this out there for debate… Correct me if I am wrong.. It is my understanding that one of the new TrustScore rating methods that has been factored in is if the community of friends agrees with you.. So my question is.. Do friends always agree? While friends often have much in common I find myself arguing all the time.. much like with my spouse(!).. Is this bad or is this good? Isnt disagreement and arguing healthy? ….or am I just a very sick person?Asked on 4/13/2006 to Judy’s Book Seattle

Now swarming is a critical partt of making your large community manageable but yeah, their are concerns here. Of course Judy’s Book people absolutely get the whole dialogue as content thing – the first post back was:

We hear you Jeff and we’re going to do something about it! (In fact, more than a few people have raised the same issue.) Message: we care.So, here’s what we’re going to do. Agree/disagree will continue to be factored into the calculation of TrustScore but in a way that doesn’t punish people for going against the grain and doesn’t reward people for sucking up to the conventional wisdom. I’ll leave it up to you to crack the code on what we’re up to exactly but suffice to say that by the middle of next week your TrustScore will be immune to whatever negative impact someone disagreeing with you might have on your score. Who knows, it might even help your score to stir things up a bit as long as you’re being honest…Oh yeah, by next week it’s also going to be much, much less likely for TrustScores to decline. That’s all I have to say about that.

That was from Ben S. who appears to work at JudysBook. So restaurants that are reviewed by community leaders who have a large and trusted swarm are higher ranked than trolls who wander in for fun. Interesting.

As a follow on from TrustScore, Judysbook rewards community leaders by offering them City Editor positions. Nope, not paid, but you do get a T-shirt.

How to become a City Editor
Join Judy’s Book
If you’re not a Judy’s Book member, step one is to join Judy’s Book. Join!
Add a photo
Haven’t uploaded one yet? Add one now.
Become an 8 or higher
If you’re already a Judy’s Book member, then the only requirement to becoming a City Editor is to have a TrustScoreSM of 8 or higher. Learn more about TrustScore.
If you are already a member and your TrustScore is between 0 and 7, then the fastest way to increase it is to:
– Review services and products that you use
– Write articles and ask questions
– Comment on reviews with which you agree, disagree, or have questions about
– Build your own community of active friends at Judy’s Book
– Make sure your reviews get read by sharing them with others

Developing a Strong Leadership program was rule #5 in Preece’s guide to developing Online Communities, but outside of offering moderator positions on bulletin boards, I have never seen it implemented so effectively – lots of communities talking about handing control to their users but it rarely really happens. Good work JudysBook!

Technorati Tags: Online Communities, JudysBook, TrustScore, Jenny Preece, Slashdot