Comments on: Building Community the Hard Way http://www.infovark.com/2008/05/06/building-community-the-hard-way/ Digging the world of Enterprise 2.0 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:45:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Dan Keldsen http://www.infovark.com/2008/05/06/building-community-the-hard-way/#comment-193 Dan Keldsen Thu, 22 May 2008 02:52:55 +0000 http://www.infovark.com/?p=177#comment-193 Yikes indeed! (Hey there Sam...) Great find, and well done dissection of the usability and social issues. Although (and I can hardly believe I'my typing this) I can see their point in allowing you to create an alias for the community section of the site - MS diehards could easily jump all over you (similar to the slashdot experience), and that could be seen as an effort to make it possible to participate "safely." Some legalese to say that even with an alias, you still own your own actions - yes, probably over the top. Not hard to see how they want down a route that should've made sense, and then blew right past the boundaries of common sense into legal paranoia. Truly brilliant move to say "don't participate here" and not link to the appropriate place. If only that text was editable... oh wait, that's what led to this in the first place! ;) Cheers, Dan Yikes indeed! (Hey there Sam…)

Great find, and well done dissection of the usability and social issues. Although (and I can hardly believe I’my typing this) I can see their point in allowing you to create an alias for the community section of the site - MS diehards could easily jump all over you (similar to the slashdot experience), and that could be seen as an effort to make it possible to participate “safely.”

Some legalese to say that even with an alias, you still own your own actions - yes, probably over the top. Not hard to see how they want down a route that should’ve made sense, and then blew right past the boundaries of common sense into legal paranoia.

Truly brilliant move to say “don’t participate here” and not link to the appropriate place. If only that text was editable… oh wait, that’s what led to this in the first place! ;)

Cheers,
Dan

]]> By: Sam Lawrence http://www.infovark.com/2008/05/06/building-community-the-hard-way/#comment-180 Sam Lawrence Tue, 06 May 2008 21:00:43 +0000 http://www.infovark.com/?p=177#comment-180 Yikes. Many companies fall prey to the stand-and-deliver approach to building community. It's hard for them to understand that when it comes to dialog, they're not the experts. I'd presume it's particularly hard for a company like M$ who has had lawyers needing to help protect them for quite some time. Controlling policy and lawyer speak doesn't set a great tone for participation. Yikes. Many companies fall prey to the stand-and-deliver approach to building community. It’s hard for them to understand that when it comes to dialog, they’re not the experts. I’d presume it’s particularly hard for a company like M$ who has had lawyers needing to help protect them for quite some time. Controlling policy and lawyer speak doesn’t set a great tone for participation.

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