Recent Blog Entries
Finding Quality Content Socially
Written by Scrivs on May 31, 2007
A long time ago Mike started to talk to me about this vision he had of 9rules where you were presented with content based on what your friends were looking at. Almost like a recommendation system helping to point you towards new content. In a sense we have something similar to this in existence today with sites such as del.icio.us and Digg. However, they don’t fully utilize the social potential of their user base and many times you are left finding stuff either on your own or going to what the public deems important and in many cases you will find that the wisdom of crowds does not work in your favor.
I was reminded of this last week when I began work on a new section of 9rules and more recently after reading The New Portals: It’s the Bread, Not the Peanut Butter over at TechCrunch. The article talks about how Facebook and other similar platforms are becoming the new portals for the web. In this case however, don’t think about Yahoo type portals, but portals based around the network of online people you connect with.
If you use Facebook you know that you can keep track of almost everything your friends do on the site and whatever they decide to update. If they are reading a new book you are made aware of their status or if they are even just changing their mood. This is fun for a while until you get overloaded to the point where the information just isn’t useful to you anymore.
What we are looking at is how mini-networks of people (you and your friends) can help each other find great content. This happens to an extent on del.icio.us, but the site isn’t really setup with social features in mind. Ma.gnolia takes it a step further, but still seems to fall short on the social aspects that can be implemented in such an environment. It could happen on a more macro level at Digg, but again you are more at the mercy of the crowd than your friends. StumbleUpon is another great example of a recommendation system implemented almost to perfection (for what it does).
What we are looking at is a system that works on helping you find great content on a macro-network and micro-network level. In a sense the original 9rules worked on a micro-level because it was us finding the great content and sharing it with you. With 9rules Notes we were able to create a system where anyone could help create great content and bring it together on one site for people to find. Now, we are looking at creating something where you start to help us and your network of my.9r friends find great content because although we are good, we can only find so much great content around the web by ourselves.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:17 am
I think that the idea that you and Mike have can definitely work. But sitting here reading this post from you, I’m struck with a rather odd revelation: 9rules is moving from exclusivity to inclusivity. For the past year and change, the big thing that people have looked forward to is having their site/blog/whatever accepted into the 9rules network. That all began to change however with your introduction of “my.9r”. Because of this small tool, a vibrant community has sprung up around 9rules, obviously comprised largely of non-rulers, but still participated in by a large amount of blog/site owners inside the network.
With the eventual release of “The Stream” as well as other items of interest, I see site/blog owners yearning less for the submission process as all of the work that they put in setting up “my.9r” and “The Stream” will make them feel as if they are already a part of the network. It is with this thought that the idea of 9rules becoming a more inclusive entity begins to take form. Personally, I would love to see more social aggregation aspects incorporated into the 9rules “portal”. But I think participation will only gain wide adoption if emphasize on 9rules being an exclusive invitation-only “best of the best” network is lessened. Obviously, what you were doing before the intro of “my.9r” was working very well for you and I don’t want to imply anything else. But it can’t be lost on you, Mike or Tyme that since the intro of “my.9r” and previews of “The Stream”, 9rules seems to be morphing into a different type of beast. Social aggregation works only if the users all feel that they are equal members all sharing the same footing in the community/brand, IMHO. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in regards to 9rules.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:39 am
Good insight as usual Frank. You have made a wise observation in that while 9rules the site itself has evolved, the definition of membership hasn’t. This has been a topic of discussion between Mike, Tyme and myself for a couple of weeks now and we think we have set the plans of how we wish to move forward with having the leaf on your site.
As I mentioned in the entry the people who participate within 9rules will have more control of its direction than just what the three of us can provide because 9rules has truly become, as you put it, an inclusive community that isn’t just about hand-picked members.
I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m not saying Members and Badges are disappearing. We are just helping the definition of membership evolve with the site so it still holds great value in the community and around the web, the way it did when we first started 9rules.
June 1st, 2007 at 1:40 am
The overall goal of 9rules is not changing, and has not changed from the very beginning, and that is presenting quality content. Members were hand-selected based on various criteria, and then we showed 9rules.com users our member’s articles. Now with my.9r and Notes, we almost have the same amount of content in Notes from the last 10 months as we do from our members in the past 18 months, but what do we do with it? Previously we hand-selected the authors of the content (preserve quality) but how do we determine the quality of a Note posting or of a my.9rules user? We have various metrics in place now (and will have more with Ali Round 2) but what Paul is talking about is what we do with that data, and how do we preserve qualit yin Notes that we previously did through membership rounds for members?
June 3rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I don’t think you need to moderate the my.9rules. That’s the whole point of it ~ it’s a place where people like me can still participate even though we were not hand-selected. Obviously if someone is spamming their account can be moderated, but allowing everyone to post keeps things fresh. And for people who only want to hear from the 9.rulers, they can look for the little leaf and self-filter postings by other people.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
The idea of leveraging the data the my.9r community creates in order to more deeply serve the whole 9rules ecosystem is a wonderful one, in my opinion. Frank brings up an excellent point though; how does this effect the foundation of 9rules? Obviously I can’t answer that for sure, but I think empowering the Notes community to become more involved, more invested, and more present will only result in greater benefits for the members of 9rules.
If the distinction between “member” and participating “non-member” is kept clean then I’d think everyone wins. I know I would want to have a flourishing and dedicated community surrounding me. In other words, in addition to having a community centered around your site, funneled from 9rules, you’d also be connected to a larger meta-community. More layers of goodness.
I think of it like a hub that keeps perpetuating connections among a community. The closer you get to the center of the hub the more connections you see. Any person, or site, or community that has a solid core, and continually welcomes others in in an effort to share and grow is onto some power. Not power over, but power with, which is how lasting change and education occurs. Not to mention it can be damn fun.
As for moderation, I agree with Jeremy. Probably be a good idea so long as it’s not moderated into a homogenous dough of boring. I think you want wildly divergent ideas, opinions, and cultures. Creates some tension, some competing narratives, these are healthy. I think everyone’s done a pretty good job of it so far. Most social networks don’t resonate with me. Notes has been the only one I keep visiting and participating in, in my way. I’m by no means a barometer for success, but I find enough diversity, tension, and civility to keep the place interesting and ladened with value.
Guess I welcome the changes that appear to be heading our way. It’s gonna change one way or another anyway, might as well be the source instead of letting atrophy reign.
July 12th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] 9Rules is working on an interesting project that looks at how “mini-networks of people” can help each other find great content. Scrivs also points us to this TechCrunch article, which talks about how sites like Facebook, the super social networking site I recently blogged about, are becoming the new portals for the Web. These new portals are based around the network of online people we connect with and our associated content. [...]