Does Your Community Pass the Friendship Test?
To be clear, this is not about software. Community can exist in blog comments or it can exist on Twitter. Conversely, sometimes you see something that is labeled a community and that looks like a community but doesn’t feel like a community. This holds true more often for customer or professional communities than for pure enthusiast communities.
A community is not:
- A rational economic exchange with minimal social interaction
- A place where transient users can post an opinion
- A place where only moderators respond to original posters
So what makes for a healthy community? There are a long list of things that can be included here but maybe the most important ingredient is that within a good community, there is the possibility of developing friendship. Ask yourself, does my community ever lead to friendships between members?