final post

Here i am, my last blogpost. ever. Blogging is not my thing. I think you probably noticed.

But okay, despite missing a post or 2, i think i have done my best.

I found it hard to blog about my chosen community because it is such a boring one. I should have changed much earlier.

At first, it looked all well, the participation was easy, in a minute i was registrated and a member of WijfZonderLijf. 

That's the point were it all kinda stopped. No welcoming post, nothing. It seemed like no one ever noticed i became a new member. 

Even moderators never communicated towards me.

Maybe i had to test it a bit more by making very rude comments or start bullying someone, but that's just not me :)

well actually, i think it even wouldn't bother anyone because it seems like no one is active.

Ok maybe this is all a bit rude, but that's my own personal experience.

So for me, when i post something and no one react, it's a real motivation killer. I really didn't had the intention to come back ever again. But yeah, then the blog would be very empty. So actually the only reason i participated was this assignment.

I can believe people who are bored come back to see the fun post every day. That part of the community was still alive. Every day new cartoons or funny pictures are posted. But there are no real interactions in that part. Ok, people comment on the content but just to say they like it or not. 

As a poster, you don't get the respect you want by sharing something.

By that, i haven't posted anything funny. When i post something, i wanna have the feeling i contribute to something and people like me for that.

I saw that there was a combination of post moderation, reactive moderation and distributed moderation. Someone noticed that a user used his post to update his own, and of course didn't liked it. He posted on the profile of the other member to ask to remove his post.

There are four sorts of members. they are al distinguished by a different amount of stars. i don't find how the system of the stars work, it is nowhere explained. I only posted a few things and apparently, i have 3 stars.

There are also a few statusses you can earn by good behavior. The highest rate is status "God" That's only Kay, the builder of wzl.

It's clear that the revenues of the community come from ads. There is a lot of advertisement on the site.

I would improve the community by maybe give it a new look, create interesting content, maybe tips and even more contests, and concentrate more on new members. 

anyhow, i think it will take a lot of effort to give a new boost in WZL. Maybe they have to restructure and focus more on certain topics.

Also make a link more clear from the homepage where all the funny things are. When you can see an overview of the latest reactions on topics, It creates curiosity.

So i think this is it.. Goodbye WijfZonderLijf, see you never again :) :)

communities and web 2.0

i found an interesting article about the development and progression of communities 

you can read it here

solve problems

I see that the only posts who are 'popular' are those with a contest or competition.

It's a way to try to bring people together. You choose some members or moderators to be the judge and members will try their best to become the winner.

on wzl, the 3 most visited topics are 'avatar design contest', 'miss wzl' and 'wallpaper design contest'. 

I checked on other communities to see if it's something typical.

I remembered from intertet that those topics were there, but other topics were more active..

So today, i went to see if it's still that way.. 

Apparently, in the time i didn't checked intertet, many things have changed. 

First of all the layout but i also found a topic called 'Miss and Mister intertet'

The openingspost started with: "because intertet isn't as accurate as it used to be and many members are leaving, we do this competition to rewake the community and the community feeling"

It's truly a way to make the community stronger.

Another new thing is the "win met je post" so each month, the poster of the best post wins a goldmembership for 1 month.

it really works because now many more posts are made.

I also found a topic "R.I.P DirtyWorks & Ximix". We discussed the fact what to do if a member dies..

Here, 2 members died very shortly after each other.

The first a car accident, the other cancer. They made a topic for both members. Other members share thoughts and feelings about it.

It's a bit weird that the psychical world and the virtual world come together. 

maybe from now on (it's the last week, but still..) i post about the differences between the 2 communities, it's just more to write about..

guidelines

We learned that it's important to set a few guidelines for the users, so they know what's appropriate and what is forbidden.

It's important because in that way, you will guide your users towards good behaviour, and hopefully a community where all members like to be.

I found an example of such a set of guidelines, in a very clear and easy way.

If you have read this one, you know exactly what you can or cannot post.

you can read it here.

not much more to say..

REALLY!  how boring can a community be? 

i feel no commitment at all. 

As i see it, only one topic is visited every day. It's a "story" made by the users just by adding 3 words to it.

And even here, there are just a few users ( i see 3 users who post a lot to it) who are participating.

I'd better checked the community longer before i chose this one. 

There's nothing more to say about it. And with 2 weeks of no classes, i can't adjust the lesson on my chosen community.

I thought i would see a sort of hierarchy among the users, but with no activity, that's pretty impossible!

creating passionate users

because of the lack of passionate users on wzl, i found an interesting article about how you can solve this problem.

It's a very good article, i think we should even see it in class !

you can find it here

enjoy!