As part of the process of collecting info for my community doco, I posted a thread on the forum I following to look for some participants. My thread generated quite abit of interest and I posted some details about the project and a short 5 question questionnaire. Thinking that I would be getting heaps of profiles based on the interest that was shown earlier, I only received 2 profiles. Determined to get more profiles, I asked again only to get another 4 in 2 weeks. I was kind of disappointed with the forum members as I was expecting get at least 10-15 profiles.
Putting my disappointment aside, I uploaded a few sections of my project and put the link up the forum. My reason for doing so was to show those who participated what I was doing with the things they sent. To my surprise, on the day I put the link up I received another 6 profiles, with a few others on the way. Trust it seems only comes when there is proof to show that my project is legit and I immediately got the trust of several other members after doing that. Before I uploaded the site, one of the members who participated even started questioning the legitimacy of my project 2 weeks after she sent me her profile. In an attempt to show that I was legit I gave them the link to where my project will be but I guess it wasn’t good enough as I didn’t get any extra profiles.
After experiencing that, I now understand trust in online communities can only be earned by posting frequently or by showing what you are doing is legit. The other problem could also lie within me. I thought I knew members of that forum well enough and thought that they would be willing to participate in my project. I have actually been a frequent follower of the forum for the past 2 years but I had only posted 5-6 times. I guess that wasn’t enough to form any kind of relationships with any of the forum members and with my old account gone and I posted under the new moniker c4hAmsteR.
Am just wondering, how is trust in real life communities built?
How is trust in online communities built? You just said it. And just like my argument I posted about what is real and what is not real / reality vs online, I would like to stress once more that there are no differences between trust online and real life (irl = in real life).
This is never more so true within the academic circle. Compared to say the social circle where true stories or mere not so credible gossips spreads like wildfire irregardless of source, and the mass media where truth is very vague though they pride themselves on having sources (be they trusted or not); The academic circle is a vicious place for the entry level unrecognised journeymen. Should you have a highly plausible theory, you would be pooh-poohed away by the higher ups, and have it in a way that they totally refuse to even put your paper to subject and scrutiny. Of course, there are exceptions to every generalisation (like proving your theory with concrete evidence).
Even then people might be skeptical and most frequently in the beginning, on where did this nobody come about with such a great idea? Can he/she be trusted with our institution’s funding? Are his/her ideas practical or valid in the first place? These questions come about before even taking a look at the theory/idea/research!
It all boils down to marketing. How you sell yourself. Online or in real life, publicity is everything. Look at the American Idol reject. His singing skills were past zero way into the negative end and yet he garnered the trust of not just many Americans, but worldwide support as well. All due to publicity. You can do it online if you wanted to. It’s just how far you’re willing to go. And the lesson at the end of the day is.. people trust what other people trust, and what other people trust is familiarity. Something appearing frequent and with solid regularity without any hints of doubts or strong resistance should be the truth.
And that my friends, is how propaganda, and advertisement power works.
Ahhh…the question of whether or not to sell your soul to the devil to get better ratings. Then again, there aren’t that many ways for me to puts lots of glamour in project like this as the focus is on ordinary people who participate in the forum, not the band itself. I’ve actually e-mailed the bands managment a few weeks ago to ask them if I could use one of their songs but no reply. Would I have gotten a reply if I told them I wanted to promote the band in Australia. Who knows?
But it’s strange you know…I always thought that people would be more than willing to participate in projects that are for academic purposes. Then again some may not want to do it because there’s of the lack of publicity. What happened to the notions of for the betterment of society? You really think that ratings are all that matters now?
Who is willing to spend time on someone else, some stranger, when they can spend their time doing things they like? How can it profit them?
The human race is still a very much primordial civilisation unable to see past their own two feet, or the carrot dangled in front of them for that matter. Ratings were, is and will be all that matters to them.
Betterment of society? Pah. Scorn be to everyone till the day it really happens. All these notions are just methods to placate the masses, a noble idea apparently. Until one day another great social upheaval or reform passes, the characteristic trait will remain profit over other benefits. Nevertheless whatever happens, advancement still takes place but at the endgame, the other end of the pipeline/terminal, it will progress to the stage where we either die out from lack of social maintenance and not developed techniques for the survival of any civilisation; or simply overexpand, overconsume, and then start feeding on our ownselves when there isn’t enough room for expansion, or resources for growth. Dog eat dog world? What say you.
[...] Turn the Sky » Blog Archive » Trust in online community [...]
“Who is willing to spend time on someone else, some stranger, when they can spend their time doing things they like?How can it profit them?” Your arguement is strongly based on the commercial side of things but what about the less commercial side?Like charity…the act of kindness from one’s heart. People are always willing to give and help as long as is it in resonable means. This is also where the notions of community come in. Communities are good for society are they not? It brings people together and it thrives from human interaction not ratings.
[...] Pui Li tackles the issue of how to build trust in online communities, relating her experience with an online forum. Her conclusion is that you have to work at establishing your own credibility, to get trust… well that’s probably what it’s like in RL too? [...]