To Some, Growing Means Dying
Every once in a while I come across a comment about 9rules saying how the community is either dying or isn’t what it used to be. “Dying” in this case usually means the original spirit of 9rules is gone where we were simply a link directory pointing people to sites with great content. Then we evolved into more of a portal where you could get snippets of content, but still find the great content. Following that came 9rules Notes and my.9r, which allowed anyone on the web to take part in 9rules in one form or another. We didn’t die or bury our mission, we simply evolved to continue to grow and survive.
But that is how people feel many times when they are involved with a company since the beginning. How many people dreaded to hear that Google was working on webmail or an office suite? Why couldn’t they just stick to search without any ads? There is a huge difference between improving your company and sticking to your goals and simply changing direction, but we all know nobody stays stagnant and survives for very long.
What’s interesting though is that during these times you usually find a new competitor starting to make waves. When Yahoo became more than a search engine and site directory, Google was able to step in with a simplistic design. Google is starting to do what Yahoo did during the late 90’s adding more and more features to their arsenal, but in a surprising twist keeping the main page about search. That makes it very difficult for anyone to take them over in the search arena while they can still put pressure on others in various fields.
Sony and Microsoft became so captivated by trying to make a device that became your everything for your living room while Nintendo just stepped in and did one thing well. However, how will Nintendo continue to grow in the future? Will there be a time where they also allow their device to play DVDs or add peripherals that can let you stream music?
You see no matter what you do as a company there will come a time where some people don’t like what is going on because they have grown accustomed to what they like. However, if you are staying with the same goals that got you there in the first place everything should work out just fine.
Among online businesses affiliate marketing is the most popular one. To run a successful affiliate business powerful web hosing is strongly required. Affordable reseller hosting plans along cheap domain registration are also being offered by the high flying hosting firms. Some times hosting firms offer web design assistance as well as act as ISP too. The AJAX is the most prominent software being commonly used by these ISPs to upload data to their servers. Wireless internet also helps a lot in making the work of ISPs easier and reliable.
Related reading:
If you write three posts in a row without citing Apple or Google or 37signals, I’ll paypal you $20.
By Fred on May 8, 2007 11:48 am
Well, all companies/products have their market, and in the case of 9rules the “product” is a complex offering - perhaps it’s more accurate to call it “products”.
Across that offering of products which all may be geared towards the “same goals”, some may ebb and flow and that may be where people see things “dying” (kind of overkill, that word).
In any case, I agree, that if you stay true to your original goals there’s a good chance that you are going to do well, especially if you listen to your market.
(I’d love to hear the metrics that have people rating 9rules as dying)
By Mike Papageorge on May 8, 2007 11:48 am
When I first heard about 9rules, it was back when it was just a content provider. I wasn’t interested, so I moved on to something else.
Now, with the advent of my.9r and Notes, 9rules is part of my daily grind.
I guess this is what it’s like being on the opposite side of the “dashboard effect” (also known as the “indie-band-sells-out-and-goes-national effect”)
See, the way I see it, a lot of people were all about 9rules when it was small because it was somehow “theirs” and it was intimate and it was like a sort of social hangout for all the hip bloggers and they were happy to be getting recognition. It made them “different” from the Xanga and Livejournal people.
When 9rules started to open their doors wider and wider, the “specialness” started to fade. Now it’s a thriving community, and the people are still great, but there are too many, and the original fans of the site feel like The Rulers have abandoned them, or at least the community doesn’t work for them anymore.
Take all that with a grain of salt because as I said before, I wasn’t there in the beginning… This is all gleaned from what I have gathered and what I know of how pseudo-underground things go.
The bigger you get, the less and less your original followers are going to like you. I’ll admit right now, if 9rules gets as big as MySpace, I’d find it difficult to enjoy it.
Tough skin, Scrivs, take care of that tough skin.
By J. Bradford on May 8, 2007 12:23 pm
@Fred: You got a deal.
By Scrivs on May 8, 2007 12:40 pm
9Rules is the first community site I’ve ever joined and really participated in and with the advent of my.9r I was hooked. I went from being a lurker around 9Rules, Scrivstyme, Whitespace, and Rundle’s weblog to a community member and contributor.
I knew you guys were doing something good and I wanted to be a part of it. And now I am, which is truly awesome.
I remember back in the early days of the internet where you could hold civil conversations without spammers and flamers taking over and destroying it. 9Rules is one of the last islands of discourse left on the web. And for that, I thank you. :)
Keep up the good work and thick skin. I can’t wait for 2010.
By peroty on May 8, 2007 2:05 pm
I think sometimes people use the term “death” to refer to a focus or way of working. Many online communities get too big to support their original mission statement, and become more about self-importance than working towards a common goal.
Yes, with the original 9rules idea the concept was on the celebration of great content - and it exceeded at that. But 9rules was small and niche, and limited in it’s possibilities. Now, as we know, 9rules has expanded into other areas - a kind of hybrid feedback directory service, I like to think. But the number of participants has also inflated, and in some ways this makes 9rules slightly unmanageable.
That is to say, once upon a time I could visit 9rules and get a listing of recent entries from great blogs on a similar subject area (business/design/web 2.0)… now it’s a completely different beast. Better or worse? Neither necessarily, but the original concept is dead in place of something else.
And of course, there will always be elitists who believe that the growth of such a community, and the introduction of new members cheapens the product. But these people are just snobs who like to rule their closed kingdoms.
By Dan on May 8, 2007 2:33 pm
While I haven’t necessarily enjoyed all of 9rules’ new features I do admire that you’ve implemented them, backlash be damned. I understand not wanting your site to stagnate and trying to give your users the best possible experience. After all, you’re who hears directly from your users what they want.
Personally, I’d like to see you go more the route of Google, lots of cool features if you want to use them, but for a casual user they’re kept behind the curtain away from the main attraction. Anyhow, praise jebus for no spam and unobtrusive advertising.
By beth on May 9, 2007 12:44 pm