Why you don’t need a community?

Have you heard the latest news about communities? They’re the shiznit! They solve all your problems. It is a scientific fact (in vitro) that most people would love to come to your website and create you content and comment everything on your site – positively of course!

Yeaaahh.

“If you build it, they will come”

You know where that’s from? It’s from a movie from 1969 (that’s 3 years before ARPANET, the ancestor of the Internet was created) that is called the Field of dreams.

Some spineless nitwit realized that people like to group up online, and after that they insisted that everyone should have their own community. I mean, everybody wants to be the cool cat whose house looks like Vin Diesel’s pad in xXx. You know the one with a skateboarding ramp, a helipad and a huge party going on 24/7 – Isn’t that what you have every day?

Sensing the paradox here?

Let’s continue with the house analogy, if only to see how far I can stretch this thing. Let’s think of places where communities gather. Surefire places are schools, work places, malls, hobby enthusiasts, sports, parties and causes. Notice a trend there? All of those things already have a house where they take place. They couldn’t meet up unless they already had a place. Through their existence their houses are already built.

People gather in places that other people are in. Not because there’s a big sign on top of a secluded house that says “Community here.” I mean, would you go and hang out in a house full of strangers just because their front porch had a sign that said “forum”?

If you would, I suggest you learn martial arts.

This is the main problem with communities. They already exist and people won’t just leave because someone creates a better mall or a bigger expo area – if the people won’t move, the others won’t move either.

Do you really want to spend a big chunk of your house building budget for building a community room for your house that you’re not even sure anyone will use? If you’re Ashton Kutcher or Xander Cage (that’s Vin Diesel’s character’s name in xXx) – you probably already had one in your previous flat and people swarmed it constantly. But the chance is that you are not and you’re just wasting your money and most of all, creating huge expectations for yourself which I can guarantee – will be disappointed.

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1. Why do you need a website?
2. How much to spend in a website?
3. What should your website contain?
4. Technology or Business?
5. Why content is so important?