Bruno

I said I'd write some about the things that go into making and managing SRP, and now is as good a moment as any.

The very first, most important question you have to ask yourself if you want to start a new community is this: 'What kind of people do I want the comunity to consist of, and what will be their purpose'. This little question will be at the root of every decision you will ever make. Failing to have a clear answer will mean your decisions will sometimes hinder or outright conflict with each other.

SRP started back in the day when Lynn founded the original yahoo group. His answer to that first question (even if perhaps he was not conciously aware the question needed answering) was that he wanted gentlemen like himself to collect and further infromation and resources for people interested in straight razor shaving.

The first part of that answer: 'gentlemen like himself' has guided almost every people related decision that was take over the years. We want members to behave like grown-ups: treating each other politely or at least with a minimum of respect. Over the years, people who believed that they should be able to insult people have been discouraged, while polite people were fostered. The result of that is that we now have a community where people are not constantly trolling the forums, and where the moderators do not constantly have to deal with people insulting other people and derailing threads.

The second part of that answer 'to collect and further infromation and resources for people interested in straight razor shaving' has guided all practical decisions since then. The switch from yahoo groups to a dedicated forum, creation of the wiki, forum structure, ... all of that has come into existence as improvements or solutions in the face of a growing community and new technology. After all, what works for a forum with 100 or even 1000 people will probably not work for 20000 people or more.

Every forum does not need to give the same answer to that question. Different people have different purposes, and thus it is natural that they come up with a different answer to that question. However, as long as the people in charge have answered that question, they will grow a community that works. If that question is not answered however, it is impossible to grow a comunity. The best you can hope for is you'll end up with a bunch of people gathering in one place to do 'whatever' without a sense of togetherness or direction.

Of course, people in charge are still people. We make mistakes despite our best intentions. I'm sure it's possible to point at things or decisions we've made, and say 'that was not a good decision' or 'here you let personal bias guide your hand'. Noone gets everything right all the time. Likewise, even with a given answer to the question, different people would end up with different communities because they would have different opinions.

But overall, you'll find that the answer to that very first question will determine the outcome of the community building initiative.