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Community conference at a glance

Site Genre: Pattern Group a

magnify imageFigure A3.1 Beliefnet’s community section offers many ways for people to come together: large open discussions, smaller closed groups, and personal groups used on special occasions for families and close friends.

Background

MESSAGE BOARDS (D5) are only one part in creating an ongoing and thriving community. This pattern endorses responsibility and open discourse. As a place where people can trust one another to speak honestly and intelligently without fear of hooliganism, community conferences can be used in conjunction with and integrated into VALUABLE COMPANY SITES (A7), PERSONAL E-COMMERCE (A1), EDUCATIONAL FORUMS (A8), BLOGS (A12), and other site genre patterns.

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PROBLEM

Community members want to share ideas, views, and opinions with other likeminded individuals, whether they live across the street or across the planet. However, a host of issues must be resolved, such as community usage policies, moderation of forums, anonymity, archives, interaction, trust, sociability, growth, and sustainability. The challenge is to strike a balance within the online community.

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SOLUTION

magnify imageFigureA3.5Provide a mosaic of news in your article arrangement. Your site organization should give readers quick access to the most important news on various subjects, but it should also allow people to drill down for other articles on a subject, as well as back in time to earlier related articles.

To make a community conference site work, establish a clear community usage policy that specifies acceptable behaviors, as well as sanctions that will be imposed on anyone who breaks the rules. Set up a variety of synchronous and asynchronous forums to suit you and your customers. Determine if the community will be moderated, and if so, to what degree. Agree on the level of anonymity that your community will support. Decide whether messages will be archived, and if so, how they will be archived and who will have access to them. Increase trust and sociability by keeping discussions on track and establishing social norms of behavior. Promote growth by leading discussions and attracting new community members.

Other Patterns to Consider

BLOGS (A12) can be used to quickly set up simple community conferences. Make your FAIR INFORMATION PRACTICES (E3) clear to your customers through an understandable PRIVACY POLICY (E4) available on all pages. Ask all potential participants to create nonanonymous accounts using SIGN-IN/NEW ACCOUNT (H2). Verify the addresses of the individuals by sending an e-mail message to which they must respond, and if security needs dictate (and the privacy policy allows), call them on the phone as well.

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Pattern Resources

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