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It Takes a (Virtual) Village
The motherload. Your friends and mine at Builder.com have
pulled together a rich set of resources, including existing stories on Builder.com, but also of articles, tools and other goodies from around the Web, all about online communities.
Get the lowdown on chat, message boards and oh, so much more here.
At a glance, OneList offers nothing more than
majordomo-style email lists. But the Web site transcends the cold, impersonal broadcasts by offering members access to archived messages and the ability to set preferences - and
now, the ability to tap into the massive ICQ network. I'm a member of several OneList communities and can attest to the bonds that form.
Okay, so you plan on broadcasting your company's messages to the entire world - SparkLIST is the service for you. Touting the ability to handle announcement and discussion lists of
millions of recipients at a rate of 675 emails per second, they sweeten the pot with promotion packages that hook your list into list communities like OneList, or into list engines like Lizst. Deja.com
Anyone out there remember the good old days of USENET?
Message boards are perhaps the oldest true form of community on the Net, and Deja.com (formerly DejaNews) has taken it to the next level. Deja.com can incorporate discussions
into your site, to get customer feedback, to announce news or just to get people buzzing. Their Deja Ratings takes user input and charts the popularity of a product based on a variety of criteria for easy comparison. Neat!
There's just no getting around it - ICQ is hands-down the king
of community applications. The Site Creators Network offers you the best of both worlds: The tools to incorporate community -- THE community -- into your site, as well as a community of fellow site builders to communicate and share
ideas with. it's a little information-heavy, but there's some real gems here.
Second only to ICQ in community size, PowWow offers a one-stop shop approach to community building. Your PowWow community can include chat, message boards, games and more. An interesting feature is the "Web Tour," wherein you
can guide users through a set of Web pages you want them to see, like, maybe, a crash course in your site's functionalities.
Anexa.com's another all-in-one community-building site, but with one important differentiator: It's free! Perhaps not as feature-rich as PowWow, but there's enough room for customization to make it feel like home. The usual set of
goodies are here: Chat, message boards, mailing list, and so forth.
If you're serious about putting community on your site, check out PeopleLink. Set up instant messaging, message boards, searchable user profiles, chat -- all around topics you define.
Illustrious partners include Compaq, GTE and iVillage. For small businesses they offer a free, "Associate" membership. Avaterra.com Virtual Communities
As if online chat isn't abstract enough, here comes avatar chat to put a new, surreal face on it. But, if you don't mind the
amusingly big-headed characters, there's something to be said about seeing fellow chatters in the, er, flesh. There's something else to be said about using a visual chat experience to introduce products and services. Think about it.
The Palace is perhaps the oldest avatar chat service going, and
also offer partnered visual chats for a variety of purposes, including product launches. Additionally, The Palace is available as a java-based chat, so no unweildy downloads are required.
The Well stands as among the longest-lived (since 1985!) and most highly esteemed online communities. And now offer
discussion and chat services for Web sites. Not surprisingly, they've acquired an impressive list of high-profile customers.
If their clientele is a reflection of the services provided, they must be doing something right. WebCrossing provides discussion and chat services to, among others, the New York Times, CNET, Macromedia and CNNInteractive.
Customization and scalability set this service apart from the pack. Online Moderator Guidelines and Community-Building Tips
Again, The Well leads the pack in online communities. They've been doing it for so long, they must have at least a few pearls
of wisdom to impart. And indeed they do. No frills, just good information. |
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