Online Community Pattern Language - Recently Updated Pages

Welcome Area

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:48:36 CST

Problem: Newcomers have difficulty acclimating to joining the community

Context:

Forces:

Solution:

Resulting Context:

Newcomers have a "safer" place to enter the community
Experience in the community and community norms can be gained with lessened fear of repercussion from longer-term members

A Pattern Language for Online (and Offline) Communities

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:41:45 CST

What are Design Patterns? What is a Pattern Language?

According to Wikipedia, a Design Pattern can be described as follows:

"A pattern language is a structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise. It is characterized by:
Noticing and naming the common problems in a field of interest,
Describing the key characteristics of effective solutions for meeting some stated goal,
Helping the designer move from problem to problem in a logical way, and
Allowing for many different paths through the design process."

More on Pattern Languages here

Why might design patterns be useful in thinking about online (and offline) communities?

There are many different technical and social aspects to community development. This project's intent is to document and share useful patterns (and anti-patterns!) that are found in communities.

What patterns are relevant in determining which features an online community should contain?

A great presentation on design patterns in communities can be found in the presentation attached below. NOTE: This presentation focuses primarily on the technical patterns (ie. "features") that can be used in creating online communities. It does NOT address the more important issue of the interpersonal and social patterns that emerge.

The presentation above contains the following patterns:

Quick Registration
Login
Welcome Area
User Profile
Avatars
Users Gallery
Buddy Lists
Contacts / Friends
Groups
Invitations
Shared Editing
Reputation
Voting
Direct Message
Chat
Comments
Forums
Blogs
Neighbors
Friends-of-friends
Activity Stream

What are the interpersonal patterns that appear in online communities?

Expertise Patterns
Creator
Critic
Collector
Joiner
Spectator
Inactive
Newcomer
Expert
Troll

Process Patterns
Welcome Newcomers
Introduce Yourself
Group Calving
The Cod of Conduct
Refer to the Terms of Service
Don't Feed the Troll

Other Resources

A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander
Design Patterns, by the gang of four

Introduce Yourself

ccarfi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:15:55 CST

Problem: State the problem

Context:

Forces:

Solution:

Resulting Context:

State the resulting context

Welcome Newcomers

ccarfi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:15:33 CST

Problem: State the problem

Context:

Forces:

Solution:

Resulting Context:

State the resulting context

Login

ccarfi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:05:30 CST

Problem: State the problem

Context:

Forces:

Solution:

Resulting Context:

State the resulting context

Quick Registration

ccarfi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:02:10 CST

Problem: New members abandon lengthy/onerous community registration processes mid-stream

Context:

Forces:

Solution:

Resulting Context:

A community that can have new members join without the need for long signup processes