Job Description of a Host - Page 6

This is not a job for the faint of heart. The host acts as an enforcer of the rules, guardian of the gate, helper to those in need, and example to the community of how to behave. The host is the human face of the community, setting the rules and then sticking around to examine their impact. This is the person who people come to if they've got a beef or a question.

Clearly, this is a big job. In my experience, I've found that good hosts are harder to find than good designers. There's a certain Zen about hosting a web community. You need to be active enough to lead the way, but know when to fall silent and let the community lead itself. You need to know when to rise to the challenge of an angry user, and when to leave the flame bait alone. You need to be friendly in the face of trolls looking for trouble, to always act as an example of how you'd like the community to behave.

In other words, it shouldn't be you.

Let me explain. This book is primarily for designers, so when I say "you," I'm talking to the designer of the community space. All too often, the designer winds up acting as a host as well, a practice I've been a victim of on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, in my experience, the people who are very good at designing websites are usually not the same kind of people who are good at hosting and moderating them.

There are other reasons besides the personality dynamics. As the site designer, everything about the site is going to be obvious to you. But the host should be more attached to the community than the site. When the users cry out for a change (a new thread, a new feature, whatever they're passionate about), it's good for the host to be on their side. It's always easier to manage the community when you're with them than against them. But a site designer may be too attached to the site to hear the criticisms with an open mind.

So my advice is always to find someone to be a host besides the person (or people) who built the site. You can have multiple hosts, if your site is big enough, and you can even cull them out of the community itself. Just don't underestimate the importance of the role. Your hosts will create many users' first impression of the site. You want to make sure it's a good one.

How important is the host?

That depends on whom you ask.

Traditionally, "hostliness" has been next to godliness in the virtual community world. And many virtual community theories center on the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful host to guide the community out of the darkness and into the light.

But, like most things on the web, it depends.

In some ways, the role of the host was overplayed in the past. When a system is poorly designed, or too large in scope, or just plain new to everyone, the role of the host is, of course, going to become hugely important.

On the other hand, if you're using the kind of small, elegantly designed, tightly focused community features advocated in this book, the role of the host is diminished. There is always a host- -make no mistake. But the importance of the role depends on the complexity of the community space.

The call to action at the bottom of a ZDNet story.

For example, ZDNet News (zdnet.com/zdnn) is a technology-related news site. There, each story is followed by a discussion thread on the same page as the story itself. The interaction here is bare-bones simple. A user reads the story and is presented with a call to "Talk back!" Clicking this presents the user with a form with just a few fields, only two of which are required: a name and a comment. There's not too much to explain here. (Not that the addition of a host would be unwelcome here--harsh words between posters are not uncommon.)

The ZDNet posting interface.

On the other hand, there are complicated sites like Table Talk (tabletalk.salon.com) and the discussion boards at CNN (community.cnn.com), where the user is presented with a barrage of options and a less than perfect set of visual cues. What to choose? Where to go? How does this thing work?

It's obvious that some sites will come to rely on hosts more than others. In general, the more tools you give your users, the more important the role of the host becomes. Good site design and clear navigation can minimize--but not eliminate--the role of the host.

If you're trying to decide how important the role of the host is to your site, try this test. Ask a friend or a relative to come participate in your community. This person should be a novice web user--a person with some experience in the web, but not an advanced user. Ask your volunteer to visit your site and participate in some way (more than just reading). If your volunteer has questions or comments, they should be written down in an email and sent to you.

If you get one or two questions, you're doing okay. Three or four? A host is pretty important. More than that and a host is downright critical (and you may have other problems in the design and interaction of the site, too).

Step 3: Communicate Rules Visually - Page 5
Design for Community
Looking the Part - Page 7