When the Internet community collapses

We have participated in several net communities until GIGAZINE is in this form, and we have organized etc. I participated as an initial member of the community that was made from scratch and I have witnessed the vicissitudes of it. From those experiences, I felt that having the community as the core of the business was accompanied by great difficulties.

Here I will think about the worst endings of "collapsing" the community on the net, and the final form that avoided all the collapse. I hope it will be a guideline for businesses that mainly focus on communities, user participation type content, or people hosting and managing such community.

~ Mukuji
1. Flow toward complete collapse of community as seen in "Tokimeki Memorial Online"
2. Creation period ~ Growth period: until it burns out after burning up
3. Mature period ~ Rigid period: making it "net locust" to make you think without thinking backwards
4. Declining period: User movements seen in SNS, and soon
5. Does the giant Internet community eventually compete with the "nation"?
■ 1. Flow toward complete collapse of community seen in "Tokimeki Memorial Online"


"Tokimeki Memorial Online"Is an MMO community game that Konami started on March 23, 2006. MMO stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online", in short, it is a form in which many users participate in one game through the net. This "Tokimeki Memorial Online" was also such a user participation type game. However, it is confirmed that all services will be terminated at 23:59 on July 31, 2007.

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE | Notice | Notice of End of Service

At first, what should have happened with the popularity of the server as much as it was popular with people? To be clear, as a result of continuing to take actions that disregarded the community, most of the users were away. It is a very helpful example that the collapsing elements of every net community are packed. This is summarized in Wikipedia in great detail, so I recommend you to read from top to bottom.

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE - Wikipedia (Factor that resulted in the end of service)

Regarding the use of screenshots, there was a demand for deregulation similar to that of other companies MMORPG so that players' own blogs and others can freely use it, but this is also not done at all and one factor that is avoided by players became. Also, it is prohibited by players to post on their own blogs etc, continuing to punish penalties and penalties for offenders will result in the players shrinking as well as completely killing the word-of-mouth propaganda effect of the game It has become

For example, regarding the publication of screenshots etc., it was necessary to be accredited as "authorized fan site" beforehand.

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE | Community | Recommended for fan sites

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE | Community | Certified fan site FAQ

However, the condition to become this official fan site was abnormally strict. Looking again at Wikipedia, it says:

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE - Wikipedia (Factor that resulted in the end of service)

Even though "Recommendation of Certified Fan Site" (refer to the external link above), intense words such as expressions such as "No !! No !!" "Sorry", restriction, punishment, penalties frequently occur when opening the page. Likewise, even if you choose "official fan site" introduction from the official top page, the first thing you jump into your eyes is "Mee!", An illustration emerging warnings to players who might violate the rules . In addition, we also visited unauthorized homepages and actually warned against those considered to be violations of the regulations. As described above, not only the fan site management candidate, but also all players, first of all, players are atrophied and disillusioned with disillusionment, in a high-pressure posture that seems to correspond only with regulation and punishment, On the other hand, a great criticism gathered, in fact, the homepage of the informal group of communities, etc. was almost entirely unlikely to be said to be active.

Tokimeki Memorial ONLINE - Wikipedia (Strict system unparalleled by other companies)

Initially the fansite operators filed an official application together, but for the reasons as described above, most of the large-scale information sites and strategy sites that were operated then were rejected and almost accepted as the official service was started It stayed at 20 sites mainly focusing on personal blogs and others. For those sites that have not been certified, it is urged to make a full renovation and reapply to meet the criteria of approval, or to abandon the use of SS instead of operating as unauthorized It will be. As a result, the site was closed due to dissatisfaction with the official recognition standards and the above game content itself, and it also appeared that the hands were pulled from the game itself. In addition, there was a case that a large-scale intelligence information site that had been operated unofficially and operated received a closing order from Konami.

On the other hand, as for fan sites that were able to receive certification, as long as they continue to operate, they have to obey the strict regulations permanently. For example, Konami has revealed that there is a possibility of canceling official recognition even if there is a violation of regulation in the link destination of the official site, and virtually mutual exchanges between the official fan site and the unofficial fan site are It is said that it will not be accepted.

In addition, in the official fan site regulations, we prohibit the setting of a member exclusive page with the password locked, and even if we want to make a confidential meeting in class or group, for example, we can not use closed bulletin boards and chat rooms , There is also a view that promotion of community leakage to external membership system SNS etc. is promoted as a result. As a result, Konami himself, who is an operator and would like to sing the community game himself, persisted strongly that the width of the user community was narrowing.

In addition to that, there are complaints about the operation system, such as not deficiencies on the system unexpectedly low degrees of freedom and official events held for 8 months, free despite being a relatively high price setting of 1200 yen for 30 days The community is completely collapsed and the user leaks a lot due to the whiplash situation such as not doing etc. Hurry toMerging seven servers into twoIt is already late when we are trying to revitalize the community by gathering the remaining users and waiting for closure.

Combining the above situations, it is virtually impossible for the community to be completely controlled by tying up the community with rigid rules, conventions, rules, etc, and it leads to an emergency situation that the community is leaked to other more free communities It will result.

That is,The community on the net collapses if it tries to perfect control,When.

Konami launched indeedFAQAnd authorized fan site only, it is not "accidental" as it is "obvious" in complying with the laws of real society, but the real society and the law It is divergence that has been repeated many times in the history so far, especially on the Internet where the speed of progress and development is so fast that it takes a user or takes a user, the sense of balance around that It is essential.

Next, the net communityCreation period, growth period, maturity period, rigid period, decline periodWe will see how each collapses in the trend.

■ 2. Creation period ~ Growth period: until it burns out after burning up


At a time when the blog got established, the word "on fire" came to be heard around the net. For entries and articles that are likely to give topics even to just blogs on their blog, a large number of users are flooded with a lot of users in their comments, and endlessly write emotional comments, and the action taken by the blog creator, For example, it is said that the comment deletion or counterargument or excuse by another entry becomes fuel that can bring in further comments, and eventually it is a condition that it can not collect things besides completely burning out and closing.

On fire - Wikipedia (a state where comments rush into blogs)

There are many examples that it closed by flames, but the most famous are the following two cases that were also hosted by the major companies. First of all, Sony's Walkman blog. Even though it was so-called "Yarase", I made further excuses and closed in just a few days after opening up.

Sony's "Silence" 3- - Blood Festival Yarase "Experience Diary": Shigeo Abe Editor-in-chie Blog: FACTA online

Sony has failed to do the same thing about PSP overseas as well. It also seems to have been a great flame.

Sony and Yarase: PSP 's fake' fansite 'on fire - Engadget Japanese

The community of which the first starting point is "lie" surely surely happens in the middle of growth. And it will collapse. It is natural that the first departure, that is, the part corresponding to the foundation is a lie. In a sense, out of the question.

Next is a flaming example with docomo's SNS. To put it briefly, although it was established in the community-oriented SNS called mixi, it refused the "communication" which is the essence, and as a result it was a great flame.

J-CAST News: Docomo for PR "SNS" in 10 days "on fire"

Flame Promotion Community that rejected death and death conversation closes in 10 days | Web personnel Forum

Why did that site burn? Learn by example! Blog The 6th "Flame Up in the Community" [Management]

It is natural for users to feel uncomfortable if they are in an attitude of refusing communication at community sites whose purpose is communication among members. At the beginning, there were opinions of community participants who urged administrators to change their thoughts, but I was frustrated by the difficulty of the hard-handed administrator, and from the doubt that "Why did you set up this community for what?" It seems that it should have been a move with "I should not be in mixi", and eventually "get out of mixi". Especially in the community, users in the same community tend to seek homogeneity of each other. Regardless of whether it is an individual or a company, we will deal with strict measures for those who can not share their values.

Although there is an image that the already existing blog collapses when it says on the flames up, considering "flames" from the viewpoint of the formation of the community, it is the case that it is time to start the community at the time of departure of the community I understand it. Because there is atmosphere in the community "place of the air" and the first thing to form the air, if you do not make appropriate 'air' it will lead to flames.

Both of these have been born out of a strategy of forming a community on the net, aiming at a word-of-mouth effect and increasing the sales of products, but it got miserly at the start point at that start point.

Immediately after the very first birth of the community, there is no lying in the so-called creation period, and there is also a need for a tight communication for future community growth that will begin there. In addition to rejecting dialogue like DoCoMo, it also includes "denial of trust relationship" of lying from the beginning like Sony.

That is,A community that denies communication and refuses does not grow and collapses,When. Naturally, it is also a very forgetful thing.

■ 3. Mature period ~ Stiff period: making it "Net locust" making me thinking without thinking backwards


A locusted locust will make a large group and fly in the sky, eat the next crop from the next and eat all the crops of the farmland and the next will also fly away collectively in the group looking for new agricultural crops ...... This is the so-called "mass production of locusts", but it seems that the users who are going to blaze blogs and SNSs that are on fire as in the previous example on the Internet are called "net locusts".

Net locust - Wikipedia

Ikeda Nobuo blog Hatena gets net in Locust

What is net locust - Hatena diary

To the comment (post) column of the blog (personal site) temporarily, an unspecified number of malicious (negative) anonymous writers appear or an inflow by a link from a specific site is referred to as "scattering locally agricultural crops" A word in line with the natural disaster of "Horai of Iniko" ".

Maturity and rigidity are basically "stable", most successful communities should be in this state, and how to maintain this stable period is crucial. However, sometimes this stabilization may cause the inside of the community to be "locust".

The so-called "festival" on 2 Channel is like a pioneer of net locusts, but some of the participants in the mature community became a kind of "mob" and headed toward a decline period . By "decline from stability" which is the cause of the collapse of the community, we receive the feeling that the civilized civilization and the state are going to end. If you do wrong handling at this point, you will head towards a declining phase.

You can see a microcosm of the community on the Internet that is actually entering this milestone "Is it more stable or declining?" Below.

Naoya's Hatena diary - About the Hatena bookmark community

Hatena bookmark - naoya's Hatena diary - About the community of Hatena bookmarks

In order to avoid falling into the decline period, it seems that there is a need for so-called management side and management side to strive firm guidelines and to improve the system. About this, before, Google, Yahoo! , And Microsoft has wrote about the community management of the three people in the following article, please refer. There is no absolute solution to avoid collapse, but it should be a hint.

Why can Google lose with services that can not be "fully automated"? ~ The second part ~ - GIGAZINE

■ 4. Decline period: User-wide move seen in SNS, and many others


When entering the decline period, the user leaks. In online games and the like, when the free period ends, the community built in the game moves to another new online game ... and so on are done normally.

A famous example of such a kind of "ethnic major migration" "resident exceptional movement" "user moving" is the Korean SNS area.

Existence beyond mixi appears - conditions of the next winner to learn from Korea SNS history - CNET Japan

It is quite a long article, but users are moving a lot like Daum Cafe → Freechal → Cyworld. It seems that the cause of this big move is very emphasized in terms of being systematic. Conversely speaking, if the improvement in such usability is properly done, that is, the community management based on the user's view There was no leakage of user if it was done including system aspects.

Also mixi is Yahoo! Each also builds a huge community in Japan, but is functionally higher than the late-breaking homogeneous community? It is not so if asked. Nonetheless, it is expected that it is because in keeping with the earnings profit being kept in "stable period", we try to operate not to destroy "community" in a sense. It is also a policy not to be a long-time user who probably has come to "maturity", but to treat politely about newly arriving "new arrivals".

That is,By keeping doing "putting new blood" on endlessly, it avoids the situation of "and no one"It is natural to see. However, there is a necessity to consider the ethnicity that "Japanese people do not change easily from what I liked once".

■ 5. Will the huge Internet community eventually compete with the "nation"?


Although it tends to make it easy to say with the net community, it is actually complicated, it is troublesome, time consuming, time consuming, and it will face every problem. Somewhere in the process, most communities stumble, but sometimes there is a possibility that breathing will be blown up due to changes in administrator, disassembly once again, departure again, or being absorbed by another community There is.

If there is a community that will overcome these various collapsing factors and continue to grow, things such as the management and management of such a community will appear like a little "nation". If you are a person who has sponsored a huge net community or has traveled to the administrative side, you might have felt that "big things like nations are also a kind of community?"

I have participated in many unlimited communities, occasionally organized, and had various experiences. What I feel in that is probably I do not know any one of the communities on the net, but almost certainly the time will come when one has the power to compete with the state. It is expected. The Internet has become relatively easy to break through even at the national border, and if the means to break through the wall of "language" which is a tool of communication easily can be easily done by anyone, the organizer of that community May hold the national leadership voice.

That famousGoogle's master planAccording to the end, Google seems to be expanding the service on the premise that the world government will be present on the premise that all necessary items are present, so the number of participants comparable to the nation and the ability to manage the national level, And, when management funds enough to maintain that net community can be secured, the communities that will not collapse may build a new state on the net.