Theory of Community Burnout

Thanks to everyone who answered the "Content or Control" poll - it was very interesting to see what came up there. The real reason for that was that it confirmed something that I had observed happening or having happened in several groups on SL and that I thought was likely to be a concern for everyone at some point.

What seems to happen is that when a new community/group starts to form on SL, the initial members quickly start making the "basic" things which will appeal to that community/group and selling them, and many of them do very well out of doing so. However, as time marches on, soon all of the basic / easy-to-make / fun-to-make / universal-appeal-to-the-community stuff gets done. New arrivals find that the work:reward ratio they can expect for adding new stuff to the community is steadily getting worse and worse.

So they are left with three choices: buy L$ to support being in the community as a pure consumer of what is already made, do other non-community things to earn their money, or reinvent the wheel to get some control. As we saw on the poll, most aren't likely to decide to buy L$. Doing other non-community things is a good option, but it weakens the community as people are forced to spend time outside it earning money. And reinventing the wheels will either fail, leaving the person with burned fingers, or succeed and - depending on the nature of what got reinvented - split the community. Of course, how possible it is to get a measure of control by re-building something depends on what that something is - if it's a site or location, it's likely to work, but if it's an item, it's less likely.

This "community burnout" - the point where the work:reward ratio for creation forces newcomers to either reduce participation in a community or attempt to split it instead of building it up - is problematic. It effectively limits the level of growth of any particular community to a certain level at which burnout occurs, after which growth will be minimal if present at all.

The "clubbing" and "casino" communities burned out a long time ago - thus the identical clubs, and the money balls and camp chairs. The "cybersex" and "gorean/BDSM" communities are showing strong signs of burning out: multiple incompatible closed-interface scripted genitals are a classic example, as are the utterly surreal and often, to be frank, just plain dumb "torture racks" BDSM newcomers are building in a desperate attempt to find a niche. And while once with those sales someone would actually build a themed dungeon to put them in, now they get put next to the window in a suburban rental home because those sales to support a custom area no longer exist and no av who wants to be a success can commit 100% to that community any more.

(And as an illustration of the "work:reward ratio" point: I have a friend on SL who is heavily into BDSM and was interesting in learning to build stuff; she asked me about building one of the "basic" items related to it and I took her through it. It took somebody with zero building experience the grand total of 45 minutes to build one that was actually better than the established standard. That established standard sells for L$100 and has sold over 100 copies - L$10000 for 45 minutes' work, anyone? See why people would rather be in at the start of a new community yet? )

The key question is if community burnout will affect SL as a whole, and if so what effect it will have. I think there is at least some evidence that it has already started doing so. I can't think of anything that stops or slows down the process that doesn't come down to punishing people for making the contributions to build the communities in the first place..

Not to say that your points aren't valid and interesting, but the forum is probably not a representative slice of SL's population, so a poll may not mean much.

I would have called what you are describing as a frontier economy. When a new region or niche first opens up you can quickly succeed with simple things. As the market fills up, you need more and more skills, both technical and imagination to compete as a business.

To call it community burnout implies that a niche market = all the activities in a group, business, social, etc.

I chose create not in a commercial sense, but to say that if SL was just social I wouldn't have stayed here past 90 days.

First mover advantage != free, easy money forever

Yumi Murakami, a partial answer to the 'Community Burnout' phenomenon would be for eastablished communities to act as catalysts once they've reached their self-sustaining critical mass. That way, as they draw in population in excess of their carrying capacity, the surplus membership is encouraged to form it's own community in a somewhat amoebic fission cloning process.

First, like Surreal, I don't think your poll holds much significance. I never even voted to be honest mainly because I've seen way too many people give significance to the results of an incredibly small sample of people who are interested in whatever the topic of the moment is.

This post here however is well thought out and I will address that. Communities do go through an evolutionary process but I don't think the prevalent attitude you describe is one of community burnout. Rather various types of people will be present at all stages of development even though their presence may be evidenced in various forms at differing periods.

The fact is, the act of virtual creation has never been simple. As the system grows, new potential is created and there is a consistent flow of new blood taking the ball and running with it. This is a smaller percent of the population but that is no different than earlier and future stages of the game. At the other end of the spectrum will be a small percent which has an uncanny ability to find reasons to hold itself back. That element also has been here since the beginning and will always be here. Then there is the majority. They tend to be swayed either way depending on the mood which prevails in their personal experience.

I've met optimistic people in today's SL who are willing to invest in themselves or spend money to entertain themselves just as some people did when I joined a year ago. They were a small percentage then as they are now. You'll find them in the sandboxes, buying their first lands, generally looking to the potential instead of bemoaning their unfortunate timed entrance to this place.

I remember you describing young people irl looking to examples of successful people who had obtained their positions without the benefit of a college degree. You indicated that they were using that as a justification for not pursuing their own education. I'll put forward to you that these people may not be able to choose the when and the where's of their existence but they can choose their attitude. They can choose to look to the many people who have succeeded through the benefit of an education and take the opportunities available to them. Or they can continue to justify their lack of action by blaming some perceived conditions of their existence.

Attitude is fricking everything. I've known people from the worst situations who are successful and by that I mean that they like themselves. At the other end of the spectrum, there are many who blow so many advantages given to them and end up evr whining and miserable. We are only victims of our circumstance if we let that be what defines us.

My apologies for the long post. I have seen this view of hopelessness for the masses persistantly presented and cannot bring myself to embrace the mentality of it and perpetuate its existence by doing so. I'm glad my parents didn't look at the advantages of being an only child and stop after their firstborn.

Fifth child and still a standout,
Margaret

(nod) However, what actually happens to those different types of people varies over time. I have seen people try to start up community areas and then had to close them down when nobody showed up, and been completely baffled why - "how could they when we designed this to give them everything they want?" The truth is that in SL, the last thing people want is for everyone to have everything they want. If everyone has everything they want there is nothing you can give or sell them; no way for you to have control, and no way for you to participate at the same level as others already there.



Again, the "45 minutes for a newbie to make something that sold for L$10000+" aspect kind of disproves that. I can name any number of objects which have earned money far in excess of the work necessary to produce them just because they arrived early to their local markets.



Well, bear in mind that many of the original arrivals didn't spend money entertaining themselves, they earned it by making stuff. And sure, people do still look to the potential of the game, but more and more of them are going to wind up getting burned. I know, because I used to be like that - I used to spend a long while in the sandboxes building items and raced to get First Land when I first joined. But then, anytime I thought of something I found that either it had either already been done or nobody had done it because it was impossible.



However, attitude is defined by experience, and if negative attitudes are appearing then it should be considered if any changes could be made to SL to counteract those attitudes.

Sorry, Yumi, attitude chooses which of the many experinces we have are the ones that define us. You failed in acheiving what you set out to do. You've developed a whole theory designed to explain your situation in terms other than that. You seek out others who back up your story.

I was born with a plastic rather than the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth. I've had opportunities aplenty to justfiy becoming a loser. In addition to lacking any advantages to the situation I was born into, I am not exceptional in any particular area. I am pretty good at everything I put my mind to though. There is one bit of advantage I do give thanks for and that is the love and resulting self confidence my parents gave me. I am very aware it is far more significant than any of the disadvantages that could have been put upon me. Note the definition of success in my first post; there lies the key regardless of the circumstance.

In the words of Mose Allison:

When push comes to shove
thank god for self love.

Can't have said it better.

When you start blaming others for an attitude you hold, you have a shitty attitude. Life is remarkably simple when one takes complete responsibility for one's actions, one's future, one's successes or failures.

Mmmm.. not quite. I wouldn't really put it as "I failed in achieving what I set out to do" because I didn't really set out with a single specific goal in that way. What I did was to have the general aim of finding stuff that would be enjoyable for me to do but would also be useful to others, but wasn't able to find anything in that category, because I came up against the "if it's not impossible it's already done" divide.

And attitude may choose what experiences affect us, but that does not mean that it is not shaped by our past experiences also - I don't see that's a contradiction at all.

Nice post.

What the HELL does it matter if it has been done before? Innovate, improve, restyle, remodel, modify. Not everything is done yet, never ever. When you do it, it's done by you, wich makes it different allready.

But lets say you make exactly the same product as someone else. The current 100k residents might not shop at your store, but the next 900k residents will have a choice between you and the other, create your own brand and style and if even only 10% choices to shop at your store that is 90k customers, 90% of todays residents.

Well, part of this is my fault: it's difficult to create a "style" when you're mostly good at scripting, because most people don't notice or care about the "style" of a script.

The problem with what you describe, is getting noticed - I'm familiar with all the standard routes of placements and classifieds, etc.., but there's also the disadvantage of having to put up a vendor which has to sell the one thing I've made so far, as opposed to the competitor's which sells that thing plus all the other things they've made. Yes, there is a convenience factor in SL, and a store that sells only one thing does look kinda silly. Also, the existing winner can see the item, see what changes I've made and incorporate them (it's not an IP infringement if they don't actually directly copy my object) and then use their existing popularity to bury me.

But that's hard, Frans! wtf!

There are usually two possible reasons people create in SL... the first is simply for the challenge and satisfaction that comes from conquering it. Most of the things I've done in SL have been for those reasons. I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to do things. Anything else that comes from those efforts and creations is merely a fringe benefit that was neither planned or expected.

The second reason people do things in SL is because they expect something in return for their effort. They're less interested in the challenge than they are in the expected reward... for them it only becomes a valid use of their time if someone else enjoys it, buys it, uses it, praises it, it offsets their tier, or whatever else. This is a bad mentality in that there's a very good possibility that your expectations won't be met. People have a tendency to reflect those unmet expectations back on their creativity or effort as some kind of condemnation.

This doesn't just apply to SL. These seem to be prevailing attitudes among people in general. Those that do things as ends in themselves and receive their reward from the effort itself tend to generally be happy people. Those that determine the worth of their experiences and efforts by how close the end result is to their expectations tend to have an albatross around their necks that forever weighs them down. Even if they have some success they just raise their expectations so that they never quite reach them. Everything's set up in advance to be a disappointment.

It's a cliche but it's also good advice to live by, in SL or FL, live life for the journey, not for the destination.

Other people seem to be making things that have been made before in their own fashion and profiting from that effort. You can make something better in 45 minutes? Why aren't you marketing it? Hire someone with skills in that area if you lack them. Warning: this may require that you invest money into yourself short term to experience a long term gain.

Balance some of that time you spend helping the hopeless masses and spend it focusing on yourself.

Everyone starts with one item. The key is persistence.

I always tell newbs who are interested in content creation to make something they are personally interested in, do a good job, and SOMEONE will buy it.

You only seem interested in creating excuses.

But that's hard, Margaret! wtf!


In all seriousness, though, that's another great point. Not knowing how is no excuse, unless no one else on earth knows how, either. I got some great paid and unpaid help at my start, but only because I sought it out.

What is up with this, Yumi!?!?! I know people begging for a scripter to compliment their ability to create items with style. People who can script are most definitely in the minority here! If you can't succeed with that talent, I really don't know what I can say to you. There are people wishing they had your talent. You are blessed, now go and do good things.

I've done this plenty of times. I'm not a very good scripter, so I often will compensate someone for their services or offer them a portion of the sales.

Ditto. I'm a scripting moron. I learn stuff sometimes, but it's like playing euchre for me. I can learn it, and I can play it, but by the next time it'll have all fallen out of my brain. I've been taught to play euchre about 20 times and at this monent I don't have a clue how to play it. I envy people who can script and program (and remember how to play euchre, damnit!).

God, get out of my brain, Margaret.

Again, you're absolutely right. Ultimately, the script is one of the more important components of a product. It gives functionality to an otherwise lifeless hunk of prims. Being able to creatively problem solve in a simple and useful way that teases important functionality out of the object is very difficult and very crucial. Moreover, a good scripter can come up with new features or possibilities for a product that haven't been otherwise thought of. Clean functionality is by far one of the most desired and most lacking things in SL products. If you're unable to make your ability to deliver that into gold, you're just not trying.

I know I come off to you as cold, Yumi. But those that know me will testify that in the long run they consider me to be supportive. I give people a hard time in terms of not making excuses for them (that's called enabling not support) but I do bring out the best in people overall. Sometimes just out of spite. Unless they are amongst the small percentage of people determined to self fulfill their prophecy of failure. To them I will forever be a bitch. Fortunately most people don't hold to that opinion for long.

Enabran!!!! Be firm and steadfast, not mean and ugly. Being right doesn't give you justification for it. Most people are worth encouraging not alienating. Reread your own signature and find more there, okay?

In general, I agree, but I can only take so much "failure is inevitable"-type whining before my empathy shuts down and my eyes roll uncontrollably. It gets old, you know? We've been hearing about the futility of SL existence since October and I'm annoyed, at this stage..

I dunno. An attitude of defeatism is the only thing that will get me more riled than someone unexpectedly shoving a knife into my ear. Call it a weakness.

You are very young, Enabran. I have learned that your method gets people focused on you instead of reflecting upon your message, what it can mean to them, and benefitting from it. You taken away from your message by associating animosity to it. Believe me, I am every bit as intolerant of excuses as you are.