Online communities
Every day we use online communities to help us figure out what restaurant we want to eat at, determine what spatula we want to buy, or discover new memes to make us laugh. But too often I find that most people are simply consumers of versus contributors to these communities. Going forward, this is something I’m going to change for myself.
I’ll start off by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the current five star rating system that most reviews use. Or, better said, I’m not a fan of the way most people use that star system, which is typically to rate things either one star or five stars. Logic would tell you that most things should be three starts and only truly exceptional things would be five or one. A brief glance across a few products on Amazon or listings on Yelp would tell you that that isn’t true.
The system is supposed to work like this:
⭐️ - I hated it.
⭐️⭐️ - I disliked it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I liked it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I really liked it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I loved it.
Based on the way most people review things, that would mean that people have incredibly strong feelings one way or another. (I guess that’s not totally surprising. See: political climate.) That simply isn’t a good representation of the world though. I find this particularly frustrating when it comes to book reviews on Goodreads. I like (three stars) most books that I read. Very few do I really like (four stars) or love (five stars). If I dislike (two stars) or hate (one star) then I’ll probably stop reading before I’m done anyway. But if you look at Goodreads, an outsize number of books have four or five star reviews.
This problem is even worse when it comes to restaurant reviews. I know people who won’t eat at places with anything less than four stars. If you think about it, that’s madness. It is basically saying that you’ll only eat at places that are truly exceptional. That may be fine individually but it leads to businesses not being able to survive unless they are truly better than everyone else. That leads to a zero sum, race to the top game instead of driving a diversity of selection.
I’m a bigger fan of the way Foursquare does ratings. (Yes, I still use Foursquare.) Instead of stars, their scale is:
❤️ - Liked it
😐 - It’s okay
💔 - Didn’t like it
Additionally, instead of reviews, they have tips, which are supposed to be short little bits of information instead of ranting essays. That typically leads to more positivity as well.
Reviews themselves are only one part of the online community ecosystem that we use. Think about the pictures that we see, links to websites, operating hours, prices, locations on a map, etc. All (or most) of that was added by humans who are interacting with the physical world to make the online world more helpful.
Then there are truly online communities like Reddit, Dribble, and forums. Again, most of us simply consume from sites like these rather than actually contributing. Upvoting only minimally counts. Most people have never actually created a post, including myself.
In order to “fix” some of the polarization that I see online I am going to be the change that I want to see in the world by actively participating in online communities rather than just absorbing them as they are. I am going to write more balanced reviews, contribute photos, correct maps, and join in actual conversations. Here are just a few of the places I plan to be more active:
Foursquare
Goodreads
Yelp
Amazon
Reddit
Tesla Motors Club
Wikipedia
OpenStreetMap
Google Maps
Zooniverse
23andMe
I’m looking forward to being much more of a participant instead of just a lurker. And I’m curious to know what communities you find interesting that you want to contribute more to as well.