
RareShare: A Community For People With Rare Medical Problems - abl
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/23/rareshare-a-community-for-people-with-rare-medical-problems/
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villageidiot
How do you know if your conditon is rare enough to be included without going
to the site and checking their index of communities?

When the site first opened I requested them to include a separate community
for RSI/carpal tunnel syndrome although it is not exactly rare since it
affects about 10% of the US population. Although I never received a response I
now see a general "Nerve Entrapment" community which includes other disorders
similar to RSI. That community has a single member. Instead, had they allowed
this, I might have pointed people there from other RSI forums on the web.

I thought the idea behind rareshare had the potential for much greater growth
than they have seen - with only 2000 monthly uniques currently. And I think
making editorial decisions about which groups should exist and which ones
should not indicates that the spirit in which the site was created is more of
a throwback to old media rather than enacting the web 2.0 idea about the
individual taking control of the medium.

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abl
my guess is this is their attempt at standing apart from the crowded space in
this sector and forming their niche.

