
The Del.icio.us Lesson: Is your system useful to someone even if nobody else uses it? - danw
http://bokardo.com/archives/putting-the-delicious-lesson-into-practice-part-i/
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simpleenigma
Great article and it is actually making me rethink parts of the design of my
own start-up, which would have lots of network value, but it needs some sort
of personal value as well. Now that I have a language to wrap around the
problem it will be easier.

In the beginning all sites don't have enough data to satisfy any users. That
is part of the process of building the site and creating a user base, but in
the end if you aren't using it, then why would anyone else?

~~~
jamongkad
I guess there is some correlation with scratching your own itch first. It's
never bad advice to tell someone to build something for your own enjoyment
before anything else. So I guess that applies here as well.

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antirez
The fact that it isn't obvious for somebody is strange. After all this is how
old software works in 99% of the times: you have to write something of useful
for individuals alone.

Web applications are now much more collaborative, and things like
digg/reddit/... are useless without a community, but when possible it's much
better to actually _use_ the fact that individuals obtain advantages using the
system in order to create part of the collaborative value.

As a side note, my feeling is that most of the time web applications that are
useful for single individuals tend to be more solid in some way: to compete
with gmail you have to design a great web mail, since gmail is already pretty
good, and this is __hard __.

To compete with a site where the value is mostly in the community a competitor
may attach you in different ways and it is much more a matter of fashion that
technology.

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adsyoung
I'd love to see a lot more written about this and more sites analysed.

I'm guessing Reddit and Digg took off not such much because they are
personally useful without other people there but because news is something
that is constant, compelling, frequent, neverending and you could literally
hang out there all day finding good information.

Where as sites that are attempting to do the cold start and involve something
like reviews and recommendations on restaurants or other services that you
only have need to look up occasionally would have a much harder time getting
going without being personally useful in any way.

There seems to be a lot of sites attempting that these days. Anyone know some
good tricks for overcoming this?

~~~
adsyoung
Thinking about this a little bit more I can think of perhaps 3 ways a social
network site can make a start:

1\. People use it for its personal value and network value is built as a side
effect. (del.icio.us, youtube, google, flickr, amazon).

2\. The idea is so compelling people directly contribute to the network value
(reddit, digg, wikipedia).

3\. You initially populate your site with so much data that its immediately
useful.

What have I missed or gotten wrong?

~~~
mechanical_fish
I'd argue that reddit, digg, and wikipedia had enough data to be useful even
when they only had 1 user. A single-user reddit is indistinguishable from a
blog, but plenty of blogs are useful.

Another way to start your social network is to gradually borrow someone
else's. Youtube was immediately useful because links to Youtube videos could
be emailed to friends and/or embedded in blogs and other social networks. The
site played well with others, which eventually encouraged all blog readers,
emailers, and MySpace users to start visiting Youtube directly.

You left out the super-secret invitation-only beta site method, where your
first users don't mind the bare walls and the empty pages because they're so
excited about being in on the ground floor of a New World-Changing Venture.
After your first 10 users put in some data, you let the next 10 in. After
you've got enough data that the site seems useful you start marketing in
earnest.

A variation is the Craigslist method: use geography to your advantage. Start
by building a Craigslist for your office building, then expand to your
neighborhood, then your city, and eventually conquer the world. But this might
just be a special case of point (1).

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amichail
While I think this is good advice, there is still the problem that if users
don't see much data on your site, then they will assume it's not good and/or
trustworthy and leave.

