Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Thursday Quote - Jakob Nielsen


"In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action."
Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute by Jakob Nielsen, from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox October 9, 2006


That's the "executive summary" for Jakob Nielsen's fascinating article about the 90-9-1 rule; here's another snippet:

User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:
  • 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).

  • 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.

  • 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.


Does that sound like any online community you are familiar with?

Yes, it does... but maybe not this one:

Dilbert.com



Next week: Tim Wu


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