Blog Networks and What Could Have Been
It was a crisp May day when I first submitted an infant Devlounge into the mass pile of applications that was the 9rules Round 4 submission period. 24 hours of craziness, which, when it was all said and done, led to somewhere around 700 submissions of applicants just like myself hoping to nudge their way into that select sector of blog supremacy known as the 9rules Network.
You see, at the time, 9rules was known for who was it in, not who wasn’t. The Network consisted of some of the most well known, top rate bloggers, that we freelance writers could only dream about being compared to. As a freshly launched designer and developer resource, it would seem like an honor to make it into a group containing the Roger Johansson’s of the web. It was in June 2006 that this dream – this instant fame and glory – seemed to have cemented itself for both myself and the site. I was now part of the ultimate blog network.
Unfortunately, I was not alone.
Round 4 was the first round 9rules began receiving some heat about the amount of people they accepted. Still, it would not even come close to the amount of people they would accept a few months later in Round 5. With Round 5 came a promise of a new design, named “Ali”, which would help 9rules deal with the massive amount of new members they now had.
Unlike the real Ali, 9rules failed.
Blog Network, or Next Myspace?
Ali did bring a lot of changes to 9rules, but not the ones the network should have been making. Prior to the release of Ali, 9rules had introduced 9rules Notes, which was essentially a small forum for the public 9rules community. Meanwhile, the network continued to operate the 9rules Clubhouse, as an exclusive community for network members. While all this was fun and exciting, what was beginning to be lost was the original purpose (and focus) of the network – content. For a network that preached for high quality and high output content, they were doing less and less with each redesign to showcase it.
Since the initial launch of the 9r notes, the feature has literally taking off – drawing in more people to discuss their pets than the amount of people the site has probably sent over to Devlounge in a whole year (alright, maybe not).
And now, and possibly by the time this article goes live in the next few weeks following the Devlounge launch, 9rules is getting ready to launch Ali 2, which promises even more nice additions. What they’ve shown so far is a new feature called stream, which can already be viewed by going to some ones profile page (which even includes top friends) and adding stream to the end of their url (Ex: Scrivs 9rules Stream). And what exactly does stream do? It shows of all your recent note activity, pulls photos from flickr, shows a short bio about yourself, and then includes a life stream.
What a nice collection, eh?
But wait, it seems like we’re missing something…
Oh yes, that quality content.
You see, 9rules Ali (the first) did very little to address the issue at hand – having an extremely large network base that doubled in a very, very short amount of time. Ali did have one feature that seemed to spread the content joy, and that was 9rules Live. It gave you a quick view of the last 40 entries throughout the network. The problem with this, was what if one site posted a bunch of times in a row? At the time of writing, I saw Ads of the World with nearly 20 entries in a row showing up on the first page of 9rules Live. So nearly half of the recent 40 belonged all to one site! And even worse, although maybe you missed it, there was another little annoyance. 9rules Live was not the first page, but rather the third link in the network’s site navigation. The homepage, meanwhile, showed the 11 most recent posts from throughout the network, a good portion of notes, and links to many of the hot topics being talked about throughout the network.
11 featured posts on the homepage was pretty good coverage, right? Yes, if your member base consisted of 30 sites, but with a member base well over 1k, not even close.
The Lost Platform
9rules once sat in the incredibly high position of showcasing some incredibly great authors and sites, and being able to associate quality resources together as one. As the network grew and grew, it began to lose touch with its ideals, and the founding reason the network was born to being with.
While some of the power members remain, many have left. Most recently, fellow 9ruler Jonathan Snook bowed out of the network, along with Steve Smith and Bryan Veloso (although the later was removed from the network when Avalonstar was off for a bit). And, thanks to comments in Jonathan Snook’s “Why I left” post, it appears many more people are feeling the same way about 9rules these days.
The network had a good thing going for a while, but it was their own quest to be something else that lost it for them (That is not to say that the hard-working members mean nothing. There are great authors there, don’t get me wrong). As the days goes on and on, 9rules draws closer and closer to becoming a social network site with a dash of links / content on the side, and nothing more.
It is not just 9rules who lost out. All around the web, blog networks seem to be losing their appeal. They are no longer a status symbol that everyone wants, but rather, a few extra links here and there. And eventually you reach a point where those few links may not even be as important to you as they might have been when you were just getting started.
I once dreamed about joining a network like 9rules, dreamed about seeing my visitor logs do triple doubles in front of my eyes, and dreamed about the extra exposure I believed a network would bring to me. Now, as I write this, I dream about the potential any blog network could have had if it was executed right and down to last, content showcasing and connecting detail.
With this, Devlounge is also dropping out of 9rules network and moving on to better things. Remember, you don’t need a label to write quality content. Just do it.
Update: In Response to, and What 9rules did do for me
Scrivs recently posted an analogy comparing Weightwatchers and this post, in terms of me expecting to do “nothing” and get everything back in return. I’ll get on to my thoughts on this later.
But first, 9rules did do plenty for me in the year I was there. I want to make it clear that this was not a “let me bash this place because I’m no longer there” type of post, it was just pointing out the flaws (in my opinion, which is why this is commentary) which I believe brought the network to a different place. Whether you like where the network is at and where it is going completely depends on who you are, and how much time you’ve put into the network. As Scrivs has said in his comments below, you have to put something into the network to get something back in return.
And that is where the Weightwatchers analogy comes into play. Jonathan Snook actually supports my thoughts (in the comments of the Weightwatchers post) that the analogy makes little sense, because it is comparing two things that can not really be compared. Weightwatchers doesn’t care whether you weigh 100 pounds or 700 pounds, if you are willing to pay, you can join. Meanwhile, 9rules screens applicants and decides whether or not to accept them. Already we are talking about two totally different things. Next, in order to lose weight, you do have to put effort into it. If you plan is to sit on the couch, don’t expect to lose weight. On the other hand, when you join the 9rules network, nothing says you have to participate in the community in order to receive the benefits of the network (You are hard at working writing as it is). Of course, you do receive some, but the more active you are, the more the network will benefit you. If you simply don’t have time for it between managing your own site, work, school, etc, you become just another member, and not one the “community” can put a face to.
Is my ego too big?
Absolutely not. Do I hate 9rules? Absolutely not. A comment left at the bottom of the 9rules post said: “People who bother you with their criticism do it for 3 reasons: egotism, arrogance and impatience. Don’t let them get on your nerves” In short, whenever someone leaves and explains why, many other members simply agree and say these are the three main factors that must be behind it. I’m 17 years old, and I don’t think I’m better than anyone (except of course my friends, who don’t have a handle on this design thing ;)). But seriously, please don’t have this assumption that this is why people leave, because it is most certainly not. Am I link greedy? Of course not. Despite how much you may think I am, because I used a lot of traffic analogies in this post, I am not. When I joined 9rules, I expected it to yield some amazing results - visitors, readership, community relations, etc. I got all that, at least to a certain extent, despite my limited “participation” in network activities. It also helped me improve my writing greatly, because I felt like I was under the microscope a lot more. But when you work hard to improve and publish more content, and all you get is a link in return, you do feel like you are owed a little bit more, because links are not everything.
Suggestions for Improvements
Here is what I think the network should be doing to help spread the wealth and hard work of the many talented authors they have in the circle.
- Weekly and or Monthly Spotlights - Much like our “Friday Focus”, 9rules admins and or community leaders should each week or month (or whatever timetable really) go through and select their personal favorite’s from throughout the network, and talk about them. A brief summary, why they liked it, etc. You don’t even have to link to the site necessarily, because if you mention it, the members will find their way to it anyways. This is content highlighting at its best, because every time the admins and / or community leaders pick a few favorites each week, they could be coming from all different range of sites, really getting exposure on all sites and highlighting some of the better content from different members’ sites.
- Mini-Interviews / Behind the Author - Last summer, 9rules did this for a short period of time, but than it stopped. I personally loved these posts, because it gave you the chance to learn more about the person behind the words. Many of these member-to-member interviews were held by the Community Leaders of each different topic / category. To me, this was the best way to promote community among the member base. It didn’t require notes, it didn’t require you to lurk in the private community form. You got to meet people and hear their honest replies to a vast array of questions. This type of feature deserves to be rescued.
- Links do not matter - I may mention links a lot in this post, but at any given time I probably would have let the network post 75% of any one of my articles if they ever felt it was good enough to be shown to their much larger, broader audience. I am sure a lot of people actually feel the same way, because they would much rather have their hard work exposed to more people first and then receive readers after it. 9rules could list the latest 50,000 posts from across the network if they really wanted to, but all that would be providing is links. You can not tell enough from a title how good something is going to be. You need excerpts, like the 9rules Topics area, but they have to be longer than 25 words. In order to turn people on to something they like, they need to have a brief of what it is about before they go there. I think many network members would be up for less featured posts per page, but longer excerpts, so that visitors are targeted, because when someone reads an article that they expected to be about something from a 25 word excerpt, and then it ends up being about something totally different, it actually probably drives the reader away instead of reeling them in. If you read a lot, many people don’t want to be bothered reading something that might or might not be what they are looking for.
Note: Much respect remains for the 9rules team and network members. I’ve interviewed Scrivs before, and I know and visit many members’ sites, and the respect remains for all of them. I wish them the best of luck with Ali2 and beyond. This was simply my personal view on the situation at hand. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
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I agree with you. I think you can only judge the purpose of a website by how you use it. If I want to read people’s blog content, I get the items delivered straight to my RSS aggregator or I have them re-fed through the super-blogroll on my site. Between the two, I catch everything I immediately care about.
I do use 9rules though. I partake in a practice that could only be described as “arguing” with various people about various things. I enjoy it as much as I would on any forum with any community.
Knowing somebody personally who is a new member of 9rules, I can attest that becoming part of a network does practically nothing in terms of traffic. I know that may sound cold but when your baseline is 2000-3000 uniques a day, 9rules (et al) aren’t going to do much for you for raw traffic.
Something that could be said is you may be getting a few people that are more likely to comment. There’s nothing like having people interacting because that spurs other people to chat on YOUR site and that creates your own community of interacting readers.
But even as a community forum, I’ve had my own little frustrations with Notes. I’ve seen it go from a small little thing with awesome conversations, slowly being diluted with static fuzz. I lashed out when they started to add to this fuzz by reposting youtube and image posts…
But that’s another story for another time. I agree with you. 9rules should earn the right to represent peoples’ blogs, not the other way around.
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Well reading this long entry I figured there would be multiple points on why we failed, but it seems that it comes down to the same point it always comes down to: how much traffic you receive from us.
If you click on those topics what type of content dominates the page? If you click on a community section what type of content dominates the page? What box garners the most attention on the current homepage? If you answered member content to all three of these questions you would be correct. “A good portion of notes” in this case equates to the last eight.
You raise the question of blog network or next Myspace, but you fail to understand the power of combining them and building real relationships between content owners and readers. Instead you feel that it should be one or another and if the sole purpose of a blog network is to simply link up to the sites and be done with it, then yes we have failed mightily. Instead with 9rules, you can go into the trenches with other my.9r users, build relationships and an audience that actually means something to you. That does require some work on your end, but gaining a loyal readership was never easy.
In no way did we ever lose touch of our ideals. We want to showcase great content and help site owners connect with people. With over 50 millions blogs on the web we have a tad over 200, but to many people that is too much. Our last round was over 8 months ago and depending on who you ask we should be adding more sites or taking more away. We are in a situation where we will never win unless we start sending every member Digg-like traffic without them having to lift a finger and even then there will be a reason to complain.
I could easily say that the thousands of requests we have received to join the network this year counters your beliefs or the ones in that thread. I agree there are people who want the old 9rules back where it was just a list of sites, but even then people complained about not getting mega-traffic. So we tried to improve and still people complain.
No we are becoming the first social content network with actual meaning behind it. Again you are painting a black and white picture without even realizing the bigger picture involved here.
Again you are speaking for yourself, yet feel you represent the whole web. People get tired of being in 9rules for their reasons just like you have, but again the amount of people trying to get in clearly outnumbers the ones getting out so then how does the 9rules leaf mean less across the board?
Be honest with yourself here and think for a second. What happens when you find a site you like? You subscribe to it right? After that what is the purpose of returning to the blog network core if you have all the sites you want in a feed. Nobody takes into consideration that if we send people over to you and they subscribe to your site that they might not click on your links anymore from 9rules. Instead, you think that you can create a perfect site that makes people not subscribe and continue coming back to click on your links. That would truly be our perfect world.
But let’s think about this perfect blog network and list some of the requirements:
9rules does all of that except for the last, but we are working on making the last one a reality as well. This just comes down to you wanting more traffic than we were able to provide without you doing work on your end. We are by no means perfect and are used to seeing entries like this and we still have a great deal of respect for you and your site, but none of what you have written will help us get better. In our quest to make everyone happy, sometimes we make nobody happy.
Oh and Ali2 there will be a massive change in how Membership works and how we help our members reach more people. Shame you didn’t want to wait around.
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Sorry forgot to wish you best of luck in the future, you will do well with this site.
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@Scrivs - Begging for traffic? I know I wrote this draft a few weeks ago, but even without re-reading I know I’m not begging for traffic. When you spotlight good content, traffic just comes, because they work hand in hand.
Yes, of course. But with the current 9rules, people are more likely to find a note they like then a website, because that’s where the focus is.
But is that what initial and long time members really wanted? Undoubtedly, active network members who were extremely involved in notes and the community forum most definitely benefited from the new social-network-like features (and their 9rules membership of course) that first came about in Ali1, but what if you were too busy to participate? Your site would fall to the floor in the long list of member sites. If I had been more active in these community features, much more of the 9rules reader and member base would have known that this site was even in 9rules. Because I wasn’t, most of the community doesn’t even know who I am. In my eyes, notes became the focus, and content just became a nice backdrop to that bigger picture.
I’m not trying to sound like a total ass, just pointing out what I thought happened to the network over the course of a year I was part of it. I do sincerely hope that Ali2 brings back 9rules to it’s prime and restores the network to the good old days, while maintaining an equal balance of content and social. I may not “speak for the whole web” but I have talked to quite the fair share of people who said they stop reading 9rules along time ago. I hope you can win them back, and make me jealous for leaving.
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We then would’ve been better off staying at Round 1 and not letting anyone else in. That means sites like your’s wouldn’t have gotten in and experienced whatever you did within 9rules. And as a site owner you know damn well good content doesn’t always equate to traffic just coming.
Again, looking at the homepage, topics pages and community pages I see how member content dominates. I mentioned this in my previous comment, but you keep on saying the focus is on Notes. Notes are more active and people are involved in them so maybe that’s where you get your viewpoint. Maybe if we let people comment on Member entries on 9rules itself then things would be different, but how would that help our Members?
You just proved my point. We created a Community from day 1 where the more work YOU put in the more you get out of it and understandably you say you didn’t have enough time to participate in, but it boils down to us messing up and not doing the right things to give you traffic. Can’t you see where I’m confused here? We simply provide the tools, you build what you want with them.
If you are the only child in your family you get all the attention, but what happens when a new baby is born? Because the baby is new it seems to get all the attention and you have to work just a little bit harder to get that attention. Doesn’t mean people love you less or anything, just means more effort has to be put in.
Of course some people have stopped reading 9rules, it’s a site that goes in cycles just like any other site on the web. It would be safe to assume people have stopped reading devlounge right? We are also a site that changes more often than others so people hold stronger convictions for it and that to me shows the strength of our brand. And to be honest, why would we bust our asses to create something like 9rules and feel that we should benefit people who don’t participate in it? We put our lives in this Community for the people who work to put something into it. You know what the hardcore members want, even the ones that have been around since May 2005? They want Members to be held accountable for what they do in 9rules and that’s where we are moving.
Thanks for this, but to be honest 9rules hasn’t even hit it’s first prime yet. Assuming we past our’s assumes that we aren’t growing and thriving which definitely isn’t the case. I understand what you and some others want, but we move forward with the same goals that we started with…never backwards.
With all of that said we are very excited with what we are doing with Member content in Ali2. Thank you for your thoughts.
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Thanks, I’ll have a look. I appreciate you commenting here
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Just some thoughts from a current 9rules member…
Scrivs and company finally realized that the 9rules blog network was not worth anything in the business world. Sure we heard stories about VC funding but let’s be real here. Until recently they did not even have their brand trademarked or other common domain extensions registered to protect their brand as even a small business would do. They were simply recycling their members content and that does not hold any value aside from the traffic. They had no true content and what better way to create content? Let your user base do it for you.
This is all business in my eyes and while I do think it is a smart move on their part, I have to wonder why I’m still flying the 9rules leaf on my site. I’m still creating the same content I always have and now I’m going to be expected to participate in notes or the clubhouse as well. I agreed to not discuss specifics of the clubhouse but I can tell you that while there are a few good exchanges that take place, it’s mostly a lot of back slapping and stroking of egos. I’m not sure how many members there are in 9rules but you can just about bet your last penny that 80% or more don’t use the clubhouse. I think most would find the novelty wears thin.
The colors of the 9rules leaf are pretty but I’m really starting to question my association with this group.
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I think a lot of members feel this way, but for some reason, they are scared to share their thoughts on the network, because they believe it has so much “power” that talking bad about 9rules will turn other members and readers away from them. Thanks for sharing, even though you remain anonymous, I’m glad to hear others with the same feelings.
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AJ, I think a lot of members recall what it felt like to be invited into 9rules. I know I was at one time proud of being added to such a wonderful pool of content. That feeling has started to slip away in recent months as we keep hearing about the next version of Ali due out so far in the future that it has no impact on anything today.
The novelty of notes has worn thin to the point of Scrivs posting YouTube content. Watch notes for a consecutive 2 - 3 hours at night and you’ll quickly see that notes are not as active as The Rulers would want you to believe. The best part is that the some of the most active notes users are not even 9rules members. We’ve also seen a few notes users banned recently and the consensus would be that such action was not necessary. Nothing better than a community that’s afraid to speak it’s mind and comment on some inanae YouTube video.
If I keep typing any more I’ll probably just end up removing the leaf right now but I’m still holding onto the hope that the ideals of what once was will return.
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Well, I didn’t make it into 9Rules when I submitted in round 2. As a non 9Rules member, I just wanted to say that I viewed most 9Rules members as pretty arrogant and egotistical. Mostly out of the bitterness of rejection, but partly from what I observed. I couldn’t take going to the 9Rules site just to bask in the glory of other people’s quality work… I still don’t ever visit the site. I just like to read individual blogs. My point is that, to me, 9Rules was only useful insofar as it was a list with good links. Now it is kind of cluttered and hard to find what I am looking for (God help me, I spent way too much time clicking on links that kept taking me to excerpts… I want to see the real post!). I could care less about the other social networking features.
I really just wanted the membership for the exposure. But since that chance is over, I figure I should make my own networking site. It will only feature my personal site… kinda like a mirror. A beautiful mirror. Man, it is late and I am starting to ramble…
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Sadly I think some members have acted in ways that have affected how many people view the 9rules network as a whole which is unfortunate. There are some very nice people in the network but I think you’d find them just as approachable even if they did not have the leaf on their site.
I can at least soften the blow of your not being accepted by telling you that the exposure one receives today from being in 9rules is next to nothing when compared to the traffic they sent through via rounds 2 - 4 but of course one thing Scrivs like to say over and over is that ‘traffic is not why someone should want to join 9rules’ while rambling on over and over about all that they do for their members. I don’t see it and I don’t think others do either. I think many of us are starting to feel used and that just sucks.