Relinquishing Control
I used to glance at the http://isitnormal.com statistics rather obsessively. Recently, with my focus shifting to my new venture, I’ve found it slipping my mind more and more. I just took a look at the Google Analytics page for the first time in a week or so and decided to go back in time a bit and see if I could notice anything interesting.
It seems that a positive trend is indeed emerging. The slope of the page view graph in the last few months is more than double that of the graph in the previous year. Now this isn’t really dramatic. The site is still growing slowly, but steadily. However, the increase in the growth rate is substantial. The question is what led to this jump?
Since the beginning of the year, I have gradually shifted all of my attention to my new project. I’ve completely neglected Is It Normal. I haven’t been moderating it like I typically do. I usually delete stories that I think are completely repulsive or idiotic. I ban users that do nothing but berate other people. I chat with the members and see if they have any concerns or ideas for new features. Lately, I’ve been doing none of these things and it’s the only difference I can think of that would have an effect like this. I’ve been letting the users manage things on their own and that has actually led to better site growth.
In my absense, there has been a steady increase in flagging activity throughout the site. They’ve noticed that I’m not around and the good samaritans on the site have taken up the responsibility themselves. In some way, they’re doing a better job at it than I ever did. I’m finally coming to grips with the fact that the community knows what it wants better than I do. What I think is interesting doesn’t necessarily match up with what they think is interesting. Once I had given them some tools with which they could manage the site, all I needed to do was get out of their way. My old boss Ofer summed it up nicely when I mentioned the appearance of this trend to him. He said, “show’s what you know.”
It’s a really beautiful thing in a way, but it’s a tough leap of faith to take. The temptation to tinker is always there and it’s really hard to step back. I guess it’s sort of like raising a child. You need to provide for a comfortable environment and set some ground rules, but after that, you need to relinquish some control. They key is to pick the right rules and to provide the right self-management tools.
I just wish my users wouldn’t be so intent on talking about the bizarre, vulgar and sexual so that I could make a little more money from all these page views. I’ve raised a potty-mouth. Why can’t they talk about iPods, cars and mortgages?? Oh well… Anyone out there have some good monetization strategies for a site like this?