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Gooruze seems to be doing pretty well so far. UGC is rampant and there is a solid amount of activity, comments, articles, and news postings. Now just because the community is strong at the moment, doesn’t mean it will prevail in the long run. In my opinion the definition of failure for a social community of this nature is stagnation, spamming and gaming, lack of technical effort/ response to community enhancements, poor UI/display and overall clunkyness.

Stagnation – This simply implies in order for a social community such as Gooruze to thrive you need constant involvement. If there is lack of community interaction, there will be a dwindling interest in the network, and the network will subsequently collapse. This is probably the most vital aspect.

Spamming and gaming – Spamming and gaming in any online environment is never a good thing. This is especially critical in a social environment where human interaction and tolerance is at a prime. Gooruze relies on an inherent algorithm to rank members. If it found to be too easily gamed, then it will not create the right harmony needed to entice interaction. On the same token if Gooruze is spammed with low quality material then that could also have a detrimental effect.

Lack of technical effort/ response to community enhancements – Whenever you launch a new site there are going to be snafus along the way. It is how you manage and respond to those snafus that make a difference. Quickly responding to community enhancements is a vital proponent to keeping the site abreast. If the developers are not keen to listen and respond, then you might see a diminishing audience as frustration mounts.

Poor UI/Display and overall clunkyness – A clunky UI is never a good thing. What do I mean by a clunky User Interface? Most people want to find what they are looking for, FAST! If they have a hard time finding what they are looking for, within a few clicks, then they are more than likely going to abandon the site. A site such as Gooruze, is the kind of website where you can end up spending a lot of time. Usability is absolutely pertinent. You need to be able to access information quickly, without having to click around all over the place.

A lot of this may seem like common sense. When in reality, it really is. None the less, these points I feel are critical for the success of Gooruze going forward.