3 Ways To Deal With Web3's Biggest Community Problems

Happy Sunday fellow wayfinder!

Last week, I shared Don't be clever, be clear. This week, I'll be talking about ways to deal with some of Web3's biggest community problems, with lessons that could be applied to any online community.

I'll go over the Community Maturity Model, the 8 Competencies, and Community Archetypes.

Let's dive in.

Reading time: 4 minutes

On Thursday, I asked my networks the following question:

If you look at the replies, the most common responses center around: fraud/scams, overhyping, and mean people.

Sad, no?

This is the dark side of the space that isn't always talked about, but there is hope.

Based on my work and observations, there are 3 key things you can do if you're looking to build in this space and/or reduce the above issues.

1 - Understand community maturity stages

A lot of Web3 communities aim for growth without understanding that each stage of growth requires different strategies. As a result, many communities that start out strong, end up fizzling out and dying prematurely. Because their potential isn't realized, those who could've benefitted, don't.

There’s a great framework for understanding the maturity stages of communities. It’s called The Community Maturity Model™, created by my friend Rachel Happe (an authority on communities in the enterprise space) from Community Roundtable.

The Community Maturity Model™ defines eight competencies required to build successful business communities:

1. Strategy

2. Leadership

3. Culture

4. Community Management

5. Content & Programming

6. Policies & Governance

7. Tools

8. Metrics & Measurements

Interestingly enough, these eight areas can also be correlated to elements in the Arthashasthra, the political and statecraft treatise by Chanakya mentioned in Issue #097.

This is to say that what you find yourself doing when building communities, is very similar to what you'd expect building a nation.

This is why I study ancient cultures to see what we can learn from them.

2 - Start tight, then loosen up

In the diagram above, you see the four stages of community maturity mapped against the eight competencies. This matrix can be used to then determine what type of strategies to focus on.

You'll notice that the first stage is Hierarchy. Although it may not be where your community starts, it's the most recommended structure.

Why?

Well, when you don't start off with a tightly formed culture/structure/leadership, you risk losing it to your loudest group members. And if that group is "toxic," you want to nip that in the bud sooner rather than later.

This happened with communities from Anonymous to Bitcoin (BTC). With Anonymous, which spawned during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, there was a clear goal. But after some time, leadership splintered and factions formed with different agendas. Anonymous faded into obscurity with no single leader to keep the group(s) together.

In Bitcoin (BTC), the "community" splintered from within not too long after its creator (Satoshi Nakamoto) disappeared after handing some control over to Gavin Andreesen. Although there was a belief in having a "leaderless" movement, Satoshi left too early before a culture could be defined and enable a leaderless movement.

As a result, BTC went down a different (and unintended) path, led by its most vocal developers. Not by its original creator (leader). And now BTC culture is defined by "toxic maxi plebs":

You can find this community's most common words and phrases all used in the above tweet. To avoid this type of destructive culture, you have to pay attention to it from the very beginning.

The irony of anonymous or decentralized groups is that they often experience these same outcomes, despite wanting similar things. The reason is often because of relaxing rules, vision, leadership, etc. too early. If they were more aware of these maturity cycles, they might be able to steer their communities in the "right" direction.

Then, over time, they can loosen up on anything they might've held on to too tightly at the beginning. It's like raising a child - leave too soon, and the child may develop abandonment issues and go rogue. Leave too late, and the child may become too attached and never mature.

There's a bit of instinct at play to determine when exactly is the right moment to start loosening up. But, eventually, all community leaders have to if they want a community to thrive on its own.

Start tight and then loosen up over time.

3 - Know your Community Archetype

In 2020, I created a video (above) comparing the three "brand archetypes" of the splintered Bitcoin communities of BTC, BCH, and BSV.

Since then, I've developed a methodology for taking these individual brand archetypes and applying them to communities in a way that captures all the potential variations in personalities.

An archetype is a symbolic representation of a psychological profile. It was advanced by Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, in the early 1900s. These archetypes were then mapped out and put into 12 different categories, as seen below:

Major brands have since used these archetypes to define their ideal customers and subsequently shape market perceptions.

For example, Steve Jobs is a Creator profile and so too is Apple. While Jobs was alive, Apple was known primarily for its innovation (the company brand often being an extension of its founder).

What happened to Apple (and subsequently, its employee "community") when Jobs was booted out? Sales plummeted. Innovation stifled. Its leader was kicked out too prematurely.

To understand your community's archetype, you can take this individual brand archetype, then extrapolate it to a visual like the following:

For example, an Everyman archetype might be like the superhero Spiderman. Spiderman is your "friendly, neighborhood spidie."

Extrapolated out to an identifiable group, and you get the cast of the TV show Friends (above, lower-right). Each character in the show could have their own archetype, but as a whole, they fit into the Everyman brand archetype.

This is how you use brand archetypes for communities. And knowing yours can help you visualize the type of group you want to grow before you even start growing. Thus reducing the chance of it being steered by your loudest members (and turning it into something scammy, toxic, or overhyped).

Until next week, remember: through patience & persistence, it will come.

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Last week's premium newsletters:

• Daily #111: Black Bees, (Real) Monthly Review & "The Game" 

• Daily #112: BitChat Revival

• Daily #113: Not everything needs to be a DAO

• Daily #114: Digitizing and leap-frogging Tuvalu

• Daily #115: NFTs aren't the only blockchain use case

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