The Connector Website Model New Implications for Social ... - PRWeb

encourages reporting fake listings to the company, but they do not approve of user-to-
user alerts or self-styled sting operations. These actions may undermine eBay’s
accountability system, which is the primary signal for a given user’s reputation and
trustworthiness. The lesson here is that extreme regulation, bottom-up or top-down, is
unhealthy for a connector’s long term development. Online security violations and fraud
take many forms, but there is no doubt that quality control of user-generates content will
be a major concern for connectors. As time passes, it is conceivable that host
organizations adapt by encouraging online community rules, norms, and self-regulation,
contributing to the maturation period suggested in the previous section.
Secondly, a key challenge for connector websites is to attract a great quantity of
users that provide an expansive range of perspectives and experiences. Otherwise the
power of the connector diminishes. For example, if someone is an elementary school
principal looking for information in order to adopt a new reading program, it would be
most valuable if there are many reading specialists, many textbook salespeople, and many
principals who at the least can serve as points of reference. In order to assure the sign up
of new member, it is probably important for connectors to have consistent publicity and
strategic marketing for the initial stages of web development.
However there can be a downside for seeking out as many new users as quickly as
possible, and the allure of exponential network growth rates is tempered by some recent
experiences. Friendster shows how good fortunes can quickly reverse. With its “six
degrees of separation” networking technology, Friendster became more popular literally
by the week, but technical problems multiplied as the website could not keep up with its
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