Subject: Re: critical mass for a community

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 09:03:45 -0800

At  7:18 AM 11/7/92 -0800, uunet!media-lab.media.mit.edu!asb wrote:
>How many people does it take to make a community?
..
>I'm concerned about the issue of critical mass.  It seems to me
>that you need a certain number of people to start a BBS and
>many more to start a viable MUD.  The question is, how many?
>I suggested they aim for at least 100 kids to start.  They
>suggested trying the system out with 10 kids to start, and
>I said I thought that wouldn't work.
>
>Any opinions?  Experiences you can share?  Thanks!
>
>-- Amy

My expeience with the Habitats' early test periods indicates that you 
need more than 10...  30-50 seemed like enough *if* the hours of
operations were limited *and* there were scheduled events or meeting times.

For self-sustaining operations (where eough people are on-line to build
a sense of place most of the time) you need *well over* 100 people.

The key with small communities (<100) is getting the word out about the times to meet.
--------------------------------------------
F. Randall Farmer     [email-masked]
  AMiX, The American Information Exchange
--------------------------------------------

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From: Michael Travers <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 23:07:46 -0800

I've lost track of the original message, but I believe Amy was
wondering about MUD-based communities.  There's an obvious difference
in critical-mass requirements between synchronous (MUDs) or
asynchronous (email) communities.  The latter can work with a small
group, but in the former case you need enough people spending enough
time on the system that you get a critical mass *at any one time*.
The at-one-time critical number might be as small as 2 or 3 people,
but the community has to be big to ensure that you get that.

I guess the alternatives to a big pool of people are either having a
few people who spend their whole day logged into the MUD, or having
known meeting times so you don't depend on chance.