Subject: critical mass for a community

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 07:18:21 -0800

How many people does it take to make a community?

As I may have mentionned, I had an interesting conversation last night
with some folks who want to start a community-access network
for kids of alcoholic parents.  It will include a BBS and a MUD,
and maybe other services.  (Any ideas?)

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

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 19:00:19 -0800

> Any opinions?  Experiences you can share?  Thanks!

100 kids, eh?
Sounds a bit high, unless you live in a major metropolitan area.
Even if you went to meetings of AA's "Children of Alcholics" and
got the participation of every kid from that ready made and 
identified pool of potential users who had access to a computer
and modem, you might be hard pressed to get 100 kids at the 
very beginning of the system's existance.

10 does sound much more reasonable for a start. A BBS on a pc of
some sort can be put together for a couple hundred bucks. It 
can easily provide a core set of services including email, bulletins,
discussion groups and text files of interesting info.

A MUD requires a multi user platform, which is much more expensive in
hardware and software, as well as more of an administrative headache.  
(ah, those muti user operating systems...)

If money is no problem, then spring for the multi user system and prepare
to spend time growing the user base. A MUD designed for kids of alcoholic
parents sounds like a very interesting support/therapy tool.

ccn