Online Community: Identity, Reputation and Ranking

The Identity, Reputation and Ranking research study was initiated in November of 2007. The study was designed to discover best practices for content rating and ranking, and to establish a baseline of current practice for supporting member identity and reputation.

Bill Johnston (Forum One Communications) sent approximately 250 survey invitations to online community professionals in our network of executives and practitioners. We received 54 completed surveys. Participants included community managers, strategists and executives from large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, consulting organizations and platform providers.

The research results uncovered several interesting findings, including:

• Members typically don’t fill out non-required profile fields;
• Slightly less than 1/3 of the respondents (32%) have, or plan on making member’s profiles portable in the next 6 months;
• Slightly less than 1/3 of the respondents (32%) have, or plan on implementing a universal ID solution in the next 6 months;
• The majority of respondents have, or are developing a reputation system for their communities.